Cold emails are a challenging part of any sales and marketing strategy. There’s the (justified) concern that emails are either going to be ignored or that they’re going to be instantly trashed. But if you’re using effective and personalized cold email templates, this tactic is a powerful way of generating new leads and accessing new markets.
Let’s explore a few tips that can help your cold emails stand out from the rest.
What is a cold email template?
A cold email template is a basic framework that you use to develop cold emails. It’s intended to be a skeleton: not something that you send as is, but rather a structure that you flesh out and personalize.
Sending copy-and-paste cold emails out is never a good idea. In fact, it’s sure to give your emails a one-way ticket to the bin. By the same token, sending out completely personalized emails, while increasing your chances of success, is so time-consuming that it’s almost not worthwhile. Strong templates strike a happy medium between the two.
(Psst, Magical can help!)
How do you write a killer cold email?
If your cold email is one of the 2% of cold emails that results in an appointment, it’s got to meet as many of the following criteria as you can:
- Write a blistering subject line. Keep it super short (less than 60 characters is best), and make it interesting and personal. This part of the process is so important, we’ve dedicated a whole article to it—complete with 100 different ideas.
- Do your research. Know exactly who you’re speaking to, how best to approach them, and what platform to use. We’re talking about cold emails here (after all, 89% of marketers use email as their primary lead generation channel), but you could contact someone by cold calling them, or reaching out on social media instead.
In your introduction, make it clear that you’re informed about who your respondent is and what they do.
- Explain who you are. You’ve done your research, but to the person you’re writing to, you’re a complete stranger. Mention a mutual contact, refer to a conference you both attended, or find some other point of commonality if you can—even if it’s just explaining that you’re an authority on an issue relevant to them. Be approachable and warm.
- Solve a problem or make an offer. This is an important point, and you should get to it pretty quickly. What do you know about their pain points? How can you solve one or more of them? How can you improve their business? Alternatively, what can you offer them that they might be interested in?
- Keep it short. Like, really short. The whole thing shouldn’t be more than 200 words—even less if you can. If you feel like you’re waffling, get out your hypothetical red pen and edit it down. Having good templates on hand can help to keep you in line.
- Be humble. A cold email is a bit of an imposition. You’re asking for someone’s time and attention without (immediately) offering anything in return—or anything that your reader knows they need. Be cognisant of this in your tone. Be respectful.
- Use a call to action. Close with something clear and actionable. This might involve asking for a reply to a question you’ve asked, or suggesting a meeting at a date and time. Don’t leave this up to your respondent to decide on. Be specific: “If you’re available, we could discuss this further on a call at 10am on Friday?” sounds better than, “Let me know when you’re free to meet up.”
Keep these points in mind as you put your templates together. But remember (we’re going to say this a lot in this article), personalize, personalize, personalize.
What are good first lines for cold emails?
Ah, the opening line. Is there anything more powerful? Anything more capable of drawing someone in or pushing them away? If you’re going to write cold emails that get read—let alone cold emails that get responses—your opening line has to be just right.
Let’s take a look at a few tactics:
- Tie it to an event
- Ask an enticing question
- Demonstrate your research
- Start with a compliment
- Follow up on website visits
- Comment on an achievement
- Mention a competitor
The best cold email templates: 7 examples
Let’s put these opening lines to the test in a few templates.
These templates are designed to give you some ideas on how to write cold templates. We don’t recommend that you use them exactly as they are. Select what resonates most for you and tweak it so that it sounds like it’s coming from you.
Once you have a few sentences, phrases or even paragraphs defined, you can automate your template-writing process so that it’s quick and seamless.
Magical text expander helps you do this with a few simple keystrokes takes it further by allowing you to effortlessly insert larger variable chunks of text.
Template 1: Tie it to an event
Make it clear that you know what’s going on in their business, and use it as an opportunity to show how you can help.
Subject: Congrats on your award!
Template 2: Ask an enticing question
They’ve got the problem; you’ve got the solution—show this in a question.
Template 3: Demonstrate your research
What did you research about this particular company? What did you find?
Template 4: Start with a compliment
Don’t overdo it, but a gentle compliment can help to catch your reader’s attention.
Template 5: Follow up on website visits
This involves having a strong handle on your website traffic.
Template 6: Comment on an achievement
Keep a firm handle on your customer’s achievements, both company-wide (such as awards), and personal (such as promotions).
Template 7: Mention a competitor
Again, this one shows you’ve done your research.
Cold sales email templates: The bottom line
Templates are useful—we would argue essential—to the cold emailing process. But you’ve got to be strategic in your templating process.
Select from some of the options above and tailor them to your needs. You can also combine elements of one with elements of another. Do what feels natural and true to your brand, while also meeting the criteria we described above.
Use Magical’s free chrome extension to save your templates to save time while you work. Just by typing in “//”, Magical will add your tailor-made message and automatically fill out your contact’s information saving you loads of time.
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