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How To Prospect With Cold Emails Like a Pro
Turning Emails Into Growth Engines
Aaron Nichols
January 13th, 2025
Table of Contents
Understanding Prospecting Emails and Their Importance
Modern sales departments desperately need personalized, targeted communication to build relationships at scale.
With cold calling going the way of the dinosaurs, sales teams increasingly lean into email as their go-to channel for engaging with prospects, but there are right and wrong ways to prospect via email—check your spam folder, and you'll see tons of emails that have entirely missed the mark.
Don't worry. beehiiv is here to help you prospect like a pro.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll explain everything you need to know about prospecting email templates—what they are, how they work, and the best strategies to boost response rates.
By the end, you'll clearly understand how to create emails that open doors, capture interest, and lead to meaningful sales conversations.
Why Listen to Me?
I’ve worked with brands of all sizes in 8 separate industries to build email automations and cold email campaigns designed to pique prospect interest and convert them to clients over time. You can connect with me on LinkedIn here.
What Is a Prospecting Email?
A prospecting email is a targeted outreach email sent to potential customers to initiate a conversation, build a relationship, or drive them toward a specific action (such as booking a meeting or downloading a case study).
Prospecting emails are usually the first touchpoint between a company and a prospective buyer.
The purpose of a prospecting email isn't to close a deal immediately. Instead, it's meant to spark interest, provide value, and encourage further communication.
To work well, a prospecting email must resonate with the recipient by addressing their pain points, offering a potential solution, or providing insight into how your product or service can meet their needs.
The Role of Prospecting Emails in Sales and Lead Generation
Prospecting emails play an essential role in the sales and lead generation process.
Once a business has used prospecting software like Zoominfo or Apollo to find contact info for ideal leads, it can use prospecting email software like beehiiv to reach out to individuals who fit their ideal customer profile (ICP) on a massive scale.
Prospecting email software helps you cast a wide net, while maintaining personalized communication.
When done correctly, prospecting emails:
Open the door for future conversations
Build awareness of a product or service
Help identify decision-makers within organizations
Set the foundation for a relationship that can lead to a sale
In today's world, buyers are drowning in communication from various sources. A well-crafted prospecting email can cut through the noise and position your company as a problem solver worth considering.
Key Elements of a Successful Prospecting Email
Unfortunately, the “spray-and-pray” strategy doesn’t work in prospecting. Send out a lot of bad, unrelatable emails, and you’ll get crickets back.
Here’s an example of a very poorly written email from my work inbox:
Let’s unpack it.
Here’s a few things the sender completely whiffed on:
No personalization: This email is written like one of my least favorite phrases that you see on junk mail envelopes: “or current resident.”
The sender has not taken any time to find out who I am or even add dynamic tags that will fill with my info. It might as well start with “I don’t care who you are, but are you interested in my thing?”
Industry-specific jargon: While all of the bolded words are, in fact, words we use in the solar industry, they don’t make any sense in the order that they’re presented.
I work for an EPC. I don’t need to contact one. This person has just sent me a word salad of terms we use in solar without taking the time to check if they make any sense.
No CTA: The email ends with “thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.”
Thank you for what? We haven’t done anything together yet! And you clearly have no idea who I am or where I’m located. You’ll certainly not be hearing from me. Good day!
Let’s talk about how we could rewrite this email, but in a way that would resonate with someone like me.
Crafting an Attention-Grabbing Subject Line
Your subject line is the first thing your prospect sees, and it's critical in determining whether your email gets opened.
Statistics show that 47% of email recipients open an email based solely on the subject line. Humans look at subject lines before we look at where emails come from.
If you can make the subject line relevant to the receiver, they'll open it.
Here are a few tips for crafting an engaging subject line:
Use personalization: Mentioning the recipient's name or company can make the email more relevant. Use this sparingly, maybe a third of the time.
Experiment with “internal camouflage”: Making the email sound like it came from inside the recipient's company will encourage them to open it.
Make it relevant: Tying the subject line to a specific pain point or goal of the recipient's company will make them want to know more.
Here are some better subject lines for the example email above:
New Commercial Leads
Improved C&I Contact List
Does Need C&I Leads?"
Personalization and Relevance
People's inboxes are flooded with generic outreach. Effective personalization can set your emails apart.
Personalization goes beyond the recipient's name. In the modern world, no one is going, "Ooh, they know my name!" You need to show that you understand their industry-specific challenges.
To personalize effectively at scale, do your homework:
Research the pain points of the industry you're targeting: What are their current challenges or goals? Has their company recently announced new initiatives or changes that your solution can help with? You can prospect for information like this (like a shipping company opening a new packaging facility) on ZoomInfo or Apollo.
Understand their role: Tailor your message to address how your product can help the recipient in their specific position within the company. Sending out emails to managers at 100 different companies will get you more interest than sending the same email to 100 people at the same company.
Better copy for my example email above:
Instead of tossing out word salad like "Would you be interested in the contacts of C&I installers, EPCs Contractors and project developers?" personalize it by writing something like, "It’s always tough for EPCs like to get in touch with decision-makers who can greenlight C&I projects. Our service has helped solar companies like yours increase their qualified lead flow by (x percent)"
That’s an email I would reply to.
Clear and Compelling Call to Action
A solid call to action (CTA) gives your recipient a clear next step. Without one, your email can fall flat.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever received for writing cold emails was "They don't want to be reading your emails. Don't assume they're happy to hear from you."
That advice is entirely true. You have just a few short seconds to show them that your pitch holds value.
If you don't tell the recipient exactly what to do next and make it simple, they will move on in milliseconds and never think about your email again!
Here's what makes a great CTA:
Clarity: Be specific about what you want the recipient to do (e.g., schedule a call, request more information).
Simplicity: Make the request easy and low-effort. For example, "Are you available for a 10-minute call next week?"
Urgency: If possible, create urgency by offering a time-bound incentive (e.g., "Limited availability next week. Book your call now.”). This can come across as salesy and fake; so, if possible, show them that your calendar is indeed almost full.
A better CTA for the email above:
"Let's schedule a 10-minute call to discuss how we can help get in touch with people who can actually move projects forward. Are you free for a ten-minute call next week?
Keeping It Concise and Focused
Prospecting emails should be short and to the point.
People are busy, and no one has time to read through long, rambling emails. Aim for a concise message that communicates your value in a few key sentences.
Best practices:
Keep the email under 150 words: Focus on the essentials—who you are, why your offer is the best thing since sliced bread, and the next step you want them to take.
Avoid using jargon unless you know the industry: Use simple, straightforward language.
Focus on value: Every sentence should communicate why the prospect should care about your message.
Types of Prospecting Emails
Initial Outreach Emails
The initial outreach email is your best chance to grab a prospect's attention. This email should hook the recipient's interest, while offering value and a clear reason to engage with/reply to you.
You need to ensure that you're hitting them over the head with the value you offer here.
It's tricky to gain traction from a large volume of non-specific emails. The more deeply you understand the recipient's problems, the more likely you will get a reply.
Make sure you research their industry before reaching out.
Best practices for initial outreach emails:
Personalize: Make the email about the recipient, not you.
Offer value: Share insights or data points that are directly related to the recipient’s business.
Clear CTA: Make the next step obvious and easy.
Example Initial Outreach Email Template:
Hi, [First Name],
Companies like [Company Name] usually struggle with [Problem]. [My Company] specializes in helping organizations like yours tackle [Pain Point] and achieve [Result] by using [Proven Process with Evidence].
Would you be available for a 10-minute call this week to discuss how we can help [Company Name] do the same?
Best,
[Your Name]
Follow-Up Emails
Follow-up emails bring home the bacon. Most prospects won't respond to the first email, so follow-up emails are crucial to the prospecting process.
Your goal with a follow-up email is to remind the recipient of your initial outreach, build on the original value proposition, and continue to demonstrate relevance.
Best practices for follow-ups:
Reference previous emails: Be brief and call their attention to the value-packed first email.
Offer new information: Provide additional value or insight to reignite their interest.
Keep it light: Follow-ups should be polite and non-pushy.
Example Follow-Up Email Template:
Hi, [First Name],
I wanted to follow up on my last email. I understand that you're busy, but I believe there's significant value in exploring how we can support your team in achieving [Specific Goal] like we helped [Previous Client] get [Result With Evidence]
Are you available this week for a quick chat?
Re-Engagement Emails
Sometimes, leads go cold or fail to respond after multiple outreach attempts. Re-engagement is the Hail Mary that gets them back.
Best practices for re-engagement:
Acknowledge the silence: Mention that things have been quiet.
Offer a new perspective: Present new data, insights, or solutions that may be more relevant now.
Example Re-Engagement Email Template:
Hi, [First Name],
It's been a while since we last connected, and I wanted to see if [Company Name] is still interested in discussing solutions for [Pain Point].
Since we talked, we've worked with companies like [New Company in Same Industry] to help them achieve [Specific Result].
If it's still relevant, I'd love to reconnect.
Best Practices for Writing Prospecting Email Templates
Researching Your Prospects
Effective prospecting starts with research. Before sending an email, spend time understanding your prospect's business, goals, and Industry.
Tools like LinkedIn and company websites can provide valuable insights to personalize your message effectively.
Take the email at the very beginning of this article as an example: a prospecting email sent without understanding the person you're sending it to will immediately get marked as spam.
Social proof adds credibility to your outreach and demonstrates that other companies, especially in the same industry, have benefited from your solution.
Testimonials or case studies can be woven into the email to build trust.
Example: "At [Your Company], we recently helped [Client] reduce [Problem] by 25%. Here's what they had to say:
[Insert Quote]
I believe that we could see similar results for [Prospect's Company]."
Measuring and Optimizing Your Prospecting Emails
Key Metrics To Track
Tracking key metrics can help you measure the success of your email campaigns. These metrics include:
Open Rate: Measures how many recipients open your email, which indicates the effectiveness of your subject line
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Tracks how many recipients click on links within your email, providing insight into the relevance of your content
Response Rate: Measures how many recipients replied to your email, which helps evaluate how engaging your messaging is
A/B Testing for Continuous Improvement
A/B testing involves creating two versions of an email to see which performs better.
Test elements like subject lines, CTAs, email length, and tone. This helps you continuously optimize your emails to increase open and response rates.
Leveraging Feedback for Better Results
If prospects respond with feedback, use that information to refine your approach.
For example, if multiple prospects mention timing issues, adjust your email cadence. If they mention that the emails they’re receiving are irrelevant to them, rethink your targeting and messaging strategies.
Conclusion
Creating prospecting campaigns that convert is an art that requires well-researched, personalized campaigns.
Remember to focus on adding value, keeping the message concise to respect the recipient's time, and creating a clear path for the recipient to engage with you.
Ultimately, though, if you're going to create high-growth campaigns, you need the right tool. You don't want all of your emails bouncing or all of them ending up in spam before your prospects can read them.
If you're ready to create high-converting email campaigns with email software that's built for growth by email experts, it's time to sign up for your 30-day free trial of beehiiv. Our email software is packed with features like boosts that you literally can’t find anywhere else. If you’re serious about growing your business via email, there’s no better place than beehiiv.
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