Best Cold Email Templates That Get Replies

If you are cold emailing B2B prospects to generate new business, crafting new emails from scratch for each new prospect can be a huge time-sink for you. 

Cold email templates make cold emailing a lot more efficient, and effective, as long as you remember to personalize your message to each recipient. 

So, in this post, you will receive 10 cold email templates that you can use for your different prospecting scenarios and that elicit more replies and meetings. 

What Is a Cold Email Exactly? 

A cold email is an email that a salesperson sends to a prospect with whom they have never made contact. Cold emailing is a type of B2B prospecting. 

The goal of a cold email is to spark interest in the recipient and motivate them to respond or take another desired action. 

Most of the time, the desired action is for the prospect to accept a meeting or a phone call with the seller to learn more about the product or service being offered. 

As for the email’s destination, cold emails are usually sent to decision-makers at companies that fit your ideal customer profile. 

Alternatively, if the seller is unaware of the identity of the decision-maker, the cold email is sent to an employee who might be able to refer them to the right person. 

Here’s an example: 

As you can see in the example above, the sender has found out about the recipient’s company from an online newspaper and is using that as an opportunity to establish a conection.

How to Use Cold Email Templates

Cold email templates are pre-written cold emails that have blank portions meant to be filled in with personalized information regarding each new recipient. 

They allow for flexibility while also accelerating the outreach process. 

Keep in mind — they are not emails that you can send to 100 prospects in hopes of booking a meeting. That blanket approach doesn’t work anymore.
Buyers see right through it. 

When using cold email templates, make sure to take a few minutes to personalize each one to the recipient and their company. Take into account the recipients and their: 

• Responsibilities. 
• Hobbies and Passions. 
• Pain Points. 
• Company Size, Revenue, Structure, Industry, etc. 
• Past Experience.

It helps to do this research in batches. For instance, if you want to use one template for the day, and it requires that you input the recipient’s title and responsibilities, you can find this information for each lead before starting to send out the emails. 

This will help you avoid task-switching, which can drain efficiency. 

As for tools you can use to save these cold email templates, Gmail and Outlook both have this functionality. 

There are also tools more specifically designed for salespeople, such as Salesloft and Outreach. 

These sales engagement tools offer you ways to templatize your emails, put them into email sequences, and track your progress with each prospect.

For instance, the system will let you know when it’s time to send the 3rd cold email to Prospect A. 

It also enables you to test the effectiveness of your email templates using AB testing, so you can land on and re-use the email templates that work best for your target audience. 

10 Cold Email Templates That Win Attention

It’s important to have cold email templates for each scenario you encounter. Sometimes you might not know who the decision-maker is, and will therefore need a cold email template that helps you find them. 

Other times, you will be contacting the decision-maker directly, armed with information about their hobbies. 

You need templates that are agreeable to each scenario. So, here are 10 cold email templates to add to your repertoire and when to use them. 

1. Attention-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA)

When: You want to use a time-tested psychological sales tactic. 

AIDA was coined by Gary Halbert, one of the best copywriters of all time. In his book “The Boron Letters”, he relates AIDA to the four phases of marketing. 

1. Attention: First, get their attention. In an email, this is with a short, punchy, or even odd headline. Halbert mentions monkeys dressed as cowboys at a car dealership. 

2. Interest: Once your reader opens the email, you have to quickly spark their interest in what you have to say. So, the first line should be specifically about the reader or somewhat provocative. 

3. Desire: Next up, you have to build their desire by showing them what life would be like with the product or service. These desire-builders can be the benefits of your solution. 

4. Action: Lastly, if you have inspired all three feelings, you need to turn them into action. Ask the prospect to take action, and make it as easy as possible for them to do it. For instance, you could hyperlink access to your calendar, perhaps with calendly, in the text, so that they can easily schedule a meeting with you. 

Let’s see what that looks like in practice.

Email Template: 

The subject is designed to capture the reader’s attention, the opening line of the email piques their interest further, and then you swoop in with the benefit offered by your company and close the deal with a good CTA.

2. Based on a Recent Event

When: There was a recent development at their company that is relevant to you or your prospect.

Sometimes you might come across a recent event related to your prospect or their business. These could be any of the following: 

• A promotion. 
• A new business venture. 
• A birthday. 
• Company news. 
• An acquisition of another company. 

This template works well because it signals to the reader that you did your homework and that this isn’t some blanket email you sent out to a thousand other people.

Email Template:

The template above links the event with the product or service you offer and highlights its benefits for the prospect’s current situation.

The template above links the event with the product or service you offer and presents its benefits for the prospect’s current situation.

3. The Common-Ground Template

When: You found something you two have in common. 

When you find common ground between you and the prospect, you need to capitalize on it. This drastically raises your chances of earning a reply. You could have that common ground if you: 

• went to the same school. 
• have visited their area. 
• both had the same professional title at one point. 
• studied the same subject.
• share a hobby or interest. 

People like those who are similar to them. As shallow as it sounds, it’s human nature. We would rather talk to someone with whom we share interests and experiences. 

Here is an example of a salesperson using information from the prospect’s company profile picture to win a reply. 

That’s a great way to kick of a relationship. 

Because the recipient will remember them, the seller now has a much higher chance of getting a positive response in the future, or of receiving an inbound service request from the prospect.

Email Template:

The email starts with the things the sender and the recipient have in common, and goes from there.

4. The “I’m a Human Just Like You” Template 

When: You want to build rapport quickly.

Common sense says to put something about the prospect in the first line of the cold email, but Seth Dotterer, CEO of SiteCompli, says that his business development team has had success doing the opposite.

 His team has seen a bump in their cold email replies when they started including something personal about themselves in the opening sentence of the email, such as:

• Hope you enjoyed the sun yesterday—I capitalized on the rays and took my son and daughter out for their first round of golf.
  
• Hope you had a good holiday—I overcooked the turkey, but the mashed potatoes were a hit. Anyway…
  
• I hope your weekend went well—I spent mine weeding the garden with my spouse and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s nice to be back at my desk writing emails and taking calls. 

Feel free to add a dash of humor into these, especially the self-deprecating kind. 

These should help your prospects see that you are a human who is just trying to do their job, just like them. 

It’s harder to brush aside a person you can relate to.

Email Template:

Sometimes, it can be difficult to pinpoint the commonality between yourself and your prospect. This approach makes you seem relatable without having to spend too much time trying to come up with a shared interest.

5. The Hyper-Personalized Template

When: You know this is the decision-maker and you have a ton of intel on them. 

Sometimes you are prospecting into a big account that could mean thousands of dollars in monthly revenue for your business. 

And, through your research, you know the name of the decision-maker along with a lot of other information such as their experience, title, hobbies, and business goals. 

In these situations, it is smart to leverage this info to write a very personalized cold email that will break through the noise. 

It is okay if it takes you a couple of extra minutes. It’s worth it to land a meeting with a big account. 

Here’s an example from tray.io that shows the level of personalization you want. 

As you can see in the example above, the sender lets the recipient know they’ve been following their work, thus signalling that they’re aware of the recipent’s needs and know how to solve them.

Email Template:

Template inspired by close.com.

6. Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS)

When: You know their pain points. 

One of the best ways to spark interest in a prospect is by mentioning a few pain points that are relevant to their job and business. 

If you mention these problems from the outset of the email, you might grab the prospect’s attention, especially if these pains are something they deal with frequently. 

After winning their attention, you can elicit a reply by revealing how you can solve that agitating problem. 

Email Template:

If you created your ideal customer profile, you should have a good idea of what problems are most bothersome to your customers. 

7. The Expert Opinion Template

When: You want to sound like an expert.

People want to buy from a true pro. B2B buyers want a partner who can advise them on industry trends and new practices. 

They don’t want someone who will just hand them a product and call it a done deal. So, you want to sell like an expert. 

This email helps you do that. 

To instill confidence in your prospect, try peppering your cold emails with industry insights. 

Pick an article, written by your brand or another, that they might find interesting. 

Then, share it with them along with one key takeaway. That way they will see you as knowledgeable and informed. 

Plus, they might be more inclined to engage in a conversation with you just because you seem interested in the same things they are interested in. 

For instance, if you contact a VP of Property Management and write about your opinion on a new technique for building inspections, they might think of you as a player in their world, making them more likely to reply.

Pro Tip: If you are selling technology or SaaS, it’s a good idea to find articles that discuss how their industry is becoming more technologically advanced.

When a prospect trusts your opinion, you have better chances they’ll seek you out when the need arise.

Email Template:

The template above shows you how you can connect the industry insight with what your company offers, without seeming too pushy.

8. The Polite Inquirer

When: You aren’t sure who the decision-maker is.

You can follow these steps for finding the decision-maker, but sometimes you will still come away empty-handed. 

If you can’t find the decision-maker you need right away, try reaching out to someone in the company, preferably someone high up in the hierarchy — an executive or upper management. 

Then, ask them for a referral down to the right person. This top-down approach is commonly known as cold calling 2.0. 
Use this email template, based on the one from Predictable Revenue’s team, to ask for these referrals.

Email Template:

You never know, with the right approach, you might just leave a good impression, which could work in your favor further down the line.

9. Act on Their Interest 

When: They’ve been on your website.

Here is a cold email template to use for people who have been on your website but haven’t personally interacted with you or a colleague. These leads aren’t completely cold, since they will have interacted with some of your content, whether it be a blog post, case study, or product page. 

Nevertheless, they have yet to express interest in your service, so they are cold enough to warrant what we call a cold email. 

Email Template:

Template based on one from Mailshake. 

10. Before-After-Bridge (BAB)

When: You want them to see how their lives will change for the better. 

The BAB cold email template is designed to get your prospects imagining how their lives will change for the better once they adopt your product or service. 

It does this by taking a not-so-lovely snapshot of their current work lives. Then it paints a beautiful picture of their after-world and finishes with the bridge — how your solution moves them from one to the other. 

Once your prospect has seen the wonders of the other side, they might be curious about if it is actually attainable and therefore agree to a conversation with you. 

If you already have them imagining what life would be like with your solution, they’ll be more likely to take the necessary steps to get there.

Email Template:

This template can help you establish that connection between their goal and your product.

Be Specific and Follow Up

Specificity is the most telling trait of cold emails. If it’s specific, it grabs their attention. If not, they don’t care. 

You want your prospect to feel like the message was crafted specifically for them. If they feel special, they are much more likely to respond and take the meeting. 

Also, you might receive replies that are along the lines of “not interested”. However, don’t stop there. 

Ask why. 

Usually, people just say no the first time on impulse. We bet you can overcome some email objections and win a meeting. 

Lastly, persistence pays off. 

You have to follow-up. Email template #7 serves wonderfully as a second or third cold email. 

If you are interested, check out how to write a follow-up email (with examples).