Episode 24: Can HR consultants buy cold data and turn it into clients?

Can you source or buy cold data and turn it into clients?

So many consultants ask me this question and the short answer is yes.
 
Even though email marketing has become a little more tricky these days, it is still a really great way to get new clients and grow your consultancy.

There's just a lot to think about and get right.

BUT, I think it's well worth the effort.

And that's why, in this week's main event, I'm going to give you a very top level crash course on cold email marketing so you have foundational knowledge. 

***

Okay.  so the first thing we need to talk about is the legalities of B2B cold email marketing.

Which, luckily for us, is a little more flexible than B2C cold email marketing.

In the UK, we have GDPR to think about and in the US you have the Can-Spam Act.

Now based on my experience, it's MY understanding (and I'm choosing those words very carefully) that you can legally send cold emails to other businesses without permission, as long as you comply with the legal requirements.

And both laws stress that the nature of your email needs to  be highly relevant to who you're targeting and you need to follow cold email best practices like always offering an opt out.

So in short, you're legally allowed to send cold emails to other businesses without permission, as long as you follow the rules.

And to cover myself, please ensure you seek your own legal advice before getting started.

***

Right now that's out of the way, we need to talk about the actual infrastructure you'll need to start sending cold emails. 

And there's one rule that you need to follow.

You should never use your main domain name and email address for cold email marketing.

So I have two main domain names: marketingforhrconsultants.com and thehrmarketingguy.com.

I use these domain names for my website and emails.

In the world of the internet, each domain name has it's own authority and reputation which can affect things like SEO and email deliverability.

If I started using my main domain names for cold email marketing, it's very likely that the reputation of those domains would be negatively affected due to potential spam complaints, blacklisting and low deliverability rates.

So to avoid this and to protect your main domain name, you should buy a new domain name for the purposes of cold email marketing.

And this should be a business email, not a personal one. 

So years ago I bought a bunch of domain names like hrgrowth.com and I set up an email account called hello@hrgrowth.com. 

However, you can't just buy a domain name, set up mailchimp and start cold emailing hundreds of people the next day.

There's a warm up process that you need to go through.

So I would advise buying a few domain names and using a 'warm up' service for a few months before getting started.

This will give your cold emails in the future the best chance to be received by who you're sending them to.

Once you've done this, you can then decide what email sender or CRM you're going to use to send the cold emails.

The likes of Mailerlite and Sendinblue are quite hot on people using cold data and it's likely that your account will get blocked. 

Mailchimp is an obvious one to go for because you have up to 2000 free contacts and they're a little more flexible with who you contact. 

But I actually use a workplace gmail account and use a plugin called Mailking to send my cold emails through...

Because the reputation of gmail is arguably higher than mailchimp, which has a big shared server and potentially comprised email reputation and deliverability as a result.

***

Okay, what I've discussed is usually the bit that usually blows people's heads off so let me summarise these points quickly.

In the world of the internet, domain names have their own authority and reputation.

For that reason, you should never use the main domain names you use for your website or emails.

Instead, you should buy a few new business emails instead and use a warm up service for a few months to improve the reputation of your domain before sending.

And then you can decide what email sender you're going to use like Mailchimp or Gmail. 

***

Okay, so now we've whizzed through the legal requirements of B2B cold email marketing and the infrastructure you'll need. 

You'll next need to think about who you're going to be emailing. 

***

Now you've probably heard me bang on about creating target markets before and I'm going to do it again... Yay.

So If I said to you, who do you want to target or work with you.

You'll probably say: "SMEs in (insert area here) with 20 to 50 employees. 

Now, from a cold email marketing point of view, this isn't focussed enough.

Because the words you'll use to speak to a manufacturing firm compared to a dentist will be wildly different. 

And when it comes to any sort of marketing, the best advice I could ever give you is that relevance increases results. 

That's literally the key to successful marketing. 

Just be super relevant to who you're targeting and it'll work. 

And this also aligns with the legal requirements of B2B marketing too. 

So when it comes to cold email marketing, you need to be very specific with who you're targeting and you'll need to focus on one industry at a time.
 
This allows you to stay legally compliant and helps you to create highly relevant messaging which will increase the performance of your cold emails.
 
This is so so so important to remember. 

And if you ignore me and skip this bit, the successful of your cold email marketing campaigns will be absolutely rubbish. 

***

Right moving on then....

Once you've picked an industry you want to target, you'll need to figure out the best way to get cold data. 

And there are two main ways you can do it. 

You can either scrape sites like Google or industry directories (yes that's the official term I'm sorry)
 
Or you can buy data from the millions of websites out there that do that. 

I've done both in the past. 

It kind of depends on what industry you're targeting. 

And what data you need and how you need it qualifying. 

But typically, I prefer scraping from a directory and getting a trusted data miner or cleaner to go through and enrich the data for me with the data points I need in order to qualify it.
 
Buying, sourcing, scraping and cleaning data isn't always cheap. 

But it's definitely a long-term investment well spent if you follow B2B cold email best practice.  

***

So now imagine you've got your list of dentists that you're wanting to target. 

What are you going to say in your emails and what actions do you want your lovely dentist friends to make. 

Right so this is where most people I know go wrong. 

They send a bunch of sales type emails out with the hopes that someone on that list is ready to speak to a HR consultant and buy.
 
I call this one time marketing. 

That's when you try to grab someone's attention and sell to them straight away. 

But this isn't how people work. 

It's very rare for someone to receive a cold email from a business they've never heard of and take the very engaged action of booking in a call or even buying. 

You need to have a relationship with someone before they're ready to do that. 

And that's why you need to remember my 3 step lead generation process. 

Step 1 is to grow multiple audiences, like your LinkedIn connections or opted in email marketing list. 

So when I say 'opted in' this is different to your cold list because your opted in list are those people who HAVE given you permission to contact them. 

There is a level of intent, interest and engagement there. 

Step 2 is to build a relationship with your list over time. 

And step 3 is to convert the relationship. 

Now for me, the purposes of your cold email marketing and any other direct marketing for that matter is to feed this system or funnel. 

Whatever you want to call it. 

So instead of asking people to book a call in with you or buy now, I would rather you offered them some sort of lead magnet to get them to 'opt in' to your main email marketing list. 

So what I've done recently is created a free quick guide to my flagship video programme: How to package up and sell HR to make more money. 

And I've been cold emailing HR consultants in the US offering them a free copy using the following message:

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Hi NAME, 

I know how difficult it is for you to package up and sell HR...

And that's why I've created a FREE quick guide called: "How to package up and sell HR to make more money".

It will talk you through the brand new framework I've created called the HR Service Pyramid ™. 

This framework will help you organise HR in a way that's easier to package up into recurring revenue.

It's taken from my flagship video programme; where all of the strategies have been created, field-tested and approved by successful HR consultants.

Would you like me to email you a free copy?

Just let me know the best email for you and I'll get that sent over straight away 🙂

Best Wishes,
James

***

And instead of sending them off to my website or lead page, I've asked them to directly reply to the email which is very good for your email deliverability. 

Double whammy there! 

And if you want a free copy of this quick guide, just ping me an email at james@thehrmarketingguy.com and I'll send a free copy of it across to you. 

***

So yeah, when it comes to your own target market, you'll need to think about what your lead magnet is going to be. 

Most likely it will be compliance related. 

And within the HR Marketing Box, we have loads of compliance related guys that you could copy and personalise to make this job easier too. 

***

So that's concludes my quick crash course in cold email marketing today. 

As I said at the start of the podcast, even though cold email marketing is a little tricker than what it used to be. 

I still think it's worth the investment and time if you follow best practice and get all of the different variables right. 

And if this is something you'd like to focus on and need a holding hand, please feel welcome to book in a consulting call with me. 

One of the things that I really love about my life here in Bali that I'm learning from people again and I've found it so motivating and rewarding. 

I've always been into the gym and staying fit.

And on the whole, I've found it easy to motivate myself in the past. 

But then, with whatever you do, you kind of hit your own glass ceiling and find yourself coasting because you don't really know how to push yourself or improve. 

Then you don't see the results you want, become frustrated and your motivation dwindles. 

And when I got to Bali, I got myself stuck in a bit of a rut.

So I found a lovely Italian PT called Luigi and decided to start having in person PT sessions with him and I've been loving it. 

I'm learning new techniques, my form is so much better, I can see improvements already and most importantly, my spark for the gym is back which I'm so happy about because it's a really good healthy outlet for me. 

And the app we use to track my workouts and progress told me that I had 
lifted the equivalent to 3 giraffes today! How cool is that! 

I've also been having Padel lessons. 

So Padel is basically tennis, kind of. Just with a bat thing instead of a racket. 

Anyway.

I must have played some sort of tennis as a child but can't remember. 

And I wasn't expecting to be any good at it. 

But then I went to play with a friend and actually suprised myself. 

I could hit the ball in the direction it was meant to go in which was fun.

I really enjoyed myself and it's great cardio, so was like why not have lessons too. 

And then I've been learning more about Yoga. 

So rather than just going to yoga classes and struggling my way through like a beached whale on the mat... 

I've been going to workshops to learn more about the practice it self, the philosophy behind it and how to perform each pose and flow correctly. 

And by learning about it and understanding it at a deeper level, I've been able to get so more enjoyment from it too. 

Throughout my podcast episodes, I always talk about the importance of working with experts. 

As a consultancy owner, you're expected to be a finance expert, a marketing expert and all of these other hats you have to wear in addition to being a HR expert. 

And it can be really difficult. 

So if you are a bit stuck, then find an expert to work with. 

Soak up their knowledge. 

Soak up their enthusiasm. 

And get your spark back. 

If growing your consultancy is something you're struggling with right now, I'm here to help. 

Get in touch and let's have a chat.