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People keep telling me that: email is dead. Stick a fork in email, within 5 years something else is
going to replace it. I’ve heard this story too many times.
I disagree. Email is not dead, it’s just changing.
Everything I’ve achieved in my career, I’ve achieved through cold email.
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I took a startup from 0 to 40M pageviews which was acquired by Google. Through cold email.
I helped scale another startup which got acquired by AVG. Through cold email.
I pitched and published over 1300+ articles in different news outlets. Through cold email.
I became friends with Tim Ferriss, Matt from WordPress and the Winklevoss twins. Through cold
email.
I grew my business through this blog to $100K in revenue. Again, through cold email.
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I don’t kid when I say this: master cold email, and you’ll never be short of opportunities.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to learn all this from scratch. People smarter and hungrier than me have
already spent countless hours figuring out cold email. I only had to borrow their strategies and hit
send.
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So today, I’m going to open my kimono. I’m going to show you my list of the exact cold email
templates and tricks that have helped me become successful at emailing a cold prospect and
actually getting a response back.In fact, I’ll not only share the email templates and resources, but
I’m also going to tell you exactly why they work.
Strap in. This will be a long (and fun) ride.
Ready? Let’s roll!
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1. The $3,000 contract email
Bryan Harris, who used to coach me, is an absolute beast when it comes to
cold email. He gets a response rate you and I can only dream of.
Fortunately, he also likes to share what he does with his readers. Which is
why we have gems like this email:
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There’s so much to love here:
1. Bryan states clearly that not only is he familiar with the product, but is also a
customer.
2. He drops a big name right in the second line. By telling the reader that an industry
leader, KISSmetrics, trusts his work, he is establishing that he knows his stuff.
3. He links to an actual example of his work on the KISSmetrics blog.
4. Offer value: this is where the email stands out – Bryan gives away incredible value by
showing what the final product might look like. Sure, it would have taken an extra
couple of hours, but by doing this, he ensures that he’ll at least get noticed.
5. He closes with a question. This makes it easy for the reader to respond to the email
with an answer and increases chances of getting a response.
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2. A sales meeting cold mail done right
The folks at Close.io shared this as one of their 5 templates to start a
conversation with a prospective lead. The entire post is a fantastic read,
but I thought I’d pick apart the first one.
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Here’s what I love about it:
1. Clearly identifies the sender, his current role, and what he’s trying to sell. I
don’t know about you, but I sure like to know who’s pitching me a product.
2. “Stab in the dark” is an informal, even fun way to put it. Plus, it shows that
the sender has done the research and just needs a final nudge in the right
direction. (Pro tip: if you don’t know who to send an email to, just ask!).
3. The invite to discuss the product clearly lists the exact time and date. It
also mentions that the call will be only fifteen minutes long. Which is nice
because it saves everyone time in scheduling the meeting.
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What you can learn from it
Identify yourself clearly upfront, verify whether you’re talking to the right
person, and clearly mention how much of their time you want (and when do
you want it).
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3. The email that blew Noah Kagan’s mind
If you’ve ever hung around any marketing site, you probably know Noah Kagan.
#4 at Mint, #30 at Facebook, founder of AppSumo, SumoMe and
OkDork…Noah knows his stuff.
Which is also why he gets hundreds of emails every month from people who
want his help.
This email, however, “blew his mind” (in Noah’s own words).
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Noah has already done a pretty thorough teardown of the email, so I won’t go into
this in-depth. But there are a couple of things I wanted to point out:
1. Successful people like to deal with other successful people. The sender,
Dave Daily of Grav Labs, points out upfront that he knows his stuff really,
really well. It might sound arrogant, but when you’re competing for the
attention of busy people, it’s a necessity to be upfront.
2. Dave wanted to ask Noah about an app. So instead of fumbling around
with an “idea”, he put in the effort to sketch out a wireframe. At a time
when everyone and his grandma has an app idea, a wireframe alone
means that you’re ahead of 90% of the idea guys.
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Note that the email is clearly about Noah – what he can get out of meeting Dave –
not about Dave. This is a good practice to adopt in all your emails.
Also note: the list format. There’s a reason why BuzzFeed works so well – people
love to read lists, whether online or in their emails.
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What you can learn from it
Show that you mean business; a busy person’s inbox is no place to be shy.
You can also get away with writing long emails if you structure it right: lots
of lists and a clear focus on how it benefits the receiver.
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4. The “best cold email pitch” HubSpot ever received
Didn’t I tell you that Bryan Harris is an absolute beast when it comes to cold
email?Here’s one of his emails, but from the perspective of the receiver
(HubSpot).
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You’ll notice it’s the exact same email I discussed above, except this time, it has been
customized for HubSpot.
The customization is the interesting bit here:
1. By referring to Ginny’s latest post on the HubSpot blog, Bryan is telling her that he’s
not just random spammer; he’s actually taken the time to read the blog.
2. One of HubSpot’s closest competitors is KISSmetrics. So of course, mentioning them
in the email would catch Ginny’s attention.
3. He doesn’t just share an idea – he makes an entire demo video. This isn’t a tweet or a
200-word blog post; making a video takes time. The free demo not only grabs
attention, but also gives HubSpot an idea of what the final product would look like.
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The result? HubSpot was totally sold on the idea. And Ginny Soskey, who manages
content strategy for HubSpot, dubbed it the “best cold email pitch” she’s ever
received in a blog post that was shared close to 2,000 times.
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What you can learn from it
Personalize your emails beyond the “Hi [FirstName]”. Mention something
the receiver might have done recently (check their blog or Twitter) to grab
attention right in the first sentence.
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5. The cold email that won one co-founder meetings at LinkedIn and
Twitter
Takipi is a tool that helps developers understand when their code breaks in
production. Since it requires an installation on a live server, selling it to
developers isn’t an easy task.
Yet, Iris Shoor, the co-founder of Takipi, managed to get 5 installation from
cold emails alone – 1.5x more than what she got through introductions.
This is an example of an email she sent out to a company that used Scala:
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Plenty of good stuff here:
1. A nice, succinct introduction. Iris gets right into what Takipi does and how
it’s relevant to the company.
2. Iris knows that the company runs Scala, so instead of sending them to the
homepage, she linked to Takipi’s Scala-focused landing page.
3. Iris mentions the recipient’s Github page and recent projects, which shows
that she has done her homework.
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What you can learn from it
Craft an email for just one person. Don’t tell them about everything your
company does. Instead, personalize your email for one person alone and
create an email that solves his/her specific problems.
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6. A cold email with a presentation
Scott from Life-Long-Learner.com shared an email template that uses an
interesting tool to create a powerful visual message. You seriously can’t
miss this email if it lands in your inbox thanks to this visual message.
Here’s an example he shared on his blog:
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Scott has a pretty nice teardown on his own blog, but there are a few things I’d like to point out:
1. Scott jumps right into the issue without an intro. This works when you know the
recipient from before. It can also work to grab attention (“your site doesn’t work!”)
before you actually introduce yourself.
2. Scott doesn’t send a long email with a list of all that’s wrong with blog on mobile
sites. Instead, he creates a visual presentation that shows what’s wrong (again: show,
don’t tell). Also note the little sound warning – a nice touch.
3. Scott gives value by offering to take care of this for Dan. This could turn into a paid
contract, or even a fruitful relationship in the long-term.
By the way, BContext is the tool Scott uses to create these visual presentations. It’s free for
casual users.
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What you can learn from it
Show, don’t just tell. Instead of writing a 500 word long email of your ideas,
just create a video or presentation that shows your ideas in action.
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7. A cold email that won over the founder of BranchOut
This is a great email from Sam Parr, founder of HustleCon, a startup event
for non-tech people. It’s incredibly well crafted with extensive
personalization. Hours of work went into each email, but when you
consider the rewards, I’d say this was time well spent.
Here’s the email:
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This email is different right from the very first word. It eschews all conventions and is just…fun.
It’s the email of a hustler, which is exactly what HustleCon is all about.
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Here’s what I love about it:
1. Love it or hate it, you can’t ignore that first line (reminder for marketers: what doesn’t
stand out gets forgotten). That Sam also mentions Rick Marini’s (founder of
BranchOut) barely known past and the $200k job he turned down means he comes
across as authentic, and not just all bluster.
2. A quick intro to what the email is all about, all bundled up inside 1 sentence.
3. Sam plays to Rick’s ego by telling him that he can just come over and spread the
“Marini gospel”. He knows that entrepreneurs who’ve reached Rick’s level of success
care more about influence and spreading their ideas than making money.
4. He doesn’t write a 500 word explanation, but links to a page that tells Rick more about
the conference.
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What you can learn from it
Have fun. And mirror the image of your brand in your language. If you’re
branding yourself as a fun, youthful alternative to stuffy conventional
conferences, don’t use the same stuffy, conventional language in your
emails.
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8. How to Score an Interview with Noah Kagan (via cold email)
John Corcoran was a writer for the Clinton White House, so you can bet he
knows a thing or two about writing good copy.
John wrote a piece in the Art of Manliness where he mentioned Noah
Kagan (OkDork, SumoMe, AppSumo). For a follow-up piece, he wanted to
interview Noah about the importance of failure.
How’d he do it?
With this email:
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1. John mentions the recent interaction Noah and he had on another
platform. Good way to remind the recipient that you aren’t some stranger.
2. It’s important to reassure busy people that you won’t eat up half a day with
your request. John clears this upfront by mentioning the interview will take
just 5-7 minutes of Noah’s time.
3. John namedrops Andrew Warner (of Mixergy) and his recent post on
Forbes. This does two things: it establishes that John and Noah have a
common contact, and that John’s work appears in reputed publications
like Forbes.
4. More namedropping.
5. John knows how much Noah loves tacos.
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9. A cold email to kickstart a business relationship
This email from Sidekick is simple, clear and well-thought out. It isn’t
designed to do anything fancy or win over celebrities to speak at your gig.
Instead, it focuses on driving leads and relationships further down the sales
pipeline.
Take a look:
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There’s nothing fancy going on here, but you’ll be surprised how many B2B
salespeople get it wrong. This one is short, crisp and clear – exactly what you’d want
in a B2B email.
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1. A clear, simple introduction. Using the example of established companies
to describe what you do is a smart idea. People might not understand what
“logistics accountability” might be, but they definitely understand FedEx
and Target.
2. The email further explains the business. Notice that it focuses on the
benefits, not the features. There’s no mention of any fancy tracking
algorithm or smart platform; it’s all about how they can save the recipient
time and money.
3. The email closes by asking for just 15 minutes of the recipient’s time,
which is reassuring to busy people.
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What you can learn from it
Focus on benefits instead of features. This applies to everything from
landing pages and sales letters to emails.
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10. A cold email that landed a $15k consulting project
Lots of cold emails are all about writing the perfect pitch or personalizing
the email to the extent that the prospect just can’t ignore it.
This one from Messwerks, however, focuses more on what you can achieve
if you target just the right audience.
Let’s take a look at the email:
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As you can see, it’s nothing special. It’s got just three lines, a simple subject line, and
no fancy gimmicks.
Yet, it won Messwerks a $15k consulting gig.
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Why?
Because they focused obsessively on targeting just the right client. You can read
about it on the blog post linked above, but for now, let’s take a look at the email:
1. Messwerks targeted growing companies that had raised some funding.
These businesses always have their hands full and usually need help with
UX and design work. Since these businesses are already looking for help,
the opening line works like a charm.
2. A brief overview of what Messwerks can do – increase sales (super nice),
engagements (who wouldn’t want that?), and conversions (every startup’s
dream).
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What you can learn from it
Choose your targets wisely. You can do a lot with a simple email if you
target just the right group of people with it. Don’t skimp on the homework
and research your ideal customer thoroughly before you even send an
email.
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11. Getting early customers with a cold email
This short, one paragraph email from Ash Maurya on getting early
customers is completely full of win. It ticks all the right boxes: it’s succinct,
it’s targeted, it’s personalized, and it has a clear objective.
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Here’s everything I love about it:
1. Ash mentions that he saw the recipient at an event. Even if this isn’t true, it
establishes a connection that you probably share the same interests and passions.
2. Further hammering in the shared passions. Someone who breeds horses would
definitely love to talk about how they select bloodlines.
3. Flattery works, and there’s lots of it here. It tells the recipient(s) that they are among
the “exceptional” breeders in Texas, and that their success with genetic has been
“impressive”.
4. Closes with a request for a phone call, plus a mention of the recipient’s future
activities. This again hammers in that you aren’t some creepy sales guy just out there
to make a deal. Instead, you’re a business owner who just happens to share the same
passions.
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What you can learn from it
Don’t be a sales guy. Be human. Show that you care about the people you email. Tell
them about your shared passions and interests. Remember that your objective is to
build relationships, not just close deals.
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12. A cold email for 250 targeted prospects
Yep, this is the third Bryan Harris reference in this article (I said he is an
absolute beast, right?). In this blog post on his site, Bryan shows how to
use data to create a targeted list of prospects, then send them a clear,
straightforward email about how they can make their business better.
Here is a nice example of this where Bryan Harris receives an email from
Nathan Barry (who is a big deal as you might have heard, he is the founder
of ConvertKit), take a look at this email:
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The hard part is creating the list of prospects, but Bryan’s blog post goes pretty deep into that so
I won’t cover it here. Rather, I’ll focus on the email:
1. The subject line is a single word: InfusionSoft. Since Nathan’s list of contacts is very
targeted (bloggers who are sick of InfusionSoft’s complexity) this one word subject
line will still stand out in the inbox.
2. “How are you liking it?” If you’re a blogger who uses InfusionSoft, you probably aren’t
overjoyed about using it. This single line is a great way to bring the reader’s attention
to this issue, without stating it outright.
3. The actual subject of the email: the alternative to InfusionSoft that’s designed only for
bloggers.
4. A specific date and time for a call. Saves several emails of going back and forth to
decide a meeting time.
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13. A cold email to start a relationship with a blogger/journalist
Before I share this PR outreach cold email template, if you need to find a
PR outreach tool head over to this article rating every PR tool with pros,
cons, and price.
This cold email below is a great way to kickstart a relationship with a
blogger or journalist. It references their past work, directs them to
something that might interest them (based on their past work), and opens
the possibilities for a longer conversation.
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Here’s what I love about it:
1. The first paragraph references their recent work, then directs them to a
story from a trusted website (here: Gizmodo) that talks about the same
thing.
2. The second paragraph brings their attention to a related topic and plugs in
your own blog post (except you don’t say so. I can be somebody else’s
blog post too since your objective is to start a relationship).
3. The email ends with a question, which opens up the chance for a longer
conversation.
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What you can learn from it
Journalists and bloggers care about their work. By referencing their recent work and
directing them to something similar, you show that you care about them, and that
you have similar interests. Over time, this can help you develop a relationship.
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14. Cold email a blogger/journalist by pointing out typos
Every relationship with a blogger or journalist needs an excuse to start. And
what better excuse than to point out typos and grammatical errors?
You’ll be surprised how effective these can be, especially with writers who
take their work seriously.
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1. People can be touchy about their grammar. Instead of saying “your grammar is
wrong”, be friendly and polite.
2. Asking what the journalist is working on next is a great way to continue the
conversation.
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15. Share your results with influencers
There’s nothing influencers love more than knowing how their strategies
and tactics have helped others. Share your results with them and they’ll be
happy to spread it to their fans and followers – it’s just good press for
them.
Here’s a simple template to do this:
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1. Mentions the recent post, then states how you’ve been following it and how it
has affected your life.
2. A link to the post, along with a subtle suggestion that the influencer can share it
with his audience.
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What you can learn from it
If you’ve ever followed any influencer’s advice, share your results with them. It’s the
best hook for building a relationship with them.
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16. Pitch your story to journalists/bloggers
For this template to work, you need two things: an interesting story, and a
person willing to tell it.
The former is something I can’t help you with.For the latter, monitor your
Twitter feed, or start conversations using some of the templates above to
see if there are any writers, bloggers and journalists looking to cover
stories similar to yours.
Then, send them this email:
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1. Mention how you found the story idea – on their blog, via email, or on their
public Twitter feed.
2. Your story – in as few words as possible.
3. Tell them how this ties into the topic they wanted to write about, plus the results
from your story.
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What you can learn from it
Writers and journalists love it when they can get a personal, human angle to a story.
If you know someone is writing on a topic, and you have relevant experiences, it’s a
good idea to pitch in your story.
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17. A cold email for a backlink
This is one email every marketer has to send sooner or later: a backlink
request.
Here’s how to do it right:
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The first step, of course, is to ensure that you have top-notch content. Then, find a
list of people who link to resources similar to yours, and send this email.
Here’s why this email works:
1. Clearly mentions the specific post and how you found it (social media,
search, etc.).
2. Links to the reference post that you improved on (aka the ‘˜Skyscraper
method’).
3. Asks for feedback, then puts a subtle plug for a backlink.
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What you can learn from it
The best way to get a backlink is to improve an existing resource, then ask all those
who’ve linked to it to take a look at your improved resource – and perhaps give a
backlink in return.
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18. A cold email to schedule a sales call
If you’re in B2B sales, or are a sales manager you’ll have to make dozens of
calls every day. This template ensures that you’ll get more yays than nays:
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1. It asks for just 10 minutes. That’s good enough for most busy people. And what
company wouldn’t want 100 more great customers?
2. It name drops a close competitor or industry leader, and shows the results they
got from this idea.
3. A very simple 3-line email, but if someone promised to get you 100 more
customers and asked for just 10 minutes of your time, wouldn’t you be
interested too?
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What you can learn from it
Tell prospects exactly what kind of results they can expect. Then tell them how long
you’ll take to achieve it.
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Even More Cold Email Resources
I promised you tons of email resources in the title of this post.
I’m not going to back out of that promise. I’ve covered plenty of templates
here and this should help you craft a stellar cold email (and you can get 15
more templates here). If you need even more help writing an amazing
email, however, I’ve got you covered.
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1. How to get early customers to respond to your cold emails
1. Feedback from your early customers is vital to your product’s success.
2. However, not all early customers are that eager to respond to your emails. This
guide from LeanStack will help you out.
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2. How to write a great email to a cold lead
1. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a freelancer, a marketer, or a founder, you’ll
have to send out emails to cold leads if you want to grow your business.
2. This post gives a great overview of how to write an effective email that can win
you deals.
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3. How to automate cold email prospecting to land clients fast
1. This is something every freelancer has been guilty of: you spend far too much
time dealing with existing clients to look for new ones.
2. That’s bad for the long-term health of your business. Use the advice from this
email to automate your prospecting with cold email.
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4. How to write cold emails that don’t suck
1. 93.9% of cold emails suck.
2. This is what Anand Sanwal of CBInsights found out after analyzing 147 cold
emails. Read this post to figure out what makes a bad cold email, and how to
write a good one.
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7. Quick tips on how to write a subject line for cold emails
1. The subject line is the single most important part of any cold email. Read this
post to get it right the first time.
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8. 15 commandments of every cold email
1. The 15 rules you must follow before sending out a cold email. Love the advice
about mentioning competitors and mirroring your target’s tone.
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Why Cold Calling Doesn’t Work Anymore
1. According to PFL, a maker of marketing solutions, cold calling campaigns have a measly
1% success rate.
2. Given how labor intensive it is and how many rejections you have to endure to get one
“yes”, it’s not a surprise less and less salespeople are pounding the phones.
3. Cold emailing is much more effective at putting yourself in front of prospects and nurturing
them into customers. Here’s why it’s a whole new ballgame.
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Cold emailing is scaleable
1. You can only cold call one person at one time. With email, you can use outreach
automation tools to create automated cold email sequences and nurture hundreds of
prospects at once.
2. The other limit of cold calls is, you have to catch a decision-maker at the right time. They
rarely return voicemails. With email, you can stay on the first page of your prospect’s inbox
for at least 3-5 hours, increasing your chance of getting noticed and opened.
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1. In a cold email drip sequence, you prewrite 4-6 emails, leaving a few words and phrases to
be personalized for each prospect such as their name, where you found them and what
industry they work in.
2. Remember to write each email based on the customer perspective: how you can help the
prospect solve a big problem for them. You may already know this but it’s easy to get stuck
inside your own perspective as soon as you start typing.
3. Writing from your perspective: “My tool can help you rapidly build a targeted leads list”
4. Writing from your customer perspective; “Never worry about running out of new sales
opportunities”.
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1. Using an outreach automation tool like Prospect or Outreach, you can add the
emails in your sequence, upload your leads list and set up a send schedule for
it.
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1. There are many approaches you can use for the initial introduction email
including:
2. 1. Ask for a connection to the right person in their company
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Why send a sequence instead of just a single email? Many prospects may require a
few touches before you a) catch them at the right time when they can type out a reply
or b) understand your value to find it worth replying to.
When Heather Morgan of Salesfolk ran a cold email campaign for Ambition, they
received responses as far along as the 8th (last) email in the sequence!
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You can easily track your open and response rates
With cold calling, unless you call using special software, you have to manually input most of
the data including how many callbacks you received and how many calls you had to make
before you connected with your prospect.
With email, tools can automatically track sends, opens, link clicks and responses so you
know exactly how well each sequence is performing. This also helps you analyze patterns
that often most often lead to closed deals:
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What send times got the most opens?
How many touch points does it take on average to get your prospect to respond?
Does it make a difference what sender name you use?
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You can also tweak certain elements of your emails from the subject lines to the calls to
actions as you go to see what changes improve your response rates.
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It’s much more difficult to A/B test cold call approaches since many non-trackable
variables can impact the success rate from your tone of voice to your choice of words
(unless you read verbatim from a script every time).
Screenshot taken from Prospect.io
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It’s much easier to find and guess emails than phone numbers
Many companies do not publicly list the direct phone numbers of their
employees and it’s an uphill battle to convince gatekeepers to connect you.
With email, since most companies use predictable naming format like
firstname.lastname@company.com or firstname@company.com, there are
many tools that can ‘automagically’ provide you a list of email addresses
based on first and last names and the company they work for including:
https://www.voilanorbert.com/
https://www.makesmail.com/
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If email finding tools are having trouble finding a specific contact’s email, you can also
try Googling
“@company.com” email”
This sometimes turns up the emails of company employees published on a page and
seeing how their emails are formatted, you can reliably guess the email of the person
you want to reach at that company.
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Cold Email Subject Lines that Work
Subject lines should entice your prospects to open your email. The holy trinity of good subject lines:
1) short (8-10 words max)
2) use a casual tone (prospects do not want to read an email that sounds like it came from their
lawyer)
3) not deceptive (if they feel you tricked them into opening, they won’t respond and it also sullies the
reputation of your company)
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Here are few high performing subject line formulas to use as reference
For initial introduction emails
1. [Colleague] recommended I get in touch
If you use the appropriate person email template shown above, you can mention the name of the
colleague who referred you in your subject line.
1. A few ideas for [to resolve their biggest pain point related to your product]
1. 10x [prospect company]’s [area they would want to grow – example: sales, user retention]
1. I found you through [Name]
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To be able to use this subject line, see what mutual connections you share with this
prospect on Linkedin and mention one of them in the title.
1. Congratulations on [recent good event that happened to their company]
1. Been following you on [site where they publish content] and wanted to reach
out
1. Are you the right person to speak with?
1. Saw you use [complimentary product] – you may find this interesting
1. A new [area that your product is in] strategy for [Company]
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For follow up emails
1. My brain is an open book for you
1. Should I stay or should I go?
1. Can you blame me for swinging for the fences
1. Re: subject line of your first email
Only do this for one of your followups.
1. Saw that [event relevant to their industry / company or something the prospect
recently did]
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1. Bonus cold email protips
2. 1. Create a separate email to send your cold email campaigns.
3. In case you get any spam complaints or servers flag you for sending a lot of similar
emails at the same time, this protects the sender reputation of your primary email.
4. 2. If you can find this data point on your prospects easily, separate your prospects
into different lists based on their timezones.
5. This way, you can time your emails to go out exactly at 10AM their time for
example. Without accounting for timezone, they may get your cold email at lunch
their time and miss it entirely.
6. 3. Make it possible to 1-click schedule a call with you at a time you’re available.
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Try to use a slightly different approach, timing and copy for each prospect. Based on the
open and response rates of your different approaches, you will see which type of subject
lines work, what calls to action get the most clicks and when best to send the emails.
For 1-on-1 cold emails, you can use Mixmax to track the emails.
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5. In the last 2-3 emails of your sequence, you can offer a way for prospects to opt-out of
your emails to avoid annoying the ones who are not interested.
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Many outreach automation tools let you insert an unsubscribe link into your emails.
Clicking on it removes the contact from your list (similar to email marketing).
You can use a line like:
No longer interested in hearing from me? Click here.
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All right, that’s a wrap! These are all the cold email templates and tactics I’ve used for 8+
years and now I want you to do the same!
As always give me a shout if you have any questions or comments!
Download the 15 cold email templates which guarantee to get a response