My sales email template
Cold emails are contextual. There's more ways than the way to do it. But, this is a template which works for me:
It's perfect when you're in the validation stages of a startup. Not only do you get indirect sales by making your target market aware of your startup. You also get useful advice about whether your startup solves a problem or not.
This is the template I used whilst working with a co-working company. We targeted 100 London freelancers. The response rate was 60%. We got a handful of conversions, but the most important thing was the feedback we got about our product :)
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Solid template to start with. Great job, Harry!
I’m missing one essential element that actually allows this email to be read: the subject line.
Maybe you could share a few words on your approach to writing subject lines or share the subject line format that you’ve been using for the London freelancers context.
Cheers Alexander. The subject line was Freelancer Advice. Perhaps it could be better.
But the rational was simple. Most freelancers inboxes aren't flooded with emails. They are intrigued as to who's asking them for advice. But I'm open to a better title.
I know it is just one opinion so take it with a grain of salt but I personally don't like if someone emails me cold and starts with a "Sorry". No you are not sorry because if you really were, you wouldn't email me. So that's fake to me. Being sorry is personal and since you don't know me at all, you cannot be sorry.
I would take that sentence out. Get to the point straight. You can may be add a line at the end with something like "I do appreciate you reading it this far".
I also send cold emails and I get straight to the point in a subtle way of course. Thats more authentic. I get it that you could be selling something or at least trying to build a rapport with me. No worries. Just be straight about it.
Would swapping this line for something like "I know I'm reaching out of the blue, I hope you don't mind" be better received?
Yeah, something like that is quite nice. Cheers Dawid. I'd go with your gut.
Marketing is a game of opinions. There's no perfect email (singular) because we're all different.
Personally, I like it if someone breaks the ice, and acknowledges they're cold emailing. But you (and I imagine lots of other people) probably don't. I get your reasoning. I agree it is a bit fake. Although I think it still has benefits.
I guess, take the bits you like and leave the bits you don't :)
Agreed.
70% response rate? Woah, nice!
You're an inspiration btw, keep it up! Love reading your newsletter.
Cheers Tomas. I think the sample is fairly small. And fairly hot email addresses (as manually collected) I did personalise a little more than the template shows also.
And great to know your getting value out the newsletter. Thank youu!
Oh okay, then that's probably affecting the response rate. But still, it's really good.
This is so great! I love the infographic - bite-sized and easy to digest!
Thank you Marcin!
Great template and breakdown. I love this
Cheers Kevin
This is terrific, thanks! Curious: how did you research and find the email addresses of those 100 freelancers?
Good question:
Being a freelancers makes you quite easy to contact because they're actuvely looking for work. Although getting 100 names did take some time.
Awesome, thanks. Sounds like a lot of grunt work, but well worth it!
Not at all you just need to set the parameters for you B2B lead generation then extract the file for 2nd automation
Hey guys we are scaling our B2B and there is much better faster way to find and qualify Leads you can get the leads from leadfuze.com in csv file there is a lot others too then put the csv file with emails you get in a automated auto responders you can use replay.ai they have ready templates. Also, you could email script need some massaging to get you better results you are using follow or word that put you in week position. If you need some help and support DM man always here to help the community
Hey excuse some of the misspelling mobile auto correction sometime over correct :)
This is great, Harry. It's crisp, effective and human.
One question... I read occasionally that 'asking for advice' is now overused, and we should ask for something specific. I ask because advice/feedback has been MY go to request.
Would love your thoughts.
Brendan
sorry to be useless but it's contextual.
if you can offer them something maybe you can skip the advice step
if you can't your either self promoting or asking for advice. go with the latter
First off, I really like your website and all of your examples.
I have a question about cold emailing in Europe. Aren't there any limitations of what you send and to whom you send it?
Thanks a lot. For personalised one-by-one cold emails you're all good. You can email me for example ... asking for advice / trying to sell something. But for bulk sending cold emails I don't think you are (worth checking up on)
Thanks for your answer...
Great content by Marketingexamples - keep it up @harrydry
thank you Felix
Great little breakdown. You're a natural at explaining.
Cheers Jack.
So helpful! I was just starting to look up people for cold emailing yesterday for Motivation Fund and wondering the best way to go about it. This is very timely as it will be the key focus for today. Thanks!
Cheers jack. Good luck with yours
Thank you, was just about to send my very first email and then I saw this. Made me reflect and improved my cold call email, cheers.
pleasure :)
Thanks Harry, it's really inspiring.
Can you please share if this kind of text could work as a PM on Facebook or Linkedin?
i think so. perhaps slightly more casual tone. but go for it.
Boiled it down to a science. Good stuff Harry 👍
Cheers Anthony.
I absolutely love cold-emailing haha. Been doing it for years for a living, which has been incredibly helpful with The Good Startup as most of our emails are completely cold emails. Of course people are friendlier when you're not trying to sell them things or have them do something, but no matter what you're emailing to help them, so that's always been the mindset I have when going into my emails!
I agree. great mindset. same with a cold call. You are trying to help. Not to spam. And in some cases they should be glad you called. And its the same with emails
Thanks for sharing Harry. Added to a swipe file.
Pleasure Dru. Thanks for reading
Interesting to see it from the other side, got some qs:
did you try any other formulas that did not work as well? How much do you think the target audience affects the response rate?
What's your take on automation when it comes to this sort of outreach email?
a) Yes. Another marketer tried a copy and paste approach to every freelancer with no personalisation. Their output was higher, but this method got more replies / conversions. So we transitioned to it.
If you're going to send a few hundred cold emails definitely worth testing a few variants to samples of about 20-30. Waiting a few days and then doubling down on what works.
b) I never automated it. I only automate when things becomes painful and this was just a one off bit of work. I had a Google Doc with every person I'd emailed and whether they'd responded. If they didn't respond I manually followed up with a short one liner.
Pat Walls automates his outreach emails really nicely for Starter Story with Pigeon. So if I scaled up my cold emailing I'd try that.
Thanks for taking time to answer! Yeah nice to see the experimentation behind the pic too. I love those diagrams you do, would be a good product itself to pair with marketing examples.. like an editor image maker thing
haha! Now, that's a curveball idea. Cheers Graeme. And congrats on your own milestone today. Smart move
haha cheers, although that idea may not be something people will pay for, and might distract from producing that gold content
Top tips as always Harry. Thank you
Cheers Iain!
This comment was deleted a year ago.
Thank you Anna!