Targeting CIOs, CTOs, and IT managers with cold outreach is a pain as they are often flooded with emails.

So, how do you make your cold email stand out and get replies?

In this article, check out how Victor, Co-founder of Scalability outbound growth agency, transformed an email by a SaaS company that targets CTOs and CIOs for more replies.

Cold email mistakes to avoid if you want to book more meetings

Here’s what blocks prospects from replying to this cold email:

#1 No subject line

Don’t miss out on an opportunity to tease your prospects to open and read your email with an intriguing subject line.

#2 Self-centered intro

Don’t waste intro lines to talk about yourself. Your target doesn’t care about you – they care about how you can help them achieve their goals.

#3 Making assumptions

Making assumptions about your prospects’ interests can lead to miscommunication and a low response rate. Instead, you can use your cold email to confirm if there is any interest at all.

#4 CTA without benefit

Asking for a call without telling your prospects what’s in it for them won’t motivate them enough to take action.

How to write a cold email for a high conversion rate

Here’s how Victor would rewrite this cold email to open new business opportunities for his clients:

How this email pushes prospects to hit reply?

#1 Intriguing & short subject line

The subject line is short enough to catch prospects’ attention without revealing too much.

#2 The intro line is about the prospect

The first few sentences of the email are fully customized to each prospect thanks to variables and explain the unique reason for reaching out.

#3 Social proof

Mention the customers that are similar in size or have similar challenges as your prospect, which makes your solution more relevant.

#4 Interest-based question

Use a question based on interests that is hard to answer no. After you confirm their interest, you can book a meeting with your prospects in the next email.

Cold email template to replicate for more replies

Subject line: Intro

Hi {{firstName}},

I saw you’ve implemented {{tool1}} and {{tool2}} at {{companyName}}. How do you integrate both?

Just last week, I was discussing with {{firstNamesRef}} from {{similarcompany}} how the integration between {{tool1}} and {{tool2}} had impacted these operations thanks to {{mycompanyName}}.

Would you be interested in integrating your stack with a single platform?

Kind regards,

{{signature}}

The key takeaways

Here are Victor’s most important cold email tips that will get you more replies from CIOs & CTOs:

-> Make the intro about the prospect, not you

-> Avoid making assumptions about prospects’ interests

-> Use social proof with names they are familiar with

-> Ask an irresistible, interest-based question

You can watch Victor’s full cold email teardown here.

PS: Want more tips? Request outbound experts to review your cold emails here.