6 steps to Writing the Perfect Cold-Email
Make your Emails irresistible with Storytelling!
Sending a Cold email is daunting.
A cold email is when you reach out to someone who doesn’t know you personally. Everyone has to do it one time or another. But it doesn’t need to be complicated or scary.
By the end of this post, you’ll know:
Why Storytelling in Emails?
The 6 Simple Steps to setup your Cold-Email for success
Plus, a Bonus Templates at the end!
Why Storytelling in Emails?
If you write good, readable emails, everyone will thank you.
No one wants to read a block of text.
But what does Storytelling have to do with emails?
Use Storytelling as a structure.
Storytelling is more than characters Bob & Sally on a journey.
It’s about moving your audience from point A to point B.
Your audience is the reader of the email, they are the main character.
Guide the reader through the email so they understand the topic.
What do I need to know?
What do I need to do?
This gives people a clear guide on what changed, why it changed, and what’s next.
If this is still foggy for you, don’t worry.
Got some examples at the end that will help!
6 Simple Steps for Cold-Email Success:
Choose your Audience
Do your Research.
Draft Questions
Formatting
With Bullet points
For Readability & Skimmability
Conquer the Subject Line
End with Gratitude
Let’s dive more into each step:
Step 1: Choose your Audience:
Each story has an Audience & Goal. Choose yours.
Say, you’re an electrical engineering student & you want to reach out to a Product Design Company for future job opportunities.
The popular route: find job posting —> apply with resume & portfolio —> wait.
Instead try this:
Find 1 person in the company who’s in a position where you’d like to be & reach out to them.
The goal is to narrow your scope.
This way your email stays short & focused. (Plus, you get a mentor this way, more on that below👇👇…)
We have the audience & goal. Let’s build the meat of the story.
Step 2: Do your Research:
Here’s an example person:
Sr. Electrical/Biomedical Engineer
John has degrees in electrical and biomedical engineering from [university] and over 10 years of experience in electrical design in a biomedical field. He also has a background in IT, web technologies, live audio mixing, home automation, and ceramic art. John never liked thinking inside the box, which is why he lives in a geodesic dome home, complete with a matching geodesic dome chicken run. In addition to the chickens, he keeps bees, cats, and a couple of kids.
Now, you need to research the person and find uncommon commonalities.
You’re an electrical engineering student —> They’re an electrical & biomedical engineer. (Pointing it out is a good way to build a relationship—> secret Mentor relationship starts here)
Do you overlap with any of their background, interests, hobbies?
Did they do something you’ve always wanted to try?
Take your time to research. Show them you put in the time to learn about their work. The research pulls the audience in to read your email.
Use the right lingo to show your knowledge.
People reply to emails if they know the other person won’t waste their time. Doing the research is hard work, but it’s necessary.
Step 3: Draft 3 Questions
Draft 3 questions but choose 1 to ask in your initial email.
Leave the rest of the questions for follow-up emails.
Focus on questions on starting with “what” or “how” or “why”.
As an engineering student, here are possible list of questions to ask the engineer above:
What advice would you give to a college electrical engineer interested in product design? What experiences or projects should I focus on?
I noticed your company worked on a device to reduce concussions in football, how did you go about designing it?
I noticed you have a hobby in live audio mixing. How have your hobbies impacted your work?
These questions are the story beats to keep the audience engaged to read your email.
🎉🎉A Bonus Tip: Use questions as an opportunity to earn a Mentor.
People love to give back.
As a university student, your chances of hearing back are higher than if you were out of college. Ask for advice that can help your studies such as project to focus on or internships or topics to learn.
Then, follow-up in future emails on how you applied their advice.
This shows them you took their advice and ran with it.
And you earn a mentor by having them share your success.
Step 4: Formatting:
Your email will not be read if it isn’t easy to read.
With Bullet Points
By step 4, you’re done with 95% of the email.
Now you need to format it. Organize your questions in a bullet point format or on its own line. Use them to separate ideas or provide more info.
Makes emails easier to read.
And info easier to find.
For Readability & Skimmability
Give a 5 second glance at any email.
In those 5 seconds, ask yourself these questions:
Do you know who is asking?
Do you know why they’re reaching out?
Do you know what they want from you?
Do you know what action they want you to take next?
If your email does not answer these questions in a 5 second glance, go back to formatting it for readability.
For example:
Mess with bolding important phrases or using bullet points.
Use larger fonts to indicate a Questions Section or Action-to-take section.
Step 5: Conquer the Subject Line
The subject line is the first thing people see. Make it clear, intriguing, and valuable.
In his book, To Sell Is Human, Dan Pink covers a study showing that people will read emails with subject lines that create curiosity or provide value. Your subject line must tell the reader what you want & the topic of your email.
Using the example of Sr. Electrical/Biomedical Engineer from earlier, possible email subject lines are:
[Question] Advice for a 3rd year Electrical Engineering Student interested in Product Design.
[Update] Took your advice on personal projects. I landed an internship!
Then the rest of the email comes from Steps 1-3.
Step 6: End with Gratitude
End your email thanking them for their time. Easiest way to double response rates.
Adam Grant & Francesca Gino ran an experiment asking people to spend some time helping a student improve a job application cover letter.
The students replied, “I just wanted to let you know that I received your feedback on my cover letter,” and asked for help with another one in the next three days.
This led to a 32% response rate.
When the students added “Thank you so much! I am really grateful”—the rate of response doubled to 66%
End your email with a thank you and how it’s helped you.
This makes them feel good. They will help others more in the future.
And you’ve cultivated a relationship with a mentor who’s invested in your success.
That’s it!
As always, thanks for reading.
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