6 Solid Steps For Writing Cold Emails That Actually Work

If you are looking for the quickest way to generate new leads and gain revenues for your business, you are at the right place. Writing great cold emails is the answer you have been looking for.
This guide contains the best tips you should follow while writing cold emails for your business.

We are here to help you out if:

• You want to gain traction for your startup.
• You wish to win clients for your agency.
• You are a sales representative relying on cold emails
• You are keen to learn the way to work your magic through cold emails.

To begin with, let us start by understanding the basics:

What Is A Cold Email?

If you think about businesses in the offline world, how do initial associations begin? Everything starts with a conversation, Right?

Cold emails are a similar outbound strategy for your business. Their purpose is to initiate a conversation and break the ice. Cold emails help you build rapport with your prospects.

With cold emails, you start a conversation with someone new who knows nothing about your business yet.

The purpose of cold emails is to start building a warm association. These emails will not usually lead to conversion. Cold emails are just the start of a step-by-step process.

Let us get started with the tips that will help you write better cold emails:

1. Pay Heed To The ‘From Line’:

Don’t let the from line read just your email id. Remember that the prospects do not know anything about you. The from line is your first impression and it will let the recipients know who exactly is the mail from.

The from line will decide if your readers decide to open the mail and read it or throw it in the trash folder. You do not want them to be suspicious of your mail. Instead, you want to earn their trust.

Let us look at some ways to make up a good ‘from line’:

• First name (Robert)
• First name + Last name (Robert Downey Jr.)
• First name + last name, title (Robert Downey Jr, Head of marketing)
• First name + Company name (Robert from Marvel Studios)
• First name + last name + Company name (Robert Downey Jr. from Marvel Studios)

2. Write An Interesting Subject Line:

A well written subject line is like an invitation to your readers. A bad subject line can even cause your readers to mark it as spam. You surely do not want that to happen, right?

Here are some tips that will help you write an intriguing subject line:

• Consider your prospect’s point of view:
  Always ask yourself ‘what’s in it for them?’ Make sure you answer their needs and appeal to them.
• Personalise it:
  Let your recipient know that you carefully planned to address them. A personalised subject line will work well on any given day.
• Sound human:
  You are speaking to a living, breathing human being. Avoid sounding very formal and robot like. Include a flair of friendliness and compassion in your subject line.
• Relate it to your mail:
  Make sure that your subject line and your mail follow the same context. Don’t get carried away by using a clickbait strategy for your subject line.
  
  

3. Draft A Clever Introduction:

While writing cold emails, it is very important to engage your readers with a clever introduction. This part will decide if your readers will scroll and read the whole mail.

The introduction to your cold emails shouldn’t be longer than 2-3 lines. The purpose of the introduction of your cold email is not to introduce your company to the prospect. Instead, direct it more towards the reader. Talk about their expertise/achievement/work.

Here are some examples of a good introduction:

• Hey (first name), I recently read your article about ___.
• Hey (first name), Are you worried about catching your audience’s attention?
• Hey (first name), I would like to present a solution for___
  
  

4. Propose Value:

While writing cold emails, using  very direct pitch for your product/service isn’t really the best practise. Remember that you are not writing to close one more sale. You are writing to build the foundation of a new business relationship with a potential buyer. If you end up sounding very sales pitchy, you will end up getting a literally ‘cold’ response from your readers.

Here are a few ways to build your message:

• Use storytelling and narrate your proposition to the readers.
• Provide a solution to their issues:
  Prove that you are here to help them.
• Talk benefits, not features:
  Always let your readers know what’s in it for them.
  
  

5. Always End With A Call To Action:

After you are done writing your cold email, don’t leave the readers wondering. They should always feel that you actually had a purpose while writing to them. Persuade your prospects to do what you ultimately want to seek from them.

Few CTAs To End Your Cold Emails:

• Ask them to schedule a Skype call with you.
• Ask them to schedule a demo call.
• Tell them to follow your socials.
• Seek for their feedback.

Note: Remember that this is a cold email. You are speaking to them for the first time. Don’t ask too much from them. Be realistic about your expectations.

Bonus: The Ultimate Guide To Email Marketing For Agencies

6. Sign Off With A Good Signature:

The signature is as much a part of your cold emails as the message.
Let the readers know who you are and where they can find more information about you/ your company.

Tips To Follow For A Good Email Signature:

• You need to look trustworthy:
  Do not leave your readers with too little information. Let them know about your existence.
• Include only necessary information:
  Use the information that adds value. Give a thought about the usefulness of each piece of information in your signature.
• Use a clean HTML:
  If your signature includes a lot of HTML, you will end up messing with the HTML to text ratio and it may cause deliverability issues for your email. So, make sure that you are using a clean HTML.

That’s it! You are all set to draft compelling cold emails.
Go on and conquer. Reach out to your prospect leads with a good cold email, draft a proposal for them and get ready to win big!