How to Write Cold Emails That Work
I always say cold email is more of an art than a science. Even if you have everything perfectly set up to send cold emails, it’s possible that your campaign lands flat on its face.
This is because writing a great cold email takes practice, testing, and lots of iteration. In fact, I would recommend that you begin cold emailing with the full expectation that it’s a long term investment. Start slow, find email copy that works, and scale from there.
But if you’re reading this, you’re probably looking for a quick way to identify what email copy works best…and you’ve come to the right place.
I’ve sent tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of cold emails and I’m going to share what I’ve found to work and what doesn’t. And at the end, I’ll share our golden template that will give you a high performing email that you can edit to make your own.
Let’s dive in!
Cold Email Guide: 5 Tips That Guarantee More Responses
#1) Use Casual Language
As tempting as it is to sound professional, it just makes you sound like a used car salesman.
By coming off casual, your email will have a conversational tone to it, meaning it feels like you’re talking face to face. This makes the prospect feel as though the email was not automated, giving it a more human feel and increasing the odds that they’ll reply.
You’ll hear me say this multiple times, but the majority of cold emailing is showing your prospect that the email was not automated. If they feel like you put time into it, they’re far more likely to put time into responding.
A great tip is to test this by reading your email out loud to a friend. Does it sound sales-y or casual? If so, edit it and repeat the test until it sounds casual.
#2) Keep Your Email Short
People are busy and no one is going to take the time to read your company’s life story so keep your email short. Don’t exceed 5 sentences and if you can, keep the main body to 2 or 3 sentences max. The easier your email is to read, the easier it will be to respond to your email.
And yes, I understand that it’s hard to cram a ton of information into a short email but that is why cold email is an art.
#3) Avoid Jargon
Jargon is a horrible habit to form and we’re all guilty of it. Whenever you spend too much time in a single industry, you begin to understand the jargon and use it on a daily basis. Eventually, you’ll forget how confusing it was for you when you first entered that industry.
The vast majority of prospects that you approach will only be confused by jargon so you have to be really careful when using it.
A great test is to read your email to a friend or child. Do they understand what you're saying? If not, your email needs some work. Don’t explain to them what they’re not understanding, simply rewrite your email and try again. You can think of it like a bad joke: if you need to explain it, it’s probably not a great joke.
#4) Avoid Buzzwords
It can be easy to rely on buzz words when writing email copy but most buzzwords are generic and don’t explain why you’re special. Afterall, there’s thousands of companies using the same technology.
So, it’s fine if your company is using AI or blockchain but don’t rely on these points to get a reply. Instead, focus on the benefits that this technology can provide. Here is an example of a real cold email that I received:
Before:
Our transformative human-powered, AI-Driven ‘Infrastructure as a Solution’ is helping increase engagement rates by 211-476% and conversion rates by 88-327%…
My Edit:
We help increase sales by contacting your customers at times when they’re most likely to make a purchase. So far our customers have been seeing 3 times more sales as a result
After reading both, which are you more likely to respond to? I’m guessing you chose the second email that clearly explains the specific benefit that you can expect: “3 times more sales”.
Another notable aspect of buzzwords is that they lead to you landing in the spam folder. Buzzwords like “free” or “promotion” are trigger words to Gmail and Outlook so they’ll oftentimes flag emails using this language. If you want to see a full list of all the spam words, you can check them out here.
#5) End With a Question
If you send a cold email, you NEED to have a call to action. This could be something as broad as asking if they’re interested or as specific as asking if they’re free to meet on a specific day at a specific time.
Regardless of your ask, just be sure to end your email in a way that requires a response.
You can take this to the next level by making sure the email is easy to respond to. Sometimes a question can require research like:
Is there a time next week that works for you to meet?
A better alternative would be to use something like
I blocked off 3:30pm PT tomorrow just in case. Does that work for you?
In this second call to action, it’s extremely easy for them to book a meeting. The contact can reply with a simple “Yes, that works.” and boom, you have a meeting.
If you’re looking for more call to actions to test, Cience built a great list that you can find here.
#6) Space Out Your Email
A lot of what we’ve covered is related to the content of an email but the layout is equally important. Be sure to add additional lines between paragraphs so your email is easy to read. For example:
No Spacing:
Hi {{FirstName}},
Came across LeadLoft and wanted to see if you’re looking for additional engineers to hire.
We help tech companies hire engineers across seas for a fraction of the cost of local engineering talent. Let me know if this is something you’re interested in, happy to share how it works.
Free sometime this week to hop on a call?
Best,
Jane
With Spacing:
Hi {{FirstName}},
Came across LeadLoft and wanted to see if you’re looking for additional engineers to hire.
We help tech companies hire engineers across seas for a fraction of the cost of local engineering talent. Let me know if this is something you’re interested in, happy to share how it works.
Free sometime this week to hop on a call?
Best,
Jane
Clearly the second is the better of the two emails. So whenever you write your email, make sure that the layout of the email is easy to read.
#7) Provide Value
When you’re reaching out to someone cold, you need to ask yourself “Why would they hop on a call with you?”
You either need to solve a massive problem or you need to be providing value. I usually opt to provide value by sharing our own internal sales workflow. Obviously that’s hugely valuable and when we hop on a call, I’ll actually go through our sales process and share it with them. This way we are providing value so it’s worth their time to hop on a call with me.
This part of a cold email is one of the hardest aspects to incorporate so we’ll cover it in our email template below.
The Perfect Cold Email Template
Below is a short cold email template that we love. It checks off all the boxes from the above list and is guaranteed to perform well. Go give it a test and let us know how it works.
Hi {{FirstName}},
Came across {{Lead.Name}} and noticed <Compliment OR write something to show it's personalized>.
We help <soft pitch> so I figured it made sense to connect. We actually just <half sentence case study>. Let me know if this is something you’re interested in. If not, happy to connect and <provide value>.
Mind if I send over a few times?
Best,
{{Sender.FirstName}}
Download a List of Cold Email Templates
If you’d like to see more cold email examples, you can download a whole list of sales email templates here.
Wrapping Up
At the end of a day, writing a cold email is simple. You just have to fight the urge to fill your email with unnecessary buzzwords and long paragraphs. If you read through this post a few times and stick to our golden template above, you’re going to find a high performing email in just a couple weeks.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a platform to find contact info and send cold emails, check out LeadLoft.
