A formula for cold email

I'm very confident that these simple principles will increase your open rates and response rates, and lead to quality conversations. Don't confuse "simple" for "easy" though. Doing this well takes plenty of practice and takes time to master. I talk about this concept a lot, so give me a follow if you haven't already.

Alright, enough shameless self-promotion. Let's dive right in.

The Checklist

This checklist is a useful guide, but there's plenty of detail behind each bullet. I'm going to unpack the "Substance" points, and include a couple examples to show the "Style."

The subject line

There are three main things someone sees when an email hits their inbox: the sender's name, the subject line, and the preview line. Nothing you can do about your name, so let's focus on optimizing the other two.

A bit of personalization

"Personalization" can be intimidating to some, but don't let it be. You don't have to know your recipient's middle name to personalize your note to them. Do some research on them, their company, and/or their industry, and lead with that. For more best practices on personalization, check out this article I wrote.

Compelling reason to reach out

Make sure you have a legitimate reason to reach out, and be specific about it. The best way to do this is in the "challenge & solution" format I touch on in the checklist. You'll see an example of that a bit further down, but for now, here are some compelling reasons to keep in mind.

Interest-based CTAs

Most people ask for time right out of the gate, before they've really earned it. The goal of your cold email should be to pique interest and make the recipient want to learn more. My favorites are:

• "Curious to learn more?"
• "Interested in exploring?"

And it's nice to end with a "Either way, thanks for reading." Take the pressure off a response, and show them that you value their time. Gong has a great write-up on this topic.

Putting it all together

Here's how it looks when you put it all together. I call out the elements of the "Substance" on the right, but encourage you to look for the "Style" bits as well. It's about them, not me. It's plain language, not words from my site. It's conversational, not formal. Separate thoughts are on separate lines, creating the white space. And it's only 72 words.

There you have it, hope that was helpful! Drop me a comment if you have any feedback or questions.