There are infinite ways to write a cold email. And the standards evolve over time. But after thousands of cold emails sent in the past year, one structure has proven to be optimal.
As we’ve written elsewhere, an email is determined to be good if it gets the recipient to take a desired action. Your recipient is busy with work and life and inundated with unsolicited cold emails for all sorts of products and services. You only have a few seconds to stand out and pique their interest.
The structure:
Hi {{first name}}
{{Personalized icebreaker}}
{{One line social proof}} + {{Who, what, & why}}
{{Next steps/CTA}}
Best,
{{sender name}}
Why is this structure so effective? It follows best practices:
- Personalized → the message is sufficiently personalized to prove to the recipient that you did your homework and are reaching out to them for a reason. Relevant personalization is even better.
- Extremely short → a short message is more likely to be read. Big blocks of text packing information will intimidate the recipient. A short message respects their time. Furthermore a short message is optimized for mobile, where your email is likely to be read.
- Social proof → 3rd party validation builds trust quickly. A reference to existing clients tells the recipient that you’ve already proven the value and they can take you seriously.
- Minimal pitch → it tells them just enough about who you are/what you do to establish why they should care.
- Clear CTA → the next action is obvious and easy to take.
Filling in the structure takes practice. However, following the structure as well as the spacing between lines for readability will greatly increase the chance that your email is read and responded to. Nothing beats short, personal and validated with an obvious path forward.
