Believe it or not, cold emails are still hot!

Remember going back to your granny’s tips whenever you needed solid advice on a matter? Some marketing strategies are timeless and no matter when you use them, they work like a charm each time. Cold emails happen to be one of those classic lead generation techniques.

You may still find a lot of people hesitant to send out a cold email. But why do you think this is the case? This question to this answer lies in another age-old but forever relevant saying  “change is the only constant”. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, every strategy needs to change with time and the approach towards it should also get upgraded.

Before going any further, let’s first decrypt the meaning of cold emails and then go back a little and understand how cold emails have changed over the course of time.

What Is Cold Email?

A cold email is the first email you send out to a prospective client/customer or any person to whom you are asking for a favor or requesting them to take certain action in exchange for a benefit for your business.

However, if you ask us, this definition is also quite outdated and does not do justice to what cold emails actually consist of. Cold emails have advanced from just asking the recipient for a favor to building a long-term relationship with future prospects.

The one thing that remains common is that you are ideally reaching out to a stranger or a person you’ve never interacted with thereby labeling them as cold leads.

Trip Down Memory Lane: The Evolution of Cold Emails

As mentioned before, the approach towards every concept, technique, and campaign needs to upgrade in order to stay relevant to the current times. Cold emails have come a long way from what they used to be. They started out as generic emails sent out in a mass quantity to people without any targeted segmentation or customization.

This one size fits all approach is no longer effective in today’s world. Cold emails are now tailored specifically for targets, included with personalization, and drafted with a lot of care. Copywriters across the world spend hours trying to perfect the content for cold emails.

From icy cold emails to warmer emails with specifics in mind, the modern means of sending cold emails are definitely worth your time and effort. When done correctly, cold emails are a super-effective method getting you tremendous results each time.

Now that we’ve understood cold emails in detail, let’s take a look at their importance.

Why Are Cold Emails Important?

Cold emails are like that lonely kid in a corner of a classroom that no one seems to gel up to. Although things change once you get to know them well after which you immediately become best buddies.  

Just like the situation above the sad part about cold emails is that they’re suffering from a bad reputation when regarded as spam. Its reality is however far from this claim.

A business requires new customers to thrive amidst a competitive market. Gone are the days when customers came looking for you, businesses today have to be proactive with their marketing and sales efforts. That being said, it’s essential for businesses to be on their toes, find ideal customers, remind them about your existence and persuade them to purchase your solutions by bringing something of value to the table.

Cold emails should be an integral part of businesses today. One effective cold email campaign can do wonders for your business by raining qualified leads into your sales journey. From networking and building relationships to generating new leads, getting more sales, and achieving your business objectives, cold emails are definitely an effective strategy to invest in.

Is the same question racing through your head just as ours? But what is the best way of writing a cold email that converts? Well, now that we’ve scratched the surface enough, let’s dig deeper and find the real gold.

Things to Avoid When Writing Cold Emails

The process of doing something right always becomes easier when you know exactly what it is that you have to avoid. Here’s a quick display of common errors people make while writing cold emails and unless you want your efforts to go in vain, it’s best to not venture down this road.

6 Steps to Writing Killer Cold Emails that Actually Works

Here’s your holy grail for nailing cold emails. Let us demonstrate to you the art of writing cold emails with sufficient examples for an enriched understanding experience.

Step 1 - Pay Attention to Your “From Name”

A lot of people don’t really pay attention to this point and forget all about it once their email account is configured. Confused about what exactly is the “from name”? Take a look at this image.

Image Source: Litmus.com

The importance of from name is evident in this image. Just like the subject line, the from the name is equally important when sending out a cold email. Think about it this way. You’re ideally reaching out to a stranger and the only way to gain their trust is by having an appropriate name. There’s no way in hell you would want to ruin your first impression by having a name that goes by - MarkJ487. At first glance, that sure looks like a shady name, one we couldn’t trust and an email we wouldn’t open.

Key Takeaway: Your “From Name” is not permanent and can be personalized and edited anytime as per the goal of your cold email and what you’re trying to achieve.

Step 2 - Have them Hooked With an Engaging Subject Line

Did You Know? According to a report by Convince & Convert, approximately 39% of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email on the basis of its subject line.

The people you are reaching out to are most probably having their inboxes filled with a ton of other pitches and messages that they receive on a daily basis. So how do you set yourself apart and stand out from the crowd? Writing a stunning cold email subject is how you grease the wheels and sway the recipient into opening your email.

Key Takeaway: Remember these few tips when writing a cold email subject line. The prize is in personalization. Tailor your subject line by identifying the needs of the recipient. Craft subject lines that make you sound like a human and not a bot.

Step 3 - Craft a Compelling Introduction

Give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve won half the battle now that you’ve got the recipient to open your email by writing a clever subject line and a clear name. But that’s not all. You still need them to read your pitch and more importantly act on it. For this, you need to hone your writing skills and write a great introduction and a body copy.

A few important points to note here is the length of your email. Research suggests that cold emails should be no longer than 150-200 words written in smaller sentences of 2-5 lines each. That’s all that’s needed to pique someone’s interest and get them curious to know more. To be honest, long and chunky emails are a big turn-off immediately leading to loss of interest.

One common mistake we see a lot of people make is talking only about themselves, their company, and their products/services. While this approach would have worked in the past, it no longer makes the cut today. It’s crucial to start out by acknowledging the recipient, their achievements, their company, and their work.

The importance of personalization cannot be stressed enough here. This shows your prospect that you cared enough to do your homework and makes them believe you intended to send this email specifically for them. Here’s how you can break the ice and warm them up.

Key Takeaway: A little flattery goes a long way. Don’t be shy to do a little bit of research about your prospect’s achievements and recent work. However, it’s important to know when to stop and not overdo it which will save your reputation by not looking like a creepy stalker.

Step 4 - Add Value to Your Pitch

Merely talking about your company is not enough. You need to let the prospect know that you’re truly concerned about the welfare of their business and are here with a solution. For this, you need to go knee-deep into researching your prospects’ business, understand their pain points, or what it is that they’re lacking which you can offer to benefit them in the long run.

Instead of going on and on about your product/services feature, tell them how those features can add value to their business.

Key Takeaway: It’s crucial to let your prospect realize that you’re there by their side and are here to truly help them.

Step 5 - Don’t Forget to Add CTAs & Edit Your Email Signature

In the world of digital marketing, a good CTA is worth a thousand words. Your cold email pitch finally comes down to the CTA. Write an attractive call-to-action that persuades your prospect to take the action you’ve been meaning to promote. Also, do not forget to take a look at your email signature and edit it in order to clearly provide information about yourself and your company.  

Key Takeaway - Keep your CTA short, precise, and to the point exactly stating the goal of your cold email in a single sentence.

Step 6 - The Finale: Follow-Ups!

Your cold email pitch may get lost in the sea of other emails in the recipient’s inbox or they may simply forget to reply to you. Follow-ups are the other side of the cold email coin. It’s like taking a second shot to entice your prospect to get in touch with you or perform the action you desired. The rules state that you can take 3 follow-ups within a gap of a few days.

Pro tip: Elevate your follow-ups emails from the plain-jane kinds to adding something of extra value to them. Instead of treating them like reminders, jazz it up by offering something of the prospect’s area of interest.

Wrapping Up

When writing cold emails, it’s necessary to bring out the big guns, put your best foot forward and make sure you do everything to gain success. While the road to cold emails may be a bit tough, the success will definitely be worth your efforts. Also, it’s important to not lose hope and give up. Keep trying, run A/B tests and see what kinds of cold emails work best for you.