7 Cold Email Templates for Generating New Leads

Many believe the era of cold email is over. But even though social media and messengers have made sending messages easier than ever, email is far from gone.

Businesses continue to send emails for a reason. 

333 billion emails were sent each day in 2022 alone. 

The reason is simple. Email works, and when email sees campaign metrics like click-through rates up to 16% while social networks earn just 0.98%, businesses don’t have a reason to stop.

Still, email outreach is only effective when it’s done right, especially cold email. Not only may recipients see them as unsolicited and unwelcome, but writing and personalizing outbound takes a lot of time.

To help your cold emails generate leads that convert, we’ll share 7 tips for a good message, as well as 7 cold email templates.

7 tips for a good cold email

The right tactics can transform cold emails from annoying to helpful.

For effective cold emails, you need to make the message about the customer (not your company) while highlighting the value you can deliver.

Otherwise, an email without value or personalization will simply end up in your recipient’s trash or spam folder.

Research your target audience’s pain points and/or interests

To start with, you’ll want to take the time to get to know your recipients. Simply learning their names and job positions isn’t enough these days. 

If you want to find out what drives them and catches their interest, you’ll need to dig deeper, research their pains and challenges, and nail down their current intent. For instance, a company on the hunt for investment opportunities is more likely to respond to an announcement of a funding round than a pitch to subscribe.

There are AI research tools that can help speed up the data collection process. You can also scrape data by checking out a potential lead’s website, LinkedIn profile, or recent company news. 

Keep your intro short

Your leads are busy professionals. They don’t have the time to read novel-length emails.

You have sentences – if not words – to leave a good impression and get a response.

A long, yawn-inducing message will get you just that—yawns. You’ll should be straight to the point and tell your recipient why you’re writing and why they should continue reading.

Nowadays, it’s common to see emails under 50 words. This doesn’t keep you much room to work with for an intro, so the shorter, the better.

Personalize your outreach

Use the information you collected to craft an email that resonates with the reader. 

When you personalize, it’s a good idea to work in their name, company, and position, as well as a recent event like closing a new funding round or launching a new product. 

You can also do email personalization at scale by segmenting your audience based on shared characteristics. This allows you to tailor messages for each group, focus on more specific pains, and more clearly explain how your solution addresses their pain.

Provide a clear value proposition

Your email should clearly say what’s in it for them.

For best results, you need to go beyond the technical details of a subscription. This is where you can hammer out how your offer solves your ideal customer’s pains and helps them achieve their goals. 

Importantly, your tone should be customer-centric, not you-centric. This shows you’ve done your research and know who you’re selling to.

Add a strong call to action

Don’t just tell the reader they need your product or service. 

Persuade them to take action with a compelling CTA. 

In one short simple sentence, tell them the next step. Should they visit your website and book a demo? Or simply shoot back a quick response?

And make sure to limit yourself to one CTA per email.

Create a compelling subject line

The cold email subject line is the first thing your recipients see. 

You need to make it count. This means it has to be eye-catching and resonant.

If leads aren’t opening your emails, you’re either landing in spam or your subject lines aren’t converting.

A good subject line is equal parts informative, compelling, and personalized.

But don’t mislead your reader, and don’t get clickbaity. Those will quickly burn your domains and set you back 4-6 weeks as you warm up a new mailbox.

What makes subject lines even harder is that you have few words to work with. Currently, the best-performing cold emails use subject lines under 3-4 words.

Check your email’s format

Nothing leaves a worse impression than a poorly formatted email.

The best cold emails are easy on the eyes. They also:

• Keep sentences short and sweet.
• Add white space between paragraphs.
• Have a logical flow in the message.
• Use plain text and the occasional gif.

Sales tools like AiSDR combined with the right templates can help out considerably with AI email generation. 

7 cold email templates to generate leads

If you see a cold email you like, you should save it.

Keeping a library of templates close at hand will make life much easier. It slashes the time you’d spend crafting emails since you won’t have to start from scratch over and over again.

Here are some cold email templates you can use, polish, and repurpose for your own sales and marketing needs.

Guest posting

Guest blogging involves writing articles for websites you don’t own or run. They often come with a byline crediting the guest contributor. 

This strategy is a go-to in content marketing. It helps gain exposure and affiliation with a popular platform while securing backlinks to your website, which in turn improves your SEO.

Template

Subject: [Name], build your online presence with guest posts 

Hi [Name],

I’ve recently stumbled upon [recipient’s company]’s website and was impressed by your expertise in [specific field]. At [your company], we’re all about teaming up with guest contributors and powerhouse platforms to get your voice out there and boost your credibility.

Would you be interested in discussing how guest posts can establish you as an opinion leader while growing your online presence? Let’s connect for a quick chat.

Best,

[Your Name]

Link-building

Link-building involves reaching out to website owners and admins to request a guest post or a collaboration. This helps you set up backlinks that amp up your website’s authority. 

For instance, a Forbes article linking to your website will signal to search engines that you are a respectable source. Backlinks are also a big win for your SEO.

Template 

Subject: [Name], improve SEO with high-quality backlinks

Hi [Name],

I came across [recipient’s company]’s website and thought you might want to supercharge your SEO with top-quality backlinks.

At [your company], we deliver backlinks that drive organic traffic and boost search engine rankings. 

How about we have a quick call to talk about growing your online presence?

Best,

[Your Name]

Influencer collaboration

Companies frequently team up with popular personalities and opinion leaders to spread the word about their business. This tactic is particularly effective at connecting with niche audiences.

Template

Subject: [Name], open to collaborating?

Hi [Name],

I’m [your name] from [your company]. I saw your recent posts about [topic] and I was impressed. 

We’d be interested in setting up a collaboration with you to [goal of collaboration] for our [name of product/service]. 

Are you open for a call?

Best,

[Your Name]

Cold sales

Cold sales involve reaching out to prospects to pitch a product or service. Effective sales emails deliver value instead of bombarding the recipient with aggressive sales pitches.

Template

Subject: [Name], discuss driving growth for [recipient’s company]?

Hi [Name],

Congrats on [recent news]. It’s always good to see another business thriving.

I came across [recipient’s company] and I felt inspired by your pursuit of [related goal].

At [your company], we’re all about driving revenue and growth. We helped [social proof example].

I’d love to discuss how we can help [recipient’s company]. Set up a chat?

Best,

[Your Name]

Testimonial request

Customers testimonials are an effective form of social proof. Companies can use testimonials from past and current clients to help market their products and close new deals.

Template

Subject: [Name], we’d like your help

Hi [Name],

Thank you for being a loyal [your company] customer, and we hope you’re enjoying [product/service]. 

We’d love to know you think. You can click [add link] to share your thoughts and feelings about using our [product/service]. 

Thank you once again. Your feedback means a lot to us!

Best,

[Your Name]

Referral program

Referral programs motivate existing customers to introduce new people to your business. They reward those who advocate for your brand among their social circles, like friends, family, and colleagues.

Template

Subject: [Name], interested in free rewards for referrals?

Hi [Name],

I’m glad to hear you’re happy with the results you’ve seen with [your company] so far. 

Since things are going well, I was wondering if you have any colleagues at similar companies who would benefit from [product/service]. I’d love to help them see similar growth.

I’d be happy to enroll you in our referral program. Every time someone you refer becomes a customer, you’d get rewarded.

Can I schedule a call to discuss?

Best,

[Your Name]

Referral prospecting

Referral prospecting means teaming up with another business that has a list of prospects who could be interested in your offerings. Ideally, referral partners shouldn’t be a competitor in the same industry or field. 

Template

Subject: [Name], want to partner up for prospects?

Hi [Name],

I saw that [recipient’s company] specializes in [specialty/niche]. I’ve had to turn down several deals with potential clients who could’ve used services in that area.

I’d be happy to send them your way. We’re targeting prospects who are more along the lines of [description]. If you have any prospects in that area, we could provide them [value prop].

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Best,

[Your Name]

Send cold emails that sound like you with AiSDR

Cold emails are still the easiest, most cost-effective lead generation tactic for quickly scaling outreach. With the right approach, your cold emails will rapidly grow your sales pipeline and boost your revenue. 

However, the wrong approach will torpedo your outbound efforts, effectively scuttling your chances before you get started.

Templates are one option for quickly ramping up sales outreach, but they’re not your only option.

Using the market’s most versatile and in-depth AI set-up, AiSDR simplifies cold outbound by messaging leads and booking leads for you on auto-pilot. Every email sells in your voice and is personalized using a lead’s LinkedIn activity and your lead data.

Not only does AiSDR include unlimited leads to fuel your campaigns so they never run dry, but the AI comes with the sales tactics and success scripts of 50+ sales leaders built in under the hood.

Book a demo to see how AiSDR can power your cold outreach.