What is Cold email | 15 Pro Tips To Write Cold Emails

Cold email

Author : Veethee Dixit

What is Cold email | 15 Pro Tips To Write Cold Emails


Every business needs a killer marketing strategy to ensure a skyrocketing ROI. While there are many crucial components involved, building relationships is one of the most vital steps. After all, you can’t expect a complete stranger to spend money on what you have to offer! Before trying to sell, it’s important to warm the prospects up and offer them value.

Speaking of which, the first step to building a relationship is to approach a potential customer you don’t know. It has to be friendly, filled with value, and shouldn’t feel selfish. While everyone on the street seems to have a staring contest with their smartphone screens, social media news feeds can never replace the conventional email lists.

Cold email

In the digital era, marketing has a wide array of faces. But usually, people still take emails more seriously than random social media trends. This makes email marketing an evergreen way of reaching potential customers. But having a targeted email list is not enough! The aim is to make the most out of the contact information.

While it’s easier to pitch to someone you have already cultivated a relationship with, bothering a complete stranger is a different story. That’s where cold emailing comes into the picture. On that note, let us take a detailed look into this. Read along to find out exactly what a cold email is and 15 tried and tested Pro tips to write cold emails that generate results.

What Is a Cold Email?

A cold email is an email you send to someone who is a complete stranger to you with the aim of gaining a benefit. Usually, this benefit is in terms of opportunity or sales. Some examples of cold emails include job seekers reaching out to HR professionals, marketers pitching for sales or creating hype for a new product, salespeople sending mass cold emails to their target audience, and so on.

15 Pro Tips To Write Cold Emails

Imagine a parallel universe in which prospects buy your product after looking at a single banner ad! Sound like a fairytale, doesn’t it? Well, that’s all it is. In reality, no one likes unsolicited forms of communication. Would you appreciate someone poking you with their finger while you are doing something important?

That’s exactly what a cliched and fully promotional cold email seems to users. But if you want to increase the open and conversion rate of your email, here are 15 Pro tips to write cold emails. Let’s take a look.

1. Subject lines are more important than you think

If the subject line of an email puts the readers off, they are not even going to open it. You don’t have to believe someone’s opinion on subject lines. If you are writing a code email for the first time, do some research on subjects that had the maximum open rate. If you are doing this for quite some time, stick to what worked for you in the past.

2. Personalize cold emails

Building a template can help out a lot in emailing cold prospects. But if you are looking forward to a long term relationship, you might want to consider personalizing your message. Get to know the interests of your audience and personalize your message accordingly. Make the best starter conversation using details apart from the receiver’s first name.

3. Make the email about the prospect

No prospect would be interested in reading your entire life story in the first email itself. Therefore, in cold emails, you should keep your introduction brief. Once you have politely introduced yourself, make the email completely about them. They should know that you genuinely care about their concerns and are ready to solve a problem to make their life better.

4. Keep it relaxed and free of fancy jargon

You don’t have to be a grammar Nazi while writing cold emails. While the use of correct language is mandatory, keep things relaxed and friendly. The style of writing should be conversational, concise, and clear. Building rapport is the key at this stage and you don’t have to use fancy words for that.

5. Remember not to sound like templates

The best thing about templates that all you need to do is to fill in the blanks. But if every other email marketer ends up using them, they are going to sound cliched. For better results, tweak the templates to make them sound genuine. The best approach is to use the template as a guide to writing better emails instead of completely relying on them.

6. Make the first part relatable

I get it. It’s not your fault. We have all been there. These are some common sentences that offer comfort to the reader as soon as they have opened their meals. it makes them feel like they are not alone which appeals to their emotions. It is a great way to increase the response rate.

7. Use email signatures reflecting credibility

Your email signature should use professionalism. For instance, a designation under the name followed by a link to the person or the company’s social media account looks reputable. When every element is credible, the receivers are more likely to trust you.

8. Include social proof

Once you have introduced yourself, make the email relatable, and offer the solution. It’s time to prove that you practice what you preach. If there is a previous success rate that can strengthen the conversion rate, include it in the later part of the email. For example, ‘PS: We increased their sales by x% and we’ll be happy to do the same for you.

9. Don’t it directly demand reciprocation

You are just a stranger to the receiver and they wouldn’t benefit you in any way if you seem demanding at first. if they are interested, they will respond. Let the reciprocation come naturally instead of forcing it.

10. Don’t beat around the bush

No one has the time to listen to random stories. If you are not offering value directly and beating around the bush, you’re wasting your own time as well as the prospect’s. Keep your email free of fluff and get straight to the point.

11. Include more relevant emails in the sequence

Did you really think that all it takes is one email to get a response? Absolutely not! You might get lucky with a few receivers but usually, it’s good to have 4 to 7 emails for each sequence. Keep them short and valuable and someone is likely to give a positive response.

12. Include your prospect’s name and keep the spelling correct

It goes without saying, including the receiver’s name boosts reply rates. Such emails sound human and personal as well as help you stay ahead of the crowd in their inbox. Moreover, always remember to keep the spelling of their names correct. Trust me, if you make an error in this area, the prospects would feel extremely insulted and will never come back.

13. Make it easy for your prospects to respond

Even though some interested prospects might want to reach out to you, they don’t have much idea about what to do next. It’s your job to make it easy for them to respond. A little prompt such as ‘reply with YES and I’ll hook you up for a FREE XYZ’ can work magic. Also, let them know that they don’t have to hesitate if they have queries.

14. Make the call to action as clear as possible

Now that you have offered them a clear benefit and warmed up, make the call to action clear in the end. Follow it up with the primary benefit. For example, ‘Download our free app now for unlimited proven tips to increase sales.’

15. Never mention the product

If they don’t trust you, they are not going to buy from you. So, resist the temptation of mentioning your product or pushing a sale. Leave the selling to lead nurturing email sequences or direct response mails. Here, all you have to do is gorge an interest and build a foundation for trust.

Final Words

In today’s world, every other thing is trying to catch the user’s attention. Literally, everyone with an e-mail account is sick of spam. You wouldn’t want to add to the chaos in an already skeptical user’s inbox, would you? Cold emailing is an art. As long as you learn the proper techniques to go about it, it will increase the chances of people opening your email and taking action.

The above-mentioned 15 cold email writing tips have been tried and tested thoroughly. Of course, there is a lot more to attain perfection. But we have tried to cover the gist in as much detail as possible. The least you can do is keep the above pointers in mind while writing cold emails. If not, always remember, the unsubscribe button is not very far away!


If you need any consultancy around setting up your email campaigns or email infrastructure Postbox Consultancy Services can help.  We have deep expertise in improving the deliverability of your email campaigns and can help you maintain a healthy open and click rate.

Author:
Veethee is a Computer Science Engineer by degree and a passionate writer by choice. The credit for her profession as a web content writer goes to the knack for writing combined with a technical background. She believes in utilising her skills to spread awareness and simplify people’s lives with her writing! When she is not busy playing the game of words, she likes to indulge herself in hobbies like reading and hitting the gym.