Best Practices for Cold Emailing Potential Clients

Last quarter I received a perfect cold email. It followed the same simple prospecting framework I teach. Here's a line-by-line breakdown of why it works so well: SUBJECT LINE: Make it all about them and reference your research Why it works: Shows that it's not spam or automated, and creates curiosity to open the e-mail and here what they have to say PARAGRAPH #1: Warm, personal, with a sincere compliment Why it works: Shows the prospect you took the time to learn about them, and humanizes you. PARAGRAPH #2: Share relevant observations based on research and a potential problem which their research uncovered Why it works: Shows that you are reaching out to identify a potential way to help them which they may not be thinking about PARAGRAPH #3: Shares specific, clear value proposition which includes the problem you solve and the outcomes you deliver Why it works: people need to clearly understand what you do so they can decide for themselves if it makes sense to meet with you. Sharing generic outcomes without being direct or specific confuses and annoys prospects because they still don't know what you do after reading the e-mail. PARAGRAPH #4: Soft Call to Interest (CTI): Ask if they have ever given thought to what you wrote, and if they're open to discussing further. Why it works: Never assume that a prospect needs what you are selling. Instead, confirm whether they've thought about the problem you solve and are open to discussing further. A call to interest (CTI) is much softer than a call to action (CTA), such as asking them to meet before you've confirmed they even have a need or interest. Don't assume anything, just ask and validate first. Kudos to the seller for sending a well-written, thoughtful e-mail.

Cold Email mantra: Tell me something I don't know Want to get more responses? Tell your prospect something they don't know. If you pique my interest—you'll have my attention. Let's look at an example. The cold email in the image was sent to me recently. Here's my gripe with this email: - It's super generic - It's making a big promise that they can lower my credit card fees - It doesn't educate me at all ✅ The rewrite Subject line: hidden fees Hi Jason, I'm sure with clients like Gong, Zoom, and Rippling you're dealing with large transactions. You might be aware—but most consultants don't know about hidden charges behind the 3% credit card processing fees. Things like non-qualified downgrades, lost interchange credits on refunds, etc. account for 1/3 of these fees. We recently helped a consultant recoup close to $30k in hidden fees like these. Open to a quick chat to learn more? David ~~~ This definitely would have gotten a response from me. I have no clue about what those hidden fees might be. And it's obvious this is personalized for me and my industry. How to put this into action: - Look back at the "aha" moments for your prospects in sales calls - You might find goodies in competitive battlecards as well - Package up those non-obvious insights into short snippets - Create an email like the one above offering to share and educate Don't pitch how your solution is different. Speak to how the approach is different. You'll get way more responses using this than asking for a demo.

Your prospect has 147 unread emails. Yours just got added to the pile. What makes them open YOURS instead of the other 146? After sending thousands of cold emails and generating over $700M in sales throughout my career, I've identified the #1 mistake destroying most cold outreach: ZERO RIGHT PERSONALIZATION. Most reps "spray and pray". Sending the same generic template to 1,000 prospects hoping something sticks. Then they wonder why their response rate is 0.5%. Here's the cold email framework that consistently gets 20%+ response rates:  → Make your subject line about THEM, not you. Use recent news, achievements, or common pain points to spark curiosity. Example: "Your Inc 5000 ranking" or "Austin expansion" 1. Keep your email so simple it doesn't require scrolling. It MUST be mobile friendly, as 68% of executives check email primarily on their phones. 2. Use this 3 part structure:  → Personal opener: "Hey [Name], [specific personalization about them]"  → Show understanding: "In chatting with other [title] in [industry], they're typically running into [pain point]"  → Soft CTA: "Got a few ideas that might help. Open to chat?" 3. Research these personalization sources: • Company website (values, mission page) • Press releases • LinkedIn activity • Earnings transcripts (for public companies) • Review sites The hardest territory to manage isn't your CRM. It's the six inches between your prospect's ears. They don't care about your product. They care about THEMSELVES. Recently, one of my clients was struggling with a 1.2% response rate on cold emails. We implemented this framework, and within 2 weeks they hit 17.4% - with prospects actually THANKING them for the personalized outreach. Find your sweet spot on the personalization spectrum. You can't do hyper personalized video for everyone, but you can't blast the same generic template either. — Hey reps… want another cold email strategy? Go here: https://lnkd.in/gKSzmCda

Here’s a cold email that got a positive response. Plus the psychology behind why it worked, so you can apply it with your own prospects. The Cold Email: ______ Hey Josh, I watched a few of your YouTube videos and noticed you’re using Canva for your thumbnails. The challenge with YouTube is that thumbnails make or break CTR. Low CTR → the algorithm shows it less → fewer impressions → even great videos get buried. I’ve been creating thumbnails for 6 years and would like to offer to do yours. I put together a few (attached), along with a breakdown of the psychology behind them. Pay per thumbnail, so no commitment. Even if we never talk again, hopefully this gives you some ideas that might boost clicks on your videos. James ______ Why This Works: Personal Observation → Relevance You start with something specific (“noticed you’re using Canva for your thumbnails”). This makes it feel like you’ve paid attention, not blasted a template. The reader feels seen, which lowers their defenses. 2. Problem Before Solution → Attention By highlighting the thumbnail → CTR → algorithm → impressions chain, you frame the cost of the problem before offering anything. Humans are wired to pay more attention to potential losses than gains. 3. Value Up Front → Trust Instead of telling them you could help, you’ve already done work (thumbnails + psychology breakdown). This flips the script: you’re showing, not pitching. Trust is built by giving before asking. 4. No CTA. Without a CTA, the reader feels no pressure, just curiosity. If they like the work, they’ll naturally reply. This protects autonomy, which is critical people resist pressure but lean toward curiosity. 5. Objection Diffuser → Safety By addressing “No commitment. Pay as you go,” you preempt a common hidden objection (fear of being locked in). That makes it safer for them to engage, since there’s less perceived risk.

Blessed are those who personalize their outreach—for they shall be rewarded. Email outreach has a reputation problem, and honestly? It’s earned it. We've all been on the receiving end of those generic, templated, and frankly, soulless emails that clog up our inboxes. No wonder people are skeptical when they hear the term "cold email." But when done right, email outreach can be a powerful tool for growing your network, making valuable connections, and even landing dream projects. Follow these simple commandments, and you're well on your way to more clicks and replies: 1. Reach out to others as you would have others reach out to you. Approach every email with empathy. Would you respond to your own message? If the answer is no, go back and rewrite. 2. For the love of all things holy, use people’s first names. It’s the easiest way to make a connection and show that you’re speaking to them, not a faceless group. 3. Don’t forget to personalize—always! Mention something specific about their work, their company, or a recent project they shared. It’s all about making the email feel unique to them. 4. Link to relevant case studies and portfolio pieces instead of your entire website. Show them exactly what’s relevant. No one has time to sift through a massive website—be concise. 5. Don’t diagnose—it’s gross! Avoid implying there’s something “wrong” with the way they’re doing things. Instead, frame your expertise as a potential value add. 6. Lead with a service that is an ongoing need—not branding! Focus on how you can genuinely help in a way that is practical and impactful. Start with the pain point they are likely dealing with. Branding is a hard sell through a cold email. 7. End with a strong call to action, such as a request for a meeting. Make it easy for them to say “yes.” Give them a simple next step—like a quick chat or a 10-minute meeting just to get to know them. Which leads us to... 8. Remember that this is about relationship building and not just a quick lead. Play the long game. Think of every email as the start of a relationship, not a transaction. 9. Always follow up. A polite, well-timed follow-up can make all the difference. People are busy—sometimes a second email is all it takes to get a response. 10. And above all else—remember that you’re emailing a person. Keep it human. Keep it genuine. If your email doesn’t sound like something you’d say in person, rewrite it. These principles have not only helped TheFutur Accelerator members (the program I run with Ben Burns) grow their networks, but many have booked dream projects by sticking to these commandments. Real connections, real conversations, and real opportunities start when you approach outreach the right way. Curious about how you can improve your email outreach? Drop your questions in the comments—I’d love to help you level up your networking game!

I've sent 8,200+ cold emails to strangers, and it has completely changed my life. These have landed me jobs, customers, investors, hires, business ideas, and more. Here's my 4-step framework to writing top 1% cold emails: 1/ The Opener 💌 Your first line needs to be about THEM, not you. It has to be incredibly specific, well-researched, and honest (don't fake it). Show that you've done more research vs. the last 100 people who emailed them. Example 1: "Hey [name] — I loved reading your blog on X, and appreciated your story in growing ABC co from P to Q over the last 3 years. You've inspired me to launch my own company someday." Do this well, and you're already in the top 1% of emails they receive. 2. The Quick Intro 👋 Write <20 words to introduce yourself and what you do. It needs to be dead-simple English (i.e. Grade 6 level on Hemingway App). Be direct and honest, don't oversell yourself. Example 1: "I'm Naitik – a 2nd year design student from XYZ University." Example 2: "I'm Naitik and I'm building a new no-code tool for designers." 3. The Context 💭 This is the crux of your email — give context on why you're reaching out, before making your ask. Limit it to 1-2 short and clear sentences. Bonus: The more specific value you can GIVE in your first email, the more likely you are to hear back. Example 1: Reaching out for a job as a designer? Give them 1-2 quick tips to improve their website, and how it could make them more revenue. Example 2: Reaching out someone for advice? Give them concrete context on your situation, and the specific decision you need advice on. Example 3: Reaching out to hire someone? Give them 2 ways that you can support their career & goals. 4. The Ask 🎯 This is your main call-to-action and it has to be extremely specific. The catch? You can't request anything vague: "a quick call" or "meeting to pick your brain". You don't need a phone call or meeting in 99% of the cases. Be permission-less and make your ask over email. The more specific your request, the higher the chances of you hearing back. Example 1: "Can I help you as a design intern to improve your website in the next 30 days?" Example 2: (after sharing context & the decision you need advice on) "Would you go with option A or B in this scenario and why?" Example 3: If you really need a meeting, "Can I get 10 mins of your time to ask how you'd approach job hunting if you were a student today?" That's all. Repeat this 100x, and I guarantee you will 1) get responses, and 2) open up opportunities you never thought you had access to. PS: I have a lot more to share on this, so I've recorded a deep-dive video walkthrough on how to write stellar, top 1% cold emails. If you're curious, comment "Cold Email" and I'll DM it to you by end of week. --- This is Day 8 of 30 of my writing challenge — everyday I'm sharing my ups & downs, challenges & learnings as a founder scaling StartupBake to $1M/yr in revenue. Follow along if you'd like :)

I used to send >250 custom outbound emails every week. Yesterday, I was introduced to someone who remembered one of those emails from literally 10 years ago. Here's my outbound strategy for anyone that wants to master cold outreach: 1️⃣ do not sell yourself at the open >> seriously, stop talking about yourself. no one cares about you << Instead: just say who you are, and move on to talk about them. 2️⃣ tell people why they are great - I liked to make a list of at least 5 points - I would write custom points for each recipient - I wrote simply and directly - Inspired by Dale Carnegie - people like to be liked 3️⃣ sell the CONVERSATION, not the opportunity - I never pushed people into existential consideration - I only asked them for 15 minutes, they could spare it - I NEVER sold the role or company, I'd only give them 1 sentence about it 4️⃣ be very direct - I always told people "I think you could be a fit for a job here" - But... I never said the specific job, or qualified it further - People need to know what you want, but they don't need all the details 5️⃣ use humor - I've meme'd since the dawn of my professional time - It seemed to work, lots of people just wanted to respond - Them responding = opening to get them on a call 6️⃣ be fast + use tools - you need to move fast to get 50 good messages out per day - I used a template to populate my open + add bullet points (but not content) - I used TextExpander to insert saved "custom" points. If I'd already written to a musician and explained why I thought their background in music made them an interesting prospect for an engineering role, I'd save that exact verbiage and re-insert it with TextExpander in future messages. - I use all the gmail hotkeys, it helps give you little bits of advantage on a process you will repeat tens or hundreds of thousands of times - it's worth getting gud -------------------------------------- That's it. Remember that people like being liked. Remember that no one cares about you. Remember not to force people to think too far ahead. Oh... and remember that 90% of the time, it won't be the right time, and that's just the process of finding the 10% who are ready to talk.

We crossed $1M ARR at Weekday using 1 channel primarily. No fat ad budgets, no content marketing, no SEO, no partnerships. Although we tried and tested each of these channels later, our 0-1 journey was built on the back of cold emailing. But we didn't email to sell. We emailed to solve. Our stupid-simple playbook: 1/ Scrape every job board on the internet Indeed, AngelList, company career pages, etc. If there's a job posting, we indexed it with our in-house scraping tools. 2/ Find the actual decision makers Not HR coordinators or recruiters. We went straight to founders and hiring managers - the people who actually wanted to build teams from scratch. 3/ Send 10 perfect-fit candidates (not a pitch) Instead of "Here's why you should use our platform," we sent, "Here are 10 engineers who match your React/Node.js opening. Interested in intros?" But we gave those 10 candidates for free, including their contact data and resumes in the first email itself. We didn't give a teaser of value (which most cold emails tend to be). We provided the entire value cycle upfront, hoping customers would appreciate our goodwill. And they did. We essentially became their personal headhunter before they even knew we existed. No demo requests, no "quick 15-min calls," no lengthy sales funnels. Just: Problem identified → Solution delivered → Trust built. The results: - 35%+ open rates - 150 replies on avg. every week - Pipeline worth $200k monthly Why this worked when 90% of cold emails fail: Most companies email to extract value.  We emailed to provide value first. Most companies pitch their product.  We showcased our database quality. Most companies ask for meetings.  We delivered immediate leads. In my experience, the best sales email just solves the prospect's problem well. And they come asking, "How do I get more of this?"

Feedback from 9 of the best VPs of Marketing & SDR Leaders I know on the exact strategy they’re using to improve Cold Email results in 2025 👇 Why did cold emails “die” in 2022? Too generic. Why did cold emails “die” in 2023? Finally personalized but the context was wrong Why did cold emails “die” in 2024? Finally contextualized but the timing was wrong So, what should a “cold” email look like in 2025? Here's an exact template that layers in the 5-izations: timing-ization, contextual-ization, glutton-ization, minim-ization & personal-ization for Demand Gen marketers doing GTM engineering work to send warm emails. 1/ First the basics: a startling subject line: “Re: {{First name}} / {{Competitor name}}” Nothing makes me open something faster than seeing my name next to my competitor 2/ Timingization (the signal): "{{First Name}}, saw you posted this [LINK] recently about your growth. Our VCs just told our leadership to triple down on growth this year too." 2/ Contextualization at the signal level (your understanding of their problem): "Is it fair to say your AEs haven’t found inbound quality what it used to be? While pipeline targets grow and your org grows unfortunately so too does the complexity of managing people, process & tools to maintain quality." Let’s say you’re the CRO of a company. You just flopped this quarter. Why? Don't say pipeline. Boring. Generic. Something happened. Your call scripts were off. Your training sucked. SDRs felt they were being underpaid. Why? There is SOME specific reason. If you hit that EXACT reason in your email, the thing making them lose sleep, guaranteed to get a response. This is contextualization of your customer at a personal SIGNAL level. 3/ Gluttonization (take whats yours and introduce your solution with proof): "Demand Gen leaders (like our customer {{Customer}}) use our AI marketing ops platform to centralize as they scale. I can’t promise we will 8x your pipeline, but 15 customers last quarter confirmed we 3x’d their pipeline in 2024." 4/ Minimizalization of their time “Open to looping in someone on your team to take a look?” Earn the right to their time via a call w/ their team first. The only lift on their end is adding someone in 5/ Personalization (show them they’re special). But do it by Ps. since making them smile as the last thing they do before deciding if they should reply is key.  “P.S. During COVID I saw you volunteered for {{Organization}}. I’ve been looking to get more involved in my local community and seeing that has pushed me actually engage with some organizations” If you don’t want your cold emails to die in 2025, too bad - that era is gone. Instead switch to warm emails. Warmly, Max Ps. If you really want to impress and you have notes in your CRM from prior calls - reference a prior conversation / learning from your colleagues before you have gleaned. Even “not sure if you overlapped with Y, we spoke to her last year and learned Z when it wasn’t a fit”

These 8 cold email frameworks helped generate over $5M in revenue. Here’s how they work (and how to use them): The truth? Most cold email templates are outdated and super generic. Buyers have seen them all. And they delete them all. But some people are getting 15-20% reply rates using frameworks they never share. I asked them to break down exactly what works: 1️⃣ Monika Grycz 💌 (AIDA Structure) Start with a single, painful observation. Then back it up with real results from similar companies. End with a next step that feels easy. ↳ We've seen X% reply rates when this is executed properly. 2️⃣ Aaron Reeves (Trigger, Implication, Pain, Proof, Solution) Start with a relevant reason you're reaching out that's tailored to them. Connect what this might mean for their priorities. Highlight the risk of doing nothing. Show how you've helped similar companies avoid that outcome. ↳ This framework works especially well for expansion-stage companies. 3️⃣ Tal Baker-Phillips (Typical Problems Framework) Name the 1–2 issues they’re likely facing and offer a simple way to solve them. ↳ Short, direct, assumes they have the problem without being pushy about it. 4️⃣ Brian LaManna (Champion Play) Target people who've used your solution at previous companies. ↳ Converts at ridiculous rates because there's instant credibility. 5️⃣ Leif Bisping ("Why are you paying?") Highlight the inefficiency of their current tool. Then frame your solution as the obvious alternative. ↳ Creates immediate curiosity and positions you as the obvious alternative. 6️⃣ Ethan Parker (Lead Magnet Framework) Lead with a free resource. Offer something genuinely useful (like a cheat sheet or playbook) before you ask for anything. ↳ Gets them saying yes to something small first. 7️⃣ Thibaut Souyris ("Do the maths") Use hard numbers. Show how your solution saves time, money, or both, and back it with a simple calculation. ↳ Makes the ROI impossible to ignore. 8️⃣ Patrick Trümpi (Challenge of Similar Companies) Point to a challenge others in their space are dealing with. Share how you helped. ↳ Creates FOMO and positions you as the industry expert. The thing is, most people try to reinvent the wheel with cold email. But the best frameworks already exist. You just need to test them and see what works for your audience. Test 3-4 simultaneously and double down on what drives the highest reply rates. P.S. Swipe to see actual emails that booked meetings → 👋 Follow me for modern outbound strategies.