How To Send Cold Emails And Get Responses

Sending cold emails can be a nerve-racking experience. You’re putting yourself out there and hoping that someone else is willing to take the time to respond. 

However, it’s important to remember that while sending a cold email may be scary, it doesn’t have to be difficult. With these tips on how to send cold emails and get responses, you’ll be well on your way!

Takeaways
1. Craft personalized subject lines to grab attention.
2. Research recipients’ needs for tailored content.
3. Provide a clear value proposition in the email.
4. Keep emails concise while conveying the message.
5. Use compelling call-to-action (CTA) language.
6. Test different email formats and approaches.
7. Follow up strategically for better response rates.
8. Monitor analytics to refine your cold email strategy.
9. Respect privacy and offer opt-out options.

What’s A Cold Email?

A cold email is an email that’s sent to someone who doesn’t know you. It can be a great way to connect with potential customers and build relationships, but only if done correctly.

Cold emails are a form of marketing; they give people the chance to learn more about your business or services while also giving you a chance to get in front of potential clients who might be interested in what you have to offer. 

They’re used by salespeople, freelancers, and even bloggers like me!

The key here is relevance your subject line needs to catch their attention enough so they’ll take the time (and hopefully read your entire message). Make sure it’s not too generic or cliche; personalize it as much as possible.

Learn the art of crafting effective cold emails and boosting your response rate. Discover the strategies and insights in our guide to cold email success and get more out of your outreach efforts.

Why Send Cold Emails?

There are a number of reasons why you should consider cold emailing. Here are some of the key benefits:

It’s a great way to get your foot in the door. Cold emailing provides an opportunity for you to stand out from the crowd and have your message read by people who might not otherwise be exposed to it. 

This is especially true if your target audience has thousands or even millions of emails coming in every day, making it difficult for them to sort through all their messages.

Cold e-mails can generate leads, build relationships, and generate sales. If you do it right, cold emailing can help you generate leads by creating a dialogue with potential clients or customers that will eventually lead them down a path toward becoming new clients or customers.

And eventually turning into repeat customers who’ll purchase from you again and again (and recommend their friends).

You can use cold emails as part of an overall marketing strategy for building relationships with influencers within your industry which could then be leveraged later on down the line when trying to promote content-related products like books/ebooks (or even services).

How To Send Better Cold Emails?

The first step in sending a successful cold email is to use an address that you own. If you’re using Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, or any other free service then there’s a chance that the recipient won’t trust what you have to say and may even block your email address from future contact. 

A good tip when creating an email address is to just add @yourbusinessname.com at the end of your name or business name if it makes sense (e.g., john@johnsmithcoffee).

Next up is the subject line which should be broad enough to attract attention but narrow enough so as not to waste time on irrelevant messages that could be ignored by both parties involved (i.e., don’t send an invitation for coffee with ‘Hey’ as your subject line). 

For example: ‘I would love feedback on my new product idea’ would be too broad because it doesn’t provide information about why this person would care about helping out with this particular project versus any other similar project they may have been considering; 

Whereas something like ‘Looking 4 feedback on new iPhone app’ would have more appeal because it at least mentions what type of project they’re offering feedback on and gives some indication as to who might be interested (i..ideally someone who owns/uses smartphones).

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1. Read The “About Us” Page

When you’re looking to send cold emails, it’s important to understand the company culture. The best way to do this is by reading their “About Us” page.

This will give you a better idea of the company’s mission, values, and goals. It’ll also help you figure out what kind of person they’re looking for and how your skills align with those needs.

In general, there are three things every About Us page should have:

A clear mission statement that explains what distinguishes this company from its competitors (e.g., “We’re building an online marketplace that connects people who need lawnmowers with lawn mowers”)

An explanation of how they use technology in their business (e.g., “Our proprietary software automates all aspects of selling used cars online”)

Information about the founders’ background and why they started the business in the first place (e.g., “We wanted to build something that would make life easier for people who don’t like having to deal with car dealerships.”)

2. Understand The Person You’re Contacting

Before you send a cold email, it’s important to understand the person who is receiving your message. You need to know what they want and how you can help them achieve their goals. This will help you personalize your email and tailor your pitch to their specific needs.

Once you understand what they want, figure out what they can do for themselves. It might be something simple like signing up for an online course or reading an article about product X that may interest them.

Now go back through those steps again and think about how much this person could help YOU!

3. Research Your Prospects Before You Reach Out

This step is a no-brainer. However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention it. Before you send out an email, make sure you’ve done your homework on the company and individual you’re reaching out to. 

This includes finding the person’s name (if possible), their title, and where in the org chart they sit.

It also means being familiar with what that company does and selling points of why they should care about what you have to offer. 

For instance, say I’m trying to get in touch with someone who works at a local restaurant chain about offering my food delivery service as an option for customers who want something other than pizza.

Or Chinese takeout delivered on Friday nights when they are too busy working late into the evening on projects that need completion before Monday morning rolls around again…

If I want them to respond quickly instead of having them wait until later this week when everyone else has gone home, then I better know everything about their business that might be relevant: Who runs their marketing department? 

What kind of customer base do they have? How many locations does each store have? These questions may seem obvious but when time is critical (like when cold emailing) it’s very easy for these details not only to slip through our minds but also fall off our mental radar altogether!

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4. Search For Your Recipient’s Email On Hunter.Io

Hunter.io is a tool that shows you all of the email addresses for a particular domain, like [email protected] To use it, you need to know the name and URL of your recipient’s company (the person who is supposed to receive your cold email).

Once you have this information, head over to hunter.io and type in the domain name. For example: [email protected]. Then click “Find Addresses.”

This will bring up a list of results for emails at this company. You can narrow down these results by entering additional keywords into their filters, such as “[email protected]” or “[email protected].” 

For example, if I want all my friends who work at BuzzFeed but aren’t editors or writers themselves (and thus might not be too interested in what I’m sending out), then I’d search for “BuzzFeed” and select from there instead!

5. Find A Mutual Connection Between You And The Recipient (Linkedin)

Once you have the email address of your target, the next step is to find a mutual connection between you and the recipient. This helps build credibility for your email because it shows that you know someone in common.

How can you do this? With LinkedIn! The first thing to do is search for your target’s name on LinkedIn and see who they are connected with (if any). 

If there’s no mutual connection between you two, keep looking at their connections until there’s one person who is linked through another common person. 

Then send an introductory message asking if they know John Smith (your target). Let them know that he/she referred to them as “a great professional” in their profile and ask if they’d be willing to connect with him/her via email or phone call.

6. Filter Your Prospects By Job Title And Company Size (Linkedin)

One of the best ways to find the right people for your cold email is to use LinkedIn’s search feature. You can filter by job title and company size.

For example, let’s say you want to reach out to accountants who work at Fortune 500 companies. 

In that case, you would type “accountant” into the keyword field (or just do an advanced search), select the Job Title or Company Size filter (whichever you prefer) and then select a range of companies that meet your criteria. 

Now when you click Search Emails with this query, only those emails will be listed in the results window below.

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7. Send A Personalized Email To Your Prospect Based On The Information You’ve Gathered (Linkedin)

You’ve done your research, so now it’s time to send over your personalized email.

It’s time to get personal!

To make sure you’re going above and beyond in this department, I recommend including the prospect’s name at least once in the first few sentences of your email. 

This will help them feel like you care about them as a person instead of just sending out mass emails and hoping for the best.

There are also some more subtle ways you can personalize an email:

• Using their name throughout (see above)
• Including their company name if applicable
• Mentioning something specific that they mentioned on social media such as a tweet or LinkedIn post
• Referring back to something from an earlier conversation with them (or even mentioning how excited you were when talking about it)

8. Utilize Facebook Graph Search To Find Your Prospects’ Email Addresses

Facebook Graph Search is a powerful tool for marketers and salespeople who want to find their prospects. Facebook Graph Search allows you to find out more about the people you’re trying to reach, including their email addresses, phone numbers, names, and locations. 

This means that if someone lives in California or Florida and works at Apple or even if they just live in California or Florida you can find them with Facebook Graph Search. Here’s how:

Start by typing in what you want to search for into the box at the top of your Facebook page (make sure it’s not private). Then click “Search.”

Scroll down until you see an area called “People,” which shows all profiles containing “person” or “people.” Choose one of these profiles by clicking on the word “People” next to them (see image below).

Once your profile has been selected, scroll down until you see an area called “Likes/Interests” this section lists all interests associated with this person’s profile including things like movies they’ve liked or books they’ve read recently. 

Click on any item listed under this section – such as “Books” – then choose one of those books from its dropdown menu; when done correctly something similar should appear like this:

9. Search For Their Email Address On Twitter

Another way to find an email address is by searching Twitter for it. You can use Twitter’s advanced search feature to narrow down your results based on content and source and then click through from there. 

If you’re having trouble finding their email address, Hunter is a Chrome extension that will let you easily see who has access to that username on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms.

10. Use Hunter’s Chrome Extension To Automate The Process Of Finding Contact Information As You Research Prospects On Google, Linkedin, Or Twitter

The Hunter Chrome extension is a great way to automate the process of finding contact information as you research prospects on Google, LinkedIn, or Twitter. It will scrape any web page for the email addresses of the people featured on it. 

This means that once you’ve found an interesting website with a list of names and emails (like this one), all you have to do is install the Hunter extension and then click on any name listed there and instantly get their email address!

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11. Make It Clear That This Is More Than A Pitch, But Rather An Offer To Connect And Add Value To Their Life By Providing Your Expertise And Services In A Particular Area Of Need That They Have Expressed Interest In Before (See Step 3)

The final step is to make it clear that this is more than a pitch, but rather an offer to connect and add value to their life by providing your expertise and services in a particular area of need that they have expressed interest in before (see step 3).

This can be done by using the first person ‘I’ or ‘me’ instead of ‘we.’ For example:

“I noticed you were interested in [insert topic here]. I am the founder of [insert company], which specializes in [insert service]. 

I would like to introduce myself as someone who has helped hundreds of people just like you. If I could share with you some helpful resources, would you be open to having a quick phone call?”

12. Use Our Email Copy Templates To Craft The Perfect Cold Email That Gets Opened, Answered, And Read! (See Above Examples)

It’s time to get to work.

To use our email copy templates, simply download the template you’d like to use and open it in your word processor or text editor of choice (we recommend using Google Docs). 

We’ve broken up all of our templates into sections based on what they’re designed for: “Getting Your First Meeting”, “Inviting a Conversation”, and so on. 

You can also search by industry (if you know a specific industry that has more sophisticated cold emailing practices) or by company name if you have someone specific in mind for whom you’d like information about their business practices.

Once the template is opened in your word processor, fill in the blanks with information about yourself and why you’re reaching out to this person/company. Then save it as a .rtf file before sending it off!

Conclusion

With these tips, you’ll have no trouble sending great cold emails and getting responses. But before we say goodbye, I just want to remind you that this is a marathon, not a sprint. It took me years of practice to develop the skills I have today and it will likely take some time for you too! 

Don’t be discouraged if things don’t go according to plan straight away (or even at all). Just keep learning from your experience, trying new things, and refining what works best for you until it starts working consistently then celebrate!

As always, I hope this guide has been helpful in some way. If there is anything else I can do for you or if any questions come up as part of your journey then please let me know. Good luck with your future endeavors 🙂

Further Reading

Here are some additional resources to further enhance your knowledge on writing effective cold emails:

Tips to Write Cold Emails That Get Responses Short Description: Explore practical tips and strategies to craft compelling cold emails that increase your response rates and engagement.

How to Write Cold Emails: A Comprehensive Guide Short Description: Discover a comprehensive guide that covers the ins and outs of writing cold emails that capture attention and elicit responses.

Tips for Writing Cold Emails That Get Responses Short Description: Gain valuable insights into writing effective cold emails that resonate with your recipients and lead to higher response rates.

FAQs

How can I improve my cold email response rates?

Craft personalized and relevant cold emails that address the recipient’s pain points and needs. Focus on creating a compelling subject line and value proposition to capture their attention.

What are some key elements of a successful cold email?

A successful cold email includes a concise yet engaging subject line, a personalized opening that shows you’ve done your research, a clear value proposition, and a strong call to action.

Is it necessary to customize every cold email I send?

While personalization can significantly improve your chances of getting a response, it’s not always feasible to customize every email. Aim to strike a balance between personalization and efficiency based on your outreach goals.

How should I follow up on a cold email that hasn’t received a response?

When following up on a cold email, provide a gentle reminder of your previous message and emphasize the value you can offer. Keep your follow-up concise and respectful.

How can I avoid my cold emails being marked as spam?

To avoid being marked as spam, ensure your emails are well-formatted, contain relevant content, and are sent to recipients who have opted to receive communications from you. Additionally, include an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe if they wish.