Danae Moksnes
Cold emails are a great way to connect with people you may not have otherwise, but it is getting harder to make a cold email effective. Cold emails help you show who you are and help the recipient with a product or service you can offer. However, the recipient first has to open and respond to your cold emails for them to be effective.
Average open rates for cold emails were around 18% in 2021, and the average response rate is around 1-5%. A cold email is often considered effective when it receives an average open rate of 23%. While a higher open rate doesn’t always lead to a higher response rate, it heightens the chance for your name and/or brand to be remembered by the recipients.
For your cold emails to be effective, you have to strategize what you are going to say. So, what is a good cold email, and how do you get started? We will answer those questions, and give you 20 cold email ideas that you can try to promote yourself and your business.
What Makes a Good Cold Email?
Checking emails is a daily, repetitive task for many, making it crucial for your email to stand out from the rest. Your cold email subject and first line have to catch a person’s eye and make them keep reading. To make this happen, you have to be personable. You don’t want your cold email to feel like spam or something that could easily be sent to the trash bin.
To make things personable, try not to make your emails look like they could be copied and pasted. While cold email templates help you get on the right track, you should switch it up, include specific details, and a friendly tone that feels like the email was specifically meant for the recipient.
This personal and purposeful approach will intrigue the recipient, and entice them to read more, making your cold email that much more effective. No matter what cold email idea you choose, always keep the recipient in mind. While your main goal is to create new leads or form new partnerships, they have to know what is in it for them. An effective cold email also acknowledges the time the recipient took to read the email and shows appreciation for that time. Take a look at these 20 ideas so that you can choose a cold email idea that works best for you!
1. Ask a Question
The first way you can catch a reader’s attention is by asking a question. If you are sending a cold email to someone in a similar industry, there is a strong chance they have asked the same questions you have. Start your email by asking that question, and show how you can offer the answer. By asking the right question, the recipient will read further for the answer, where you now have the chance to promote your product or service.
2. Be Relatable
No matter your brand voice or tone, it is still important to be relatable and personable in your cold emails. You are talking to one person, giving you the perfect chance to relate to them, and create a stronger connection.
Bring up similar hobbies, interests, or if they share a similar role as you. As psychologist Adam Grant says, “similarities matter most when they’re rare. We bond when we share uncommon commonalities, which allow us to feel that we fit in and stand out at the same time” Sharing uncommon commonalities can help you bond and stay memorable to the recipient.
3. Use Your Network
Sometimes, you don’t always have a direct connection with who you want to talk to. But, that doesn’t mean you have reached a dead end. Examine the connections and network you do have, and see if anyone can connect you to your ideal contact.
As you send your email, connect with the recipient, and ask if they could connect you that someone relevant to your service and industry. This way, you not only receive more information for cold emails, but you strengthen connections with your network.
4. Be Direct with the 3-B Plan
Oftentimes, people are quickly checking their inbox to see if they need to immediately respond to an email. In these cases, it is best to be direct, and leave the recipient with no question of what you are looking for. The 3-B plan is a common method used to create these cold emails. These 3 B’s are:
- Brevity – Make sure your email is short, so that it is not intimidating, and doesn’t take too long to read.
- Blunt – Show what you want and what you are offering right away.
- Basic – Don’t add fluff to your email. Keep it simple and make it easy to read.
By following the 3-B Plan, you can keep your reader’s attention, while showing them all the information they need to get to know you and/or your business.
5. Show What Your Solution Does
One of the key things to avoid when creating cold emails is being too “Sales-y”. If your cold email only has the goal of making a sale, it can lower your open and response rates.
Instead, use your cold email to simply show what you can offer. Say what you do, and what your company does to provide enough intriguing information. Then, you can offer to connect or share more information, leaving the decision in the recipient’s hands if they would like to learn more.
6. Bring Up a Pain Point With the PAS Method
If you are sending a cold email to someone in a similar industry, there is a strong chance you share similar pain points. Maybe this pain point is not having enough time or needing help with organization. You can use this pain point to your advantage with the PAS method. PAS stands for:
- Problem – bring up a pain point that the recipient likely experiences. Identify a pain point.
- Agitate – Agitate this pain point by showing how frustrating it is, or expanding on how this pain point can impact the recipient’s day.
- Solve – offer a solution to this pain point. Show how your product, service, or partnership can diminish this pain point for the recipient.
By using the PAS method, you can both relate to the recipient by sharing a pain point, and intrigue them when you offer a solution.
7. Offer a Tip
Another way to catch a recipient’s attention is by helping them out right off the bat. Offer a tip that could improve their workday or a method that you use to improve productivity. This can make a recipient more interested in what other tips you may have.
8. Add Personality
Similar to being relatable, adding some personality to your cold emails. While remaining professional, you can share something about your pets at home, or a recent movie you went to see. Remind the recipient that you are sending the email and that it isn’t automated or copy-pasted. Cold emails don’t have to be cold in tone, and adding personality helps you stay memorable.
9. Connect With Their Career
As stated, finding a common point is key to a successful cold email. You can find commonalities within your careers. Mention that your position is similar to theirs, or that you admire the role that they have in their company. You can then use this commonality to ask if they would like to share tips or connect about your similar positions.
10. Ask for a Quote
If you are creating content that needs some extra expertise, you can use a cold email to connect with others in your industry. In your email, you can complement their role, and give a reason why you admire them. Share why you are interested in gaining a quote from them and offer a time to talk!
11. Offer a Partnership
Show how you and your recipient can benefit each other with a partnership. This may look like guest posting on each other’s blogs or an exchange of services. With this method, you can expand on why you need their services while showcasing what you can offer them.
12. Show Your Admiration With the 3-Ps
If you have seen recipients work on a social media campaign, or a project they were a part of, that is your perfect chance to compliment them in a cold email. You can do this with the 3-Ps method. The 3-Ps stand for:
- Praise – sincerely compliment the recipient on their work, and say specifically how you admire them.
- Picture – give an image of what your product or service does, and what their life could look like with it.
- Push – give them a call to action, so that they know their next steps to create the life you pictured.
With this method, you can boose a recipient’s ego, show how you connect to them and interest them in a partnership with you.
13. A Mutual Friend
Similar to using your network, you can use a mutual friend or connection to relate to your recipient. Show how you heard about your recipient by explaining your mutual connection, and why you want to connect with the recipient. This common connection can entice them to learn more about you and your business.
14. Show Your Credentials
While showing what your solution does keeps focus on your product or business, showing your credentials keeps the focus on you. Show your recipient what you have done, the projects you have worked on, and the role you do now.
Then, you can talk about what you plan to do, and how you can help the recipient reach their goals. Your skills can intrigue the recipient, and you can provide action steps so they know how to get connected.
15. Compare Your Service to Another
To help your recipients get acquainted with you, your service, and/or your company, compare yourself to another well-known company. Chances are, they have heard of this well-known company, and can better understand what you offer. You can then share how you differ from that company, and why they should connect with you instead!
16. Thank Them for Visiting Your Website
Emailing those that have already clicked on your website is less of a cold email, but it is still important to enhance your memorability. When you send an email thanking someone for visiting their website, they may feel more appreciated. You can also take the chance to share more about your company and its goals so that they want to click again.
17. Show a Before and After with the BAB Method
Paint a picture of how your company can help the recipient with the BAB method. The BAB or “Before-After-Bridge” method helps the recipient rethink their day, and gives them action steps to make their world better with your product or service using this method looks like this:
- Before – show what their world looks like now, the pain points they run into, and the difficulties of their everyday life.
- After – Help them imagine a world where these problems are solved, and their day-to-day life is more efficient. Imagine what the world would be like if you solved this problem.
- Bridge – show how they can reach this world by connecting with you.
Once you entice them to reach this solution-filled world, you can give a call to action. Give them action steps so they know how to reach this newfound goal.
18. Back-Up Your Points with the Star-Chain-Hook Method
Showing your credentials or what your company certainly catches a reader’s attention, but you can also provide faces and sources to show how your company benefits the recipient. You can do this effectively with the Star-Chain-Hook method:
- Star – this is your main idea, the goal that you want to connect your recipient to.
- Chain – Show your recipient facts and statistics of how you can help them reach this goal, and explain the benefits of said goal.
- Hook – Give them a call to action. Show them their next steps to reaching this goal.
Reliable sources and statistics are hard for recipients to deny. By showing your company’s impact, recipients are more likely to keep your company in mind to reach their goals.
19. Use FOMO to your advantage with the AIDA method
Many people experience the fear of missing out or FOMO. You can use FOMO to entice recipients to learn more about your services with the AIDA method. AIDA stands for:
- Attention – Grab the reader’s attention with a question, a fun fact, or a statistic.
- Interest – Engage a reader’s interest by showing what you do, and why it relates to them.
- Desire – entice the reader to learn more by showing how others have benefited, and why more people are using your service.
- Action — Give a call to action so that they can take steps in avoiding FOMO.
When you show how and why others are using your services, others will want to know what the interest is all about!
20. Tell a story with the Star-Story-Solution Method
Last but not least, you can tell a story in your cold email to entice leads and connections. This story can be about you, and your journey to finding the perfect solution, or it could be a testimonial from one of your customers that a recipient could relate to. No matter the main focus, you can effectively tell a story with the Star-Story-Solution method.”
- Star – introduce the star or the main character of the story.
- Story – show how this main character had the same pain points as the recipient.
- Solution – Show how the main character found the solution to their pain point, and how the recipient can do so as well.
A good story can always entice a reader, and it is no different for cold emails. While this is the final cold email idea, it can still be effective for connecting with the reader.
Wrapping Up
While cold emails often have a low open and response rate, they can still make a positive impact on both the recipient and the sender. Cold emails can help you connect with others, and create new leads and new partnerships. By remaining personable, keeping the recipient in mind, and using one of these 20 cold email ideas, your cold emails will be that much more effective!
