Cold emailing is more difficult than most forms of communication for two reasons. You don't yet have a relationship with your audience, and you don't have nonverbal feedback, so you can't change your approach in real-time. As a result, the majority of cold emails fail. They can, however, be effective. People have built careers and started businesses with nothing more than cold emails. (By the way, I'm not referring to sales emails, which are typically sent in bulk; this article is about cold emailing a specific person.)

Although Shane Snow conducted an interesting experiment for his book Smartcuts, there isn't much research on cold email. He wrote 1,000 cold emails to executives and received only a few replies. So he tried again with a smaller group and had better results by implementing a few ideas that align with my considerable cold emailing expertise as well as some wonderful advice from individuals like Wharton psychology professor Adam Grant and entrepreneurs Tim Ferriss and Heather Morgan.

13 Cold Email Templates to Reach Your Customers

Here is a list of a few cold email templates that can take you to your customers:

1. Tie Your Email to a Recent Event

This approach is successful because it demonstrates that you are not sending out a mass email campaign to every company that has a remote chance of being interested in your product. Instead, you've noticed something specific that they've accomplished and have linked it to your product.

2. AIDA

This is a tested copywriting formula that can be easily adapted for cold email campaigns. AIDA is an acronym that stands for attention-interest-desire-action, and it outlines the steps to include in your main body: grab their attention, outline why it should interest them, build desire, and show them how to take action and get the benefit you've outlined.

3. Be As Direct As You Can

This cold email template reportedly generated a 57% open rate and a 21% response rate, most likely due to:

• Highlights an appealing proposition while leaving enough room for the recipient's imagination to entice them to open the email and learn more.
• Describes what the sender has to offer the prospect (100 new customers) and what they require from them (10 minutes of their time).
• Employs social proof to demonstrate how this proposition has worked for others.

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4. Sujan’s 3-Sentence Format

This template takes a more-is-less approach, as the name suggests, and it produces excellent results. You don't have to limit your message to three sentences; your introduction, description, and request but you should try to stick as close to that number as possible.

5. Ask for an Introduction

This method is not commonly used in my experience. In theory, that could be a bad sign, but I don't believe it is in this case. We've all heard that having a mutual contact introduce you to a prospect makes it easier to get a positive response. This template flips the script by asking a stranger to initiate the introduction. It won't work for everyone, but it's not a big ask – approach this one correctly, and you might be surprised at the results.

6. Before-After-Bridge (BAB)

This structure was created by the wonderful people at Buffer. The idea is to get recipients to imagine their lives after using your product or service. Simple, but powerful. The idea is to paint a picture of life before and after your solution, as well as how to get from one to the other.

7. Mention a Competitor’s Product

This approach targets prospects who are already using a product similar to yours, implying that they are likely to be interested in using yours instead. All you have to do is highlight your product's USP to demonstrate why it is a better choice for the prospect than the product they are currently using.

8. Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS)

Obstacles and challenges are infuriating, irritating, and often expensive. This template capitalizes on that by focusing on your prospect's pain points. It emphasizes the recipient's problem, agitates and emphasizes the pain, and then offers a solution to eliminate or reduce the pain.

9. When You’re Unsure Whether You’re Emailing the Right Person

I'm guessing you, like me, get a lot of emails asking you to point the sender in the right direction. I'm also willing to bet that you rarely respond.

This is because these emails rarely give you a reason to assist the sender. The preceding example defies this trend. It shows that you've done some research on who you're contacting and have matched your product to their business model – you're just not sure if the person you're contacting is the best person to deal with.

10. Praise-Picture-Push (PPP)

A little genuine flattery never hurts, especially if it can be used to emphasize how much recipients can accomplish with your solution. Begin with a genuine compliment about a recent achievement or accomplishment, paint a rosy picture of all they could achieve on a regular basis with your product, and then encourage and compel them to act.

11. When You Know Someone’s Been on Your Website

This one isn't entirely aimed at a cold lead because the prospect took an action on your site that resulted in you capturing their email address. However, because there is no indication that they are interested in speaking with or purchasing from you, it is close enough to a cold lead.

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It's also something you should take advantage of when the opportunity presents itself. Prospects who arrive via your website should not be added to a mass email list; instead, send them a personalized email that acknowledges the actions they've taken on your site, as shown in the template above.

12. Share a Valuable Resource

Above all, you want to be regarded as a valuable asset to your recipients. You want to add value to their lives every time they open one of your emails. Sharing valuable and highly relevant resources with them is one of the quickest ways to accomplish this.

Conclusion

It's easy to fall into old habits. That isn't always a bad thing, but it can keep us from seeing or exploring new and potentially better ways of doing things.

A well-timed challenge to the status quo can have far-reaching consequences. Nobody has the time to keep up with all of the industry's trends, developments, tools, and tricks. So go ahead and do it for them. Find or be a new tool or product that they haven't heard of yet, and share it with them. Use email finder tool to generate leads and reach out to prospects easily.