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AJ Cassata: All right, now we're going to dive into one of my favourite lessons. We're going to be
getting into the creative side of cold outreach and really talking about copywriting. Now,
this is really exciting for me, because copywriting is the foundation of all your marketing,
so of course we're going to talk about copy for the sake of doing cold outreach, but
getting better at this skill will help you with all of the other marketing and advertising
you do.

So in this lesson, what I want to cover is basically just some principles and some things
to keep in mind as far as what makes effective messaging and how you're going to stand
out. Really standing out is the key, because unless you're selling some kind of product
that nobody else in the world is selling, you really have to compete with all these other
people.

So, did you know that the average business executive gets a few hundred emails a day?
So, you are not going to be the only person reaching out to these prospects. It's very,
very important that you keep some of these principles in mind so that you can stand out
and really catch their attention.

Now, this is going to be a lesson that you want to review every once in a while just to
refresh your mind on these principles, because they're very, very important. Ultimately,
it's super simple. You don't need to be a world class writer, just stick to these few
principles and you'll be all good.

So, the first principle I want to share with you about writing effective outreach copy is to
sell the next step. Ultimately, your goal with your cold emails, with your LinkedIn
messages is just to make someone curious and just interested enough to want to take a
meeting with you, you're not trying to sell your service.

Now, I want you to go back some time and look at maybe some of the cold email pitches
you've been on the receiving end of, and what I find most of the time is when
someone's sending a cold email or an outreach message, they usually send this long
essay about how great their product is. They get all into the features and benefits, but
that's just going too much too fast. That's almost like going up to a girl or guy at a bar
and asking them to marry you and move in together, right? It's like skipping across the
entire process.

So, ultimately your outreach message is just your first contact with somebody. You're
not trying to move all the way through the relationship, you're not trying to make a sale.
So when you're prospecting, your goal is to start a conversation. You're not prospecting
to actually make a sale or close a deal, because again, that's just not going to happen in
an email or a LinkedIn message, you need to have a call to actually build that trust.

So, what you're actually selling is the next step. So again, first of all, keep this in mind,
your goal is to actually just get a reply. With all of the cold outreach you're doing, you
only have one goal, which is to get a reply, because until you get a reply, you can't get a
meeting, you can't make a sale, you can't get a new client, so your only goal is to get a
reply.

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When you keep your focus on just getting the conversation started, it's a lot easier. So
you don't need to cram all of this information into your messaging about how great your
product or service is, you just need to say enough to get them curious to want to reply
and ask for more information.

I learned this actually when I was first getting started in my own painting business
maybe about eight or nine years ago, because like I told you earlier, I used to go door to
door selling house painting. When I would open up a stranger's door and I would say,
"Hey, I would love to come paint your house," they'd be like, "No, get out of here." But
when I change it to going earlier in the process and just selling the next step, I would
say, "Hey, could I come by next weekend and just give you an estimate? Could I just run
you through what the pricing would be if we were to paint your house?"

That was a lot easier to get people to say yes to than just trying to ask them to spend
$10,000 on renovating their house when they just met me 15 seconds ago, right? So
again, you just want to sell the next step. Sales is all about making it easy for someone
to say yes, so it's really about a series of yeses that lead up to the final yes.

So again, just like we talked about earlier, sales is a process, you just want to go one
step at a time. So again, you're selling the next step. You're just trying to get them to be
curious, you're not trying to educate or inform. You can do a little bit of that, but not too
much, because again, you're not trying to make the actual sale.

The second principle, which we've touched on a little bit so far, is keeping all of your
messaging you-focused rather than I, because remember, you're in sales for the other
person, you're not in there for your own agenda. You're in there because you're trying
to provide value and help somebody else out in their business or in their life, so all of
your messaging should be you-centric, not I-centric.

So, here's a really quick pulse check you can do on this. You can look at maybe your cold
email you're sending and see if you have the words I and we in there a lot more than
you have you. If that's the case, you need to change it. Because again, if you just think
about human nature, imagine you meet somebody at a cafe or a bar and this person is
just constantly talking about themselves and bragging about their life and all these
different things, you'd be a little bit turned off, right? You'd be like, "Wow, this person is
not very interesting to talk to," right?

But if someone comes up to you and they're asking you questions about yourself and
they're taking a genuine interest in you, you're going to be a lot more likely to want to
speak to that person and hang out with them, right? So, it's the same thing. Ultimately,
you have to make sure that you're talking about the other person, not yourself.

Because think about it, if you're sending an email or you're giving someone a call who
doesn't know you, and you just start talking about yourself, why would they really care,
right? They don't know who you are, they don't have any reason to care. But when you
take an interest into them, of course everybody's going to be interested in themselves,
right? So, make sure that your messaging is very you-centric, not I.

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So again, every time you write a message, look it over to see if you have the words I and
we too much in there versus you. I guarantee if you look back at a bunch of the cold
pitches you've received online, most people, it's something along the lines of this, "Hey,
my name is this. I work at this company, I have this position, we have this product. I'd
love to show you more about it." It's all about themselves, right?

So when you actually just take an interest in the other person, something along the lines
of, "Hey, I noticed that on your website you had this problem and I thought that we
could help you, because looking at your position, you might want to X, Y, and Z." We'll
get into templates more later in the course, but you see the difference when you're
talking about someone else versus talking about yourself? It'll definitely be a breath of
fresh air and it'll definitely stand out. Remember, the main goal is to stand out, because
everyone gets tonnes of pitches a day.

Now, the third principle I want to share with you is relevance, so ultimately your
messaging has to be relevant to the other person. This is probably one of the most
important principles, because again, even if you have a great offer, even if you have the
best product or service on the planet, if it's not actually useful to the specific person
you're reaching out to, it's going to fall on deaf ears, right?

So, this is why we really go for the quality over quantity approach versus spamming and
sending out an email to hundreds of thousands of people a month, because if you're
going for a very broad approach, it's hard to make a message that's relevant to one
person. That's why in one of the earlier modules we spoke about having a very narrow
focus with your targeting, so that you can actually craft a message that's relevant to that
person's priorities and that person's goals.

So relevance is really important, very important to not have an audience that's too
broad. Ultimately, this is where it comes down to getting to know your market. That's
why hopefully you did that exercise earlier in the course where you did some research
on your target market, their problems, their goals, their needs, how they talk.

So all of that research is really going to help you write a message that's relevant,
because when someone's opening up your email, they should feel like, "Oh wow, this
was actually meant for me and this is actually important or useful to me." Because it's
only when someone thinks that are they actually going to reply.

I get emails all the time and some of the cold emails I actually read and reply to, but
some of them I don't. Usually the ones that I don't reply to, it's because it's something
that's just not at all relevant to me. Even if it's a beautiful pitch, it doesn't matter if it's
not actually relevant to my business. I get people for some reason emailing me all the
time offering me software development services. If someone actually took a look at my
business, they would know that I have no need for that, so obviously that's someone
that didn't really do their research.

So relevance is really, really important, I would say this is probably one of the most
important. Even if you get a lot of the other things wrong, but your message is actually

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relevant and solves a problem that's relevant to that person's job title, then you'll be in
good shape.

So, another principle I want to share with you is to be people-centric and problem-
centric, not product-centric. If you remember earlier we spoke about how most people
in their messaging, they're too focused on themselves and their product and all the
great features and benefits. Which is kind of the natural instinct, because normally
we're excited about what we do as entrepreneurs, we're excited about all the cool
things about our offer that help people, but that's not what you want to be saying. Save
that till you're actually in a meeting with somebody and you've earned the right to pitch
and present your offer to them.

But early on to get their attention, you got to focus on them as a person and the
problems they might be dealing with, because ultimately someone needs to know that
they have a problem before they're interested to take action on a solution. Most people
just skip over the process and they go right to pitching their solution and how it's great
compared to all the other competitors. But if someone doesn't even know that they
have a problem in the first place, why would they care about your solution or what it
costs or anything like that?

You really shouldn't be saying much at all about your product in your cold outreach.
There's maybe a few cases where it does make sense to say a little bit about your
product or your service in your cold outreach. I would say that would be the case if
you're in a very competitive and saturated market, and it's important to actually say
how you're different than competitors, but even then it should be very, very light.

I would say the only thing you should really be saying about yourself in your cold
outreach copy would be either results or outcomes that you've achieved through your
product. So not talking about your product, but talking about the future that it provides
for people, or maybe talking about credibility, things that make your company credible
or results you've gotten for other clients. But if you're going to be saying anything about
your own business, it should mostly be about other clients, so at least it's more relatable
to them. So, that kind of ties back to one of the earlier principles about not talking about
yourself too much.

So again, you want to be people-centric and problem-centric, not product-centric,

because a cold email just isn't the place to pitch your product, you're just trying to get
them curious. Down the line when you have a meeting with this person, you have all the
time in the world to talk about how your product works, but if you talk about your
product too much, you're just going to sound like every other sales person sending them
an email. Again, just to be clear, it's not that the prospect doesn't care about your
product, they just don't care about it yet, because everything comes to a logical
sequence.

The next principle I want I share with you is the two W's, which is speak in their world
and in their words. Again, this is why it's so, so important to do your research and really
understand your target market and your ICP. So A, you want to talk in their world, as in

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you want to really try to put yourself in the mind of the other person and understand
what their day-to-day is like, what the problems they deal with are like, what
frustrations they have daily, who they interact with at their office, their goals, their
priorities, what's on their mind, all of those things. Because the more that you can
understand their world and talk from that place, the better, because they'll feel like this
person gets me and this person can actually help me.

All of us have this desire just to be understood by other people and have someone to
relate to, right? So again, you're not talking about yourself, your product too much,
you're trying to understand their world and talk in terms of that. So when you are
explaining your solution, you're talking about it from the perspective of how it fits into
their world and their day-to-day and their needs, et cetera. In their words, meaning the
language, right?

Most people in their cold outreach and a lot of their marketing in general, they say all
these fancy jargon words to sound smart, like, "Oh, I have this revolutionary state-of-
the-art groundbreaking amazing product." Nobody would actually talk like that in real
life and definitely not your prospect. The thing is, you have to really step out of your
own mind when you're writing this stuff, which takes a little bit to get used to. It's
definitely not easy, but you will get the hang of it.

But you have to step out of your own mind and you have to stop looking at your product
and your service from your perspective, and you have to look at it from your customer's
perspective. Odds are your customer doesn't really know the ins and outs of your
industry and all of the specific or technical things about your product, and really they
don't need to know. They just need to know what it does for them and how it helps
them, right?

So, I want you to imagine that you're explaining your product or your service to your
grandmother, right? You would probably break it down into such simple terms so that
she could follow along, right? That's what you should be doing with your outreach as
well, because again, if you just go into too much of the technical words, too much of the
fancy jargon that only makes sense to you, it's just going to go over your prospects'
heads, because the thing is, you're an expert in your industry, but they aren't.

Ultimately when you say things that goes over someone's head, it kind of tunes them
out, right? This is why you want to talk in their words. So instead of thinking about the
benefits or the results that your offer provides in your words, think about the benefits or
the results that they would explain it in their own words.

So imagine your prospect was talking to a colleague of theirs, maybe a coworker, maybe
their boss, how would they explain your product or service? That's really where you
want to get to. So again, just try to imagine as much as you can from their perspective
and their words. Again, this is why we did that research earlier, because then you can
pick up on the industry-specific vocabulary they use. If you can actually really be using
the specific phrases or vocabulary that your prospect uses in your outreach, you're
going to really sound like one of them. You're going to sound like an insider and they'll

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instantly trust you, because they'll be like, "Wow, this person actually knows my
industry." So, it's really, really important.

On a related note, it's very important to break things down into the simple day-to-day
words, you really want to avoid a lot of the technical or fancy words. Ultimately, it just
makes someone kind of disconnected, because they can't relate to it and it just goes
over their head. A great example of this is try to imagine your prospect had a really,
really long day and they're coming home from work. So, imagine they're sitting down on
the couch after a long day pouring a drink or something and saying, "Man, I really wish I
had a ..." blank. Whatever they would say there about your product or service or the
problem itself, that's what you should be saying in your outreach.

They're definitely not going to be saying, "Man, I wish I had a groundbreaking

revolutionary online marketing platform." They're not going to be saying that, right? So,
just try to put it in simple terms. If you kind of imagine how they would maybe describe
the problem they're having to a coworker or to a spouse, then it's much easier to really
put yourself in their mind. So again, just keep it in simple day-to-day terms as much as
possible, and ultimately put it in their words. This is also why customer interviews are
really important, because you'll start to see the specific ways that they describe their
problems and the challenges they're having at work.

The next principle is to follow the what's in it for me rule. So, every single outreach
message you write should clearly explain to someone what's in it for them. Because
ultimately, when you're sending someone a message or giving someone a call and they
don't know you, you're asking for something from them, right? You're asking for their
time to jump on a 15 or 30 minute meeting, so you need to have a clear benefit to them.
Most people are happy to take a meeting and give their time to a stranger if they know
that they'll probably get something valuable out of it, right? So, always look over your
messaging and just ask yourself if it's clear, that it shows the other person what's in it
for them.

This applies to sales in general, right? Ultimately, everyone's walking around the world
focused on their own agenda. They're not focused on your agenda and your business,
they're focused on what they want and what they need. So, just remember that
everything you write should really make it clear how this person will benefit by
continuing the conversation with you. Make sure to make the what's in it for me very
clear. Again, very simple terms and also very, very specific. The more specific you can
get the benefit, the better.

The next principle I'll share with you is to stick to results and benefits instead of
features. So again, we don't want to get into the nitty-gritty of how our product works
and all the specific components of it, we just want to really keep it high-level and focus
on what does that actually mean. So if you're stuck getting out of the feature brain, just
think of a feature and just be like, what does this feature do? What does this actually
mean? Why does this feature exist? Then you can get yourself out of the product brain
and think more about actually the results and the benefits it provides.

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So again, stick to results and stick to benefits, because ultimately no prospect cares
about the specific features of your product. The only reason a feature exists in your
product is because it actually provides a result or benefit, so just talk about that and just
keep it high-level.

So the next principle I'll share with you is to keep your messaging very short and very
simple, because actually the majority of emails are read on a phone. So if you have a
really, really long essay, it takes a lot of scrolling. Think about it, I don't know about you,
but when I'm reading my email is usually on a line at a coffee shop or I'm travelling in a
car or something or at an airport, so most people when they're checking emails, it's
usually they're in the middle of something or they have a few minutes in between
meetings and they're just trying to catch up on emails.

Plus again, they have so many other emails in their inbox that are also very important,
maybe from their coworkers or from their clients, so they're not usually going to
prioritise cold outreach from a stranger. But if you can make it really, really short, really,
really simple, then it's more likely to get read. Again, if your email doesn't get read, it
doesn't matter what's actually in there. So, I would recommend keeping it three to six
sentences.

There's been a few studies that have shown that emails under 50 words get almost
twice the reply rate. If you think about it, 50 words is three sentences, so it's actually
harder to write shorter. It's easier to write longer, because we can just get our ideas out
onto paper, but it's actually much harder to write something that's very concise and
very short and get the point across. So it will take a few tries, it'll definitely take some
editing, but keep combing it down until you can actually just get it super short and laser-
focused as possible, because it's more likely to just get read.

The next very important thing to keep in mind is to keep your messaging very, very
conversational. Again, all of these principles, you can just go back and look at previous
pitches you've received in your email, and you'll see a lot of people that have done this
wrong, and a lot of people that have done this. It should be very, very conversational. It
shouldn't sound like a template, it shouldn't sound like it came from a robot, it shouldn't
sound like it was automated, it should sound very conversational.

Because again, if somebody's using their email or they're using their LinkedIn or any
social media really, they're using it because they're talking to another person, right?
That's why they call it social media. So it should always fit into the platform you're using,
and it should sound just very, very conversational.

Ultimately, I think most people have this sales radar in their mind, right? As soon as they
notice that someone's trying to sell them on something, their guard goes up and they're
usually more likely to just put that email in the trash. So you don't want to be sounding
like a salesperson with your cold email and with your outreach, you want to just sound
like another person emailing them about some important work items, right?

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So, a good trick you can do here is you can take your template, so before you send off a
message to a potential client, actually read it out loud, read it to yourself, or even
better, read it to someone else if there's anyone else in the room with you. If it sounds
awkward and robotic, you'll feel it, because you'll be like, "I would never say this is
somebody." But if it sounds conversational, if it sounds like it flows, if it sounds like
something you would say to somebody at a coffee shop or in the office, then you're all
good. That's a pretty quick test you can do to see if your email sounds conversational or
not is just read it out loud.

The next principle is to personalise it and do your research. Now of course, if you write a
generic email, it can still get results if it's good, but if you actually personalise it to the
individual person and do your research on that prospect, you have a way better chance
of getting through and catching their attention. I find that most of the time when we're
scanning through our email inbox, when I'm looking at a cold pitch that someone has
sent me, I'm kind of subconsciously thinking, was this just an automated thing and I'm
just another number on the list, or did this person actually thoughtfully reach out to
me?

If I can tell that the person reached out to me, just me, I'm much more likely to read it,
because I'm like, "Okay, this person actually took the time of day to read my profile and
maybe had a legitimate reason to reaching out, as opposed to if I'm just another person
on a list that they're just blasting out thousands of emails too, I don't really know if it's
anything important for me." So personalise it, meaning that your email can't be the
same for that person as it was for another person.

Of course, you can have 70% to 80% of your email template that's the same and it's
templated, but try to put at least one part that's personalised to that person. So if you
can pick out something from their profile, something from their website, just something
to kind of point out or maybe even compliment, it just shows that person that you
actually had a reason to reach out to them and you're another human sending a
message to them. We'll also cover this later in the course as far as how to personalise
and where you could go to maybe find some research points, but try to just fit at least
one or two sentences into your message that couldn't be copied over for another
person.

Now, the last principle I'll share with you in this section is to make it very, very easy to
respond to. This applies to all marketing, but you should only have one call to action.
You should only be asking for one thing in your email. If you're sending someone a
message and you're saying, "Hey, download this video, read this article, go run around
the block four times, and then let's set up a meeting," they're going to be super
confused, right?

Because again, when we're in our email inbox, we're just scrolling through tonnes of
messages, trying to prioritise and just trying to clear it out. It's kind of like a to-do list. So
make it really, really easy to say yes to, only ask for one thing. What I usually don't
recommend is asking for 45 minutes right away. I usually just like to say, "Hey, is this

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interesting to you? Or do you want to explore this further? Or would you like to chat
sometime?"

We'll cover some example call to actions later in the course, but the main idea is try not
to ask for something that's huge right off the bat, just try to see if they actually want to
explore the conversation further. Because again, you're just trying to get a reply at the
start, so make it easy to say yes to and only have one call to action, only ask one thing.

Definitely have a call to action, because if you just write this great email, but you don't
end it off with any question, it's kind of hard for the person to respond. They're like,
"Well, what am I supposed to do here?" So, just make it really easy for them to say yes
to. You're kind of leading them down a path, right? So if you ask a question at the end,
we're kind of naturally programmed to respond when someone asks us a question, so
you take the thinking off their plate and it's already done for them. So yeah, only have
one call to action.

All right, guys, I hope that was helpful. I definitely recommend you to go look at some of
the previous LinkedIn pitches or cold emails you've received now that you know how it
should be done correctly, and you'll see how many people get this right versus get this
wrong. Luckily, most people don't really do a lot of this stuff, so the bar's pretty low. As
long as you just get a few of these principles right, then you'll definitely stand out.

Now check out the resources section, because we actually prepared a checklist for you
that you can keep handy anytime you're writing a new email. Before you send it out to a
prospect, you can just look at the checklist and see if it fits. I'll see you in the next
lesson.

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