How to Write Cold Emails to Generate Leads + Free Templates

Lead generation is one of the most important objectives for any business. FYI, 'lead' is a sales and marketing term that refers to any person who is interested in your company's service or product. When it comes to lead generation, one of the most successful methods is cold emailing.

In the era of social media, cold emailing is still the most successful method of lead generation, more than Facebook and Twitter combined. In fact, an extensive McKinsey survey shows that cold email marketing is 40 times more effective than social media outreach.

However, cold email lead generation is no easy job – it takes excellent copywriting skills and in-depth knowledge of the target audience. An average email user receives roughly 120 emails a day, of which 59% are considered irrelevant by the receivers.

So, how do you stand out from the crowd, and how do you improve your campaigns' email open rates and click-through rates? 

In this blog post, we've discussed everything you need to know about cold email lead generation including how to write a cold email to generate leads and improve sales. Also, we've added actionable cold email templates. Feel free to customize and use them in your campaigns. 

Let's get started. 

How to structure a Cold Email: The Subtle Art of Persuasion

1. Write an Interesting Subject Line

The subject line is the first thing potential customers notice before opening a cold email. A SuperOffice study shows that 33% of email recipients open emails based on the subject lines. 

Also, including your prospect's first name in the subject line gives a personal touch to the email, thus improving the email open rates by up to 22%. 

For example, a subject line that reads "{prospect's name}, We have found what you were looking for" has a far better chance of opening than "We have an offer for you". 

Similarly, adding numbers to a subject line increases the chances of email opens. For example, "XXX sold so far" is a great subject line example of intriguing your audience. 

On that note, triggering your prospects' FOMO is a great trick to improve email open rates. For instance, "Time's running out fast" and "You've got only 10 minutes" can trigger curiosity in your prospects. 

Here are a few tips for writing an interesting subject line: 

• Personalize as much as possible. Do your research and use prospect data. 
• Be honest about what you are claiming
• Keep it short (ideally within 60 characters or 9 words) 
• Avoid spam trigger words, i.e., sale, free, discount, etc. 
• Use emojis 😁

It's best if you A/B test your subject lines before choosing a final one. 

Watch this video, where we talk about how to create an A/B test for your cold emails and what should you be looking for in the data. Watch Here!

Here's something nobody told you: Spend time editing the preheader text as well. Most marketers overlook it but believe us when we say this; it makes your email stand out from the crowd. Write a personalized email preheader text that gives a brief overview of the email. 

Read more: 80 Cold Email Subject Lines to Increase Your Response Rate

2. Keep Your Email Simple and Concise

Have you ever noticed how you read internet content? You don't read a wordy article fully; you just scan through it. 

That is the case with emails as well. People just skim through the relevant and important phrases or information. A survey conducted by Boomerang found that emails containing 75 - 100 words had the highest email open and response rates (51%). 

And according to Campaignmonior, an ideal business email should contain 50 -125 words. 

So, keeping your email short, simple, and to the point is extremely important to hook your prospect instantly and can help you in successful cold email lead generation. In order to make it look interesting and easier to skim through it, keep your sentences and paragraphs short. 

This way, you are respecting your prospects' valuable time and retaining their attention till the end of the email, which encourages your prospects to take necessary actions. 

3. Personalize Your Email Content

We all receive tons of generic emails every day, and what happens to them? We delete these emails even before reading the whole content. 

Generic content is a buzzkill for cold emails. It shows that you care more about aggressively selling rather than catering to your prospect's needs. A survey run by McKinsey and Company shared that companies/brands using personalization are getting 40% more revenue.  

Content personalization is the key to your prospects' hearts. So, use sales automation tools or email marketing software such as Smartlead to generate prospect data and personalize your content according to your prospects' needs. 

For instance, addressing a prospect by their first name brings a personal touch to the email. Also, you can start your email by congratulating them on their achievements. 

Other than that, you can personalize your email based on their job role, responsibilities, age, purchase habits, mutual connections, and demographics. 

Even if you are using cold email templates, it is best if you automate personalization and cold email outreach in your sales engagement tool. Also, segment your email list to provide your prospects with content they want to receive. 

4. Don't Push; Provide Value Instead

Sometimes it's hard to resist the urge to write edgy and sales-y content. However, a cold email might not be the ideal place to write one. 

Putting yourself in your prospects' shoes while writing a cold email will help you understand their perspectives. A cold email is not a sales pitch; instead, it is a valuable piece of content that pitches your idea and provides value to your prospect. 

For example, if your prospect is running a mid-sized organization and isn't using a CRM tool, you can easily point out the benefits of a CRM and pitch your product/service skillfully. 

To succeed in your cold email lead generation endeavor, try and offer value to your prospect. You need to know the following: 

• Prospects' pain points
• Their goals
• Industry
• Whether they are decision-makers (job position) 
• Measure of success

5. Send Emails at the Right Time 

Every day we wake up with our email inboxes full of messages, and we simply ignore them. So it's natural that your prospects will do the same. 

So think again before launching your cold email lead generation campaigns. 75% of cold emails get opened within an hour of receiving them. That's why you need to send cold emails during business hours to get the maximum click-through rates. 

According to Mixmax data, the ideal time to send cold emails is between 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM in your prospect's time zone.

Cold emails don't see many opens (and responses) during weekends (Saturday and Sunday), Mondays, and Fridays. The best days to send cold emails are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. 

However, the ideal time varies based on industry, client demographics, age, etc. So, creating an ideal customer profile will help you send cold emails efficiently. 

You can automate your cold emails and the entire sales follow-up process easily with Smartlead.

6. Include a Compelling CTA (Call-To-Action) 

Although many marketers disagree, including only one CTA in your cold emails can increase your click-through rates by 42%. 

So it is best if you only add one compelling CTA to drive your prospects to take action. Multiple CTAs can confuse your audience and distract them from the main agenda (turning your leads into paying customers). Also, multiple calls-to-actions (with too many attachments and links) often get marked as spam by ESPs (Email Service Providers). 

Research your audience and their pain points to determine the intent of the cold email. This way, you can easily determine the CTA for your email marketing campaign. 

7. Follow-Up

Did you know that a successful cold email lead generation conversion can take at least 5 follow-ups? According to HubSpot, a whopping 44% of sales reps give up after only one follow-up email. 

Once you run your cold email campaign, it's best if you follow up at least after 5 days after sending the last email. This is where the following-up begins, but it doesn't mean you should spam your prospects' inboxes. 

It's best if you add value to your leads while sending follow-ups such as sending informative articles, suggestions to improve, data, free PDFs or eBooks, etc. 

You can't predict a specific timeline for follow-ups, but here's how it may look like:

• 1st follow-up: 2 days after the first email
• 2nd follow-up: 3-4 days after sending the 1st follow-up
• 3rd follow-up: 7 days later
• 4th follow-up: 14 days later
• 5th follow-up: 25-30 days later (breakup email)

However, sending timely follow-ups based on your qualified leads' positions in the sales funnel is a complicated and time-consuming task. We'd recommend you automate your follow-up sequences with cold emailing tools.

Read more on how to write the best performing follow-up emails, here.‍

8. Additional Tip: Visual and Brand Optimization

Emojis have become a profound communication language. Adding emojis in your email subject line or in the email body brings a color splash and a personal touch to your emails 💯🚀. 

Also, you can experiment with GIFs in relevant content, so it adds up flavor to your emails. Dell, in their case study, revealed that it had increased its revenue by 109% with GIF-centric email messages. 

Also, it's best if you optimize your email with brandings such as logo, tagline, branding image, etc., to create a solid brand impression. Make sure your images and graphics are optimized for mobile devices. 

10 Customizable Cold Email Templates For Cold Email Lead Generation

#1 Product Introduction Cold Sales Email Template

Subject: Introducing {new product name}

Hey {recipient name},

We're excited to introduce our new product, {product name}. In a few sentences, it does these three things:

-Solves a problem for {target customer}

-Is really easy to use

-Creates great results for businesses like yours.

Learn more about how {product name} can help you grow your business by clicking the link below.

Let us know if you have any questions - we're happy to help!

Thanks, 

{sender's name}

{professional signature} 

#2 Customer Testimonial Cold Email Template

Subject: Customer Testimonial

Hi {recipient’s name},

I wanted to share a testimonial from one of our clients with you.

"{client name} has been using {product name} for the past month and found it to be an invaluable business tool. They love how easy it is to set up and use."

I would love to chat with you more about how we can increase your conversions through email outreach and see if our product is right for your business. 

This business tool can also become an invaluable part of your business. If it's something that interests you, please reply with "Yes," and we'll book a meeting to discuss it further. 

Thanks,

{sender name}

#3 LinkedIn Prospect Cold Email Template

Subject: Connecting you with valuable connections

Hi {recipient name},

We've noticed that you're looking for new connections on LinkedIn, and we wanted to introduce ourselves.

We're a team of professional recruiters dedicated to connecting talented professionals with relevant opportunities. We work with hundreds of companies from across the world, providing them with top talent so they can continue to grow their business.

One of our team members, {name}, saw your profile and reached out to us. We'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn! Let us know if you'd like our intro email by replying to this email.

Best,

{sender name}

#4 Value Addition Cold Email Template

Subject: {product name} can change the way {prospect's organization} works!

Hey {recipient name},

I'm reaching out because I noticed you're looking for a way to grow your business. I wanted to share some information on our new product, {product name} which can help you do just that.

When we were developing this product, we made sure that it had the following things:

1) The ability to generate leads for your business

2) Automation so you can spend less time on things like updating your list and managing your outreach 

3) An ability to integrate with other tools in order to make things easier for you.

We're offering a free trial, so you can try it out and see how it fits into your business. If this sounds like something that might be valuable for you, check out our calendar and book a meeting at your convenience. 

Best wishes, 

{sender name}

{professional signature} 

#5 Value Addition Cold Email Template

Subject: Solving {pain point} is easier than you think

Hey {recipient name},

I saw your post on {insert social media platform}, and I wanted to reach out to see if you had any questions or needed any help.

Here's a layout of how we do it: 

{tip #1}

{tip #2}

{tip #3} 

We offer {insert value add here}, which is also a great way to grow your business. We've helped a lot of people just like you achieve their goals.

I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have about our service; just reply to this email.

Best regards,

{sender's name} 

{professional signature} 

#6 Congratulating Prospect Cold Email Template

Subject: {name}, congratulations!

Dear {recipient name},

Congratulations on your recent success with {company name}! We're excited to see how you grow the {department name} team in the next few years.

We are a {service} provider, serving {niche industry} industry for more than ten years with excellence. 

We want to help you get started. If you haven't already, we recommend signing up for our newsletter and checking out our blog for some helpful tips on increasing your conversion rates.

It's never too late to take advantage of our free trial offer, so don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or just want a chat.

All the best, 

{sender name}

#7 Cold Email to Businesses from Content Writer

Subject: 6x traffic Increase in 1 month

Hi {recipient name},

I am {sender name}, and I am a content writer working as a freelancer. I'm passionate about helping businesses find the right words to attract their audience and convert their leads.

I specialize in copywriting, blog posts, creating videos, and social media content. My rates are competitive at $30/hr for remote writing assignments and $50/hr for in-person writing assignments.

My content has been featured on Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur Magazine, Mashable, and more!

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about our services or rates.

Looking forward to working with you!

Thanks and Regards, 

{sender name}

{professional signature} 

#8 B2B Collaboration Cold Email Template

Subject: {prospect’s company} + {sender’s company} = 🚀

Hi {recipient name},

I am writing to you because I believe we can work together. I am a salesperson with {company name} and have been successful in sourcing new business opportunities with other businesses such as yours.

I understand that your company is looking to partner with another company to provide your products and services to their clients. This is where our company comes in. We offer marketing, advertising, and social media services for our clients. 

We can provide you with these services at the same time as partnering up with your company to provide them on the other end. I hope you are interested in considering this proposal; we would love the opportunity to work together!

Regards,

{sender name}

#9 AIDA Cold Email Template

Subject line: {prospect's name}, plan a vacation with your family.

Hi {prospect’s name},

I was wondering what you would do if you got 10 hours saved each week.

I am asking because many of our clients have saved hundreds of hours every year, if not more, by choosing our {product/service name} to their sales workflow. 

You can ask experts like {expert name #1}, {expert name #2}, {expert name #3}, or {expert name #4}, whom we have been serving for more than five years in a row. 

I am {sender name}, working as {job role} at {company name}. I have seen how you proceed with {task name}, and I am confident that I can save some of your precious time. 

I would love to talk to you in person over a cup of coffee. Are you free for an hour next week so we can arrange a meeting? 

Best regards, 

{sender name

{professional signature} 

#10 3-Line Cold Email Template

Subject: Let's talk! 

Hi {prospect's first name}, 

I have come up with a solid plan for automating {departmental workflow} in your company and I just need 10 minutes of your precious time to explain it to you and generate 100 precious customers for you. 

I recently implemented this idea to help {company name} to grow bigger than {competitor's name}. 

{prospect's name}, let's schedule a quick 10-minute meeting so I can give you a quick overview of how you should proceed. When is the best time for you? 

Thanks, 

{sender's name} 

Common mistakes to avoid in cold emailing

1) Not Personalizing

Sending generic emails without any personalization can make your email feel spammy and decrease the likelihood of a response. Always address the recipient by name and try to tailor the content of the email to their specific interests or needs.

2) Failing to Research

Not doing enough research on the recipient or their company can lead to emails that are irrelevant or off-target. Take the time to learn about the person you're emailing and their company so you can craft a message that resonates with them.

3) Overlooking the Subject Line

The subject line is the first thing the recipient will see, so it's crucial to make it attention-grabbing and relevant. Avoid generic subject lines like "Hello" or "Opportunity" and instead try to pique the recipient's curiosity or highlight the value proposition of your email.

4) Being Too Long-Winded

Cold emails should be concise and to the point. Avoid rambling or including unnecessary information that could overwhelm the recipient. Get straight to the purpose of your email and make it easy for the recipient to understand what you're asking or offering.

5) Not Including a Clear CTA

Your cold email should have a clearly visible and focused CTA. Whether it's scheduling a meeting, responding to your email, or visiting your website, make sure the call to action is specific and easy to follow.

6) Ignoring Follow-Up

Sometimes, people don't respond to cold emails right away, but that doesn't mean they're not interested. Make sure to follow up with recipients who haven't responded after a reasonable amount of time (usually a week or two), but avoid being too pushy or aggressive.

7) Not Offering Value

Cold emails should provide some value to the recipient, whether it's in the form of useful information, a relevant resource, or a compelling offer. Make sure to highlight what's in it for them and why they should bother responding to your email.

Wrapping Up

Attention, interest, desire/decision, and action – these are the four steps of any successful cold email. Follow the eight above-mentioned cold email tips to write compelling cold emails that generate successful leads. 

However, make sure you: 

• Don't write misleading emails 
• Don't add false email addresses (don't buy readymade email lists) 
• Don't send emails repeatedly
• Don't add spam trigger words

And don't forget to test different variables of your cold emails to find out the most responsive one.

We'd recommend using a lead generation tool like Smartlead, that will reduce your burden and automate the entire workflow. Automate the follow-up process and never miss a lead and streamline your cold email strategies. Smartlead offers:

• Unlimited sender accounts
• Automated email warmups
• Subsequences
• LinkedIn outreach
• Webhooks and APIs
• Master inbox
• Dedicated IP servers
• Full whitelabel experience

This sales engagement tool offers 14-day free trial, so you can test it before buying a subscription. No credit cards required.

FAQs in Cold Email Lead Generation

Q.1 How do I find the right email addresses for my cold email campaign?

You can use professional networking sites like LinkedIn to find the names and positions of relevant contacts within a company. Utilize email finder tools such as Hunter.io, Voila Norbert, or Clearbit to search for email addresses based on the name and domain of the company. If nothing works, leverage your existing network to ask for introductions or referrals to the contacts you're trying to reach.

Q.2 How can I personalise my cold emails without spending too much time on each email?

Use mail merge features in email marketing platforms like Mailchimp or HubSpot to personalize emails at scale by including variables like the recipient's name or company. You can also personalize your emails when you are using a tool like Smartlead. Remember to segment your email list based on criteria such as industry, job title, or location, and tailor your message accordingly for each segment.

Q.3 What's a good open rate for cold emails?

A good open rate for cold emails typically falls within the range of 15% to 25%, although this can vary depending on factors like industry, target audience, and email content.

Q.4 What metrics should I track to measure the success of my cold email campaigns?

You can track metrics such as open rate, click-through rate (CTR), response rate, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate, etc. Know what these metrics are in more detail via this blog.

Q.5 How do you write a lead nurturing email sequence?

You can follow the below steps to write a lead nurturing email sequence: 

Introduction: Start with a brief introduction and establish relevance by addressing a pain point or need that your product or service can solve.

Educational Content: Provide value to your leads by sharing relevant industry insights, case studies, or how-to guides that demonstrate your expertise and help build trust.

Offer: Present your product or service as a solution to the lead's problem, highlighting its unique features and benefits.

Call to Action (CTA): Clearly state the next steps you want the lead to take, whether it's scheduling a call, signing up for a free trial, or downloading a resource.

Follow-Up: If the lead doesn't respond to your initial email, send follow-up emails at regular intervals to stay on their radar and encourage engagement.