How To Craft The Perfect Cold Email
Networking Series #2 — Hint: make it warm.
I have to write emails all the time. Professors, advisors, recruiters, alumni.
Sometimes it’s to ask for help, advice or a favor.
Sometimes it’s just to give them information.
Sometimes I know them, and sometimes they have no clue about who I am.
At any rate, they receive dozens, if not hundreds of emails everyday.
So, how do I stand out enough that they take time to answer?
1. Use a respectful, yet warm tone
You have never talked to that person, or you don’t know them that much.
So, you don’t want to start off with being too familiar. But don’t be too formal either. You don’t want to block yourself in a very cold frame in the other person’s mind.
Start with “Dear Mr/Mrs X”. Don’t use colloquial words, but try to play on the edge of informal to be able to evolve to a warmer tone.
Typically, the end of my email evolve from “Best regards” to “Warmly” incrementally. In Australia, I would often sign with “Cheers”, since that was more common!
2. Make it personal
Do you have a connection ? Have you met them before? Have you lived in the same city 3 years ago? Did you study at the same school ? Then use that!
I recently met a researcher on campus who happened to come from New Zealand. So I told him about my year in Australia, and that it was my dream to go to Kiwi’s land. It broke the ice and our conversation became more casual.
If there’s no apparent connection, that’s okay. Start formally and stay alert—what are they telling you? Don’t hesitate to ask questions about them. They mentioned they are going home—where is home? Wish them a safe trip. Did they say they were sick last week? Ask them if they are feeling better.
There’s nothing wrong with showing interest to the person you are talking to.
3. Observe how they interact with you
This is a great opportunity to align with their rhetoric and continue warming up the relationship.
If someone says “Hi!” and signs with their first name, I usually see it as an invitation for you to do the same.
That doesn’t mean you get to call them “Bro!” after 3 emails. But it’s fair game to mimic the way they talk to you—just as you would if you met in person.
On my end, I usually sign with my first name, to encourage them to do the same!
4. Have a clear call to action
Why are you sending the email in the first place?
Do you want to know more about what they do ? Then ask a question.
Do you want to know more about opportunities at their company? Then ask a question.
Explicitly.
When I first started looking for internships, I would send emails that would end with:
I would love to learn more about the opportunities at X.
Or:
It would be great to have a Skype call to discuss this further.
Great. I’m sure that my recipient’s sole goal of the day is to fulfill my needs to know more about their company.
Nope.
So make sure you ask explicit questions. The exact same sentence turned into a direct question made all the difference in the rate of responses I got:
Could we schedule a quick 10 min Skype/phone call in the next few weeks? Let me know when you would be available.
5. Show gratefulness for their time.
This is a no-brainer, and it helps you to add warmth to your email.
Thank them.
Acknowledge that they have given you some of their time, and that it was precious to you.
It shows you are respectful and mindful of their time.
That’s always appreciated.
6. Keep it short and to-the-point
I used to write massive emails where I would introduce myself, my interests, and so on.
Then I realized that when I got a long email, it would be such a pain to read it, especially from a stranger who is asking me indirect, blurry questions.
So, this is another way to show you are respectful of the other person’s time.
To do so, I try to keep my emails to the point, and sprinkle unnecessary information that will help me stand out. The shorter, the better. If it has to be long, try to structure your email with end-of-lines to make it clear and nice to read.
7. Use (very) explicit subject lines
I like this one. I realized how important subject lines were when I, myself started receiving too many emails to open everything. When I don’t know who’s emailing me, and when there’s no subject line, why would I open it? What will happen is that I’ll actually forget about it.
So, instead of dismissing the subject line in two fade words—or worse, not using any, I started crafting subject lines to my advantage.
Here are a few examples I used before:
Startup enthusiast — Prospective student for MEng — Interested in your work at X
Even better, I started including the reason why I’m sending the email.
Aspiring entrepreneur/new student interested in your Building Trust Based Relationship course — how to enroll?
If there’s one thing you can make as long as you wish, it’s the subject line. The more attractive and explicit, the better.
7. Don’t use smileys—unless they do
Apparently, that’s not professional and it will make you look incompetent.
I adapt this depending on who I’m talking to. More recently, I’ve made it a stricter rule to wait for the other person to use smileys before I allow myself to mirror them.
However, I do use exclamations quite a bit to convey enthusiasm! I find that reading sentence after sentence can be a bit dry, so variation in punctuation can help create a flow in your email.
8. Keep in touch
Is this the most important point? Close enough.
Would you remain friends with people you haven’t talked to for decades? That’s unlikely.
So, make sure you nurture your relationships through emails.
For me, that has been critical—I have moved once a year for the past 5 years, and I got to meet fascinating people along the way. I don’t want to lose contact with them. So, I make sure to send an email from time to time, to know how they are doing.
Yep, there shouldn’t always be a need for something for you to send that email.
That’s genuinely my favorite part. I see networking as creating relationships with interesting people, so I really get pleasure in keeping in touch and getting to know them better.
Putting everything together
Let’s imagine I want to know more about Expense Check, a really cool Melbourne-based company, and I happen to have found the CEO’s contact on LinkedIn. Here’s what a few successive emails would look like.
Email #1 — First contact
Dear Mr. F,
I hope this email finds you well. I’ve noticed your company does some amazing stuff that I am passionate about. Indeed, I have been involved in a similar field and have been successful in helping the project move forward by doing X and Y. I would love to discuss how I could contribute and get involved — would you be available for a quick 10min Skype/phone call in the next few weeks?
Thank you so much! Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards,
Laïla
Email #2—Follow up
Dear Nigel,
I just wanted to thank you again for our chat last week. I was really happy with our talk, and as you said, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect!
I hope you got home safe and the trip wasn’t too tiring! I’m looking forward to hearing from you about your discussion with your team.
Best,
Laïla
Email #3—Keep in touch
Hi Nigel,
How are you ? I hope everything is going well for you.
On my end, I have been learning a lot at Industrie&Co. I have been amazed at all the opportunities that I am exposed to.
What about Expense Check? How are things going there? I would love to catch up for coffee sometime! Would you be free in the next couple of weeks? Let me know—on my end, I’m fairly free on Thursdays and Fridays.
Warmly,
Laïla
These are personal guidelines I have created for myself. They are no absolute truth, and it’s been a few years of experimenting what worked, and what didn’t.
They sure have allowed me to get pretty successful reply rate.
More importantly, this is how I have created and nurtured relationships with CEOs, VCs, writers, scientists and professors whom I had never met simply over email.
This encompasses the way I look at networking:
Consciously creating interesting mentorships and friendships.
