WARNING: This article will drastically improve your cold email writing skills.
What if you could craft your cold email in a way that gets responses like these?
Response from the global head of a large insurance company:
Response from a C-level executive of a large bank.
Read the responses above? These are from C-level executives of large enterprises. Many would say to be more “formal” in reaching out to these kinds of traditional companies. But these screenshots are proof you can get execs to respond to you when you send a cold email The Scalelab way.
And that’s because after generating 5000+ leads and over $50 million in pipeline value for clients, we discovered what it takes to get prospects to open your emails and book a call with you.
Just look at the numbers. I’m talking about:
92% Open rate
63% Reply rate
68% Connection acceptance rate
So if you’re curious about a new and better way to do cold email…
And if you’re interested in making your own killer cold email templates (fit for your company), this guide is for you.
Because we’ll give you a “no-holding-back” insider look at the type of cold emails we write to generate millions for our clients.
We’ll give a breakdown on:
The exact 4-step framework for writing cold emails that generated thousands of leads for our clients.
How to write cold email subject lines that will boost your open rate and help increase your sales.
How to start your cold email to keep your prospects *hooked* to read more.
How to spark interest and curiosity with an effective value proposition.
How to increase your response rate by closing your cold email with a *BANG.*
Ready? Let’s get started.
Write an Engaging Cold Email Template with The SIVA Framework
If you need help structuring high-performing emails, here’s the framework we developed at The Scalelab - the SIVA Framework
SIVA stands for Subject line, Intro line, Value, and Action.
In this guide, we will go through each part of the framework step by step so you can apply it when writing your cold email. Plus, we’ll also show you an actual email that uses the SIVA framework.
For many of our clients and funded B2B companies that took our email mastery course, this powerful framework quickly improved the responses to their emails.
So if you’re tired of hearing “No” and “Stop Emailing Me!” if there’s any reply at all, this framework might just do the trick for you.
Here’s How To Boost The Open Rate of Your Cold Email Template
Is your open rate low?
It could be because your subject lines are not intriguing enough. In other words, you’re not capturing your prospect’s attention.
And this is bad. Because no matter how well-written the rest of your email is, if the subject line isn’t compelling enough for prospects to open it, then all your efforts will go down the drain.
So how do you write subject lines that intrigue your prospects?
It’s simple - keep it short and personalized.
Don’t believe us? Here are some key facts to take note of:
As reported by Invesp, 47% of recipients will click on an email depending on the subject line alone.
Similarly, 69% of recipients will mark an email as spam solely based on the subject line.
Emails that have personalized subject lines are 22% more likely to get opened.
Let’s Look at Examples of Subject Line Formats
Subject Lines on the Left
Never use the subject lines on the left. Let’s break down why they won’t work.
“Introduction of our consulting service” | “We make recruitment easy for companies like *COMPANY NAME*” |
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2. Smells like a pitch from a mile away | 2. Still very long and salesy. |
3. Not personalized | |
4. Long | |
Subject Lines on the Right
Now, the subject lines on the right are great examples of short and personalized subject lines. Let’s break down why they’re so effective.
“Meet next week?” | “Question FIRST NAME” |
1. Warm and Friendly; This is something you would use when you want to connect or catch up with someone (especially a friend). |
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2. Short and snappy. Also looks like a casual invitation from a personal acquaintance. | 2. Looks like a casual chat from a personal acquaintance, and not like a long winded pitch opener. |
3. Meetings are usually reserved for important discussions, so this request makes the prospect curious. | 3. Again, short and snappy |
How To Keep Your Prospects *Hooked* To Read More
Now that you’ve structured your subject line to avoid being generic or salesy, it’s time to show your prospects that your email is intended just for them.
Otherwise, your emails will just end up in the bin, along with the hours you’ve spent writing them.
Here’s an example of an intro that gets emails deleted or reported as spam.
“Hi Sarah, I hope this email finds you well, my name is Youssef and I work for The Scalelab where we offer X, Y, Z…”
Let’s break down everything that’s wrong with this:
First, it’s obviously copy-pasted.
Second, it’s generic. Most people write their intros like this and no one ever gets a response.
So let’s not waste your precious email intro like this and instead craft an intro that gets your emails read.
Here’s how:
1. Make it about the prospect, not about you.
Instead of starting your email by introducing yourself and talking more about your company, make it about them.
How? By researching the prospect and personalizing the intro line. This could be a simple Google search or scrolling through their LinkedIn profiles.
2. Be specific
When you’re writing the intro line, try to mention any of their achievements, their services, or anything specific that you’ve noticed while researching them.
While doing these two steps will require a bit of time and research, specific and prospect-focused intro lines will finally get your emails read and noticed.
Think about it.
Is it really better to send 100 copy-pasted emails in 1 hour without any positive replies OR spend 1 extra hour preparing engaging intro lines to get at least 10 positive replies?
If you ask me, I’d rather choose the latter and focus on quality vs quantity.
And I’m not the only one who thinks this.
Study shows that only 5% of sellers report that bulk emails are effective. In contrast, 31% of sellers report that sending 1-to-1 emails manually after intensive research and customization is an effective approach.
Thus, for sellers, intensive research and customization are 6X more effective than bulk emails.
Ready to write powerful well-researched intro lines? Here’s how you can do that.
Let’s Compare Two Examples of Intro Line Formats
Intro Line on the Left
Never use the intro line on the left. Here’s why it will never work.
Hi First Name, I hope you are doing fine. My name is Youssef and I run The Scalelab where we help companies to grow and generate leads. |
| “I hope you are doing fine.” This sentence gives the impression that they’re probably the 100th person you’ve messaged with the same email that day. It doesn’t show any hint of research or personalization at all, and it seems like you didn’t make an effort to learn about them or their company. It justifies not replying at all. |
2. About me and not about the prospect | “My name is *name* and I run *my company* where we *continues to talk more about their company* Talking about yourself right in the intro is a quick way to make prospects uninterested. It smells like a pitch from a mile away, and the prospect can’t pinpoint what’s in it for them. |
Intro Line on the Right
Now, the intro line on the right is a great example of a specific and recipient-centric intro. Let’s break down why it’s so effective.
Hi First Name, I loved your LinkedIn Poll on sales cycle duration. Shortening them seems like a strong focus at COMPANY NAME. |
| “I loved your LinkedIn Poll on sales cycle duration” Because the intro is specific, the prospect gets the impression that you took the time to research him/her and the company. This makes your email stand out against the hundreds of generic emails in their inbox. |
2. Focused on the prospect | “Shortening them seems like a strong focus at COMPANY NAME.” By focusing on their company’s achievements, needs, and services, you’re making your email all about them instead of you. It’s a great way to establish a genuine connection with your prospect. |
How to Spark Interest and Curiosity With an Effective Value Proposition
“What’s in it for me?”
This is a question most prospects ask when looking at cold emails, but companies often fail to answer.
If prospects find nothing of value within the email, it goes straight to the bin, spam, or under the pile of emails in their inbox never to see the light of day.
So how do you answer this question?
All you need to do is connect your prospect’s needs to the solution you offer.
You can do this with three simple steps:
1. Highlight their issue
When writing your value offering, show that you understand their needs. Understand how you or your company can fulfill their desires or offer a solution to their problems.
2. Personalize the body and provide value
In email marketing, 78% of marketers use personalization. Why? Because it’s easy to ignore a generic and templated email.
To apply personalization to your value offering, do a simple Google research or learn more about your prospect through their LinkedIn profile.
3. Write as if you’re talking in person
No need to sound robotic or corporate. Email them with a human tone as if you’re talking in person. This makes you appear more approachable.
Let’s look at how you can apply these three action steps below.
Let’s Compare Two Examples of Value Offerings
Value Offering on the Left
Never use the value offering on the left. Here’s why it will never work.
Allow me to take this opportunity to introduce some of our services to you:
|
| Simply listing out your services doesn’t show what benefits you can give them, or why they should even choose you. |
2. No value add | It’s difficult to picture the exact results they can get out of these services. The sentence doesn’t give off the impression that you're an expert or that you’ve done this before for similar companies. |
Value Offering on the Right
Now, the value offering on the right is a great example of focusing on the prospect’s needs and how you can help fulfill them. Let’s break down why it’s so effective.
I have a framework you can freely use that has helped companies like COMPANY NAME reduce sales cycles by up to 3 months. |
| Instead of focusing on your company and the services it can do, this sentence focuses on the prospect’s need to reduce cycles. Then, it presents a solution or framework that they can use freely to achieve this specific need. |
2. Adds value | The value presented is clear and specific - “reduce sales cycles by up to 3 months.” It’s easy to picture the exact results they can get out of you. It also positions you as an expert that has provided similar results for similar companies. |
How Can You Structure Your Value Proposition?
To demonstrate value, you need to have a clear idea of your prospect’s pain point and how your solution will solve that pain.
Once you’ve got this information, here’s how you can structure your value proposition.
Here are things to take note of before using this structure:
The company name within the brackets should be the prospect’s company name.
The “achieve benefit” section relates to the value proposition or the ultimate outcome the prospects are looking to achieve.
Here’s what this structure looks like in action:
“At The Scalelab we help companies just like {{company name}} to scale their sales by consistently finding new clients, month after month.”
We understand that people we engage with need to find clients consistently month after month to have a sustainable pipeline.
Highlighting this on our cold emails allows us to:
Show our prospects what we can achieve for them.
Ensure prospects that we’ve done this before for other companies similar to theirs.
How to Close Your Cold Email With a *BANG*
Getting stuck in the “seen zone” and never getting a response?
It could be because your email’s call to action isn’t clear enough, making prospects unsure of what to do next upon reading your message.
And this is bad because if they’re unsure what to do, they’ll end up doing nothing.
That means, all the effort of writing and researching the prospect goes down the drain.
So how do you write an effective call to action?
At The Scalelab, we consistently get over 60% in reply rate and connection acceptance rate by following these three simple steps:
Be clear about what you want.
Present the next step.
Avoid the” let me know” and “are you interested?”
Now, let's see these steps into practice.
Let’s Compare Two Examples of Call to Actions
Call To Action on the Left
Never use the call to action on the left. Here’s why it will never work.
Let me know if you are the right person to contact for these types of initiatives. |
| This CTA doesn’t tell the prospect what you want exactly. It’s vague and it increases the number of touchpoints because if they respond “yes, I am the right person,” you’ll have to send them another email to request a call. |
2. Doesn’t guide the prospect | In this CTA, the action they need to take isn’t clear. For example, if they are the right person to contact, what do they do next? Do they discuss this with you via email? Should they connect with you over LinkedIn, or should they book a call? |
Call To Action on the Right
Now, the call to action on the right is a great example of a clear and straightforward CTA. Let’s break down why it’s so effective.
Are you free Mon or Tues for a quick 10/15 min catch-up? |
| This CTA reduces the touchpoints by requesting for the call right away, which was the overall point of the email. |
2. Provides next steps | In this CTA, the action they need to take is clear. If they’re interested in the value you’re offering, all they need to do is book a quick 10/15 min call. |
SIVA Framework Applied
Here’s the SIVA Framework applied to create an actual cold email.
Let’s break down what happened here:
| Actual Text | Description |
Subject Line | Chat next week? |
|
Intro Line | Hi Youssef, I loved your LinkedIn Poll on sales cycle duration. Shortening them seems like a strong focus at The Scalelab. |
|
Value | I have a simple framework that you can freely use that has helped companies like The Scalelab reduce sales cycles by up to 3 months. I thought this could prove quite beneficial. |
|
| Happy to take 5/10 min. Are you free Mon or Tues for a quick chat? |
|
Check out our compilation of more cold email case studies with templates and analysis: https://www.thescalelab.com/post/cold-email-case-study
Time to Write Your Personalized High-Converting Cold Email Template
Take the SIVA framework and walk through your existing emails to see where you might have lacked structure.
Or, you can also start from scratch on a new email following the SIVA framework.
If you’re still looking for more cold email writing inspiration, feel free to take a look at our ultimate cold email templates directory, or download our proven and tested Email and LinkedIn templates that yielded more than 90% open rates and more than 60% reply and connection acceptance rates.
Discover the Highest Performing Cold Email Strategies with The Scalelab
Cold emailing is a smart, low-cost, and high-leverage option for funded companies. It’s so effective that:
It helped B2B company, LeadFuze, to grow to $30K per month within just 12 months.
Founder, Alex Berman, used cold email to build a $400K agency in just 30 days.
The ROI for email marketing is 4200% or $42 for every $1 spent.
Plus, when you outsource cold emailing, you only need to invest approximately $1,500 to get 2 to 4 leads, and $2,500 for 5 to 10 leads, and you’ll get the leads within 4-6 weeks.
But while it’s highly scalable and cost-effective, many B2B business owners still find their emails ignored or reported as spam. That’s why we’ve shared the 4-step framework we use to write cold emails that generate over 5000+ leads and $50 million in pipeline value for clients like The Bridge VC, CleverTap, Social Sourcing, and more.
But if you want to get to the next level and start finding clients consistently with cold emails, we also have the Cold Email Mastery course that covers all you need to know, such as:
Finding qualified prospects
Building contact lists with valid emails in no time.
Creating your cold email sequence with follow-ups
Setting up the tools to reach out to prospects and automate the whole process
Book more meetings and find new sales qualified clients through our cold email mastery course. Learn more about it here. 👉🏻https://courses.thescalelab.com/cold-email-mastery