How to write a cold email: the structure that gets replies, and 6 templates
The hard part of a cold email is not persuading anyone. It is staying short. The person reading does not know you and will give your message a few seconds. This article covers the structure that works inside those seconds, and six templates you can send as they are.
A cold email is a commercial message to someone who does not know you. Whether it gets a reply is decided less by how persuasive it is than by whether it gets read at all. A long email cannot persuade anyone, because nobody reads it.
The structure: five parts
1. Subject line — clarity, not curiosity
Subject lines like “You won’t want to miss this!” trigger filters and lose trust at the same time. A good subject line is three to five words and says what the message is.
- ✓ “Finding new customers for you”
- ✓ “My email last week”
- ✗ “LAST CHANCE — 50% off!”
- ✗ “Hello” (carries no information)
2. First sentence — what you do
An email opening with “I hope this finds you well” gets deleted, because its first line carries nothing. Say who you are and what you do in the first sentence. Courtesy fits perfectly well in the second.
3. Why you are writing to this company
This is the question the reader is actually asking. Even “we work with companies in your sector” beats saying nothing; naming the city or the specific trade is better still.
4. A short, concrete explanation
Three or four lines. Describe the outcome rather than walking through your process. Detail is what you discuss after they reply.
5. Close with one easy question
This is the part that makes the biggest difference. “Shall we set up a call?” requires a decision, and decisions are hard. “How are you handling this at the moment?” only requires an answer — and once they answer, the conversation has started.
Template 1 — first contact (general B2B)
Subject: Finding new customers for you Hello, I’m [Name] from [Company]. We run email outreach for businesses looking to win new customers. You tell us the industry and the city; we find the companies and their business email addresses from publicly available sources. Then we write to that list in your name, from your own domain. Replies come straight to your inbox. How are you reaching new customers at the moment? Best, [Name]
Template 2 — follow-up (3 days later)
Subject: My email last week Hello, I wrote last week — let me address the question we get most often: [the most common objection]. [Two-sentence answer.] How is this handled on your side? [Name]
A follow-up should be shorter, should refer to the previous message, and should not explain everything again. Follow-ups that paste the first email underneath get the lowest response.
Template 3 — closing the loop (7 days later)
Subject: Closing this out Hello, I’ll close this out so I stop taking up your time. If [the relevant need] comes up later, replying to this email is enough. All the best, [Name]
Measured across sequences, this is usually the message that produces the most replies. The reason is that the pressure lifts: the reader no longer feels they are about to be sold something, which makes “actually, let’s talk” much easier to say.
Template 4 — industry-specific opener
Subject: For [industry] companies in [city] Hello, We work with [industry] companies in [city]. Most of them run into the same thing: [a real problem specific to that sector]. We solve it with [short, concrete solution]. How is that going at [Company] right now? [Name]
Template 5 — when you have the wrong person
Hello, Apologies if this is not your area — if you can point me to the right person I would appreciate it. [One-sentence summary of the subject.] Thank you, [Name]
Because it is short, this one gets answered often, and the reply usually contains a name or an address. In larger companies it is one of the most efficient ways in.
Template 6 — for “not right now”
Hello, Understood, thank you. Shall I write again in [month], or would you rather come back to me? [Name]
Mistakes to avoid
- 1Claiming a result you do not have. “We tripled sales for a similar company” collapses at the first question and, in most jurisdictions, counts as a misleading commercial claim. If you have no case you can share, do not write one.
- 2Leaving a placeholder unfilled. A recipient seeing `{{company}}` or `[write the industry here]` has the clearest possible proof they received a template.
- 3Forgetting the unsubscribe link. A recipient who cannot opt out has one button left, and it costs you far more than an unsubscribe would.
- 4Attaching a file. In a first email an attachment raises the spam score and does not get opened. Send it after they reply.
- 5Over-personalising. “I loved the blue button on your website” backfires the moment the reader realises it was automated.
Writing with AI
Telling a model to “write a professional outreach email” produces something full of clichés. What works is keeping the backbone yourself and leaving the model only the adaptation to each industry: producing fifty variants of one idea is what a model is good at; having the idea is your job.
Anything a model produces should be checked before sending against two things: invented figures or references, and unfilled placeholders. Both go out looking perfectly normal.
Frequently asked
How many follow-ups should I send?
Three steps — a first email and two follow-ups — covers most situations. More than that reads as pressure and damages the relationship. Anyone who replies should drop out of the sequence immediately; a follow-up arriving after someone has already answered leaves the worst possible impression.
How many days apart should follow-ups be?
Three days for the first follow-up and seven days from the original for the second is a reasonable rhythm. More often is intrusive; much less often and the reader has forgotten the first message entirely.
Should I write in English or the recipient’s language?
Whatever their working language is. Writing in the local business language almost always produces a higher reply rate, and an English email into a market that does not work in English often reads as a mass send.
Should I use images or a designed signature?
Not in cold email. Images and complex HTML signatures make a message look like a marketing newsletter and it gets classified as one. Plain text and a two-line signature perform best.
You do not have to set this up yourself
Tell us your industry and the city you sell to. We find the companies and their business email addresses, and send from your own domain at a pace that keeps you out of spam.