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Cold Emailing
21 Best Email Templates To Increase Engagement & Replies in 2024
Mihaela Cicvaric
June 11, 2023
October 30, 2023
|
7 min. read
Mihaela Cicvaric
LAST UPDATED
September 3, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.
The average cold email open rate ranges between 20 and 40%.
More than half of the cold emails that are sent don’t even get opened!
So all of your cold emails need to have value, eye-catching features, and essentially stand out.
However, we know it’s not always easy to come up with fire emails, which is why we’ve collected 21 killer templates that you can duplicate in mere seconds.
Push engagement with your cold emails
The impact of a well-crafted sales email on prospects can be significant.
It can:
shape their perception of your brand,
influence their purchasing decisions,
and ultimately drive conversions.
A compelling sales email not only informs but also engages, persuades, and builds a relationship with your prospects!
If you want to learn how to craft personalized emails in only 30 seconds, check out this video.
If you watched the video and are feeling curious about the cold email generator, give it a go yourself ⬇️
If your cold email doesn’t stand out or provide value, your prospects won't reply.
No replies → no meetings booked → 0 business growth opportunities.
Once you’ve written the first draft, ask yourself these three questions:
Does your email body clearly express your product's value?
Does it address your prospect's pain points and offer solutions?
Does it include a compelling call to action?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then it's time to refine your sales email body by following the tips above.
21 sales cold email templates to increase reply rates
1. Sales Email to Interrupt the pattern
Subject line: Hey, I have an idea for {{Company}}
Buongiorno {{Firstname}},
I saw you’re running ads on Facebook, I assume you’re looking to secure new patients as the team continues to grow
Not sure what your experience with advertising is so far, what we hear from most clinic owners is ads aren’t profitable anymore.
Our experience is quite the opposite. As an agency, we’ve helped +50 clinics get +100 qualified leads every month with instant forms (a specific type of ad).
Think this could help your team?
Happy {{day}} {{Name}} {{URL}} Scaling Dental Clinics with Paid Ads since 2020 🚀
What makes this sales email template successful?
Pattern interrupt: The greeting in another language shows the sender's personality and catches prospects' attention.
Researched fact: The intro proves that the person reaching out researched the prospect. This makes the rest of the email content seem more relevant.
Highlighted pain point: Show you understand your prospects' struggles which helps you build trust around your solution.
Social proof: Add numbers as social proof to build credibility and stand out from competitors.
Interest-based CTA: Instead of asking for a call or meeting in the first email, aim to get a reply and confirm interest.
Signature keywords: Based on your target, you can add slogans and signature keywords to make your email more relevant just by scanning it.
The right email length: The sweet spot is to write 75-125 words in your cold emails. This range gets 5-15% higher reply rates than longer or shorter emails.
I saw you've implemented {{tool1}} and {{tool2}} at {{companyName}}. How do you integrate both?
Just last week, I was discussing with {{firstNamesRef}} from {{similarcompany}} how the integration between {{tool1}} and {{tool2}} had impacted these operations thanks to {{mycompanyName}}.
Would you be interested in integrating your stack with a single platform?
Kind regards,
{{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Intriguing & short subject line: The subject line is short enough to catch prospects’ attention without revealing too much.
The intro line is about the prospect: The first few sentences of the email are fully customized to each prospect, thanks to variables, and explain the unique reason for reaching out.
Social proof: Mention the customers that are similar in size or have similar challenges as your prospect, which makes your solution more relevant.
Interest-based question: Use an interest-based question that is hard to answer negatively. After you confirm their interest, you can book a meeting with your prospects in the next email.
{{icebreaker}} - something about their hiring needs specific to software engineers.
If this sounds like you, let's chat:
a) you deeply believe in software quality b) you need help with design & development c) you'd pay $3,000-6,000 per month to have a skilled software engineer
I provide outsourced software engineers to {{type of company we’re targeting - ex: seed series B start-ups}} such as {{reference firm}}.
I only partner with 7 startups per year and thought {{companyName}} would make a good fit.
Feel free to grab a time here (lemcal link)
Best, {{Signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Relevant icebreaker: If you’re offering outsourcing services, you can refer to prospects’ job postings to remind them of their need for your services.
It’s straightforward: Points a) & b) will help you confirm there's interest and give prospects an immediate reason to have a chat with you.
Aligned expectations: Point c) grabs attention as it gives a unique value that will intrigue prospects to learn more about your services.
Niche reference: Always use the reference known to your prospects, this will help you build credibility x2 faster. The more niche you are with social proof, the more replies you’ll get.
Clear CTA: Use a CTA that is short and specific to guide your prospects into taking action and provoke a yes or no answer.
I saw your question about email deliverability in the Cold Email Closers community and thought of helping you out.
In the past two months, my team went from 3 to 8 people, with everybody sending outbound campaigns. It hit our deliverability hard, so I faced the same challenge you're facing right now.
But, there are a few things to keep your emails out of the spam folder and boost your outreach results.
Let me show you…
{{custom thumbnail leading to a personalized video}}
Let me know what you think. {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Intriguing subject line: The subject line highlights the prospect's struggle and teases them to open the email so they can read about the solution
Personalized video: The pitch is focused on understanding the prospect’s specific pain point and gives value through a personalized, step-by-step video
Customized thumbnail: The custom video thumbnail grabs the prospect’s attention and proves this email isn’t generic and sent in bulk.
Subject line: Thanks for top-notch content {{First.Name}}
Just reviewed {{Company.Name}}’s “{{Event.Name}}” recording. Hands down, top-notch content you have cooking over there, {{First.Name}}.
Looks like you chose {{Technology}} to host the event. Word is on the market that their ROI calculation side could use a boost.
Would you agree?
Cheers, {{Signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Pattern interrupt: You can catch prospects’ attention straight from the inbox, and switch usual email greetings with an immediate intro. This will help you stand out from other cold emails, and communicate your value from the email start.
Personalization & segmentation: Use as many custom variables as possible (without taking it too far!) to show that your email was specially crafted for a specific lead. Segmentation, such as mentioning the technology they use, will prove you know your prospects and make your offer more relevant.
“Light” call to action: Without asking prospects to book a meeting and sending them a calendar, you can focus on confirming their interest first. This will help you form a more genuine connection and hop on the selling part more easily later.
It’s short enough to fit a mobile's screen: Short emails like this one take less than 15 seconds and make it easily readable on the go. Short (but valuable) emails don’t require too much effort and increase your chances of getting a reply.
Subject line: Maximize the profitability of {{companyName}}
Hi {{firstName}},
{{companyName}}’s work on the latest {{icebreaker}} project is excellent, I was intrigued to read about it as an outsider with an interest in this topic!
Like many other startups in the {{industry}} space, keeping web & app infrastructure optimized and relevant is an issue that causes opportunity losses. Do you require efficient development support to maximize the profitability of {{companyName}}?
My team at (company) are expert developers in these tech fields - delivering high-quality strategy, design, and execution at a fraction of the cost of a conventional in-house team. In fact, we’ve managed to save our clients an average of $xx every year.
If this resonates, let’s book a non-committal 15-minute call next Wednesday; I’d love to discuss a potential partnership.
All the best {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
A question that validates relevance: Use your first cold email to confirm the interest and validate your prospects' relevance by asking a simple question.
It tackles a challenge: Research your leads’ pain point and make sure to emphasize it to make them aware of their need for your solution.
Metrics as social proof: Add relevant metrics that are aligned with your leads’ desired outcomes. This helps you boost credibility and trust and makes them more likely to engage.
Clear CTA: Use a clear timeline for booking a call with your prospect to remove the friction and make it super easy for them to take the next step.
So I saw your recent post concerning email delivery rates - tough stuff, huh? Are you constantly battling to keep ahead of spam filters?
{{namedropclient}}’s increased IPR by 2x, and email revenue also grew +209% in the first three months with us.
Should we talk more?
{{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
It’s 50 words long: Go straight to the point, and avoid fluff. This will help your target audience scan your cold email quickly and give them a reason to read the rest of it.
A conversational tone: Instead of sounding sales-y, try sounding like a friend who is trying to help. This will help you build relationships with your leads and make a solid ground for later sales.
It targets specific pain points: By focusing on the specific pain point, you can mention needs, goals, and social proof that are highly relatable to it. This will prove your email wasn’t generic and sent in bulk but written specifically for that prospect.
Not pushy yet clear CTA: “Should we talk more” requires a simple “yes” or “no” answer. This removes friction for your leads of not knowing what to reply when you just ask them to “hit a reply”.
I noticed your {{job title}} position has been listed on Welcome to the Jungle for {{number of weeks}} now. Still searching for the right fit?
We recently helped {{same sector company}} place a {{job title}}, saving their CEO both time and money in the recruitment process for a hard-to-find role.
With outstaffing, you can easily delegate less critical tasks like {{tasks}} to specialized agents, handpicked by you. This approach is three times more cost-effective than traditional hiring, and we can make it happen in under two weeks.
I've already identified some profiles that align with your needs based on your offer. Would you like me to present them to you?
Best, {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Catchy subject line: Mentioning your leads’ desired outcome in the subject line will push your target audience to open your email and read the rest of your email. Since they are looking for a new workforce, applying to a job offer with a twist can push your open rates.
Specific prospects’ pain points: If you show your prospects that you know their pain points, they will feel understood and will be more willing to answer with you. When there is a clear mutual agreement, it means it will be easy to move forward together down the sales funnel.
Valuable personalization: Show a natural and human approach by adding personalization that isn’t just fluff, but adds a true value. This is how you prove you put time and effort into researching your prospects and, therefore, care to help them.
Concise benefits specific to your reader: Present all key advantages for the specific target persona you’re talking to as the solution to the pain points from the intro line.
No-brainer CTA: Use easy-to-answer questions. In this example, the lead just needs to answer “yes” to start a conversation and get the value!
Saw you’ve built an audience of 1,500 on your LinkedIn page - that’s awesome, I assume you’re looking to attract warm leads organically?
Something we typically see in other recruiting companies is they post regularly - check ✅
However, they struggle to get engagement (comments and DMs) from their content.
We’ve helped other CEOs generate +30 warm conversations every month with content strategies that help virality and interaction.
Would you be open to hear more about it?
Best, {{Name}} {{URL}} +50 Personal Brands Powered through Meaningful Content
What makes this sales email template successful?
Relevant insight with no big assumptions: After you figure out your niche audience’s focus, bring an insight in a natural tone, without making any assumptions. You can ask a question to confirm their objective.
Pain point they have overcome: By focusing on the pain they overcame, you show your leads you understand well their challenges and background, and that you know what you’re talking about.
Pain point they haven’t overcome: Once you show you understand them, highlight something they haven’t achieved yet. This will make your solution seem more relevant.
Social proof on how you solve it: Mention only the success of relevant companies and businesses your leads can relate to. This will help you position yourself as credible and trustworthy.
I can see on your {{websiteDomain}} you have been using tracking pixel. Yet, I noticed that you aren't optimizing for Pinterest traffic.
However, Pinterest represents on average {{xx%}} of {{competitorName}}'s traffic.
We help e-commerce in the {{sameIndustry}} unleash the potential of Pinterest.
The results are on average a 3x less expensive customer acquisition cost for 2x more conversions.
Would you be interested in lowering your CAC?
Thanks, {{Signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Intriguing subject line: Catch prospects’ attention with a short yet intriguing subject line. This proves you don’t always have to use custom variables to stand out in the target audience inbox.
Website custom variable: By mentioning your prospects’ website and its details, you can show you did the proper research and make your message more relevant.
Competitors’ success: By mentioning highly similar competitors to your prospect, you will make them curious about how they achieved their success. You can position yourself as an expert who can bring them the same or even better results!
Relevant industry metrics: By sharing industry trends relevant to your prospects’ desired outcomes, you can showcase your expertise and show that you understand their challenges.
The question that is easy to reply “yes”: Use interest-based obvious questions to make it easy to reply “yes” to. This removes friction for your prospects and boosts your chances for a reply.
I really enjoyed the article {{title}} you wrote about the benefits of flossing over 40. Actually sent it to my folks to read 🙂
A lot of dental clinics …{{problem statement}}
That’s why I’ve created DFY service that {{value statement}}. A private content marketing company that that helps medical offices grow up by creating videos for social media increasing their online presentation more clients.
I made a personalized video showing how you can actually do this on our own to get ahead of the competition especially in {{LOCATION}}.
Mind if I send it over?
Sincerely, {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
A problem statement: Clearly state your leads’ challenge and offer a valuable solution. Once you showcase what you can do for them, you can introduce yourself and your company.
A question: By asking a simple “yes” or “no” answer, you can easily open the door to further communication.
It’s visually pleasing: Make your email visually pleasing and easy to scan by structuring it into bite-sized chunks of text.
The ebook you shared on building a marketing plan was spot on. Loved the highlight on the proper messaging impact and how easily it gets overlooked.
You have worn many hats in your career, from social marketing to enterprise sales, so you're surely aware of the importance of personalization in cold outbound.
Hell, you wouldn't be able to lead 4 companies to successful exits without it! 💪
I'm curious to know if you have something in place to automate outreach personalization at scale?
I would be happy to chat about it over coffee.
Take care, {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Conversion-starter question: The pitch ends with a conversation-starter question that ties smoothly to the CTA, without sounding too pushy
Personalized image: The personalized image adds a human touch which builds a personal relationship with the prospect
Non-sales-y CTA: Instead of booking a meeting, the closing line suggests chatting over a coffee which sounds less formal and more inviting.
I saw your question about email deliverability in the Cold Email Closers community and thought of helping you out.
In the past two months, my team went from 3 to 8 people, with everybody sending outbound campaigns. It hit our deliverability hard, so I faced the same challenge you're facing right now.
But, there are a few things to keep your emails out of the spam folder and boost your outreach results.
Let me show you: {{personalized thumbnail image with a link leading to a personalized video}}
Let me know what you think. {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Struggle in the subject line: The subject line highlights the prospect's struggle and teases them to open the email so they can read about the solution
Personalized video: The pitch is focused on understanding the prospect’s specific pain point and gives value through a personalized, step-by-step video
Custom thumbnail: The custom video thumbnail grabs the prospect’s attention and proves this email isn’t generic and sent in bulk
I saw on RevGenius that you're looking for new SDRs for Pipedrive to help you out with ABM campaigns and support you in this exciting stage of your growth. Given you rank top 25 for the workplace environment, I am sure you'll find a candidate in no time!
I'm curious (given you emphasize quality over quantity), do you have a tool in place to help new hires automate personalized cross-channel prospecting?
I'd love to show you how your hires can automate personalized outreach across multiple channels and drive down the cost of training with Pipedrive.
Would you be open to hearing more about it?
{{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Hyper-personalized icebreaker: The hyper-personalized intro line shows that you invested time in researching the prospect
Genuine compliment: Before jumping to the pitch, there’s a genuine compliment that shows appreciation and sets a friendly tone for the rest of the email
Conversational CTA: The conversational call-to-action aims for the reply first rather than booking a meeting, which makes prospects more likely to reply
Subject line: Congrats on your ${{amount}} fundraise! 🎉
Hi {{firstName}},
I just saw your fundraising announcement. Congrats on your {{amount}} milestone! 🎉
From what I understood, you plan to hire new members all around the world. How exciting is that!
I’m curious to know what solution you’re using to grow at scale?We’ve already helped {{similarCompany}} and {{similarCompany}} to double their sales team while staying cost-efficient.
Are you available next Monday at 4 pm to see how you can do it too?
Cheers, {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Congratulations: Genuine congratulations on the business win proves they have been following the work of the prospect and understand their background
Social proof: Mentioning similar relevant customers as social proof helps build credibility and earn the prospect’s trust
Clear next step: The closing line shows a clear next step by mentioning the exact date and time, which makes it easier for the prospect
Since my last email, I saw you posted a question in the lemlist family community and thought to share a quick tip many of my clients have found helpful.
If you wanna schedule more interviews for your clients with cold outreach: - show your email wasn’t sent in bulk by mentioning their previous achievements - catch their attention with a personalized video - use a personalized benefits list to stand out from repetitive competitors
I have a few more ideas to help you grow your client's businesses.
Let me know if you’re interested in hearing them.
All the best, {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Pain points in intro line: The intro line shows they followed prospects’ activities and understood their pain point, which makes the solution seem like a good fit.
Actionable tips: The pitch contains actionable tips that prove you’re an expert in the field, they can learn from you, and you might have something to help them.
Focus on (free)value: Instead of following up for the sake of following up, this email attempts to push the conversation and provide value.
19. Give help without expecting anything in return
Subject: Hi {{firstName}}, here's how ASMR content SHOULD sound
Hey {{firstName}},
So I found your IG @{{Handle}} on #ASMR the other day and wanted to share this 1-minute comparison video I made demonstrating how I (an audio engineer) get the most tingles out of a recording.
l also want to share my knowledge with content creators, so if you have any questions about recording ASMR content, just reply to this email.
I'm super keen to help you out, so I'm going to follow up in 3 days. I respect if you wouldn't like me to follow up, here’s an unsubscribe button. Just to clarify, I've not added you to any newsletters or weekly communications.
{{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Intriguing subject line: The subject line is catchy and intrigues the reader to open and read the rest of the email.
Tangible example: A great way to demonstrate the quality of your solution is to give prospects a tangible example.
“Low-effort” CTA: The call to action doesn’t require lots of effort from leads but rather aims to genuinely help. This makes your leads more likely to engage.
Through my search for partnerships with product design agencies like yours, I saw {{companyName}} profile on {{site}} and saw your showcase of working with {{icebreaker}}, congrats on having an impressive profile of work!
We at Rubikal are in search of partnering with design agencies where we can complement and build their designed products.
I’d love to learn how you manage to develop your designed products? I saw you don’t have a focus on engineering in-house.
I am attaching our profile of work for your reference. If this sounds interesting I would love to arrange a 15-minute call - grab a time from my availability here.
Best, {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Friendly tone: The intro line mentions a common ground, and it’s written in a friendly tone which helps you build rapport more easily.
Free value: It gives tons of free value without expecting anything in return, which pushes prospects’ gratitude and motivation to reply.
Non-sales-y CTA: It offers genuine help instead of asking for a sales-y meeting. This helps you confirm your interest before investing energy into pitches.
This final email (after not getting responses to your previous cold emails) is also known as a “breakup”. Here's an example you can use to push more replies:
By the way, we're preparing an article where we interview new VPs of Sales from Fintech companies.
I'd love to have you on {{firstName}}!
The article will be shared with our newsletter of 20,000+ SDRs (you might find your next hire, who knows 🤷)
Take care, {{signature}}
What makes this sales email template successful?
Ongoing conversational tone: This email begins as an extension of a previous email which pushes your leads to read what you sent before
Additional value: It’s focused on creating an excellent resource for a specific topic, needing leads’ opinions, and making them feel important
Niche social proof: There is very niche social proof that relates to prospects’ roles and industries, and encourages them to take action
Although, if you already have your lemlist account, you can access all templates for campaigns, emails, landing pages, and shcedules directly from your lemlist dashboard. You can filter the templates according to your intent, industry, etc, preview, duplicate, edit, and launch!
Personalize your outreach at scale
You can take your personalization step further with custom variables to show your prospects you're willing to go the extra mile & boost your reply chances:
[ ] use text variables to automatically personalize any part of your message to grab leads' attention and build trust (e.g., intro line, pitch, CTA).
[ ] use image variables with leads' names, logos, website screenshots, etc., to stand out from competitors' emails
[ ] use video variables & custom thumbnails to give value to your prospects on a more personal level
[ ] use website variables where you can embed your lemcal to push prospects to take action
Still not lemlist user? Sign up for 14-day free trial now!
Cold outreach is a powerful way to reach potential customers and grow your business.
But crafting an effective cold email can be a struggle, as most people don't know what to write in their emails, how to catch a prospect's attention, or personalize their approach.
With the help of AI and lemlist, you can create personalized outreach sequences that drive engagement and conversions!
Here are 3 simple steps you can follow to create an outreach sequence that gets replies 2 times faster:
Create a new campaign (or choose a campaign you’ve already created)
Choose to create your sequence with the help of AI
Step #2: Fill out the requested data
target audience
value proposition
trigger
language
tone of voice
Here’s what that looks like 👇
Step #3: Watch AI magic happen
[ ] Click the "Generate your campaign" button and let AI create your fully personalized outreach sequence
For the best outreach results, you can tweak your AI-generated campaign by following these 10 rules:
Your CTA is less than 7 words
You address the prospects' pain points
You use line breaks after every sentence
Your cold emails contain 50 to 100 words
There's an apparent reason why you got in touch
Your subject lines are all lowercase, and up to 2 words
You use the simple language that 10 year old understands
You show what impact an action will have on your prospect's key metric
There aren't "fluff" sentences such as "Hope you're well" that don't bring value
There are enough days between each follow-up to give your leads time to answer
P.S. You can take your personalization step further with lemlist custom variables to show your prospects you're willing to go the extra mile & boost your reply chances:
Cold email checklist
A well-crafted sales email can help you establish a connection with your audience, convey your brand's message, and ultimately drive conversions.
Make sure you follow these points to nail your outreach every time:
Automation helps you scale your business but can’t replace your understanding of the market.
So, first, explore what makes your prospects tick, segment them into buckets, and then start automating. There isn’t good automation without relevant personalization.
Focus on your prospect
Cut the words “I,” “Our company”, “We,” etc., as much as possible from your email copy.
Instead, replace them with custom variables such as the prospect’s first and company names. As a rule, prospects don’t care about you - they care about what you can do for them, so remove the self-centered approach.
→ Show, don’t tell
Instead of pitching your product’s features, show that you can offer a solution to their pain points. Show that you understand their struggles and can make their lives easier.
→ Sell the next step
Instead of jumping on closing a sale, focus first on booking a meeting or, even better, getting a reply. Once you show you are there to help your prospect genuinely, they will feel more comfortable to hop on a selling part later
Using these sales email templates can save you a considerable amount of time. Instead of crafting each email from scratch, you can use a pre-crafted template and adapt it to fit your needs.
Templates allow you to spend more time on more revenue-driven tasks!
Mihaela Cicvaric
Content Marketing Manager @ lempire | Sharing everything you need to get replies to your cold emails
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