How to write a cold email that actually works?

Do you know about a 23-year-old guy who got a job at the World Bank by sending out 600 cold emails? Yup, after sending out cold emails to big companies, Vatsal Nahata received many job opportunities before finally saying yes to the World Bank.

The power of cold emailing is beyond imagination. There’s a reason why 90% of marketers find cold emailing a primary channel for generating leads for their businesses. However, the question is, how often does it work out for you?

Maybe you have given cold emailing a try, but it didn’t turn out as you may have expected. Do you think there is a problem which the way you write your emails? If yes, then we are here with some super-helpful tips and ways that will surely help you write better emails the next time you get your hands on your keyboard.

So, ready to write an effective and not-so-complicated email? Let’s begin.

What is cold emailing?

Before anything, let’s first understand what exactly cold emailing means. To put it simply, it is an unsolicited email that you send to someone you have no prior contact with. You send these emails with the purpose of gaining some opportunity, favor, deals, or any win-win benefits from the person at the receiving end.

Talking to a stranger can be super stressful, no matter how well you research that person’s work, interests, or professional life. Imagine how it would be to reach out to that prospect via email with a not-so-good email. Awkward right?

Here are some tips that will help you come up with a good cold email in no time.

Step 1: Think about your ‘from’ line

Do you remember the last time you received a cold email from your favorite marketing influencer? Write when you see their mail in your inbox, so you know if you want to open it or not. A big credit of this trust to open the email comes from the ‘from’ line.

The email receiver deserves to know where this is coming from. However, if you are the one sending it, you can be fancy, you can be professional, or you can use the mix of these two as you like. How to decide that? Simple, it all depends on your target audience and the person you are reaching out to. What do we mean by that?

Just keep in mind the goal you are sending out emails for and whom you are reaching out to. They can be someone from the C line of the company who are extremely professional or your target audience who likes fun GenZ language. So, you can go for just your first name, your full name, your name and company name, designation + company name, or whatever combination you like.

Step 2: Come up with an intriguing subject line.

While we are on getting your first impression right on point, one of the most important things to focus on is your subject line. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that your subject line decides whether or not your email will get a click, considering how 69% of people trash their emails to spam after reading the subject line.

So, what to do?

Ask yourself questions like:

• What will your prospect be interested in?
• How is your product or service exactly what they need?
• How can you make it about the receiver and not you?

Once you figure out these, all you have to do is make your subject line short, intriguing, and personal and keep it relevant to your email body. Not to mention, whatever words you pick, don’t forget to make them sound human and nothing too formal.

Step 3: Write a killer introduction.

It’s not a shock to say that a person spends an average of 13.4 seconds reading an email. Now, most of you would be like, ‘that’s interesting, but wait. It only happens if you can make them stick to your words. So, right after your prospect opens up the email after looking at an impressive subject line, you have no more than 3 seconds to keep them reading further. This makes the introduction a critical part of your email.

While you start working on the introduction of your email, keep in mind that this is not your high school letter where you introduce yourself and what you do. You can be on point and write when you start. Therefore, make sure to keep it as short as 2-3 sentences, and that’s about it.

What about the tone? Well, you would want to keep it flattery but professional as well. However, good research goes a long way. So, make sure you mention their recent activities or achievements to make them understand why THEY and not some random person. Remember, don’t stress too much but keep it short, enticing, and simple.

Step 4: Pitch your idea with value

Moving on, this step is the crucial part of any email – pitch your idea. Are you selling any service or product? You are probably thinking about mentioning how good, practical, and perfect the product is that will change the life of the reader if they purchase it. If this is something you would go for, you cannot be more wrong.

The thing about writing your pitch in a cold email is not to be a salesperson but rather a relationship manager. Remember you are writing this email to entice the reader to check out the product and not buy it right away, or you want to person to start a conversation before hiring you for the service.

You may be expecting some kind of rule to come up with a perfect pitch, but this is the hard part. There is no such thing as a proven rule. However, you can always go with the idea of mentioning your product features as benefits that will have an impact on the life of the reader. Besides, try to paint a picture and add value to why they should do what you are asking them.

Step 5: Mention a clear CTA.

What do you want them to do? This is the one thing that most people ignore but plays a very significant role in making your cold email just right. You may think that the reader knows what to do next, but nahh, they need your guidance to the next step. This is where CTA, aka call-to-action, comes in.

Think about it. If you mention a CTA in your cold email, you can boost your clicks by 371% and sales by 1671%. Isn’t it crazy? Now let’s see what you can do to come up with the right CTA, which is to KEEPING IT CLEAR, just like your favorite YouTuber when he/she tells you to subscribe to every video.

No matter if you want them to start a free trial, check out the product, sign up for the weekly newsletter, or simply want to set up a meeting, keep things clear and mention them at the end of the email body. You know how to take that.

Step 6: Close with a polished signature.

Here comes the end of the email where you have to mention yourself, aka the sender. A signature is the right way to show the reader how credible you are. Take it from Gordan Banjac, founder of Gimm.io, who says, “An email signature not only provides your contact information, it creates trust and reassurance that the customer is dealing with a professional company – not just a one-man band.”

While writing your signature, you can be a total HTML-savvy who uses GIFs and animations or stay classy with a traditional name, logo, position, and company. Whatever you choose, mention your contact information, social media links (if any), and your role at the company because that’s how the reader will trust you.

Source – Sellingsignals

To Sum Up

There you go. All these steps we just talked about will surely get you a highly effective and absolutely game-changing cold email in no time. Just make sure you have a clear goal in your notes and that you go through your prospects and target customers’ needs, interests, and work.

I hope you find these tips helpful in writing a good cold email and building a healthy business relationship with your email receiver. What are you waiting for? Get your stuff ready and start writing your email now.