Your Ultimate Guide to Writing Actionable Cold Sales Email in 5 Minutes or Less

Have you ever wondered why some marketers send out cold emails that net them tons of new leads and clients, while others continually struggle with the dreaded trash bin? If you are reading this post, we can only assume that you have been asking yourself this question and, unfortunately, fall into the latter category.

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The practice of using cold email templates has become more and more popular over the last few years. This is because they are billed as an easy way to learn how to craft effective cold emails that get results. That is true but to some extent. The question becomes, why are so many marketers still getting minimal results even with cold email templates? This is because they are most probably using them wrong!

Cold email marketing is about more than just writing professional emails. Believe it or not, there is a science involved in writing the most effective cold emails that are guaranteed to give you positive results. It also helps if you have a basic understanding of how people think and what they like!

There is a fine line between reaching out in an authentic way – an approach that guarantees success – and crafting emails that seem spammy at first glance. Remember, a first glance is all you are likely to get. Think about this: high-level executives typically receive at least 90 emails during each work day. No one, especially very busy individuals, has the time or desire to go through that much communication while fielding unexpected “spam” at the same time.

Therefore, it is up to you to know how to make your cold email stand out from the crowd. While that can be very tough to do, it will get easier as long as you have the right tools to guide you. How do we know this? This is because many people have been able to build wildly successful businesses, websites, and even careers by using cold email templates.

This article will show you how to master the cold email template and use it as a tool to reach important sources, make sales, and drive the growth of your business.

Your Ultimate Guide to Writing Actionable Cold Sales Email in 5 Minutes or Less

Table of Contents

Cold Email Meaning

Simply put, a cold email is an unsolicited communication sent to someone without any previous contact or request for information from the recipient. It involves sending apt and personalized emails to prospective clients that you have never had any previous contact with. Essentially, any email you send to someone you do not have an existing connection with is known as a cold email.
Cold email templates usually have the following characteristics:

  • They use your real name.

  • Your job title, contact information, social media profiles, and website are always included.

  • Even if you are using a template, each email must be personalized for the intended recipient.

  • They are usually sent from one business entity to another or from an individual to public figures such as social media influencers.

  • Each email makes a clear-cut request, which is not always commercial.

  • Their main goal is to start a conversation, not prompt a quick reaction.

Cold email networking has been growing in popularity over the past few years. The main point of any cold email is to get something from someone else. However, there is a way to do this without coming off as annoying, pushy or – even worse – unwelcome. Research shows that “givers” tend to get better results from their cold email prospecting efforts than “takers.”

How, then, do you reconcile the basic “taker” nature of cold email marketing with the need to succeed in your campaign? Finding a cold email template that strikes the right balance between these opposing needs is what makes the strategy so hard to pull off.

Common Cold Email Questions

Before showing you how to find the right balance, it is important to clear up a few misconceptions first. Here are a few cold email questions that we have all struggled with from time to time:

1. What is the difference between cold email and spam?

One of the most pressing questions for many people is, “Is there a difference between cold email and spam?” The answer for this is simply, “Yes.” To be honest, these two tactics are as similar as night and day: they are virtually polar opposites.

Spam is the best example of a “one-to-many” email communication. You will definitely know it as soon as you see it. Apart from that, spam has a number of other distinct characteristics. These include the following:

  •    Spam emails use a fake contact name.
  •    They also do not include the sender’s contact information.
  •    Spam is not personalized. Instead, the same exact email is sent to several recipients.
  •    They are not meant to start conversations but to target a direct purchase.
  •    Spam has a very obvious commercial motive.

These tells are inherently different from the characteristics of cold email highlighted above. Here is a great real-world example: the cold email is like greeting a friend you run into at a work conference. Such an interaction is not annoying, pushy and is even welcome as long as your “ask” is reasonable. Think, “Let’s get coffee next week!” instead of, “Buy my product.”

In fact, run your cold email templates through this test before using them from now on. Before sending any emails, ask yourself if you would be comfortable saying this to a long-lost friend at a chance meeting. If your answer is no, then it is most likely spam – which is illegal.

2. What is the difference between cold email and unsolicited email?

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) officially refers to spam as Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE). These UCEs can include anything from a spammy sales email to brochures from companies you have never heard of before. Essentially, any email communication that you did not explicitly give permission to receive and meets the criteria for spam listed above can be classified as unsolicited email.

In the same vein, you could argue that a cold email is just a form of unsolicited email too. However, including certain information could be enough to lead you out of murky legal (and moral) waters. These include an appropriate header and your contact information. It also helps if your email is personalized and adds value to the intended recipient.

How to Write Better Cold Emails, Fast

Now that the questions are out of the way, we can focus on how you can actually write cold emails that work. Unfortunately, your cold email sales campaign will have to push against some very negative perceptions right off the bat. This is because most prospects see them as a headache and hit delete without even a basic perusal.

As a result, open rates emails are falling rapidly, even on highly targeted cold emails. This lack of results can get marketers and sales executives very frustrated, especially considering how much work goes into simply researching for and crafting a good one.

Therefore, how can you reverse this trend? What are some of the best cold email templates you can follow for higher response rates? Are there any cold email follow up templates you can use to avoid becoming an annoying pest? This section will answer all these questions and teach you how to cold email someone successfully.

What every single cold outbound sales email needs

The good news is that there are some simple cold email tips you can apply to improve the open and reply rate of your cold emails receive. If you want to craft an effective message, there are five components that each of your cold email templates must have. These include the following:

  •    A reason to connect
  •    Explain to them why they should care
  •    Bridge the gap
  •    Provide a clear call-to-action
  •    Edit and send

Let us dive deeper into each of these components.

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Find a reason to connect

Why should your prospect connect with you? Every cold email should give the recipient a compelling reason to care about what you have to say and respond to you. The only way to accomplish this is by doing your research. Such information will help you step into your prospect’s’ shoes and discover what makes them tick.

A great place to start is LinkedIn because it contains the most up-to-date business information on any prospect. You can also go a step further and check out their social media pages such as Twitter and even Facebook.

When looking for reasons to connect, you can also check if you have any mutual colleagues or friends, affinity points (like the same interests or Alma Mater), or recent awards and achievements.  This whole section should not be more than one or two sentences.

Tell them why they should care

This section helps you to avoid wasting time for both you and your prospect. By now, they are asking themselves, “What can you do for me?” It might seem like a simple question to answer, but one that will take quite a bit of testing and tweaking in reality. Your value proposition must be spot on for your cold email template to be effective.

Research shows that at least 5 decision makers are currently involved in any complex B2B transaction. It is a good idea to keep this in mind because it is likely that you will have to make different value propositions for each decision maker. This could include executives such as the sales manager and the people in charge of procurement, marketing, and operations. You should be able to draw them in using only one sentence.

Bridge the gap

The next step is getting into why you are reaching out to your prospect: telling them about your service or product. Ideally, this will act as a transition between the first two sections and so must be inserted between them. Not only will it help to draw in your prospect, it also helps to connect two very different ideas. This section should not be longer than one sentence.

Give a clear call-to-action

Always keep in kind why you are sending any cold email. Your goal is not to send prospects a mini-profile of your company or build brand awareness. It is to convince them to talk to you further, either on the phone or in person. Therefore, go ahead and simply ask them for a call!

Keep your call-to-action (CTA) reasonable. It makes more sense to ask someone for ten minutes of their time than for 45 minutes. Try not to give them a reason to say no to you. Lastly, make sure there is only one CTA in any cold email.

Write the cold email subject

Writing this last may seem counterintuitive, but your cold email subject line should reflect what is in the message’s body. Working on the subject line first can make the rest of your email biased, making you leave out important information.

The goal of any cold email subject line is to entice the recipient to open and read the first line in the message, which is where you are reaching out to connect. In the end, this approach will create a seamless flow that will hook your prospect in until the end of the email. Your cold email subject line should be seven words or less.

Words to use in good cold email subject lines

Here is a list of great words you can use in your subject line that have been proven to boost open rates:

  •    Intro/Introduction
  •    Tomorrow
  •    Daily
  •    Free (as in “Are you free for a quick chat?”)
  •    Update
  •    Alert
  •    Follow up

Words to avoid in your subject line

These include:

  •    Final, Sale, Specials, Exciting, Complimentary, Discount, Tempting
  •    Meeting,   Reminder, Partner, Solution
  •    Help, Unique, Solution, State-of-the-art

Here are some effective cold email subject line examples:

  •    (Introduction) (your name/company)
  •    Quick request
  •    Trying to connect

Edit and Send

It might be a good idea to step away from the email at this point for a little while and come back with a fresh set of eyes. As you edit the cold email, here is a nifty checklist of things to look out for before hitting send:

  •    Is the email personal?

It is important to remember that customizing a cold email is not the same as personalizing it. People immediately ignore and delete messages that obviously look generated.

  •    Does the email flow well?

Make sure that each sentence leads seamlessly to the next. This ensures that your prospect will be able to read the entire email easily and effortlessly. It is also a great idea to use a conversational tone while writing the cold email.

  •    Is it short and to the point?

After you are done writing the first draft, cut it in half. Then go ahead and cut it down by another 20 percent. Furthermore, remove any extra words that do not add anything to the message. After all, why use ten words when six will do?

  •    Does the email keep your prospect in mind?

Any cold email you send out must be thoughtful and focused on the prospective client. Use various ways to show that you took the time to do some research on the recipient. Furthermore, use “you” more times than “I.”

  •    Does the email add value?

Although this sounds like an obvious cold email tip, it is a surprisingly big issue in the marketing world today. After all, how many emails have you received just this week that do not offer any real value to your work or life?

  •    Does it sound like a salesperson?

An important fact of sales and marketing is that people love buying things but absolutely hate being sold to. Doing the latter is a sure-fire way of raising your prospect’s defenses.

  •    Would you open, read, and respond to it?

Finally, think like your prospect for a moment. If you were the one receiving the cold email, would you read it? If you did so, would you be convinced to respond?

Cold Email Tips

For any business to succeed, it must have a good volume of sales. The first step in this process is lead generation, which many companies are now using cold email marketing to accomplish. If done well, this strategy can improve your revenue at minimal costs. Done badly, however, it can go so far as to damage your brand!

Here are three cold email tips that will make your cold email outreach more effective and generate the response you want:

1. Get feedback

Before sending out any emails, make sure to get some constructive feedback. Would they reply to the email? Is it brief and concise? What should be changed or clarified? This testing and editing process will help you improve the quality of your cold emails.

2. Do not send out too many emails a day

Avoid blasting out hundreds or even thousands (yes, spammers!) of cold email templates each day, especially when you are just starting out. The goal is to see what works while still maintaining adequate resources to follow up with any prospects that respond. Stick to sending between 25 and 50 cold emails every day.

3. Analyze performance

Take a look at vital metrics at the start of every new day. These mainly include your open and response rates. The former helps you track how effective your subject lines are. On the other hand, response rates show you how effective the email copy is.

Cold email software

Of course – use RooJet to find new leads and automatically add them to a cold campaign! Keep up with the times and embrace sales technology that makes it easier to communicate via email. A great example of this is cold email software that helps you track what happens to your messages once you hit send. Not only will you get important statistics like your open and response rates, you will also be able to learn the habits of potential clients.

Best Cold Email Templates

You might need to write cold emails for different purposes and clients over time. This could be anything from Here are some cold email examples you can use to take your sales game to the next level:

1. Cold email sample

Subject:

Hello (First Name),

I have a 15-minute idea that I know can help get (prospect’s company) its next 100 best customers.

I recently used this idea to help our client (other company/competitor) more than triple their monthly run rate.

(Prospect’s first name) let us schedule a quick 15-minute call so that I can share this idea with you. When works best for you?

(Your name).

2. Cold email template for sales

(Contact’s first name),

In working with other (insert position or industry), one of the major issues they are struggling with is (insert issue).

This year, we have helped numerous companies to (insert value proposition) resulting in (revenue addition, increased productivity).

If this is something you are facing challenges with too, let us set up a quick call this week. I might have some ideas.

(Your name).

Cold Email Follow Up Template

Subject: Quick follow up

(Contact’s first name),

I am writing to follow up on my email. I did not hear back from anyone on the team. If it makes sense to talk, let me know how your schedule is.

If not, who is the right person for me to talk to?

Thanks for your help,

(Your name).

Conclusion

This is the comprehensive guide to writing a short but effective cold email that will generate very warm leads for your business. It is no secret that prospective clients loathe unsolicited emails because they usually come in the form of spam. However, your saving grace will be simplicity, brevity, and a compelling value proposition.

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