You may be skeptical of cold emails. Maybe you think they don’t work or they’re equivalent to spam.
Yes, some cold emails are sketchy and spammy. But that’s because the senders are doing it all wrong.
The cold emails you may be thinking of are probably badly written and not backed by solid intel.
So in this post, I want to share the method for sending cold emails that actually get responses. In other words, seriously good emails.
Avoid These Cold Email Mistakes
Before I get into how to write cold emails, I want to cover what not to do. If people aren’t opening your emails, you might be making one or more of these mistakes.
Here are the three biggest mistakes companies make with their cold emailing campaigns:
- Writing a bad subject line: don’t write a long and/or irrelevant subject line. The email will go straight to the trash. Instead, make it short, intriguing, and relatable to the recipient. A subject line that usually works is, “Quick question for you.”
- Including links in the email: why don’t you want links in your email? Because it distracts from your main call-to-action — a response. Plus, spam filters will often flag emails with links if the recipient has never emailed the sender before. You want a reply, so you don’t want to give people too many CTAs.
- Starting with bad leads: a successful cold email campaign starts with solid leads. This means you need to research each person before you email them. You must make sure there’s a good chance they’ll want to get your email.
If you make any of these three mistakes, your response rate and your open rate will probably be hurt.
So now the question is, “How do you write a cold email that people respond to?”
How To Increase Your Cold Email Response Rate
Now let’s cover the practical steps you can take to boost your response rate. Do these things with your next cold email campaign and you could see a drastic improvement in engagement.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium account that helps you easily find the right people. And if you’re emailing the right people, you’ll probably get more replies.
Sales Navigator has an Advanced Search tool, which lets you find people based on their job title, location, industry, professional history, keywords, and many other filters. Once you find your leads, you can use an email finder tool to reach out directly via email.
Write Short Emails
When you write your cold email template, remember that you’re emailing busy professionals. So they may not have a ton of time to reply to (or even read) every email they get.
Keep your email short. You’ll do much better.
Here’s an email template you can use:
- Greeting that uses the person’s first name
- 1-2 sentences that mention something specific the recipient has accomplished or shared online along with a compliment
- 2-3 sentences explaining who you are and the purpose of the email
- Your CTA that requires a response
- Professional farewell, like a thank-you along with your name and company name
Use Only One CTA
The only action you want the recipient to take is hit “Reply.” So that should be the only CTA in your cold email.
Don’t include links. Don’t ask multiple questions. And don’t ask them to buy your product or pay for your service.
This is an introductory email. You’re starting a conversation and hopefully adding value.
Make sure your CTA is clear. You don’t want the recipient wondering what you want. Believe it or not, that does happen.
So when you pose your CTA, write it on its own line at the end of the email. Make sure they don’t miss it.
If you start using these steps, you can increase your chances of getting responses to your cold emails.
