If you’re reading this, you are probably working on your cold outreach, racking up the occasional reply from your prospects, but not even close to being satisfied with your reply rate.
You are probably doubting your cold emailing skills or the effectiveness of cold emailing. If this is the case, know that there are certain marketers who are able to get through to people you would probably consider impossible to reach.
How, you ask?
BASHO emails. In this article, we shall discuss the basics of BASHO emails –
- What is a BASHO email?
- When should you send a BASHO email?
- Why should you send one?
- How to write a BASHO email + templates
What Is A BASHO Email?
‘BASHO’ does not stand for anything. It is a term coined by MJ Hoffmann under the BASHO sales training brand.
A BASHO email is a highly personalized and targeted email that you send to someone you cannot typically reach – a decision maker, a high-level influencer etc. BASHO emails are essentially cold emails. However, unlike cold emails, BASHO emails are not general. They are highly personalized, specific, and work well for high-value propositions.
When Should You Send A BASHO Email?
If you plan on sending BASHO emails, it helps to know what situations require you to send them. Here are the primary ones:
1. If Your Prospect Is A Decision Maker
It is generally difficult to get a decision maker on the phone or to reply to your DMs. If you manage to get their email address from Linkedin or their company website, sending them a clever, personalized email can get you through to them.
2. If Your Outreach Strategy Involves Accounts
If your sales or marketing strategy is account-based, send personalized, highly targeted cold emails to your prospects to pitch your product or services in a way that they know that you can help them.
Why Should You Send A BASHO Email?
You are probably wondering if and why you should learn to craft BASHO emails. Learning how to send a BASHO email is vital because it significantly boosts your chances of getting through to your prospect, especially if they are generally difficult to reach. Here are a few benefits of sending a BASHO email:
Increase In Conversions And Revenue
Highly specific, highly personalized, high-value emails lead to improved response and conversion rates.
Here’s how – if you are tailoring your emails to each prospect, you are addressing their pain points and highlighting how your solution(s) can help them. This will lead to an increase in responses, and in turn, increased trust that will allow you to build a relationship with them.
Building a solid relationship with them will help your chances of converting them into a (returning) customer. If you do this consistently, you will be able to boost your conversions, and in turn, boost your revenue.
2. Easy To Reach The Decision Maker
The point of a BASHO email is to reach the decision maker quickly and shorten the sales cycle. Getting in touch with the decision maker with a clear pitch instead of the mediators is the best way to get a response and potentially convert them.
3. It Is Cost Effective
BASHO emails allow you to focus most of your marketing efforts on the decision maker, which means that you will save a ton of time. Moreover, emails are free, which means you can get as many customers as possible without burning a hole in your wallet.
4. BASHO Emails Are Easy To Implement
Most marketing and sales strategies take time, training, and tools. Fortunately, this is not the case with BASHO emails. These emails require some research and crisp writing, but they are easy to implement and get you results.
How Do You Write A BASHO Email?
Okay, so you are somewhat sold on the idea of BASHO emails. What should you know while attempting to craft one? Here are a few tips you can use to write excellent emails:
Focus On Research
We cannot stress this enough. Research is the bedrock of every successful cold email. If the objective is to send personalized emails to decision makers and start a conversation, wouldn’t it make sense to find out what they want?
In other words, you need to find out their pain points and determine how your product or service can help solve those pain points.
Take a good look at their company website and social media handles. Go through their content and figure out what they are missing and need.
Get Their Attention With An Awesome Email Subject Line
An awesome subject line is critical to get your foot in the door.
Your prospect is probably getting hundreds of emails every day. You need to stand out. One of the best ways to stand out is by writing a stand-out email subject line. Check out our article on subject lines.
In a nutshell, you want to make sure your email subject line:
- Is short and concise
- Is personalized and relevant (personalized subject lines boost the open rate by 50%)
- Is value-adding (hint: mention your prospect’s goals instead of what you have to offer)
(Note: Do NOT use clickbait subject lines. Using a clickbait subject line will cause your prospect to ignore you and treat your email as spam)
By mentioning their pain points, you can get their attention and make them want to open your email – and that marks the start of your conversation.
Here are a couple of examples:
- Here’s how (prospect’s company name) can benefit from (insert idea)
- Hey (name), I loved your thoughts on (idea)
Hook Them With An Opening Line
The next piece of the puzzle is hooking them with a cool opening line. Before we get into how to write a cool opening line, let’s talk about what mistakes you should avoid while writing one.
- First of all, be original. Writing canned, vague lines that aren’t relevant to your prospect are a big no-no.
- Secondly, keep your opening line short, cohesive, and grammatically correct.
We have an article on email openers you should check out.
Writing a cool opening line ties back to research. You want to make sure you write an email opener that hooks your prospect. So, take the time to go through their Linkedin profile, company website, etc., and find out as much information about them as possible.
Then, come up with an email opening line relevant to this new-found information. This means:
- Mention their name when you greet them.
- If they have a blog or podcast, take the time to go through that and give them your opinion on it.
- Give them a compliment and let them know how they influenced you (if they did).
Going the extra mile this way will let them know that you are interested in this prospect and prepared enough to offer them something worth their time.
Outline The Benefits Of Your Product
If you’ve mentioned their pain point in your subject line and something personal in your email opening line, you can tie your product to their pain points and show them how you can help them. You could mention how you were able to help previous clients who were in the same position as your current prospect.
Add A Call-To-Action (CTA)
Finally, add a CTA. Your prospect may have opened and even read your email. Now, you need to make them do something to keep the conversation going. This is where giving them a clear. CTA becomes important.
A common example is “Do you have time for a 15-minute call this week?”
BASHO Email Templates
Now that you know what constitutes a BASHO email, here are some BASHO email templates to help you get started:
Template 1
Subject Line: Heard about your (pain point) and wanted to chat
Hi (prospect name),
I found your post on (topic) on Linkedin where you discussed (pain point). I was curious to know how (prospect company name) is tackling this.
Five months ago, I helped (prospect’s competitor) solve (prospect’s pain point) and I’m sure I can do the same for you. I would love to discuss this with you.
Do you have time for a quick call on Monday?
Best Regards
(Your name)
Template 2
Subject Line: Our system will help you (solve pain-point)
Hi (prospect name),
Loved your (blog/podcast/speech) on (topic).
I’m writing to you to let you know that my company – (your company name) is working on a (program/course/training package) to help (solve prospect’s pain points). This will save companies like (prospect company’s name) a lot of time and money.
Would you like me to discuss this further?
Looking forward to hearing from you
(Your name)
Conclusion
To summarize, BASHO emails are highly specific, personalized, and targeted cold emails that you send decision-makers and high-level accounts with the objective to start a conversation.
Crafting these emails is easy and does not require special training. However, you need to conduct a great deal of research and personalization to even get these people to open your email. However, this email strategy can help you get through to people you thought you’d never be able to reach.