11 cold prospecting email templates to improve response rate
Cold email outreach is a useful tool in B2B sales. It can help generate new leads and grow your business, but it can also be time-consuming.
Using cold prospecting email templates can improve your efficiency and leave more time for personalization. That’s why we’ve created a variety of cold email templates to choose from—each tailored to a specific approach. Use these templates, along with lead conversion rules and best practices, to improve your sales outreach success rate.
Table of contents
What is a cold email template?
11 cold prospecting email templates to improve your outreach strategy
1. Ask for-introduction cold email template
2. Quick question cold email template
3. Genuine referral cold email template
5. Three-sentence cold email template
6. Referring to competitor’s product cold email template
7. Benefit-focused cold email template
10. Valuable resource cold email template
11. Recent event cold email template
How to write an effective cold email in 5 steps
Cold email campaign best practices
Final thoughts: How the right cold email template can advance your sales success
What is a cold email template?
A cold email template is a personalizable message sent to a cold contact. A cold contact is an individual who you haven’t previously reached out to about your services or products. Cold contact email templates are used for someone that you don’t have a previous business relationship with. Cold email templates are used by sales teams to target potential clients and drive them toward the sales pipeline.
When done well, cold email outreach can be useful for generating leads and improving conversion rates. A well-executed cold email shouldn’t feel spammy or AI-generated—it should be customized to the contacts you’re targeting who are already likely to be interested in your service or product.
11 cold prospecting email templates to improve your outreach strategy
Now that you understand the importance of using cold prospecting emails for pitching, let’s put some templates to use. Use the templates below as your framework, and customize them based on your offerings and the prospective company.
1. Ask for-introduction cold email template
This is the ideal template for when you can’t find the best point of contact at a company. This template has no fluff and should be used to help direct you to the right person.
Why it’s effective: provides a direct route to the right point of contact
When to use it: when you can’t reach the ideal point of contact
2. Quick question cold email template
This is a similar template to the first one and can be used to navigate to the right point of contact. The goal here isn’t to sell your product, but rather to ask for contact information. This template is a winner because it doesn’t require much effort from the recipient.
This template can also be adjusted to more of a sales pitch if you’re asking for a quick phone call consultation.
Why it’s effective: it requires little effort from the recipient
When to use it: when you can’t reach the ideal point of contact
3. Genuine referral cold email template
Compared to the previous two email templates, this referral template requires a bit more detail—and for good reason. The goal of this template is to build a genuine connection with the recipient, even if they turn out not to be the right person.
Add personal anecdotes and details within the template—did you find them via LinkedIn or Twitter? Did you find them in an article they were interviewed for? These small tailorings will help make your email feel less robotic and more natural.
Why it’s effective: builds a genuine connection with the cold contact
When to use it: when you’re looking to connect with the point of contact
4. AIDA cold email template
The AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) formula is a useful copywriting technique that can transform your cold email campaign. You first need to grab the recipient’s attention, explain why they should be interested in your offerings, grow the desire, and outline what actions to take next.
Why it’s effective: the use of data and social proof is relevant to the recipient
When to use it: when the recipient represents a driven-driven brand
5. Three-sentence cold email template
Sometimes with cold prospecting emails, less is more. Your email doesn’t necessarily need to stick to the three-sentence rule, but you should try to keep it close. Most of the people you’ll be reaching out to have busy schedules, so it’s important to keep your message concise and to the point.
Why it’s effective: shorter emails can work better on mobile
When to use it: when you’re looking to connect with the point of contact
6. Referring to competitor’s product cold email template
The main focus of this template is highlighting the recipient’s competitor’s product or service. This will require a bit more time on your side to research the company offerings and customize the template.
If you currently work with competitors of prospective companies, mention the benefits they’ve received while using your product. Knowing that competitors may be getting ahead may pique the recipient’s interest.
Why it’s effective: requires in-depth research of the company’s products and/or services to show the recipient you’re invested in their offerings.
When to use it: to showcase past case studies with direct or close competitors
7. Benefit-focused cold email template
With this template, you’ll outline the top benefits of using your product or service. Use bullet points to make it easy to read and explain why the recipient would benefit from your offerings.
Why it’s effective: highlights the top benefits of your product line
When to use it: when cold contacts don’t have much time to read through an email
8. PAS cold email template
The PAS (problem, agitate, solve) formula focuses on highlighting the cold contact’s main issues or pain points. Outline issues the recipient may be dealing with and offer solutions to resolve them.
Why it’s effective: spotlights the recipient’s main pain points and issues
When to use it: when a cold contact is dealing with common streamlining issues
9. PPP cold email template
The PPP (praise, picture, push) technique is perfect if you’re looking to use a bit of flattery to make a connection. Begin with a sincere compliment about a recent new product, accolade, or event. Describe a picture of what the cold contact could do with your product and push them to move forward with you.
Why it’s effective: uses compliments to build a genuine connection
When to use it: to highlight the recipient’s recent event or achievement
10. Valuable resource cold email template
With valuable resource cold email prospecting, you’ll typically offer something for the recipient to check out, whether it’s a video, article, or informational guide.
You can either share a resource from your own company’s blog or social pages, or share a highly relevant article from LinkedIn or another blog space. It’s important to establish a connection before sharing the resource, however, to avoid your email being sent to the spam folder.
Why it’s effective: sharing a valuable resource to the recipient that doesn’t directly have to do with selling your product or service first.
When to use it: after you’ve established a genuine connection with the contact
11. Recent event cold email template
Unsure how to begin your cold email? Make use of a company’s recent event to begin a genuine dialogue. Search for news on new products or services, recent accolades, or accomplishments that you could highlight in the email.
It’s best to start with a thorough congratulations to the recipient, rather than a one sentence bait-and-switch. Always end your cold sales email template with a call to action that makes it obvious what you want them to do next.
Why it’s effective: builds a genuine connection with the recipient
When to use it: to highlight the recipient’s recent event or achievement
How to write an effective cold email in 5 steps
Now that you’ve checked out 11 easy-to-use cold email templates to improve your outreach strategies, it’s time to put them to use. Below we’ll go step by step on how to perfect your cold email to a potential client.
1. Identify Prospects
You need to reach out to the right people for a successful campaign and to meet your outreach goals. There’s a huge difference between sending out 100 emails and getting ten to fifteen email responses from a variety of prospects, versus sending out fifty emails to those who fit the ideal prospect mold and getting twenty-five responses back.
Quality leads over quantity is the gold standard.
For your outreach, you’ll want to focus on pitching to your Ideal Customer Persona (ICP). These are the ideal companies that would benefit the most from your services or products. Consider the following when building out your ICP:
- Industry: The industry will depend on your company’s offerings, but you’re most likely focusing on sales in a specific sector, like tech, real estate, or services.
- Location: Establish where you are pitching geographically. This could be high level, like the United States, or more specific, like the West Coast or a state.
- Company size: Decide on the size of the companies you want to target. These could be strictly smaller startups or mid-size agencies, for example.
- Business model: Will your product benefit a B2C company more than a B2B? Or is it vice versa?
- Pain points: What are some things this company may be dealing with that your product or service would solve?
The attributes above will help you narrow in on the exact type of company that would find the most value with your products and services.
2. Find the Correct Point of Contact
With your updated list of potential companies, you now need to find the best person to reach out to. Here are some tactics to track down the right person and their contact information.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a popular first step for finding the best point of contact. Start by going to the company’s LinkedIn profile page. From there, click the “People” tab, and sort through current employees. You can narrow it down depending on the industry, but will likely be a manager or a business development role. You can then message them directly on LinkedIn or use an extension like Clearbit Connect to find their email address.
- Company website: On the company website, navigate to the “About Us” or “Meet The Team” pages. They may list current employees and their roles.
- Enrich your data: Utilize a data enrichment tool like Clearbit to ensure you always have up-to-date contact information.
- Annual report: If the company is publicly traded, you can pull up its annual report. The report may include the names of higher executives and decision-makers.
If you’re still unable to find the ideal contact for the company, use the referral email template above. The person you reach out to can potentially connect you with the right person.
3. Choose the Correct Prospecting Cold Email Template
Not every outreach campaign is the same—that’s why we developed 11 different cold prospecting email templates for you to use. To choose the right template, consider your outreach goals, your target prospects, and your company values.
4. Customize The Cold Email Template
After choosing your cold email template, tailor the content to reflect your business identity and tone. Most importantly, include why you’re reaching out.
There’s a fine line between sounding too professional and sounding too relaxed. Read over your completed email—if it sounds too much like a marketing email, you may need to adjust it so your message comes across as more genuine.
5. Follow up
Generally, follow-up emails should be a one-sentence message reply to the previous email. Below are a few examples of quick follow-up messages:
- “Hi [name]—following up to see if you read my last email. I would love to discuss further with you how our [product] can help [company name] grow.”
- “Hi [name], do you have any questions for me per my last email?”
Keep your follow-up emails spread out—aiming for every three to four days—until you receive a reply from the prospect.
Cold email campaign best practices
The key to a successful cold email campaign isn’t just using a great email template. Below are a few tips and tricks that can improve your odds of seeing higher open and response rates from your emails.
Subject Lines
Subject lines just might be the most important element of your email. It’s the first thing your potential clients read when going through their inbox. If it’s too spammy or generic, they’ll likely move past it or drop it directly into the trash.
However, if it’s eye-catching and feels authentic, there’s a better chance your prospect will click on your email and continue reading.
With your subject lines, remember to:
- Keep it specific: By reading your subject line, will the recipient know why they should click on your email? State exactly what benefit you’re offering for the potential buyer.
- Personalize: Including the contact’s name in the subject line can help the email feel more personalized to the recipient versus a generic marketing subject line.
- Stress the urgency: If you’re running a sale or limited-time offer, you’ll want to stress that in your subject line. Recipients will be keener to look into your email if they feel like it’s an exclusive offer to them.
- Be genuine: Only promote what you know your company can do for the recipient. Don’t promote false claims that could just increase your open rate but not necessarily ensure a sale.
You may need to test a few different subject lines to see which brings in the best results. In your next email campaign, try out two or three different subject lines.
The Main Body Copy
While your subject line ensures that the recipient will click on your email, your body copy will ensure a reply. Your opening line and main body copy should seamlessly follow your subject line.
The email should include what’s in it for the potential client and the benefits you’re offering. Including statistics or recent industry news and events can make the email more personalized. Keep your copy concise and avoid adding unnecessary fluff.
The Call to Action
You should only include one simple call to action toward the end of your email. It could be scheduling a time to chat, watching a short demo video, or linking to a helpful resource. The CTA shouldn’t ask much of the recipient, and be sure to restate the value of your CTA for the recipient.
Final thoughts: How the right cold email template can advance your sales success
Using cold prospecting email templates for your outreach campaign is only the first step. Experimenting, practicing, and researching will help you further understand your target audience and push for your sales goals.
