Dien Rice
November 29, 2020, 06:11 PM
The past few months, I've been delving into the "art" of writing cold emails...
What is a "cold email"?
It's a business email to someone who has never heard from you before...
It's different from writing opt-in email copy, or web copy...
I've been recently writing my cold emails like writing copy, but it always felt a little uncomfortable... And I think I've finally figured out why...
In email copy or web copy, at the end, you go straight to the "call to action" you want them to take...
Either to order your product, or to click on a link, or fill in a form, or something like that...
Specifically with opt-in email - your audience already "knows" you to some degree. And they chose to receive your email. (I always try to make it worth their while, with good free valuable information...)
And with web copy, you have the space to explain your background - so they can get to know you by reading the (probably long) sales letter...
With cold email, they've never heard of you...
One thing (I've read) is that your call to action, in a cold email, should be about starting a conversation, rather than getting them to do something else (like order your product) right away...
I have succeeded with cold emails. This website (Sowpub) started as a cold email from me to Gordon 20 years ago!
A cold email even earlier (in 1994) got me six months visiting the University of California, Berkeley, back when I was a postgrad physics student... My office was about 3 doors down from the office of Charles Townes, Nobel Prize winner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Townes)...
He was 79 years old then (he lived to age 99)... He used to climb the eight levels of stairs to our floor every day, rather than take the elevator... Maybe that's why he lived so long!
(Charles Townes invented the maser, a precursor to the laser - that's why they gave him the Nobel Prize in Physics...)
But, I digress... I've always written cold emails as an invitation to a collaboration. Only recently have I been trying to use it to sell a product...
Note that cold emails are different from spam!
For one thing, cold emails are written one-to-one... You don't send the same cold email out to thousands or millions of people.
If you want to send 100 emails, you send 100 personalized emails, one-by-one... Which makes it very different.
Anyway, I found this great article... Which explains a lot, with great successful examples...
I thought some here may enjoy it and benefit!
26 Cold Email Examples Broken Down To Help You Write Your Own
https://www.criminallyprolific.com/cold-email-example/
Best wishes,
Dien
What is a "cold email"?
It's a business email to someone who has never heard from you before...
It's different from writing opt-in email copy, or web copy...
I've been recently writing my cold emails like writing copy, but it always felt a little uncomfortable... And I think I've finally figured out why...
In email copy or web copy, at the end, you go straight to the "call to action" you want them to take...
Either to order your product, or to click on a link, or fill in a form, or something like that...
Specifically with opt-in email - your audience already "knows" you to some degree. And they chose to receive your email. (I always try to make it worth their while, with good free valuable information...)
And with web copy, you have the space to explain your background - so they can get to know you by reading the (probably long) sales letter...
With cold email, they've never heard of you...
One thing (I've read) is that your call to action, in a cold email, should be about starting a conversation, rather than getting them to do something else (like order your product) right away...
I have succeeded with cold emails. This website (Sowpub) started as a cold email from me to Gordon 20 years ago!
A cold email even earlier (in 1994) got me six months visiting the University of California, Berkeley, back when I was a postgrad physics student... My office was about 3 doors down from the office of Charles Townes, Nobel Prize winner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Townes)...
He was 79 years old then (he lived to age 99)... He used to climb the eight levels of stairs to our floor every day, rather than take the elevator... Maybe that's why he lived so long!
(Charles Townes invented the maser, a precursor to the laser - that's why they gave him the Nobel Prize in Physics...)
But, I digress... I've always written cold emails as an invitation to a collaboration. Only recently have I been trying to use it to sell a product...
Note that cold emails are different from spam!
For one thing, cold emails are written one-to-one... You don't send the same cold email out to thousands or millions of people.
If you want to send 100 emails, you send 100 personalized emails, one-by-one... Which makes it very different.
Anyway, I found this great article... Which explains a lot, with great successful examples...
I thought some here may enjoy it and benefit!
26 Cold Email Examples Broken Down To Help You Write Your Own
https://www.criminallyprolific.com/cold-email-example/
Best wishes,
Dien
