Using a Cold Prospecting Email Template to Get Responses

You know what doesn’t work? Carpet bombing generic cold emails. You know the ones I’m talking about. They’re from some SEO agency, and they don’t even bother putting your name or website or any real information in there, just the promise that they can help.

Don’t be that agency when you’re sending cold emails. While their spray-and-pray method must yield some clients (I’m assuming because the emails keep coming,) they are a terrible way to get long-term, wonderful clients who truly value the work you do.

Instead, take the time to send high-quality cold emails. Yes, they’ll take longer to write but you’ll have a much higher response rate and conversion rate. This means your actual ROI for your time will be well worth it. 

The most important rule for writing effective cold emails is to personalize. There are several ways to do this. They include:

Use Your Recipients Name

We react to the sound of our own names. It’s human nature. We pay closer attention when we think what’s happening is relevant to us so grab your reader’s attention by using their name. 

This should be easy for you as you will have come across the name of the person you’re speaking to in your research. You won’t need to write the cringe-worthy “Dear Sir or Madam”-esque intro too many cold emails have nowadays.

If you aren’t sure who you are writing to, keep digging. Use LinkedIn or the About Page on the company website. Depending on your industry, the company’s Facebook page may be worth a peek. It could give you clues based on who is posting and stories about the company may include people’s names and titles. 

Show You’ve Done Your Research

You’ve done some legwork in order to determine that this is a person or business you can help. Now is the time to show this by talking about the company specifically and their needs. Depending on what you do, this can be very easy or kinda hard to explain in one short email.

SEO consultants can point out issues like a missing SSL certificate, which impacts both SEO and trust. Website designers can point out flaws in the website design. Content writers can speak about how the website isn’t answering the questions visitors have.

The more specific your example can be, the better. If you can tie it to how things work in their industry, even better. This is the point of the cold email where you need to be concise but specific. Show them how something they’re doing is negatively impacting their business. 

They probably either don’t realize that they’re doing this wrong or don’t realize the effect it’s having on their business. Be nice about it but be clear about the impact it’s having.

Explain How You Can Help Them 

Now that they have a clear understanding of something that is negatively affecting their business, it’s time to show them how you can help with that exact issue. Be clear about the process without getting into every little detail.

As a writer, I explain why the story I’m pitching will be interesting to their audience. As a marketing consultant, I help them understand the ROI of boosting their marketing. As a designer, you can talk about how better user experience will encourage visitors to stay on their site and get the information they actually need. You can talk about how as a virtual assistant, you’ll help by taking the daily tasks off their desks so they can focus on the things that will help them grow their business.

Whatever it is that you do, explain the positive impact your services can have on their business. Show them the value of what you do in a way they can understand and will make them feel like running and growing their business will be that much easier because they hired you.

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Show Previous and Relevant Results

Social proof matters. It’s why many new freelancers take on a few volunteer or poorly paid projects when they’re first starting out in order to build their portfolios and get rave reviews. As you become more experienced, you’ll have a range of previous projects to draw from. Once you do, you’ll be able to pick the most relevant ones each time you’re pitching a new client.

When you’re starting out, pick the projects that are most similar and explain how the relevant aspects are relevant. For example, you can explain how an SEO blog post for a travel company proves you understand SEO content. This understanding shows that you can create great SEO content for the local dentist. Yes, it would be better to have a dental content example but work with what you have.

The most important thing is that your previous results and examples are really good quality and that you’re able to draw the parallels between the two projects. If you don’t have three really relevant results and you can’t explain the differences, show one or two and explain how you would work on this project.

As much as possible, let social proof work for you. Show off your portfolio and get comfortable sharing your rave reviews and bragging a little bit about the results you delivered on the project. 

Use a Template to Make the Process Faster

Writing a cold email from scratch every time is time-consuming. While your cold emails need to be personalized, they don’t need to be an exhausting process. You’ll be able to send more cold emails and connect with more potential clients (remember: this is a numbers game) if you aren’t starting with a blank screen every time you need to send a pitch.

The easiest way to speed up your cold emailing process while keeping things personalized to every potential client is to have a template you use. A good template will allow you to fit together the critical pieces of your cold email. Speeding up your emailing process will enable you to email more prospective clients in the same amount of time or free up more time for other things (like paid client work.) 

A cold email from scratch can easily take two hours to write. A templated cold pitch takes closer to 30 minutes. This means you’ll save 1.5 hours on every pitch by using a template. If you’re sending just 10 pitches each week, that’s another 15 hours per week you just reclaimed. 

Cold emailing is incredibly effective when done right. Although it can be time-consuming, it’s a great way to connect with prospective clients. If you’d like to learn more about cold email templates, sign up for The Freelance Hustle Newsletter and keep an eye on your inbox….

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