Now that we have gone through a few examples of cold email templates, let us look at some best practice tips for creating the perfect cold email copy.
This may come as a surprise to you, but the subject line usually isn’t the first thing a person notices when he or she sees an email pop up. It is the ‘From field’, hence the first thing you must do in a cold email is customise the ‘From field’ to create a personal connection with the receiver.
Here are some ideas in varying formats for the ‘From line’ customisation.
- First name (Peter)
- First name + Last name (Peter Jackson)
- First name + Last name, Title (Peter Jackson, Head of marketing)
- First name + Company name (Peter, Jackson and Co)
- First name + Last name + Company name (Peter Jackson, Jackson and Co)
People are likely to take note, follow or interact with experts from their field. For instance, you can use your marketing head’s name as the sender if you’re reaching out to marketers. If you do not have anyone with industry experience, you can also use your company CEO’s name to grab reader’s attention.
- Write an intriguing subject line
Next comes the subject line, which can be imagined as the key that unlocks the door to your message for the reader. The subject line should be short, specific and useful. A poorly written subject line not only puts off the reader but also may cause problems with email deliverability, as most email servers automatically mark emails as spam based on the subject line.
Below are some general tips for nailing the subject line:
- Personalise it: Grab this opportunity to assure your readers that you’re not a spammer who sends myriads of identical emails to people and waits to see what sticks- but rather have actually put in some research before reaching out to them.
- Keep it short and intriguing: Use the subject line as a way to pique their interest and engage their attention by making them reflect on a problem they may have.
- Make it sound human: A formal or salesy subject line is often one of the most common put offs for readers today. Do not be afraid to inject some personality into your subject line that compels readers to click on your email.
- Connect it with your email body and objective: Whatever you put in your subject line, you should connect it with the rest of your message. A click-bait can only prompt a click, but once the reader realises they have been fooled, they are most likely to close the email window and have a lasting bad impression about your brand.
- Make sure to work with only quality B2B data when creating your email lists
Simply put, data can make or break your cold email campaign. If you generally rely on the data researched by your internal team based on information available on the listing portals, contact us page, review sites, etc, you are at a serious risk of hurting your email conversions. Data collected from these sources can often be inaccurate, inconsistent or outdated. Instead, you can partner with advanced sales automation solutions like hubsell to help you with on-demand generated data that ensures that you are only working with accurate and high quality data.
- Keep your call-to-action easy and friction-free
Last but not least, end your cold email with an easy and frictionless call to action (CTA) that persuades your prospects to do what you want them to with your cold email.
To ensure your reader takes action, your CTA should:
- Express the purpose of your email – the CTA should clarify the aim of your email in a single sentence.
- Be short and to the point – the CTA shouldn’t take more than a single sentence. You should be as concise as you can but don’t be curt either.
- Personalise the copy and A/B test your cold email elements to see which one works best for your audience
As this blog outlined, there are many cold email templates you can use—but it’s important to customise each email and tailor it to the specific person you’re reaching out to. Your prospect probably gets hundreds of emails like these and personalisation is likely the only effective way to rise above the noise. Cold emails should be sent on an individual, case-by-case basis. However, you can scale up your sales outreach by mass emailing prospects by partnering with a sales automation tool like hubsell and hyper-segmenting your email lists. Segmentation can be done by content, product, persona and customer lifecycle stage.
Lastly, please note there is no one size fits all approach to writing cold emails, and the only way to know which works best for you is to A/B test various elements of your email such as subject line, opening line, CTA and template.