While you may be tempted to do it yourself, if you want to scale up your outreach efforts and get the best results for your business, it’s time to consider investing in dedicated email outreach software. But how can you choose the right platform? Here are five things you’ll want to consider.

Identify your needs

The first thing you should work out before you even start to look at potential solutions is what exactly you need from a cold email solution. Is it important to have something that works well for teams, or are you happy with a solo solution? What size email list do you anticipate? How many emails do you want to send? What features are essential and what are optional?

By having a clear idea of what you need you’ll be able to narrow down your options quickly and not be distracted by products and shiny features that don’t get you any closer to your goals. Find an app that meets your needs; don’t change your needs to suit the app.

What integrations are available?

It’s unlikely you rely on just one piece of software to do your job. While you can manually transfer the necessary data from one app to the other (or if you’re feeling particularly brave code your own method to do so), it’s far easier and more efficient if your cold email platform has the integrations you need built in. That way, you can sit back and let your all your apps talk to each other. As examples this could include your CRM, your contact enrichment software, or your internal team chat. If the app doesn’t have a built-in integration, be sure to check out Zapier, which connects thousands of apps with next to no effort on your part.

Can it automate your process?

The main benefit of using cold email software is not having to do everything by hand. The best solutions take this a step further and can run complex outreach campaigns for you with the click of the button. From validating the email addresses in your list to sending relevant follow-up emails, the right app will do all the heavy lifting for you, leaving you to focus on the important work in your business. When you’ve set it up correctly, the right software will be like having another person on the team, working for you 24/7.

What’s the support and service like?

There’s a lot of free options out there, but when it comes to your email outreach you often get what you pay for. Whether it’s buggy software or a lack of personal support, free email apps can leave you confused and frustrated.

This doesn’t mean you should have to spend a fortune on the right tool though. By spending a little, you can benefit a lot, enjoying professional software with dedicated support when you need it. Of course, many apps will let you have a free trial so you can be sure there are no unpleasant surprises and the app does exactly what you need it to.

Does it include testing and analytics?

Testing your outreach used to be a headache. You’d have to manually sift through the results of campaigns, trying to work out what worked and what fell flat. Now it’s much easier if you have dedicated A/B testing built in. Not sure which of your features your prospects will respond better to? Create two slightly different campaigns, each highlighting a different feature, and send them off. You can then see which email performs best, and your app will automatically use the higher performing copy.

Even if you’re not interested in A/B testing (and you really should be), it’s important to be able to accurately analyze your email’s performance. Checking key metrics such as open rates and click-through rates can help you find out where your campaigns could improve and keep on improving over time.

There’s a lot of different apps out there, but it’s important to pick the right one for you. By focusing on key features that’ll grow your business, you can be sure the right cold email software will be an investment that’ll keep on paying you back.