Great email outreach tools!
Is that what you were looking for?
Well, if yes, then you are in luck today. I’m going to talk about one of the best tools on the market so you can have a complete understanding of it and make an informed decision when it comes the time to choose an outreach tool.
Now, let’s get to the point, shall we?
As you might have already guessed, Mailshake is a sales engagement platform that offers email outreach tools and other sales engagement options to help businesses collect leads and ultimately increase sales volumes.
Some call it cold email software, but it’s much more than that. While Mailshake is strictly for sales and outreach, users can integrate with CRM systems and other third-party apps to have a holistic and more efficient experience.
Note: In 2021 Mailshake has introduced a new version
Mailshake outreach tool is for sales professionals, link builders, content marketers, small business owners, and anyone else who is looking for a way to generate leads and manage the process more efficiently.
It is not an all-in-one tool as the platform doesn’t include tools for finding prospects and contact information, but it is definitely very easy to use for anyone who already knows who to reach out to.
The platform currently offers two different packages, each having different rates for monthly and yearly subscriptions.
When you first start using Mailshake, the platform gives you a 30 day period to change your mind and get your initial subscription fee back. The refund process, however, is not automated, and you can’t just cancel your plan and get a refund every time.
To get a refund, you have to contact Mailshake support and let them know why you wish to cancel your subscription. They will try everything in their power to help you out and make your experience better with Mailshake.
However, if you still want a refund, you should let them know during the first 29 days of your subscription before the 30 day refund period is over.
Unlike refund, cancellation is automated, and you can do it yourself without contacting support.
The only thing you should consider when canceling your subscription is that your campaign data will be deleted 30 days after cancellation. If you wish to keep the data and maybe resume using Mailshake services later, you may hibernate your account instead of canceling. This will temporarily take the monthly/yearly billing off of your shoulders and resume your subscription at the time you specify.
Mailshake outreach tool provides two packages, one for emails only and the other for social and phone outreach as well. We will go through each step of the second package as it includes all the features from both plans.
After signing up on the platform, the first thing you need to do is to connect your email. Mailshake allows you to connect your Gmail/ G-Suite, Microsoft, or other SMTP email accounts to your profile.
To connect your email,
1. Go to the ‘Mail Accounts’ on the left-side menu,
2. Click the ‘+ Add Account’ button right under the header
3. Select the type of email account you will be connecting
4. Follow the instructions to complete the process
5. If it’s not a Gmail/G-suite account, scroll down to add the configurations
Here are some useful videos to connect various email accounts to Mailshake:
1. How to connect Email with SMTP to Mailshake: watch the detailed guide here
2. Connect your Microsoft email to Mailshake: watch the detailed guide here
3. Connect your Gmail alias account to Mailshake: watch the detailed guide here
When your email is already connected, you are free to start a campaign. Start by going to the ‘Campaigns’ section on the left-hand menu and click the ‘+ New Campaign’ right under the header. Or you can just click the ‘plus’ sign in the lower left corner of your screen.
As soon as you click to start a new campaign, you will see the steps for creating a new campaign. Here you can name your campaign and specify the email you will be sending from.
In the Recipients section of the campaign set up process, you have three options:
1. Upload a CSV file: this should have separate columns for email addresses, names, company names, and any other relevant information that you’d like to add to your emails for more personalization. You may use the official template from this link.
2. Type in the email address list manually.
3. Import from your app integrations
4. Select an existing list: this shouldn’t apply to you if it’s your first time creating a campaign.
Note: click the link to read about some reasons why your CSV file might not be approved.
At this stage, you can either choose a prewritten template that Mailshake offers or write a new one and save it as a template for later. Click ‘Compose Message’ to start writing.
After you write your initial email, you can add as many follow-ups as you wish. All you have to do is to click the ‘+’ button below the initial email window and choose the ‘follow up’ option to continue.
If you are not sure what to write in your outreach pitch, you can check out the pre-written and tested outreach templates here.
With the next stage you can personalize your emails for each prospect. Now, read on to see how.
It’s a known fact that hearing your own name activates the brain in a different kind of way and makes you at least slightly more interested in the matter at hand. The least you could do in your emails is to add the recipient’s name to your outreach pitch.
If just the name has that effect already, imagine how much the person will be interested in reading your email carefully if there are other personalized attributes in it.
However, if the only personalized attribute is the name you might not get much luck. You can talk about their interests or mention previous public discussions they were in. Another way is to just complement their work. There are all acceptable options.
Try mentioning two or three personalized sentences but not more than that. Otherwise, you might seem ungenuine to the reader.
If you are interested in personalizing your emails (which you probably are), check out this link to find a detailed personalization guide on Mailshake.
If you are not sure how your recipients will respond to your email subject line or the body content itself, you can start A/B testing. You can leave the email you’ve already created for variation A, make your changes in variation B and start testing. This should be done from the ‘Sequence’ stage. Just make sure to test one thing at a time, while leaving the rest of the pitch constant.
For example, if you want to test the open rates, try to change only the subject line and see which variation has the highest open rate.
If you want to test the reply rate, it’s better to leave the Subject Line constant and test out the content of the body text or the call-to-action.
For a more detailed guide on A/B testing, please check out the official source here.
As soon as the email and task chain is ready, you can preview it and add track options. The platform will track the opens, clicks, replies, bounce, and unsubscribe actions of your emails.
The most important option you should set up is the Lead Catcher. When someone replies to one of your emails, this feature allows you to stop sending the rest of the outreach email chain. That particular recipient becomes a lead and automatically adds up to the Lead Catcher.
You can access this list by clicking Lead Catcher on the left side menu.
The final step of the campaign set-up process is to click the Start Campaign button to start sending out your Mailshake emails. Please carefully review the information you’ve put in and start the campaign.
When the campaign is in the process, you can find its analytics that displays detailed information on opens, clicks, replies, bounce, and unsubscribe rates for each stage of your funnel.
There are many different outreach tools and cold email software like Mailshake that you can use for your email campaigns. Those alternatives include Pitchbox, Gmass, Buzzstream, Yesware, Ninja Outreach, and many others. You can research each of these yourself or read our detailed guide for each one of these tools and choose a favorite for yourself.
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