The structure of a cold email that converts
Cold emailing is a valuable technique for growing your business. Well controlled, it allows you to contact anyone you want, when you want, and at almost no cost.
Cold emailing is an art that can be extremely useful for developing your company.
By mastering it, you become able to get in touch with whoever you want, when you want, and at virtually no cost.
Once mastered, it is clearly the most powerful marketing approach in terms of return on investment (or ROI for those close to home 👑).
If you do it right, it is not uncommon to obtain opening rates of 75% and response rates of over 35% on several hundred shipments.
All of this, for free.
Whether for:
- Find customers,
- Get a partnership with a dream company,
- Get in touch with people who inspire you,
- Get an article in the press
- Or even find new investors,
Mastering the writing of a cold email is a skill that it would be a shame to do without!
At the end of this article, you will have all the keys to becoming a Cold email ninja 🥷.
Why “cold email”? 🥶
Cold email, or cold email, is a prospecting technique that refers to its predecessor, “cold-calling”, which was historically practiced by telephone.
Remember the Wall Street wolf scene where he convinced a guy on the phone to buy lots of penny stocks? That's cold calling.
The Cold emailing follows the same concept, but this time by email (hence the name, thanks Captain Obvious).
It is a practice aimed at sending a message to a professional target, without first having contact or interaction with this person, and without them having requested this contact.
The term “Cold” therefore comes in opposition to the term “Hot”, which is used for a qualified prospect who has already shown interest.
The aim of the survey will therefore be to raise the temperature 🌡
Technical memo tips: In a cold email you will have to break the ice 🧊
The 3 pillars of digital prospecting 🔬
To become an ace at prospecting, it is essential to understand the foundations on which a good cold emailing method is built. You will always have to rely on 3 pillars (Think of them a bit like a stool, if you take one foot off, it's much less convenient to sit down):
- The right message
- Addressed to The right person
- Via The right channel
And all of this, with the good setup And the good data. (There you actually have a chair with backrest and armrests)
example What not to follow:
- The perfect message to sell a financial management tool, addressed to human resources, doesn't catch on.
- An email full of emojis that sounds like the boss of an SP500 company, a bad idea.
- A great email, sent to the right person, via the right email, but which falls into spam... It takes a lot of effort to hit the wind.
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Once these 3 pillars are well established: get ready to see the leads come in 🏃 ♂️
Personalization or nothing.
Once you have found the perfect company (also called ICP, Ideal Client Profile), you have also defined your Buyer Persona (the contact person to contact in the box) as well as their email address. It is time to write a message that will resonate with your target audience, to optimize your chances of response.
Gone are the days of ultra-standardized prospecting emails, as we received in 2001 with the panel of promotions highlighted and without any personal introduction.
It already sucked at the time, but today it sucks AND It doesn't work anymore.
The objective of cold emailing should not be to seek to sell at all costs. The sale comes at the time of the appointment, the first contact is intended to launch the discussion, to create an exchange. The sale comes later, and will follow naturally if the first step has been successfully completed.
To make a simple parallel: It seems logical to you to invite for a drink before proposing. On sale it's the same.
Forget the miracle templates 🙅 ♂️
You will find dozens of cold email templates online that promise you “Millions of turnover with this simple email sequence”... My advice? Forget about that.
Templates, even if they may have been effective at one time, when you discover them, there is a 99% chance that they have already been used far too much and that the approach has become Has Been. Since your goal is to start a discussion and create a relationship, the last thing you want is for your prospect to feel like it's an email retrieved from a template. You need to stand out, not look like the 432 prospecting messages he receives per week.
So I recommend that you always write your emails yourself, from A to Z.
Of course you can always take inspiration from templates, emails you receive, or ask for help from an expert (hello 👋)
But your email should sound like you, and be natural.
As if you were speaking personally to your prospect.
Yes, but what if I can't use Morgann templates?
No hassle, the real secret is in the structure 👇
The anatomy of a cold email that converts 🧬
It's time to look at what's under there!
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To convert with your cold emails, you will have to keep these 4 goals in mind:
- Stimulate curiosity to get people to open the email
- Capturing attention from the very first lines
- Maintain engagement through the body of the email
- Inspiring them to take action and respond
For this, the structure of your email will be essential. Every word and every sentence should contribute directly to these goals. All that is superfluous will have to be removed.
As our good friend Blaise Pascal would say:
“I wrote you this long letter because I didn't have time to write you a shorter one.”
To do this, here is the optimal structure of a cold email:
- Email subject
- Introduction
- Icebreaker
- Situation/Problem
- Value/Solution
- (Proof)
- CTA
- (PS)
The subject of the email ✍️
The purpose of an email subject is similar to that of a movie trailer:
Make you want to consume the content in its entirety, and therefore to read the email.
- It should not be too long, 5-6 words no more (to remain readable on mobile).
- Avoid click-baits, it can certainly increase your opening rate, but it will kill your conversion into appointments.
- Add personalization as soon as the email subject line. Mentioning the name of the inbox or person will make you want to open the email much more.
- Bring on the story. Show me the value that could be drawn from reading the rest of the email 👀
Introduction 🤝
Once the email is opened, the first sentence will be key in determining whether the prospect will read or delete the email. And believe me, it all comes down to it.
Since the prospect does not know you yet, the purpose of the introduction is to create a connection, a link with you so that he or she can understand who you are and why you are in their email box (and yes, don't forget that you are inviting yourself to their home, Chenapan!)
This part is meant to briefly explain what connects you to him, not the other way around. It is not about presenting yourself, but about presenting the reason for the message.
Example:
❌ Hello {First name}, my name is Morgann and I am contacting you, because I am developing the Leadix agency, we do digital marketing and prospecting for B2B businesses.
✅ Hello {First Name}, I just finished listening to your podcast on {SubjectX}, I particularly appreciated the way you approach the {Sub-Topic Y}, which made me want to contact you.
Icebreaker 🧊⛏
Following the introduction comes the icebreaker. Now that the prospect knows the reason for your coming, “what brings you to his door”, it's time to make your pitch to go home.
As the name suggests, the objective remains to break the ice with your prospect and start the exchange.
The aim of the icebreaker will also be to show that the message is addressed personally to the prospect, that your interest is in him and that it is not just an email sent to one person among 2,000 others.
Examples:
“When I discovered {Company}, I totally fell in love with the approach, which resonates a lot with my values for {Reason X} and {Reason Y}”
“Reading about your recent developments in {Press}, I discovered that you are currently recruiting a {Profile X}”
“I saw that you recently had {Company News}, congratulations, what a great step! ”
The number of possible icebreakers is endless. But the idea will always be the same, introduce with a personalized sentence to start the discussion.
You can find inspiration on the company website, on your prospect's LinkedIn profile, or in the latest news and media scores.
Just like at a networking event, when you arrive at the table of the person you want to talk to, approach the exchange with a sentence to break the ice.
Important note: it is entirely possible to do the introduction and the icebreaker in the same sentence.
Situation/Problem ⛈
We are finally getting to the heart of the message.
The idea is to then pose the context, that is to say the situation that the person encounters, and that will serve as an introduction to the value/solution that you can bring next.
The more specific your targeting will be, and your solution will respond to the persona you are targeting, the easier it will be for you to write this part.
Value/Solution ☂️
Then present what you can bring to your prospect. It is especially not a question of making a 4-page pitch of your solution, but rather of making your prospect's mouth water by presenting the value it can bring.
In summary: arouse enough interest, without falling asleep with too much detail.
The objective here is not to be complete, but to generate interest, to get people to respond.
Social Proof 🎖
If you already have experience in your prospect's field or industry, it may be worth mentioning it. If you have supported well-known companies in the sector or some of its competitors, name them.
If you have cases to present, or even well-known customers, do not hesitate to use them to increase your perceived value. Showing social proof can go a long way in reducing the friction of not knowing you initially.
Call to Action (CTA) 🚨
Every good prospecting message must end with a call to action (or Call to Action in French) that pushes the prospect in the desired direction.
Your objective is to meet the person physically ➡️ Offer a coffee
Your objective is to start an exchange ➡️ share content and ask for an opinion
Your objective is to book a call ➡️ offer some availability directly
PS final 🎻
Personally, I always add a small, personalized and nice Postscript.
It is absolutely not necessary, but it is always a pleasure and it shows an interest beyond the commercial approach.
Example:
“PS: In any case congratulations for your development! You can be proud of yourself!”
Your prospect is the hero of your story 🦸 ♂️
To perform in cold emailing, you are not the hero of your story, your prospect is. If you flirt and spend 90% of the evening talking about yourself, you are unlikely to land a second date. In prospecting it's the same. You must charm with your understanding and attention to the situation your prospect is experiencing.
So here are the top 5 mistakes not to make in your prospecting by email :
- Talk only about yourself
- To be too vague
- Wanting to say too much
- Do not personalize
- Communicate like a robot
And because nothing beats an example of what not to do, here is a nice one as a gift:
Conclusion of a cold email that hits the mark 🎯
There is no secret recipe for writing the perfect cold email.
There's also no such thing as an unchangeable rule like “never exceed 407 characters.”
Sometimes a short message will be effective, sometimes a longer one that is well written will be even more effective.
What is certain, on the other hand, is that if you take into account the following points in your writing, your emails will convert:
- Created a link with your prospect. Business is above all about people and relationships;
- Focus on starting an exchange, as in a real discussion, don't try to convert directly.
- Adapt your speech and the way you communicate to your audience. We don't talk to startups like CAC40 companies.
- Play on emotions. Despite what we would all like to believe, 90% of our decisions are not intellectual, they are based on our emotions. Provoke an emotion, you will get a response.
What results can you expect?
Now that you know all the secrets of a prospecting email that converts, how do you know what results to expect? Here's a quick summary of what you might get as a result and what they most likely mean:
Opening rate ✉️
< 30% - The quality of your email address may be in question. There is a high probability that some of your emails will end up in SPAM
[30 - 40%] - Consider improving the subject of your email.
Between 40% and 60%: That's good.
Above 60%: It's very good.
Above 75%: Welcome to the dark side of prospecting, young Padawan ⚔️
Response rate 💌
< 3%: It seems that your value offer or your approach is not the right one for this target
[3 - 8%] Good start, but could do better
[8 - 15%] It's starting to be good
[15 - 20%] That's very good
20% and +: You have reached a great resonance with your audience
30% and +: You are a rock star 🎸⚡️ We are waiting for your resume to join the Leadix team 🛸
Disclaimer : These average results are based on the use of email sequences with reminders. These are indicative and can vary greatly depending on the industry, the type of product (or service), brand awareness and the quality of targeting.
Bonus: Boost your results thanks to the sequences 🦾
Congratulations, if you have stuck this far, it's because you are eager to develop your acquisition through cold-emailing, and we love that! 😍
So I'm going to share with you one last little secret to “close” even more leads 👀
If you don't get a response on an email, it's not necessarily a lack of interest from your prospect. There is a lot of chance that:
- He/she read diagonally between 2 meetings, when getting on the bus, or after 7 shots of Tequila at 3:42 in the morning (certainly less frequent, but with a non-zero probability)
- He/she opens it but is interrupted by an external event such as a person entering the office, a call from Grandma Gertrude or the storming of Bastille.
- He/she is too busy with their workload and does not currently have time to take care of their emails.
- He/she is in a bad mood after the death of his goldfish. (Oops 🍣)
- He/she is simply not the right person to handle the subject.
In short, as you will have understood, an absence of response does not always mean absence of interest.
So the magic tips are as follows:
If you write a good cold email. Don't stop there. Make a sequence of it.
Your results will explode quickly 💥
The proof 👇
In a study (carried out by Yesware), where they set up a sequence of 10 emails, with follow-up of the results. It is therefore 1 cold email followed by 9 reminders.
The opening rate Even though the number of total opens goes down with each message, the number of total openings only increases!
So, by sending 100 emails, and stopping at the first email in the sequence, you would have had 30 replies.
On the other hand, if you had persisted on the sequence, and sent 10 emails, the total responses would have been 141 responses!
That's 4.7x more responses than with a single email 🤯
Math doesn't lie, better keep pushing 🥊
It's up to you to play champion!