How to alienate prospects

I have an exclusive, priority email address. I only give it to people I know, like and trust.

This week I received an email to that address from a stranger. The subject line read "Let Us Take On the Risk Clive".

Exactly like that, with no space between the words Risk and Clive. A failed attempt at personalisation.

The greasy smell of spam drifted into the air. Swipe left. Delete?

I checked the Flesch reading ease, the score was in "fairly difficult to read" range. The author expected the reader to wade through tightly packed unsolicited words. Swipe left. Delete?

It was a business related email, the author works for a UK company, so I decided to hit reply. I was curious to know how they had got hold of the exclusive email address. Days later I'm still waiting. No follow-up.

This morning their address was added to Google's spam filter. After that, I swiped left and deleted the email.

Getting responses to mail outreach is difficult enough without this type of self-sabotage.

Here are 7 quick tips for consultants who use outreach email. Each one has a link if you'd like to read more.

1. Don't subscribe anyone to a list without permission. (Never, ever.)

2. Keep it simple.

3. Be direct. Ask for what you want.

4. Qualify potential need before you send.

5. Make it about the prospect.

6. If written English isn't a strength use an online proofreader. (Yeah! I know.)

7. Follow-up on any responses. It's all about relationships, not transactions.