How To Write B2B Cold Emails: Best Templates And Recommendations

How to write a B2B cold email

While writing a cold email, a marketer should find a balance between being informative and being brief. That can be quite frustrating, especially when you have no experience with cold letters. Don’t worry though — these tips will help you through. Moreover, you will find several cold letter templates to make B2B cold email writing a lot easier and more on point.

Think about the subject line

33% of readers decide whether to open an email or not depending solely on a subject line. That’s your gatekeeper — no matter how good the newsletter itself, it may not be opened at all if the subject line is not catchy. Might be a good idea to focus on crafting and testing different subject lines to see what works for you.

Here are some cold email subject line tips to consider:

• Personalize. By that, we don’t mean just addressing your recipient by their first name. Let’s say, you’re an email marketing consultant working in an agency and using cold emails to promote the services. You’re sending the same offer to a tech startup, a dental clinic, and a clothes retailer. These prospects have different pain points and backgrounds — try highlighting those in a subject line.

• Keep them short. Some of your recipients may read your email on a smartphone, so your subject line shouldn’t cut off and create a potentially awkward situation. If in doubt, test the email on your phone before sending it.

• Don’t be too formal. While B2B has less room for creativity compared to B2C retail, for example, remember that you’re a person talking to another person. It doesn’t mean you can use TikTok lingo in your subject lines. However, speaking bureaucratese is unnecessary as well. Stick to the neutral, simple, and clear tone of voice instead.

If you’re feeling frisky, you can even try and use funny subject lines for your cold emails — depending on the industry, they may work.

Include a greeting and introduction

Suppose you did a good job and your subject line works. It’s time to introduce yourself and make a good first impression. Stay brief and focus on your recipient’s needs — introduce yourself and tell only what your recipient needs to know at this stage.

In the following example, the sender gives the name of the company, their position in it, and a short explanation of why they’re reaching out in the first place. There are links to the company’s website and the pitch, in case the reader is interested. 

The recipient likely knows nothing about you, so you need to catch their attention and make a good offer before you lose their focus. That’s why cutting to the chase is important in B2B cold email writing.

Add an enticing offer

That is the reason your recipient is reading this email in the first place. Promise them a sound advantage — it’s better if you do it right in the subject line and follow with the details in the newsletter. 

Many kinds of offers can work in B2B cold emails. For instance, if you’re promoting SaaS software, you can offer freebies, special plans, and more. In the example below though, the offer in question is simply a better newsletter service that is cheaper and brings more revenue.

Write a text that looks personal to the reader

Be brief but not too formal so that your email looks person-to-person and not as if it was written by a stiff salesman. Avoid marketing cliches — your reader comes across those so many times that tends to ignore emails with these harmless phrases. Here’s a list of some popular ones:

• “I am looking for the appropriate person who handles…”
• “Hope this email finds you well!”
• “I decided to send you an email instead of calling you.”
• “I have not heard from you. Let me know please.”

Aside from the tone of voice, you can make your message more personal by tweaking the content for each prospect. Instead of sending the same generic cold email to all your potential customers, think of how your product could be useful to each of them — and highlight that value in the email.

Let’s say, you’re promoting a marketing automation tool. Your prospects include a small private dental clinic, an experienced email marketing agency, and a tech startup. These potential customers have different pain points and use emails, SMS, and other marketing channels for different purposes. For example, you wouldn’t tell an experienced email marketing agency that you know how to warm up email addresses — to them, it’s not impressive enough. However, inexperienced marketers from a dental clinic may appreciate this information and the all-inclusive offer with warmed-up IPs and all that jazz.

CTA as a necessary component

A CTA in a B2B cold email is what you expect your prospect to do further. You can suggest starting a free trial, contacting you via email or phone, visiting or registering on your website, etc. No matter the goal, make sure you explain clearly what to do next — that’s crucial for boosting the response rate.

Here are several types of CTAs to use in your cold email:

• Conversation starters. These are more of an open-ended question that asks for interest or opinion, like “What do you think of retention marketing?“.
• Demo scheduling. Offer a specific day and time for a demo, like “Do you have time for a 20-minute demo ”
• Asking for the right person. Specify whether you should talk about the issue to the recipient’s coworker or partner. That can be useful in case your prospect did not answer the previous emails. For example, “Is discussing marketing investments in your scope of work or should I talk to a colleague of yours? Please refer me to the right person, if possible”.

Include proof of your words

Your prospects don’t know you yet, so they will need proof that your business is trustworthy and resolves the customers’ pain points. Here’s a list of proofs you can use:

• Customer reviews
• Case studies, especially with well-known clients
• Figures: market share, how many clients do you have, how long are you on the market
• Quotes from your partners to prove your reliability

However, here’s what you need to keep in mind — you’re not here to brag about how cool you are, and your prospects don’t care if you have 100 customers. While you can mention such figures, keep in mind that numbers alone won’t yield you a response. What is more important than namedropping or showing off your market share is a description of how exactly you can help your prospect.

8 best B2B cold email templates

The blank sheet can be quite frustrating, even if you know what to include in your cold email. So, we’ve compiled a list of 8 email templates for B2B. These templates use different sales frameworks and are appropriate for different scenarios. 

The AIDA model

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. That describes the structure of your email: you grab attention, express interest in your prospects’ stuff to keep them hooked, show the benefits to build a desire, and give a clear CTA so your reader knows what to do to satisfy the desire in question.

If you consider this model a good fit for your business, use this template. Keep in mind that it’s a baseline AIDA email where the “attention” part is supposed to be in the subject line — you can change any element. For example, the “expressing interest” part doesn’t have to be about complimenting corporate blog articles.

The SAS model

SAS stands for Star, Arch, and Success. This is a scenario in which you present the star — the hero of your story. The star can be a person, a business, or a project. You follow with the arch, which is a description of the star’s journey, and the difficulties the hero has to overcome. And finally, you show the star’s success.

The SAS model creates a story, and humans love stories. They grab attention and generate interest. That’s why some of the best cold email templates are story-based — like this one:

The PAS model

PAS stands for Problem, Agitate, and Solution. First, you describe the problem, then agitate to underline why this problem is so important, and, give the solution in the end.

Here’s a baseline template based on the PAS framework you can use for your next cold email campaign.

The BAB model

BAB stands for Before, After, and Bridge. You describe point A and point B, which obviously should be a success, and then explain how you got here — that is the bridge.

Check this example of the BAB model cold email. It starts from describing the current state of the recipient’s business, then moves to the “after” state when the issue is resolved, and ends with a bridge which is the “salesy” part of this email template.

Product launch template

You can use this template for product launch emails. But the focus of the email is asking the lead to estimate it and give comments, not to praise and promote the product. That makes a difference: you underline that you value the prospect’s opinion first, and only then you go on about the advantages of your product.

Here’s an example of what this email may look like:

New site visitors template

This template can be applied to prospects who already visited your website, which makes them warmer compared to those completely unfamiliar with your company. The key is to avoid being pushy and bring value for those who already showed a minimum interest.

Here’s an example of how to show you’ve noticed a new visitor on your website and yet not appear creepy:

Template for comparison with competitors

If you know that the lead uses your competitor’s product, use this information to your advantage. Don’t go bad-mouthing in email marketing, but show your UTP and hint at why you might be a better choice.

Here’s a good example of how to do so:

The “We helped X” template

Social proof in email marketing makes you appear safe and encourages the prospect to take action. If you have a good case with a well-known client, describe it in your email to add weight to your self-presentation. Give some figures and promise the advantage lead could get from cooperation with you.

Things to avoid when sending B2B cold emails

There are some general email marketing tips, no matter which b2b cold email template you choose. Some things make your email less attractive and lower its chances of getting a response. Let’s dig deeper:

• The email body is too long. Being brief is crucial for any email and is vital for a cold email. Your prospect knows almost nothing about you and the benefit he could get from cooperating with you. So, the motivation to read an email start to finish is already lower. Offering a long B2B cold email screams low empathy and disrespect.
• You praise yourself too much. No one loves braggarts. You should find a modest way to prove you’re good. B2B cold emails tolerate no self-praise — only pure facts. Instead of bragging, point out the facts: customer reviews, case studies, and numbers.
• You use too many jargon and filler phrases. Jargon and filler phrases are bad for any kind of email but they’re especially awful for B2B cold emails. Even if your offer is attractive, showing bad taste can make your email ugly.
• You overuse emojis and/or GIFs. Emojis and GIFs in email marketing are to get tested before sending. Their relevance and efficiency depend on your audience, so there are no universal tips. Research data on emojis in emails is rather inconclusive. For example, a Return Path study indicates emojis increase open rates, while a newer research by Nielsen Norman Group shows emojis in subject lines increase negative sentiment instead. So, better safe than sorry — stay away from emojis and GIFs in your B2B cold emails.
• The email has grammar mistakes. It’s important to avoid grammatical mistakes in marketing emails, let alone B2B cold emails. You don’t make them on purpose, so the only way to avoid them is to double-check your texts. Proofreading software helps a lot in this case. Even the grammar check feature in Google Docs will do the job — however, you can use external apps like Hemingway App or Grammarly. These apps also help you improve your writing, especially if English is not your native language.

Final Thoughts

Crafting B2B cold emails can be a challenge — we’re making it easier with 8 B2B cold email templates that you can use as a starting point and stop being scared of a blank canvas. Let’s revise some tips to ace your cold emails, respect your readers, and improve the efficiency:

• Stay brief — your recipients don’t have a lot of time and are not inclined to read your email start to finish.
• Focus on the benefits — your email should answer the questions like “What can my company do for them?” and “Why should they trust my company?”.
• Craft a solid subject line — it should be short and sweet, to the point, and maybe a little intriguing to create anticipation.
• Don’t brag — introduce yourself briefly and don’t focus on numbers unless you give useful context.
• Use social proof — these can include customer reviews, case studies, figures, and so on.
• Personalize your content — don’t write the same things to different prospects, think of their unique pains instead.
• Include an actionable CTA — give a direction on what readers should do after finishing your email and what they’ll get in return.