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Cold emailing is nothing like sending an invitation to your best friend.
It’s a tool used in B2B to close deals with people who don’t know you yet.
In 2024, our team analyzed over 5,000 cold emailing campaigns to uncover what makes or breaks them. One thing is clear: your writing is a decisive factor.
⚡ Learn how to achieve an 82% open rate with effective writing.
Proven Tips for Writing an Effective Cold Email
Testing, data analysis, actionable insights—our tips aren’t based on guesswork; their effectiveness is backed by results.
Do Your (Real) Homework on Your Prospect
We recommend conducting thorough research to understand who they are:
Their pain points
Their priorities
Their values
Their worldview.
Once you’ve gathered this information, you have everything you need to write a personalized cold email—crafted specifically for them, not just anyone.
👉 Methodology:
Check out their LinkedIn profile and their company’s website
Browse through their posts, articles, and interviews
Analyze their professional network
Identify challenges in their industry
Example 1: The prospect works at a rapidly growing startup and struggles with recruiting tech talent. You’ve just identified their pain point.
Example 2: The prospect’s company emphasizes its commitment to sustainability. You’ve just identified one of their core values.
However, personalizing doesn’t mean crossing the line with overly personal details. Show genuine interest, but avoid being intrusive.
Introduce Yourself (or Your Company)
This might just be the hardest part, strangely enough. Being an expert doesn’t automatically make you good at introducing yourself in an interesting way. And remember: everything you say about yourself is ultimately about your prospect—their pain points and their priorities.
👉 Methodology:
Seamlessly integrate your introduction with what you know about the prospect.
Keep it brief: there’s no need to recount the entire history of your company.
Example: You work in digital marketing with expertise in SEO. Introduce yourself by showing how your expertise can help a company attract more clients through local SEO.
Social Proof and Point to Results
You know everything about your prospect, but they don’t know you. How do you earn their trust? That’s the power of social proof.
👉 Methodology:
List everything that establishes your credibility: client testimonials, partnerships, collaborations, measurable results, press coverage, etc.
Choose the most relevant points to convince your prospect that you’re both knowledgeable and capable.
Look for a mutual connection: nothing builds trust faster than knowing you share a friend or colleague with your prospect.
Example: You work in digital marketing with expertise in SEO. Highlight a case study to demonstrate your expertise, including precise metrics and the name of the company you helped.
If the prospect is interested, they’ll verify your references. They might even contact the company you mentioned. So, don’t make things up—be authentic.
Keep it short, easy, and actionable
Our analysis is clear: short emails have an 88% chance of being read, compared to just 56% for longer ones.
And remember, a cold email isn’t a marketing email! The shorter, the better. 200 words should be your maximum limit.
Along the same lines, your content needs to be easy to understand. The fewer words you use to express your ideas, the more carefully chosen they need to be. Your prospect should immediately understand what you expect from them by the end of the email.
Write the way you speak: be natural, and don’t make it sound like your email was written by a generative AI!
At Mail Merge for Gmail, we often notice how “robotic” some cold emails sound. The research on the prospect has been done well, the sender understands the prospect’s pain point, and they know how to introduce themselves intelligently.
But all that effort goes to waste because the tone is too robotic and stiff. A shame, right?
Now you know the principles that make your cold emails convert. It’s time to move on to practical examples and actionable insights.
The Top 4 Must-Have Elements for Writing the Perfect Cold Email
An email is made up of several elements, all of which need to work together harmoniously.
Element 1: Perfect Your Sender Name
Your sender name is the first thing your recipient will see in their inbox, and it will directly influence whether they open or ignore your email.
Consider these three criteria when choosing the right sender name:
1️⃣ The context of your email
Examples:
“Jean Dupont, [Company Name]” – for a formal context.
“Sophie from [Startup Name]” – for a creative collaboration.
2️⃣ Your recipient: personalize based on their profile
Examples:
“Marie Martin, Director at [Company Name]” – for a CEO or senior executive.
“Alex from the product team at [Company Name]” – for a prospect in a creative or tech environment.
3️⃣ Your goal: spark curiosity or build trust
Examples:
“Paul Laurent, Strategy Consultant at [Company Name]” – if you’re aiming to establish a collaboration.
“Élise, SaaS Solutions Expert” – if you want to intrigue your prospect.
🪙 Golden Rule: Be consistent. Your sender name should match the tone and style of your email.
Element 2: Perfect Your Subject Line
This topic deserves an article of its own! We’ve written a highly detailed article on B2B subject lines, complete with templates and practical tips to master crafting these crucial few words. Our analysis of over 5,000 cold emailing campaigns proved to be highly insightful.
Here are the key takeaways:
Keep your subject line short (8 words max), and place powerful words at the beginning.
Include essential keywords for your prospect, such as their pain point, main competitor, priority, or even a shared connection.
Keep it simple.
Examples:
“I loved your article on Ideas for Christmas Marketing!”
“How to solve {{painPoint}} quickly, {{firstname}}?”
Element 3: Write a Captivating Opening
Have you noticed that the most engaging conversations are the ones that revolve around you?
It’s the same with cold emailing: in 2-3 sentences max, grab your recipient’s attention. This step is absolutely essential before introducing yourself.
🪙 Golden Rule: Talk about your prospect before talking about yourself.
Show that you know your prospect: their work, their company, their expertise, and their values. Avoid too many sentences starting with “I.”
Examples:
“Your presentation at the recent [Event Name] caught my attention. Your perspective on [topic discussed] was inspiring, especially when you mentioned [specific detail]. It made me reflect on a similar situation in my field.”
“Congratulations on launching [new product or initiative]! It’s an effective solution for addressing [problem], and I see real potential in [impact or sector].”
💡 Tip: Don’t forget the greetings! Check out our guide on how to start an email professionally.
Element 4: End Your Email with a Clear CTA and a Proper Signature
First, be very clear about your goal: what do you want your recipient to do after reading your email?
Your CTA should be short, precise, and unambiguous. Above all, it should be easy for the prospect to act on.
Examples:
“Let’s schedule a call to discuss this.”
“Take a look at our website in 1 minute.”
“Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.”
“Try [X] for free.”
Finally, your signature is an integral part of your email. It tells your recipient who you are and how to contact you.
Include the necessary details—no need for a mini-resume:
Your full name
Your job title or role
Your email address
Your phone number
💡 Tip: Use plain text instead of HTML to ensure your signature displays correctly. It might not be as pretty, but it’s more effective.
Templates in Cold Emailing
Personnalize your template
Some people might advise against using templates, arguing that cold emails need to be personalized. But this argument doesn’t hold water.
The key is to clearly define what a template is: it’s not a generic text you copy-paste and tweak slightly to include the prospect’s name and details.
A template is first and foremost a structured framework designed for a specific goal, which is then modified and personalized uniquely for each prospect.
🪙 Golden Rule: The structure stays the same, and the elements within it are personalized.
Here are the components of a cold email structure:
Your sender name
Your subject line
A captivating opening
The body of the text
A clear CTA
Your signature.
Don’t Use the Same Template for All Your Campaigns
A template is like a key that opens a specific door. If you try to open every door with the same key, you’ll waste both your time and your prospect’s.
Every cold email campaign has a unique goal. Your template should be designed to fit:
That specific goal.
Your target prospect.
🪙 Golden Rule: One goal = one template.
Example 1: You’re reaching out to CEOs to offer a free consultation. Your template highlights your expertise and the direct value for them (e.g., saving time, increasing revenue, or achieving a tangible impact).
Example 2: You’re selling a SaaS solution and targeting IT managers. Your template focuses on solving their specific technical challenges.
Evaluating the Performance of Your Cold Email
Even if you follow all our tips, you won’t create the perfect cold email on your first try.
That’s why A/B testing is absolutely essential.
A/B testing helps you identify what truly grabs your audience’s attention and, more importantly, allows you to improve your B2B cold email campaigns.
Here are our best tips for a successful A/B test:
Test one variable at a time, such as tone (formal vs. informal), length (short vs. detailed), or a dynamic variable (name, company). This helps you pinpoint exactly what influences the results.
Use a representative sample by dividing your audience into two equal and random groups. Each group should accurately reflect your target audience to avoid bias.
Define clear KPIs: Clicks, replies—choose the metrics that truly matter for your goal.
Test simultaneously: Send both versions at the same time (same day, same hour) to minimize the impact of external factors.
Analyze objectively without overinterpreting the results if the differences are minor. Focus on significant variations to refine your strategy.
Expert Insights: Mail Merge to Optimize Your Cold Email Campaigns
Do you want to optimize your cold emailing campaigns without spending time crafting each email individually? Mail merge is the tool you need. It transforms your prospect lists created with Google Sheets into personalized emails, at scale, sent directly from Gmail.
Mail Merge for Gmail stands out for its targeted and personalized approach:
It merges data from a spreadsheet (names, companies, roles, etc.) with an email template.
Each email is sent individually, as if you wrote it by hand.
Emails are sent from your own mailbox, making them less likely to be flagged as spam.
Unlike bulk emailing tools designed for newsletters or marketing campaigns, Mail Merge for Gmail is ideal for targeted cold emailing, where each email needs to feel personal and relevant.
Mail Merge for Gmail also provides valuable insights into campaign performance by tracking open and reply rates directly in Google Sheets.
How does it work?
Prepare your data: Create a Google Sheet with key information (name, company, role, etc.).
Create a template: Write your email with personalized variables like {{FirstName}} or {{Company}}.
Launch your campaign: Mail Merge sends your emails automatically while maintaining a personal touch.
You’re now ready to draft your first cold emails! For more best practices on email writing, check out our article on the best ways to start an email.
And if you’re ready to take your campaigns to the next level, try Mail Merge for Gmail, the best cold emailing tool for Google Sheets—free to use!