Cold email templates and everything else you need to know about email outreach

Emails have emerged as a vital form of communication in today’s world of business. And yet, learning of the logistics that go into writing a good email isn’t as easy as it might seem.

The time and hard work that goes into devising an effective email marketing campaign might seem counterintuitive to the philosophy that technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but in the long run, it’s worth all of the effort. Are you struggling to optimize your email outreach strategy? Keep reading to find out some tips for profiting off of email marketing.

Cold email: finding the right template

Sending cold emails might make you feel like a telemarketer, but they can actually be highly beneficial when it comes to expanding your business network, in terms of both clients and collaborators. This is where a business email template can be very useful.

That being said, getting responses is all a matter of writing a compelling email. Again, this is a lot harder than it sounds, which is why cold email templates are a great place to start.

What to look for in a cold email template

When you’re browsing cold email templates, it’s important to remember that no template is one-size-fits-all—you’re going to have to do a little work in order to make a template do what you need it to. With that in mind, there are certain features that can indicate the potential that a template has:

1. It calls for personalization — Making your cold email personal will show the recipient that you’ve done your research and are serious about working with them. Sure, it’d make things a lot easier if you could just copy and paste some cookie-cutter formula into every email on your mailing list, but this is also the perfect time to show off your work ethic.
2. It’s short and sweet  — When you open an email from someone you don’t know, you’re not looking to spend five minutes wading through a full-blown essay. The key to sending an effective cold email is to keep it brief, giving all the information you need to and nothing more.
3. It’s not self-centered — In your first email to a potential client or collaborator, you want to focus on what you can do for them. What do you have to offer then, and why should they listen to you? Talk about their pain points, and how you can fix them.

What does a bad cold email look like?

Outlining what makes a good cold email might seem obvious, so looking at what makes a bad cold email might help contextualize the good ones a bit better. Here are a few things that a bad cold email does—or, equally important, doesn’t do:

1. Forgets a call to action (or doesn’t make it clear enough) — If there’s no clear CTA, how is the recipient going to know what they’re supposed to do in response to the email? On that same note, you need to be careful not to include too many CTAs (usually one is all you need).
2. Uses ambiguous language — Remember what we said about personalization? That means including the recipient’s name and the name of their business. The last thing you want is for your recipient to be questioning if you even know who they are or what their business does. Additionally, this might seem like a given, but you need to include your own name and title, as well as the name of your business and what you do.
3. Has a format that’s hard to read — On the Internet, formatting is everything. If your cold email is hard to read, your recipient isn’t going to trust you as a service provider or collaborator. Obtrusive formatting includes—but is certainly not limited to—wordy sentences, improper punctuation, confusing language, long blocks of text, and inappropriate pictures or gifs. Additionally, too many bolded words, italics, or all-caps can also be distracting.

The preparation behind a successful email marketing campaign

Before you start sending out emails, it’s important to identify what you want to gain from your outreach campaign. Otherwise, you run the risk of a marketing strategy that is not only unfocused but is also ineffective.

Decide what you want

So, first, what is there to gain from email marketing? Simply put, a lot. These are some of the possible benefits of developing an email marketing campaign:

• Generating awareness for your brand
• Increased sales
• Getting more backlinks to your site
• Building relationships

Don’t worry—you can choose more than one goal to pursue through email outreach, but it’s important to remember that different goals warrant different approaches.

Figure out the kind of audience that you’ll be appealing to

Knowing your audience is absolutely essential to drafting the right kind of email. This will determine everything from the tone of your message to the CTA that you use. From subscribers and bloggers to journalists and academics, there’s a different technique to every target group.

Choose a type of marketing email

Don’t know where to start? Try picking the type of marketing email that you want to send. The kind of email you send will depend on what your business does and what your goals are. Some of the choices include:

• Announcing new content or a new product
• Asking to collaborate
• Welcoming new customers
• Pitching to a new lead
• Re-engagement appeal to inactive subscribers
• Following-up after a purchase

Again, it depends on what your company does and what you’re trying to achieve with your email marketing campaign because there are tons of different approaches to outreach.

Getting the right tools

Having the right tools to analyze the results of your email campaigns is crucial to understanding what works and what doesn’t. Luckily, there are plenty of online services that you can use in order to determine how to maximize your email marketing campaign’s potential. Just remember: technology can work for you, but only if you know how to use it!