Art of cold mailing

It is the time of the year again! Students are busy seeking internships.For this, cold mailing always comes in handy.You ought to sell yourselves and stand apart from others.That might be a strenuous task,but fret not! By the end of the article, you will easily learn the art of cold mailing.

Cold mailing is an act of sending an email to a person, where the receiver doesn’t know who you are beforehand.This is very common among students seeking internships from companies, research internships from professors, marketers seeking publicity, salesmen seeking customers and much more. In this article we’ll discuss more about students seeking internships.

More about it

Cold emails are the perfect example of an underused art. When poorly done, a single cold email can give a bad impression of you, and yes “first impression is the best impression”. So, one bad email can cost you an internship.

When you send a cold email(incase of internships), you’re inviting someone to check out your projects, ideas and your interests so that they might hire you!

Cold mail is similar to an arrow shot in the dark. Sometimes it might hit, sometimes it may not reach the target. Anyway it is important to make sure that the arrow is shot properly, that it hits the bullseye.So, in this article we’ll deep-dive into the process of Cold mailing which includes Tips, do’s, don’ts and towards the end some sample mails.

Here we suggest some practices that will amplify your chances of writing the best cold email ever:

Subject Lines are important

It is one of the most important factors that decides whether your receiver opens your mail or not. Always write a personalized line, don’t go for a common line, avoid buzzwords as the reader may have seen them in many teams, and would more likely avoid it. Induce curiosity in the reader.

Keep your Body short

According to various research, the human attention span is declining and it is around 8–12 seconds. So it is important to keep the body as short as possible.Assuming that the receiver is someone who is really busy, you actually help them by giving them the purpose of email right in front of them in a crisp manner, and the receiver would surely welcome this.

Don’t forget to Follow Up

This is where most of the people miss the trick. If people don’t get any response, they assume that they are rejected. Yes, rejection may be a reason but not always, maybe it’s because you are not in his/her priority list. So, there is nothing wrong in reminding them,by sending a followup mail.

You could send your follow up mail after a week’s time. After salutation,you could start your follow-up mail with something like “In your busy schedule you might have lost the mail,so just wanted to follow up..” and introduce yourselves briefly and reiterate the purpose of your mail. Make sure it is short and doesn’t go beyond 4 lines.

Some Key Tips:

• Know your recipient and tailor your mail accordingly.
• Always know the right person to contact from the company/Institute and make sure the contact mail Id is from a reliable source.
• The time your mail reaches the recipient is very crucial.Always ensure that your mail reaches them while they are in office. A lot of students miss out due to this very reason.
• Typically morning hours are better as many might open their mail first thing in the morning after coming to work.
• As a matter of fact Monday mornings are busy and it is better if you stick to other week day’s morning.
• If you find it difficult to draft mail at that particular time, you can always schedule your mail.
• Before mailing a person, do some background research of the person, company or Institute and add value to the recipient.
• It is always important to keep it short and to the point.
• Proper salutation should be used.
• Be specific on what you want.
• Validate yourself by giving proper introduction including name, course, department, Institute etc.
• Clearly mention the mutual benefits that can be attained.
• Show your enthusiasm by expressing your desire to work/learn.
• Have a clear idea on what they look for and what you have to offer.
• Always have a polite tone.
• Propose a way to further proceed with your request(a reply mail, small talk etc.) seeking politely his/her convenience.
• Validate your projects/work by attaching a hyperlink to your github,LinkedIn or any such profiles.
• Always attach your CV using a hyperlink so that it is easy for them to refer.

What not to do:

• Do not oversell.
• Do not contact more than one person from the same company/Institute at a time. If they get to know that, it might create a bad impression.
• Never try to force your recipient to make a decision.
• Always ask for the recipient’s convenient time rather than you suggesting a date and time.
• Try not to sound desperate.
• Do not send follow up mails frequently. The recipient would not feel good about it and it would remain as a black mark. Give some time and follow up once or twice.

source:unsplash

Sample mail:

Respected _______,

I am _______, a __ year student pursuing a _____ degree in ____ along with a minor in _____ at the _______.

I am interested in the field of ______ and while searching for relevant projects in this field, I came across your company profile at the _____. I went through your projects/products and was genuinely fascinated. I would love to work with a company like yours.

I express my sincere desire to work with your group during ______ to expand my knowledge in the field of _____.

I am constantly involved in the field of ______ at _____, a few industrial projects taken up by me are:

____________

Besides this, I have also been involved in development of a ____ under the ____ Project. We used the concept of ____.

The relevant details of my academic record, projects and work experiences, along with my personal skills and expertise are given below. (Attach hyperlinks)

I would be very grateful if you could offer me a position in your esteemed group. I believe I will be able to produce worthwhile contributions in this field which would also give me exposure and help me to pursue my future career goals.

Looking forward to your earliest reply.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

__________

This is just for reference, it is always better if you tailor your own mail making it unique without sounding generic.Hope you got an idea on how to mail.Buckle up and shoot your mail ! Happy Learning!

This article is written by Abishek Arjun and Nirupama Govind