How You Start Cold Email Outreach From Scratch & Get Your First Client (In less than three weeks)

So you are learning about how to start a business (you know, to get that extra 🫰🤑) or find new clients to sell your services, and you found out about cold email. Now you want to know more about it.

Let’s talk about cold mailing, how to start a campaign, and the best practices you can do to improve your emails.

So, What Are Cold Emails?

The simple answer is cold emails are emails you send to your clients who don’t know you. The purpose is to try to pitch them your services to make a sale. Cold email is one of the cheapest, fastest, and easiest ways to get started and find your first clients. A complicated answer would be sending an email to your clients and trying to understand their pain points, explaining why you are the one they need and why you are better than anyone else who is sending cold emails to them. Eh, it started to sound a bit complicated, yeah? Don’t worry 😉

Anything else I need to know about cold emails 👀?

Yes, Albert Einstein. You can either succeed with emails or sit in a corner and cry for not getting a response. You see, sending emails is not enough. You need to check how many emails you send daily, how many are getting opened, and how many responses you get. Not only that, but you also need to be aware of whether your emails are going to their inbox (yes, your emails can go to the spam box as well), and most importantly, you need to check whether your clients’ emails are verified if you don’t want your emails to go in their spam box. So it is more than just sending emails, yeah? Yikes.

Let’s talk about the average open rate and response rate.

There is a difference between sending 1000 emails and getting five responses and sending five emails and getting one response; it’s all about how you do it, baby. The average cold email response rate is between 70-95%, which means for every 100 emails you send, 70-95 are getting opened. If you’re starting, it can be between 20-30%. No, it’s not all about the subject line. It is also about who you’re sending. The average response rate, however, is between 5-10% if you’re starting, but if you learn fast, it can rise to +20%. If you’re getting a low open rate, don’t focus on the subject line only; verify your email list and make sure your emails are landing in their inbox.

Mailrush.io, a cold email software, that will help you to write personalized emails in just a few clicks

So how can I avoid my emails ending up in the spam box?

Many ways you can send your emails to the spam box, but I’m pretty sure you want your emails to land in their inbox. So here’s how you can prevent it:

1) Don’t send the same message to everyone

If you think your prospects won’t understand that you’re sending the same message to everyone, you’re dead. But it’s not about that; if you send the same email message to everyone, Google will know about it and mark your emails as spam. You must write different emails for different people; keep reading to find out how to write emails.

2) Don’t use spam words

Maybe you’re writing different emails to different people to show them that you’re legit and professional, but Google is more intelligent than you thought. Another reason emails go to the spam box (check your spam box first, you probably don’t check it, lol) is using spam words. Some examples: get access now, get it now, totally free, and so on. You can find a list of spam words by searching on Google and more.

3) Your cute new email isn’t warmed up

Look, I know. You don’t want to wait, you want to do everything as soon as possible, but the reality is, no one can be rich overnight (even if you know what to do). You need to warm up your email account before you start sending emails. So how can I do it? Once you create your new Gmail account, wait two weeks before you start sending emails (but don’t just wait, keep learning about cold emails), and sign up for some newsletters so Google can finally know that you’re a human being, not a stupid bot. Lastly, start sending a few emails at first, so on your first day, send five emails, then ten emails on the second day, and so on.

About your new Gmail account

If you’re serious about starting cold email outreach, then you can’t use that old email that you use daily (hell no)! You need to create a new email account; use “@gmail.com” and not @yahoo or @outlook; they won’t perform well. Write your name and don’t add numbers; for example, Daniel Stephen, use [email protected] or [email protected]. Don’t write an email address you will use in the future because you need to test your emails to see whether you’re doing it correctly or sending them to the spam box. For example, if your name is Alan Willson and you want to use [email protected] in the future, then use [email protected] to test your emails. 

How can I write the best cold email my clients will ever receive?

Let’s talk about what your email should include: who you are, what’s your offer, and how it can benefit them. Hey, don’t be fooled, this might sound super easy, but it is way more complicated than an argument between you and your boss (ugh). There are two types of cold emails that you can write: the best one and the worst one; there’s no middle one here. Don’t expect to find clients when you’re just starting; everyone learns from their mistakes, and chances are, you’re going to make a lot (unless you read this blog, hehe)!

This blog will boost your cold email campaign and get that first client as soon as possible. Here’s how you can write the best cold email your prospects will ever receive:

1) Personalize your emails

As we mentioned, your message should be different for everyone. The best way to do it is to personalize each email. How to do it? Before you start talking about yourself and your offer, talk about them. Research your clients and check if there’s a blog or any social media post you can share your thoughts.

For example:

– Hey (name), I recently read your blog (blog name) and love your point of view about Nascars. I love racing cars!

If you write like this, you’ll get your prospects’ attention as they will understand that you’ve done your homework and know about them (and not someone who spams). You would want to write only two personalized sentences because you’ll have to send a lot (and I mean, a lot) of emails, and writing an entire email for each client is a waste of time unless you’re 100% sure that for every five emails you sent, you’ll get a response, then you’re rocking it!

2) Personalize the subject line

The first personalized line of your email is crucial, and so is the subject line if you want to get a higher open rate. Usually, people use generic subject lines such as “Working with (their company) or (your company) + (their company) ” and so on. Though it might look personalized, it’s still not catchy enough. Just like personalizing your emails, personalizing the subject line will also significantly improve your open rate.

Here are some examples of b2b cold email subject lines

– I read your article (Name)

– Hey, great interview (Name)

-(Name), about your latest product

The reason is pretty self-explained, but I will explain it anyway. These lines are far better than those two generic lines as these lines will increase your prospects’ curiosity and would want to know more about your email, which is why personalizing the first two sentences of your email is important too.

3) Make a great offer for your prospects

Here’s where people start to make mistakes; they can’t make an offer. Either they are too salesy and aggressive, or it’s an offer they don’t need. When you’re being aggressive, you’re forcing your prospects to buy your service; this is what you don’t want to do if you don’t want to say goodbye to your clients.

For example:

– Hey (name), I design websites. I would love to create a website for you (be fast, it’s time-limited)! Reply now and get 15% off!

Eh, it doesn’t sound good. Maybe it does for you (hmm), but it’s rubbish. Instead, this is how you would want to write:

– Hey (name), I visited your website and noticed it is not optimized for phone users. You’re probably losing a lot of potential clients who use phones. We help companies like yours to run a mobile-friendly website to get those clients who use phones!

The big difference here is you’re not trying to be pushy or make a sale; instead, you’re trying to make a point and explain how you could help them. Another mistake you can make is offering a service they don’t need. For example, you can’t sell planes if you send emails to business owners who sell cars. So make sure to research what industry they are in, their marketing strategies, and whether you can help them (if not, look for another client).

4) An easy call to action

A call to action (CTA) is a sentence you write for your clients to take a specific action. You could write the best cold email your prospects will ever receive, but if you don’t write a call to action or write a call to action that requires your clients to put in a lot of effort and spend their time, you can say Adios to your clients. They won’t respond! Hard CTAs would sound something like these:

– Let’s grab a coffee together and talk about it.

– Let’s schedule a call for tomorrow at 10 pm.

– Go to my website and follow 100 steps to get a free sample!

Those will scare your prospects away (It was scary for me when I was writing these, lol). Easy CTAs would sound something like these:

– Is this something that interests you?

– Can we discuss further how we can help you?

– Does this offer fit your company?

And again, these are pretty self-explained, but let me explain them to you anyway because I like talking, don’t I? The difference here is these are just yes or no questions. You’re not asking a lot, just a simple question about whether they are interested or not, and your clients will respond quickly (If you personalize the email, of course).

5) A great signature

So what is an email signature? An email signature is a block of text about yourself and your image. So how does a signature help you? When you add a professional signature to your emails, your clients will immediately understand that you’re not a punk who spams emails and makes you look professional. They will know that you’re an expert at what you’re offering. You can find how to create a professional signature on Youtube (it’s a small effort, yet a big difference).

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So what are some cold email best practices that I can do 👀?

I’m glad you asked it! Because the truth is, even if you know The Top Secrets of writing effective cold emails, if you don’t practice enough, you won’t write emails as effectively as you thought you could (try to write an email if you don’t believe me). Here’s how you can practice writing cold emails:

– Write as many emails as possible; this will help you write more effective emails in the future (always works).

– Choose an Influencer that you love and think of “how would I write an email for them” and write that email (fill out that white paper, come on).

– Look for emails you receive in your inbox and think of “how can I make this email better” and write your version of that email.

When you follow all these steps, here’s what your email should look like:

Subject line: I’ve read your blog

-Good afternoon ,

I recently read and love your point of view about . I certainly agree with some of your statements.

I came across and noticed it’s not optimized for phone users; do you know how many potential clients you are losing?

We help companies like yours create mobile-friendly websites. We’ve recently worked with (check out how we optimized their website and how they are getting clients who use phones).

If this is something that interests you, we can explain how we’re going to do it and how beneficial this project will be for your website.

Do you want to do this with us?

Thanks for reading,

Of course, as you go forward, you’ll make even better cold emails and get as many responses with less effort. Just be patient, keep practicing and keep doing research. Eventually, you’ll make it!

But, In case you were looking for unique ideas about how to outstand everyone with your cold emails, hop in this link!

And this is how you start sending cold emails

Mistakes are inevitable, and as a beginner, you’ll make them. But just by following these steps, not only you’ll make fewer mistakes, but you’ll be able to find your first client in less than three weeks (if you’re doing everything right). Be patient, be calm and keep writing. Eventually, you’ll crack the code and start to sell as much as you want.

Enough talking. Get up and start your cold email campaign!