How To Write a Cold Email

In this blog, I’m going to give you a quick (ish) guide on how to cold email.

I’ll cover what to include in a cold email, who to send it to, and give you a bit of a pep talk to ease any worries you might have about the process.

But first, a little about me and why cold-emailing is the method I’ve used as the main thrust of Writeo’s marketing.

Cold Calling vs Cold Emailing – An Introverts Perspective

When you start a business, you’re frequently told you’ll need to do a lot of cold calls to get things moving.

I’m an incredibly introverted person, so the idea of cold-calling has always been terrifying. Some people thrive off this kind of interaction, but I’d much prefer to lay my thoughts out in an email where I can revisit and edit for an hour before clicking send.

It’s not just that I’m a millennial (I think) which means I’m automatically not a fan of the phone, I just don’t see the correlation between speaking on the phone and my writing ability.

They’re two different skills and you’re not hiring me to talk, you’re hiring me to write. I also don’t like my voice as it proper grates on me when I hear it back, but I think everyone feels that way about their own voice, to be honest.

Anyway, enough about my fear of the phone and excuses I’ve convinced myself are true over the years, there were also some actual logistical reasons for cold-emailing to get Writeo off the ground.

Starting a Business Whilst Working Full Time

When I started Writeo, I was working full time. This meant that I had to send my marketing emails after 5 o’clock, replying to any bites either in the evening or before work the next day.

Since the general working day is 9-5 for the businesses I was contacting, I couldn’t exactly give the office a ring at 7 o’clock asking if they needed any copywriting. Even if they were in to pick up the phone, they probably would have told me to “do one”, which is very, very fair since nobody wants a 7 o’clock sales phone call.

This meant that cold-emailing was my best bet, and I could show off my writing flair in the email rather than stuttering and worrying about how I pronounce the letter “I” on the phone.

So, with the excuses out of the way regarding cold-calling, let’s jump into the process of cold emailing – the loveable, easy-going friend of cold-calling.

Finding Targets

First, you need to figure out who you want as clients.

I’m a copywriter and social media manager, so my first cold-emailing efforts went out to digital agencies and SEO experts, along with graphic designers.

This is phase one of my long-term marketing strategy (heard me, acting like I have a big plan), where I act as the source of outsourcing for another company, doing the work they do but for a cheaper rate.

I don’t need the money charged by these bigger companies who have staff to pay and Beemers to buy, which means they can outsource to me and still make their cash, and so can I.

Win/win.

Start Local

To kickstart the process, I needed some local companies. It’s always best to start local as people love a local business to work with, especially if they’re good at what they do.

To find these local companies, I typed “digital marketing Teesside” into Google and from Google Places, opened up a shit-load of tabs with companies who were relevant and offered copywriting services.

I then went to their contact page and copied their email addresses, pasting them into an excel sheet labelled TEESSARD.

I repeated this for the various specific areas of Teesside, so Middlesbrough, Stockton, Redcar, Darlington etc. Once I began to get overlap suggestions, I realised I’d exhausted the area (and myself), so stopped and checked to see how many I’d got.

I was on about 100 businesses in about 45 minutes, so I made a cuppa and went back to it, this time looking for SEO agencies. Lots of the same companies appeared, so I did the same process again and repeated it for graphic designers until I had a list of around 190.

TOP TIP – In Excel, remove duplicates within the list, as there’s nothing, literally nothing, seriously, nothing, more embarrassing then double-emailing a cold email to a business.

Although saying that, I did this a couple of times before I realised this top tip, and it acted as a good talking point. A few companies replied with “you’ve already sent this, but I forgot to reply. Send me your rates.”

Which I did, and got work from them as a result.

The Email

I’m not an expert in marketing emails so you might want to Google “how to write a cold email” for this bit.

However, the below worked for me so if it’s applicable to your business, give it a bash.

I started with a basic hello, personalising the shit out of that greeting if the email address had a name at the start of it.

“Hiya Dave,”

What a start.

Then, in the next line, I made a point of saying I’m local, (remember, everyone loves a local), before telling them I’ve just started out and am looking for clients.

“I’m based in Middlesbrough, have just started out as a freelancer (bit daunting) and I’m hoping to establish strong links with local businesses.”

The above section establishes the local thing, and by politely rewording the fact that I’m shitting myself about becoming a freelancer, they know I’m just a humble one-man-band rather than a pesky salesperson.

Then, I said what I do, why I know what I’m doing, and asked if I could do that thing for them.

“I’ve got around ten years experience in digital marketing, social media management and copywriting, and am wondering if you had any requirements for outsourcing some copywriting or social media work?”

Then, hit them with a nice:

“I’d love to work with you so let me know if I can help and I’ll send over examples of work and my rates.

Cheers, James.”

SEND

Top Cold Emailing Tips

Okay, too many paragraphs so far, let’s take a break with a bullet-pointed list of some of my top cold emailing tips:

· Get a logo.

Branding adds legitimacy and gives you that added element of trust to encourage replies. I highly recommend Mark at Get Noticed Branding as a top logo designer and overall graphic design God.

· Get a website.

If you want to build a site for free, I used SquareSpace to make the website you’re reading right now.

· Get a proper email signature using your lovely new logo.

You can get an email signature done by a professional (always a good idea), but I had no money so I used this free email signature builder..

· When it comes to writing, speak like you would in real life.

· Space out your email and try to give each sentence its own line to make it easy to read at a glance.

· The cold email is an introduction trying to grab a reader’s attention, so keep it short and snappy.

· Lots of companies pretend they’re bigger than they are, but I’ve found that honesty is the best policy, especially as a freelancer.

· Start your email subject with “RE:” and write something like “RE: Possible Writing Partnership”. This sticks out in a person’s email and is a bit of a cheeky trick as it looks like part of a chain they’ve already replied to, so it grabs the attention.

· Write your email in Word, then paste it into an email body to see how it looks. A fresh perspective is always helpful, and you might think it looks sound in Word but in an email body it might look ridiculous.

· SPELL CHECK IT, especially if you’re offering writing services. Grammarly is pretty good for that.

Sending the Emails and Following Up

Back to the process. Once all the above is done, it’s a case of sending the emails, personalising the “hiya” bit if their email address has a name.

Then set aside an hour and blast through your list.

I’m a creatively minded person and you probably are too, so this process will probably get old really quick, but just do it. Put some music or something on so you don’t get too bored as it’s quite a mindless task requiring minimal effort, other than looking out for spelling errors and double-sends.

I average around 15-20 responses per 100 emails I send, with most of them saying “I’ll keep you on file”.

Make sure you reply to these with a “sounds good to me!” or something along those lines so they don’t forget you. And if you’re forgetful like me, make a note to follow them up in a month or so, asking if they have anything on for you.

In fact, make a note of people who completely ignore you too, and within one week of sending the first email, send them a reply with something like: “Sorry to be a pest, but did you get chance to check out the below?”

People will either reply with an “oh yes I forgot to reply” or “no we have nothing” but at least you’ll know and can put them in the “no” column.

Which reminds me, you should probably use a CRM system to keep track, but I just use an Excel document with three columns of those I’ve contacted. I put their emails into either a replied positively, replied with a maybe, or replied negatively column.

Then I hit them with a follow up in a week or a months-time, depending on the above.

Expand

Once your local areas are done, look at Google Maps and explore areas further afield.

I started in Teesside and went to Tyneside, then down to South Yorkshire, and have just recently made my way over to Leeds.

Local areas are the best and it’s always good to work with local businesses, but if you repeat the above for different areas, you’re golden.

Cold Emailing Isn’t Necessarily Bad

We’ve covered a lot here, so let’s have a cool down and chat about why cold emailing doesn’t necessarily deserve the bad rep it’s got (from snobs, mainly).

Maybe it’s the psychology behind the word “cold” being unpleasant, or maybe, and this is more likely, it’s because of the sea of spam emails we all have to deal with in this digital life we live.

You know the emails, with the mismatched fonts and number-based email addresses that look like complex equations. The ones with weirdly written English in the body telling you how you’ve won a massive yacht or a million pounds if you donate a few bob to someone’s bank account. Or the best ones that offer you the world if you just give them the long number on the front of your credit card, expiry date and last three digits on the back.

Thinking about it, it’s quite understandable why cold emailing has a bad rep, but you don’t have to be like that with your cold emails.

If you target companies who could legitimately benefit from your services, I don’t see the problem with sending them a friendly email letting them know that you carry out these services and can do so for them.

I’ve been in business for just over half a year now, and all of my major clients (other than the place I was working when I started Writeo, as referenced earlier) have come through cold-emailing or word of mouth from friends or from people I’d cold-emailed.

If it works for me then it can work for you (probably), as long as you’re offering something legitimately useful and you’re targeting the right people and companies.

So get on it!

Get in Touch

I think that’s it. Well, it’s probably not but that’s all I’ve got right now, and this blog has already turned into a small essay.

Remember, 15 responses out of 100 sounds like a small amount but if you get even one solid reply, the resulting work could pay your wage for the month. Trust me, it worked for me and I still have regular clients who make up the bulk of my income through following the above steps.

Anyway, if you want any more info on cold-emailing or anything else relating to the services I offer, so that’s copywriting, social media management and SEO writing, let me know.

Email james@writeocreative.co.uk or ring me on, actually, no, don’t ring me. Just email me.

I’ll chat on the phone if you really want to, as I understand some people like the human interaction of the phone, but I find email easier.

I think we’ve covered the reasons why.

Cheers!

How to cold email