What Is Cold Pitching
Cold pitching is when you phone or send a text or email message to a lead that has not expressed an interest in the solution you are offering them. All you know is the person could potentially become a customer.
A cold pitch is the opposite of a warm pitch, which is a prospecting message you send to a lead that has shown, either by interacting with your marketing messages or by personally reaching out to you with an inquiry, that they could become a paying customer.
Cold pitch emails are a different beast from, for example, a cold pitch call. With pitch emails, you have to get the attention of the prospect first. Their inbox will likely be crowded. A phone call, on the other hand, isn’t as easy to ignore.
Writing a sales pitch email – even to a warm lead – is hard. Now imagine emailing a cold lead. This is why we reached out to some experts for their tips and best practices for writing sales pitch emails that prospects will actually open, read, and reply to. We will share their insights throughout this article.
How to Write a Cold Email Pitch – 6 Tips From Prospecting Experts
Cold email is the key to building a business, securing sales, and reaching your goals. So you simply have to get them right. Your pitch must not be open to interpretation; it must explain your pitch clearly. But before they read your pitch, you must have their attention.
Salespeople learn pretty early to focus on creating a good first impression when reaching out to new contacts. They know opportunities will slip through their fingers if they don’t.
To get a good first impression when writing a pitch email, you first have to:
1 Get noticed
“Don’t forget the importance of your subject line.”.
That’s According to the CEO of RingCentral who notes that your subject line is the key to getting the attention of prospects. Because their inbox is flooded with work emails, other pitches, and newsletters, your email can easily get buried.
So it is critical that your cold pitch email stands out in the prospect’s inbox. Your name may not jump off the screen as the email’s recipient mostly probably doesn’t know you. That leaves the subject line as the only element you can optimize to get the open you desire. You must use it to its best effect and craft a catchy subject.
Even if your hook is personalized, your call-to-action is low-risk and your offer solves the pain points your prospect has, if your subject line is [lousy], your recipient will delete the email without reading it. If you’re not getting your cold emails opened, it doesn’t matter how great the rest of your email is.
2Qualify your leads first
Your closure rate as an SDR is going to be very poor if your list is full of leads that have no genuine interest in your product.
So before you sit down to draft your cold sales pitch email, make sure you are sending it to a qualified lead. Clean that list and weed out all leads that you aren’t sure to have the problem you are offering to solve.
Here’s what Ahmed GabAllah, the business development executive at Athena capital had to say about this.
‘If you’re looking to get noticed when sending cold emails, experts say there are a few key things you can do. First, make sure you never buy a list of contacts – it’s important to build your own list of people who you know would be interested in what you’re selling.’
3 Personalize it
Ahmed GabAllah also advised identifying the person you are pitching by their name. Many enterprise email clients now make it easy to add your contact’s name to the subject line.
Personalization in general has benefits for brand loyalty and customer experience. Here’s what our expert had to say:
‘Scrub your list regularly to ensure the accuracy of the contact information you have. And third, use personalization in your emails to stand out from the rest.’
Still on those subject lines:
4 Use intrigue
As Proposify CEO has found, intrigue in subject lines can increase open rates. He says:
“Subject lines that create intrigue are often the most successful in getting people to open an email. However, it is important not to give away too much in the subject line so that the recipient is still curious enough to read on.’
You want your subject line to summarize what your pitch is about, but you don’t want to say so much that they have no reason to actually open and read the body, which is where you explain your offer in more detail.
Remember too that your subject line needs to be short. Otherwise, it will not display fully in the inbox. This is probably an advanced topic in sales email copywriting, but it is a skill that can be practiced.
You want to make your prospect curious about the content of your cold pitch email. Intrigue is your friend here. Don’t go overboard with it though because you still want to make it self-evident what the cold pitch email is about.
Safe cold pitch email subject lines that pique the interest of receivers enough to click feature:
- Interesting facts about a pain point they struggle with,
- A glitch you noticed on their product that your solution fixes/prevents,
- Numbers (# benefits X will bring to your business)
- Power words (but avoid clickbait)
Now let’s get into the email itself:
5 “Be specific.”
In those words, that’s what the CEO of Proposify advises.
The best pitch emails get to the point FAST. Being specific means stating the reason you are sending the pitch email in not too many words. After a short introduction, get straight to the heart of the matter.
As the Proposify CEO explains, the second line of the email should be a very brief statement about what you do. Then, in the third line, mention how you can help them specifically based on what you know about them. This is where you get to show off your research and demonstrate that you understand their needs.
An example of a cold pitch email that is specific according to our expert would read like this:
”Hi there! I hope this email finds you well. I saw you speak at an event recently and was impressed by your insights. I work with businesses to help them improve their online presence and thought you might find my services helpful.
Based on what I heard from you, it sounds like your company could benefit from some targeted content marketing strategy. Would you be interested in scheduling a call so we can chat further? I’d be happy to answer any questions and see if there’s a fit. Thanks for your time!
He adds that the purpose of an email is to find out whether a prospect is a good fit for you. If the prospect is interested in your solution, they will ask for a call.
Instead of asking directly for a referral, try making a very casual, light request: “Any chance of you helping me out with an introduction?”.
“The key to getting noticed in your cold email is to be specific about who you want an introduction to. Asking for a vague introduction or worse, asking who in the company you should talk to, will not have the same effect.’
If they’re not the right contact, they will let you know. If they are, you can email them an introduction.
6Close with a clear Call-To-Action (CTA)
Do not end your cold pitch email abruptly. It’s unlikely that the prospect will reply to you with a purchase request. It’s early in the game for that. But they will likely want to find out more about your solution but they may not ask if you don’t.
Preferably, ask for something that’s low-commitment, like scheduling a call or grabbing coffee. Ask when would be a good time for them to grab that coffee.
You have a better chance of getting a reply if you do this because you are not asking for them to commit right away.
How To Write Cold Email Pitches (FAQS)
What is the difference between a cold email and a warm email?
The difference between cold emails and warm emails is that cold emails are sent to leads that you have no prior relationship with while warm emails are sent to people who are already familiar with your business due to a previous engagement. Cold emails are sent to leads that have the potential to become paying customers but have not expressed that interest to you. On the other hand, warm leads may already have interacted with your marketing materials.
What should an email pitch include?
An email pitch has the same elements as a formal business email. Although they don’t have to be too formal, they must include a subject line, a greeting, a short introduction and explanation of the solution you are pitching, a call to action (CTA), and your name.
How do you greet someone in a cold email?
The greeting is the starting line of your pitch email. It is important to choose your words carefully as the opening line sets the tone for the rest of the email pitch. It is safest to sound professional, but not too formal. A simple ‘hello’ followed by the recipient’s name and how you came to know them, like ‘I saw you speak at…’ or ‘I am contacting you about…’ works OK. You could also start by thanking them for their time. Avoid sounding impersonal, with greetings like ‘to whom it may concern’. Use their name. ‘Hey’, ‘Hola’, and ‘Howdy’ are best used with someone you are already acquainted with, not cold leads. So, avoid them.
How long should an email pitch be?
The best cold pitch emails are no longer than 150 words and no shorter than 50 words. Shorter than 50 words and they are probably too brief to clearly explain your offer. If you have a bit more to say than 150 words can accommodate, try not to go over 200 words. Too long and you may sound desperate for a sale or lose their interest before they finish reading.
What is the difference between a cold email and a warm email?
The difference between cold emails and warm emails is that cold emails are sent to leads that you have no prior relationship with while warm emails are sent to people who are already familiar with your business due to a previous engagement. Cold emails are sent to leads that have the potential to become paying customers but have not expressed that interest to you. On the other hand, warm leads may already have interacted with your marketing materials.
What should an email pitch include?
An email pitch has the same elements as a formal business email. Although they don’t have to be too formal, they must include a subject line, a greeting, a short introduction and explanation of the solution you are pitching, a call to action (CTA), and your name.
How do you greet someone in a cold email?
The greeting is the starting line of your pitch email. It is important to choose your words carefully as the opening line sets the tone for the rest of the email pitch. It is safest to sound professional, but not too formal. A simple ‘hello’ followed by the recipient’s name and how you came to know them, like ‘I saw you speak at…’ or ‘I am contacting you about…’ works OK. You could also start by thanking them for their time. Avoid sounding impersonal, with greetings like ‘to whom it may concern’. Use their name. ‘Hey’, ‘Hola’, and ‘Howdy’ are best used with someone you are already acquainted with, not cold leads. So, avoid them.
How long should an email pitch be?
The best cold pitch emails are no longer than 150 words and no shorter than 50 words. Shorter than 50 words and they are probably too brief to clearly explain your offer. If you have a bit more to say than 150 words can accommodate, try not to go over 200 words. Too long and you may sound desperate for a sale or lose their interest before they finish reading.
Is cold pitch emailing effective?
While you absolutely must nail your cold pitch emails to get the results you are after, cold email marketing works. Email is undoubtedly the most popular business communication channel. It has been for a while and isn’t about to lose its appeal, even with the growing popularity of social media.
We hope this article has taught you how to write a cold email pitch that will actually get opened and replied to.