Everyone can write a cold email but very few know how to write a good cold email that converts. Now, cold email may be the hardest way of communication, but it is the easiest to reach out to your prospects in large numbers.
Just like everything, you can improve your cold emails by trial and error. But what if you could avoid the tedious process and directly learn to write good cold emails from the start. In this article, we are going to show how you can write a good cold email.
Steps to writing a good cold email
- Subject line
The subject line is one of the most important parts of cold emailing. The subject is the biggest deciding factor in whether your email is going to be opened by the prospect or not. No matter how good the body of the email is it wouldn’t matter if the email is not opened at all due to a bad subject.
To write a perfect subject line follow the below guidelines:
- Keep the subject specific and on point. Something that will intrigue the reader.
- Keep the email body and subject on the same track. For better responses, it is important not to deviate too much from what the subject line was.
- Make sure the subject line doesn’t end up sounding too much like a marketing email and is more human.
- Try asking questions in your subjects and experiment with what works best and has good open rates.
- Choose the right “from” line
Just like the subject, a from line is one of the first things your prospect sees and decides whether he trusts the sender enough to open the email or not. A from line showcases who sent the email and you should choose it wisely.
The perfect from line may be different for different email types. Before choosing a from line we need to remember that the receiver doesn’t know us. Below are some of the formats that work the best:
- First Name {John}
- First Name + Company Website {John Doe at website.com}
- First Name + Last Name, Title {John Doe, Director of Marketing}
Which one you choose should depend on the type of email you are sending but it should ultimately look legit from your client’s perspective.
- The email body
Introduction
Once you have managed to get the prospect to open your email it is important to keep them interested. The introduction plays an important role in this. Instead of introducing yourself and your company you should talk about the prospect and his achievements.
Of course, this won’t work if you are sending in bulk to people of different fields. Nonetheless, you need to try to keep the introduction talking more about your prospects than you. Also, keep the introduction limited to 2-3 sentences.
Sales Pitch
The next part should be your sales pitch. For better responses, you must try to give as much value back to the prospect as possible. Show them that you are here to help them and make their life easier. The pitch should consist less of what you have to offer and more of how their problems are going to be solved by what you have to offer.
Your aim should be to create a relationship with the prospect instead of trying to close a deal. In the end, your pitch should be human-sounding and not another sales cold email that your prospect receives by the dozen every day.
Call-To-Action (CTA)
This is the most important part of the email and it should be anything you want them to do ultimately. It can be giving you a call, checking out your product, leaving feedback or replying to you. The CTA shouldn’t be long sentences but short and express what you expect the prospect to do clearly. The CTA shouldn’t be a complex action but a simple one for the first email. You can save the complex ones for when you have got the conversation going on.
Signature
The signature should contain who you are, what you do, a way for the prospect to browse more about you and an alternate way to contact you. The signature should look professional and trustworthy. It’s also best to use only text instead of HTML for the signature if possible. HTML can sometimes trigger the spam filters of email services and put your email directly into the prospects spam folder.
Length of the email
Anything from 3-6 sentences is more than enough to get the prospect interested in what you have to offer. You can write long emails but anyone is hardly going to read a long email especially a cold one from someone they don’t know yet. Remember time is important for your prospect before writing the email.
In The End
A short and interesting email is all it will take to get the potential client to take action. The more personalized and dedicated the email is the better responses you will get for your cold email campaign. Also, the email should look professional, trustworthy and seem to be coming from an authoritative figure.
Before writing the email it is important to remember that the prospects don’t know anything about you. That’s why you have a very small window of time to keep them interested and continue reading your email instead of marking it as spam and moving on.
It is also necessary to avoid using cold email templates as your prospect has likely come across that format and the cold email templates are good for a broad audience but not good for personalized emails. You should stick to keeping the email short, easy to read and something that will trigger the prospect to take action.