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gtm-sales

Playbook: Writing Cold Emails

Daniela Pico

Introduction

Cold emailing remains a valuable tool in the arsenal of sales, networking, and outreach professionals. However, with the sheer volume of emails hitting inboxes daily, standing out has become a challenge. This playbook will guide you on crafting cold emails that not only get noticed, but also prompt action.

Cold emailing, when done right, can open doors, start conversations, and foster valuable connections. It serves as an initial touchpoint, which, if executed correctly, can lead to long-lasting professional relationships. A well-crafted cold email

Reflects your brand
Showcases your research, and
Demonstrates your genuine interest in the recipient.

It's more than just a sales tactic; it's a bridge to meaningful conversations.

By the end of this playbook, you'll be equipped with the techniques and best practices to craft compelling cold emails that resonate with your target audience and pave the way for more meaningful interactions.

Finally, we will walk you through a tactical strategy of how to grow a lead list and start sending out emails.

Generating a Lead List and Setting Up Automation Flows

One of the challenges we consistently see is that many founders are unable to generate enough meetings to conduct proper customer discovery and target their first batch of users. Each founder’s goal should be to generate enough meetings to learn about your industry/customer/product and line up a batch of initial users. Based on our experience across the portfolio, in order to fill your calendar with 50+ discovery calls you’ll need to send out 250+ emails per week for 2-3 weeks.

We recommend utilizing a platform like Apollo.io, which is a database of over 265M B2B contacts that you can filter through based on various criteria (industry job title etc) to build lead lists and run outreach automation flows.

Before you even start writing your email, spend some time thinking about what the purpose of this email is. Try to ask this from the perspective of your customer. Why would they be excited to receive this? Perhaps you’re illustrating a topic they’re particularly passionate about, or you might be acknowledging them as an industry expert.

Based on this, you can get more specific about how you should write your email.

Step 1 - Research Your Recipient

A personalized touch can differentiate your email from hundreds of others. It will also allow you to learn if this person really could be a good fit for the conversation you want to have.

As you are researching, try to pull out specific things about them. Were they recently mentioned in the news?

Did they post something interesting on LinkedIn?

Have they spent 20+ years in this industry?

Step 2 - Craft the Subject Line

Your subject line is the most important part of your email. It should not be an afterthought. Most people will archive emails from senders they don’t recognize. Your subject line is the passcode to get in the door.

A good subject line is short, personalized, relevant and focuses on the recipient. A bad subject line reads like a spam email, is too long, or is overly focused on your company.

Good examples:

Your Name <> Their Name Reducing your production cost by 20%

[Your name] x Forum — potential fit?

First name, I thought you would find this interesting

Loved your Forum Foundry launch post — especially the part on validating with real customer signals

Case study idea for Forum: how we used AI agents to run pre-sales experiments before building

Congrats on your recent Product Hunt launch — the traction looks 🔥

Longtime fan of your LinkedIn takes on early-stage GTM — sharp and actionable

Bad example:

Hello from (your company name) Reducing your customer churn (Your company name) can help you achieve xyz.

Step 3 - Open with a Personal Connection

The first line of your email should answer the question: “why are you reaching out to me?” Only after you have answered that question should you introduce yourself.

Good Examples:

“I noticed your organization just published its most recent sustainability report. I’m a big fan of the work you have been doing on renewable energy transitions.”

“I ran into your team at NYC Tech Week recently and they mentioned your company is working on XYZ”

Bad Example:

“Hi, I’m Steve, CEO and Founder of my company.org, and we specialize in XYZ.”

Step 4 - Keep it Short, Clear and Demonstrate Value Upfront

A cold email is not an introduction to your company. It’s an invitation to a conversation. A way to pique someone’s interest. After opening with a personal connection, focus on the subject you would like to discuss.

Good Examples:

“We are looking to connect with leaders who are serious about renewable energy investments to understand how you are thinking about reducing costs in your organization. We will be publishing a report following our conversations on top strategies”

“We are hoping to connect with marketing-leaders to understand how you think about audience engagement and distribution. Given your 10+ years of experience in SaaS marketing, your perspective would be invaluable.”

Bad Examples:

“Company X helps retail commercial spaces save up to 50% in the cost of their energy management. We have a software platform dedicated to helping you monitor, track, and reduce the cost of your mobile phone. Check out our demo here”

“Are you thinking about audience engagement? Our platform helps B2B SaaS Marketing leaders unlock distribution and build audiences at scale. Do you have time next week to discuss more?”

Step 5: Wrap up with a CTA

Your call to action should connect back to your goals for the cold email. Are they RSVPing to an event? Booking a demo? Agreeing to an interview? Only include one CTA per email.

Regardless of what the ask is, it should be specific.

Good Example:

“Do you have any time this week Thursday after 3:00 pm EST or anytime on Friday?”

Bad Example:

“Let me know if it would be interesting to learn more or check out our website here.”

To wrap it all together, check out below for a good example of a full email.

Good Cold Email Example:

SUBJECT: Recipient First Name) I (Your First Name) - Content Engagement

Hi [Recipient Name],

After diving deep into [Recipient’s Company]'s impressive content strategy, I noticed you could potentially increase engagement by up to 40% in your Tik Tok channels.

As a content strategist, I’ve worked with [Company A] and [Company B] to help them increase their content engagement. I'd love to connect and share a little bit more about what I’ve learned and learn more about how you are thinking about content engagement in your strategic plan.

Would you be open to a brief call on [specific date and time] to explore this?

Best Regards,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Position]
[Your Company with a link]