A cold email has to be short and to the point in order to get replies, yet powerful and intriguing. Therefore, every part of the message must be significant and play an important role in communication.
What is cold email?
Sending a cold email is a great way to start and maintain business relationships.
Media relations is a bit different than your normal email marketing campaign when trying to communicate with the brands you want to partner with.
- Pitch an idea, not a subscription.
- Address one person, not dozens.
- If there’s something in it for both parties, you’re more likely to get a response.
How the approach to cold emailing has changed?
Cold emailing has advanced greatly since it was first used for sales. In the past, the only reason for sending cold emails was to present the offer.
Sending cold emails has changed a lot since then. If you send an email with a sales pitch now, it will probably fail. Also, emails that are impersonal and the same for everyone are not effective anymore.
How to Write a Cold Email That Isn’t Actually Cold
1. Edit the “from” line
You may be surprised to learn that editing the “from” line is a separate step here. We usually set it up for a new email address and then don’t pay much attention to it.
The “from” line in a cold email is just as important as the body because it shows who sent the email. This affects the recipient’s first impression.
Remember that your addressees don’t know you yet
Since we don’t know them, they might be a little distrustful of our email. The first thing they’ll notice when they look at it is the “from” line. We can either win their trust or turn them off with the “from” line.
There are at least 5 possible ways to form a line.
A. I’d like to introduce you to Cathy. B. This is Cathy Patalas. C. This is Cathy Patalas, Head of Marketing. D. Cathy works at Woodpecker.co. E. Cathy Patalas works at Woodpecker.co.
Rules to follow while editing a “from” line:
Be consistent
Keep the tone and style of your email consistent. For example, if you use a casual tone throughout your email, you can try using the person’s first name + company name.
Consider your prospect‘s perspective
What can you expect to see in your inbox if you are one of your prospects? Their average style of communication is what you should try to mimic when writing your from line.
Find your own line that fits your prospect‘s expectations
Do not automatically accept any advice you find online. Consider what you read and make your own decisions based on what you think is best. You have the most knowledge about your potential customers and what they want to see.
Think who your prospects would be the keenest on talking to
Use this information to edit your “from” line.
2. Write an intriguing subject line
A cold email subject line could be seen as the key that unlocks the door to our message. We can avoid such situations so long as we stick to those rules:
Consider your prospect‘s point of view
To create an effective subject line, think about what benefit your email promises to the recipient. What will they gain from opening it? Make the subject line about them, not about you.
Personalize it
The subject line shouldn’t be a place for self-promotion. It should be a place where you show the person you’re emailing that you’ve carefully planned to contact them.
Intrigue them
Don’t give away too much information too soon. Instead, try to get their attention by making them think about a problem they may have, or by using a little bit of flattery.
Sound human
You should avoid sounding like a robot or a salesperson in your email. Write to the person as if you were talking to them in person, with a casual and friendly subject line.
Tie it to the rest of the email
Your subject line should be reflective of the main points in your email so that your recipients know what to expect when they open it.
What are some good examples of cold email subject lines?
The best ones we’ve come across at Woodpecker include:
Hey {{FIRST_NAME}}, there’s a more efficient way to do X
I think there’s a way we can improve your X
Have you thought about switching X?
Want to scale up X at {{COMPANY}}?
3. Come up with a clever cold email introduction
It’s tough to start a cold email. Most of us default to talking about ourselves and our companies. It might be because we don’t know how to begin, or because we’re so desperate to close the sale with our first email.
How to write a cold email introduction
A cold email introduction shouldn’t be longer than 2-3 sentences. Instead of introducing the sender and their company, it should focus on the receiver, their expertise, achievements, work, and their company. This is what will catch their attention.
A hint of flattery may be the way to go in order to get what you want. But don’t overdo it or you may come across as insincere. Do your research and mention one or two of their recent accomplishments to show that you are paying attention.
4. Propose some value in your pitch
We should have a pre-written formula that we can use whenever we talk about the product/service we offer. This formula should be designed to highlight the benefits of what we sell so that potential buyers have a clear idea of what it is we’re offering.
Avoid salesy pitch
When writing a sales email to another business, it is important to be subtle with the pitch. A better approach is to make the prospect the center of the pitch by providing as much value to them as possible. It is also important to find out what problems they may face that you can help them with, and use storytelling to show them how you might be able to relieve them of those problems.
Talk benefits, not features
Don’t just list the features of your product or service–focus on the benefits your prospect may gain from it. Be specific about what those benefits are, since benefits that are too vague will dilute your message.
5. End your cold email with a call-to-action
Your goal with a CTA is to get the reader to take action that is in alignment with your larger goal for the email. This could be something like setting up a meeting, signing up for a free trial, or checking out a new product. Whatever it is, make sure your CTA is clear and direct.
To make sure your addressees will take action, your CTA should:
Express the purpose of your email
The CTA in your email should be clear and concise, demonstrating what you want the recipient to do.
Be short and to the point
The call-to-action shouldn’t be more than one sentence. You should be as succinct as possible. It shouldn’t be blurry either.
Ask for something your prospect can do now
Do not request more than you need – a request for a simple action or a quick response is more likely to be successful than an invitation for a 30-minute call. Start with small requests. Even if you eventually invite your prospects to a meeting, the first email is not the place to do that.
6. Polish your cold email signature
A signature is a fully-fledged part of our message and we cannot ignore it. A well-constructed signature can help us shorten the message body and make it more digestible and focused on the recipient.
Things to remember when creating an email signature:
Make sure it makes you look trustworthy
If you don’t give enough information and don’t provide any clues as to where to find you, you’re much less likely to get a response.
Include only necessary information
Remove any superfluous information that doesn’t contribute to the value of the text. Sometimes information like your phone number may be essential, but other times it may not be needed at all.
If you decide to use HTML, make sure it’s clean
Your HTML signature may be the reason your messages aren’t getting delivered. This is because your signature takes up a lot of space in relation to the message. If you don’t have anyone who can check your signature HTML and fix it, it’s safer to go for a simple text signature. You can also use a signature generator, which has clean code.
7. Avoid the classic cold email subject line
Your email can have the best body copy, but if no one opens the email, it is a waste of time.
In order to avoid having your emails ignored, you need an interesting and compelling subject line. This may seem like obvious advice, but there are still a lot of poorly written subject lines out there. If you take a look in your own inbox, you’ll probably see plenty of emails that you’ll never read. You can only get so many subject lines that are variations on “The leading cloud-based software in hyper-local social media marketing.”
What is your goal for this email exchange? Make sure your subject line reflects that. The goal of this email exchange is to get the recipient to open the email. The subject line should be clear and concise, and it should speak to the interests of the recipient.
8. Make it clear why you’re reaching out to them specifically
Most of us have a system for dealing with email. We see an email, we read it, we think about what to say, we write a response, we hit send, and then we move on to the next email. Do you have a system for efficiently dealing with email?
When writing a message for media relations or a similar effort, it is important to make the message sound personal and friendly, rather than like a cold email. In addition to making it clear why you are reaching out, you should also make it clear why you are reaching out to that specific person. The best pitches highlight what specifically drew you to that particular person. For example, if you are reaching out to someone to be a guest on a podcast, you should add a sentence or two about how that person’s work would be a great fit with your audience and why.
It is important to do your homework and be relevant, but it also shows that you care and have put time and effort into reaching out.
9. Use social proof and point to results
If you want your pitch to be successful, you should include social proof and statistics.
If you want to make your pitch more effective, include information about any colleagues of your desired contact that you have interviewed, or anyone they know. For example, if you’re trying to land the CEO of Nike, telling their PR team that you just interviewed the CEO of Adidas would dramatically increase your chances.
10. Keep it short, simple, and written like a human
Write email pitches that are short, sweet, and to the point in order to stand out among the rest of the media pitches.
One way to keep your message concise is to write as if you were speaking to the person face-to-face. For example, you wouldn’t begin a conversation by immediately pitching your product. Instead, you might say something like, “Hey, I’m Dave. I read your column every week and love how you’re focused on startups in Boston. I wanted to talk to you about my company because ___.
Although there is no specific formula that can guarantee a response from someone you have never spoken to before, following the tips above can help to make a better impression.
How to send your first cold email campaign
What you need for starters is:
- a small prospect list
- an email address that’s warmed up
- a Woodpecker Cold Email trial account
Create a new campaign
Click ADD CAMPAIGN to start.
Add your campaign name
…and choose the email address you’ll be sending from.
Set the sending limit
In the top right corner, click on the gear icon and select how many prospects you want to contact each day. You can select a maximum of 50 people.
Write the email
In your subject line, and throughout your content, use language that is specific to your recipient to give them the feeling that the email is relevant to them.
Schedule the sending time
Decide when you want your emails to be sent by selecting the appropriate checkboxes next to the email editor.
Add follow-ups
Follow-ups are important and can help increase the number replies you receive by up to 22%.
Add your prospect list
There are two ways to add prospects- either manually or by using an integration with a popular prospecting tool or Google Sheets.
Send a test campaign
Go to the SUMMARY and make sure to send a test campaign to yourself. This will allow you to check if the emails look good and that all the links you included work.
Hit RUN to start
Just follow these simple steps and you will have started your first cold email campaign using Woodpecker in no time!
Check the results
Monitor how the campaign’s going in the STATS view.
Are you in for the challenge?
If you personalize your cold emails and target a specific audience, you can start building new business relations and get more new leads for your company. If you add a sequence of automated follow-ups, you’ll have a powerful lead generation machine.