The perfect cold email: TAPSA framework, trigger events & tips on CTAs, subject lines, and copywriting
Hey - it’s Alex!
Welcome to Startup Business Tips, a bi-weekly newsletter, where I share with you 3 actionable growth tactics that will help you quickly grow your SaaS business from €0 to €1 million ARR 🚀.
Today we cover:
1️⃣ The best structure for Cold Emails (TAPSA Framework)
2️⃣ Cold email tips (copywriting, subject line, CTAs, P.S.) to boost reply rates
3️⃣ 17 company & persona-related trigger events you can use for your outreach
👉 Bonus tip by Ralf Aigner (CEO of Spendit)
👉 Bonus material (software, content, news) - this time No Code Prospecting by saashill
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1. The TAPSA Cold Email Framework
Most early-stage startups use outreach to connect with prospects.
But getting replies and meetings booked is not easy. Only a few see response rates of 20%+ and 5%+ meeting booked rates.
⛔ The main reason: The emails are seller-centric and do not follow a clear structure.
✅ Follow the TAPSA framework and learn how to write consistently good emails that get replies.
The 4 section of the TAPSA Cold Email Framework
TAPSA is an acronym for Trigger, Assume Pain, Solution, Action.
Good emails always consists of 4 (+ 1 bonus) section:
1️⃣ 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿
Section 1 is the opener = setting the context.
It’s the ‘WHY you reach out’. The reason needs to be buyer-centric.
💡 ‘I’m reaching out to you because WE are the market leader in XYZ’ …doesn’t work.
Because it’s seller-centric and your potential customer doesn’t care about you.
Make use of trigger events as a reason to reach out.
See the list of trigger events below…
2️⃣ 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻
Make the email relevant as you introduce a problem they (might) have - related to the trigger.
Refer to similar companies/personas that faced similar challenges after such a trigger event.
If you assume the pain and your prospect faces the same pain, the following will happen:
you position yourself as an expert
pitching your solution (part 3 of your email) feels natural and makes sense to them
Doing so makes your email relevant to them.
3️⃣ 𝗣𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Introduce (briefly, at a high-level) your solution to the problem. Add 1/2 benefits and social proof.
Mention how you can help to solve the (assumed) problem for them.
Your 1-sentence value proposition is super powerful for this.
The goal is to create interest and curiosity in your service/product, not to close the deal.
4️⃣ 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Make it easy to move forward.
Do you want them to reply, click a link, book a meeting, or watch a video?
Interest-based soft CTAs work best (more details below).
𝗕𝗼𝗻𝘂𝘀: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣.𝗦. Most people read the P.S. - use this extra section to add value (more details below).
Cold Email Template (based on TAPSA framework)
or like this:
2. Cold email tips (copywriting, subject line, CTAs, P.S.) to boost reply rates
Copywriting tips
Cut the fluff & remove unnecessary words
Avoid phrases that add no value or info like “I hope you’re doing well”
Get right to the point
the first opener sentence is key (set the context, use trigger events)
be short and clear structure (+ highlight important words)
limit the max. length to 4-5 sections, each max. 2 sentences
Use the words your clients are using
Industry-specific jargon is fine - as long as it’s the jargon of them (not yours)
Make it about them, not you
focus on their trigger, on their problem, on their benefit using your solution.
Reduce “I” “We” “Our” to the absolute minimum
If you prospect in English as a non-native, use tools like Grammarly or Lavender.ai if you want to get better at copywriting
Subject lines
Be creative with your subject lines.
If people don’t open your email, your actual email content is irrelevant.
—> here are some good subject line templates by Lemlist.
—> and some nice cold email subject line cheat sheet by Alan Ruchtein.
Call-to-actions (CTAs)
Without a clear call-to-action, you will see a low reply rate. Just because your prospect isn’t clear what’s expected from them as a next step.
Make it easy and clear to move forward.
Basically, there are 3 different types of CTAs for emails:
Specific CTA: Asks for a meeting using a specific day and time
Example: Are you available to meet on Tuesday at 4pm?
Open-ended CTA: Asks for a meeting, but it’s open-ended
Example: Do you have time next week to meet?
Interest-based CTA: Asks for interest, not a meeting
Example: Are you interested in learning more about X?
Gong found out that for cold outreach (prospecting), interest-based CTAs show the best result.
The (underrated) power of P.S.
The P.S. is the section ‘after’ the actual email. Use this section to share some extra info.
I believe you can use this section for 3 different usecases:
share additional material (e.g. a case study or a video you’ve created)
share some more ‘personal’ information.
P.S. Saw you also read book X - big fan of (author) myself
P.S. Saw your post on playing tennis - just booked a court for Friday. Any pro tips? 🙂
get directions to the right person
P.S. In some companies (topic x) is not the responsibility of (role of prospect). If this is the case, please direct me to the right person.
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3. 17 Trigger events you can use for your cold outreach (with TAPSA framework)
Trigger events tell you that a prospect might be interested in your product, it’s a proxy that they belong to your ICP and that they are ready to buy (right timing).
Triggers are great for the first sentence of your email (= email opener). It’s about context setting. A clear reason why you reach out to them. To make the email relevant for them.
Your job is to find the best-fit triggers that are (with a high likelihood) connected to a massive problem that you're going to solve for them.
📌 “If TRIGGER EVENT happens, then (most probably) PROBLEM happens. “
Here’s a list of Trigger events that you can use:
Company-related triggers:
Change in team
new hires
change in leadership positions
promotion/new role of persona
Headcount changes (growth or decline) over a period of time
Open job postings/ads (on career page or job platforms)
Revenue growth (or decline)
Funding events
new funding round
specific investor or type of investment (angel, VC, private equity)
M&A activity (Mergers & Acquisitions)
Press, media & news about the company (e.g. Google alerts)
Bad/good reviews:
about the company (company review sites like Kununu, Glassdoor)
about the product (Capterra, Trustpilot, Google…)
New Product/Feature launched (e.g. on Producthunt, Company Blog, Helpcenter…)
Technographic data
software/tools they are using or implemented recently (e.g. identify with tools like builtwith)
technology used
offered integrations (e.g. Zapier, Salesforce, Notion, etc.)
Listed/launched on marketplaces like Salesforce, Hubspot, Shopify, Zoom etc.
Relevant specific information (e.g. remote-first, bootstrapped) that’s relevant to your solution
about page on Websites (e.g. Founding Story, Values, Team events)
certifications
patents
Market/industry relevant facts that affect the company/person
new laws & regulations
competition
new reports
trends
Persona-related triggers:
Personal info about the prospect
Experience & Skills
Mutual connections
New in job/ promotion
Registered for events
for your own events
for other public events (e.g. LinkedIn events)
upcoming conferences/events (e.g. participants, speakers, etc.)
Social media activity
posts on their profile or LinkedIn company page
people they follow
comments made by prospects
Linkedin event participants (e.g export via phantombuster)
Activity in (public) communities (e.g. Quora, Reddit, Slack Channels, Facebook Groups etc.)
Depending on the type of trigger events, there are different tools to monitor and track these events. Check out the following tools:
Sales Navigator (for hr-related triggers)
Crunchbase (for funding-related triggers)
Google alert (press, news)
Builtwith (software-related triggers)
So based on those trigger events, your email opener could look like this:
“…you also joined (x event)”
“…3 new sales reps in your team. Seems like your team is growing…”
“…your team is using (tool X) to (usecase)”
“…congrats on the launch of your new feature X…”
“…a new regulation XYZ will be released on (date)…”
“…getting promoted is exciting, but also comes with…”
Now you know how to use triggers in your cold outreach using the TAPSA framework.
💡Best tip, failure, and learning by Ralf Aigner (CEO of Spendit)
Tip: Focusing on What's Holding You Back
Running a business, especially in the fast SaaS world, can be a real rollercoaster. With so much going on, it's easy to get all over the place, trying to fix everything at once. Here's a tip that I've learned through trial and error over the years: "Find the bottleneck." That basically means figuring out the biggest problem that's stopping your business from growing right now. Out of all the issues, find that one big challenge and put all your effort into fixing it.
If you've read "The Goal" by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, you'll get where I'm coming from. Goldratt talks about how focusing on and managing the things that slow you down can really boost how well your organization works. Even though he talks about factories, his ideas totally apply to SaaS.
To find this bottleneck, you need to look at yourself, check out data, and get feedback. Don't just rely on tools and numbers; talk to your team and customers too. They can show you problems that are obvious and not-so-obvious.
When you find that main bottleneck, put all your energy into fixing it. This one thing will start a chain reaction, making other parts of your business better too.
To really succeed in the busy SaaS world, try out this idea of "finding the bottleneck". And you can get even more smart advice from books like "The Goal". This way of doing things will help you focus and make a big difference.
🧠 Do you want to be next and share your best tip with 1500+ SaaS professionals? Reach out to me via Linkedin.
💪 Bonus material (software, content, news) - this time No Code Prospecting by saashill
The gold old times of just doing cold calls and manually sending cold emails are over. Modern SDR and sales teams heavily rely on multiple tech tools: lead generation, enrichment, email finder, outreach sequences, automation, CRM integrations, and much more.
Learn about:
7 Predictions about No Code Prospecting
16 products in this category
6 cold outreach agencies
12 experts to follow
7 useful links (like, really useful)
Happy growth 🚀.
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