Cold Emailing

What is Cold Email? A Simple Definition

Liucija Adomaite
LAST UPDATED
July 8, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.

People sent almost 182M cold emails around the world in one year, the new lemlist data shows.

The number is not surprising given the fact cold emailing is the backbone of any outreach campaign.

In this article, we give you a clear definition of a cold email so you have to look no further.

What is a cold email?

A cold email is a first-time email sent to a recipient without prior contact.

A cold email is the crucial part of cold outreach, a business development strategy where you reach out to potential customers who haven't had any prior interaction with your company.

Cold emails are the most effective and widely used forms of outreach to generate leads and build relationships with potential customers.

It's inseparable from sales prospecting.

The success of cold email campaigns relies on lead targeting, personalization, and the quality of the message.

Cold email: key features

  • Unsolicited: The recipient has not requested or expected the email.
  • Initial contact: It's the first interaction between the sender and recipient.
  • Goal-oriented: Cold emails typically have a specific purpose, such as introducing a product or service, requesting a meeting, or establishing a connection.
  • How to cold email?

    • Personalize: Tailor your message to the recipient's interests and needs.
    • Strong subject line: Grab attention with a concise and compelling subject line.
    • Pack value to your content: Get to the point quickly and offer something of value.
    • Clear call to action: Tell the recipient what you want them to do next (e.g., schedule a call, visit your website).
    • Follow-up: Don't be afraid to send a polite follow-up email if you don't receive a response. In fact, the data shows that it's best to send between 4 to 9 follow-ups without flagging you as spam.

    Cold email: Pros

    • Cost-effective: Compared to traditional marketing and advertising, cold email outreach is a relatively inexpensive way to reach a large audience.
    • Scalable: With the right tools, you can automate and personalize cold emails to reach a vast number of prospects efficiently.
    • Targeted: You can segment your audience based on demographics, interests, or industry, ensuring your message reaches the most relevant people.
    • Personalized: While unsolicited, cold emails can be tailored to the recipient's specific needs and interests, increasing the chances of engagement.
    • Measurable: You can track open rates, click-through rates, and responses to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and make data-driven improvements.
    • Relationship-building: Successful cold emails can lead to meaningful conversations and lasting business relationships.

    Cold Email: Cons

    • Low open rates: Many cold emails go unopened or get deleted, as recipients are often wary of unsolicited messages.
    • Spam filters: If not carefully crafted, cold emails can get flagged as spam, never reaching the recipient's inbox.
    • Legal restrictions: Some countries have strict regulations on unsolicited emails, so it's important to comply with relevant laws.
    • Time-consuming: Crafting effective cold emails by yourself and following up requires significant time and effort.

    Cold emailing: Where to start?

    The success of your cold email mainly lies in the structure you use to create it.

    Follow our proven winning cold email formula that will help you get more replies and reach your targets.

    Liucija Adomaite
    Liucija Adomaite is a viral content writer and organic traffic expert on a mission to help turn ambitious businesses into big names.
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    G2 Rating
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    Con
    4.9
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    $30/mo
    $75/mo
    $2,999/mo
    Large, distributed sales teams
    AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs
    Lack of tracking system
    4.6
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    star
    star
    star
    star-half
    Not publicly available
    Sales operations and finance teams
    Powerful configurability
    Limited training resources and complex to navigate
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    Not publicly available
    Mid-market and enterprise businesses
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    Potentially high cost and steep learning curve
    4.7
    star
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    star-half
    $15/user/mo
    $40/user/mo
    Enterprise: custom price
    Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
    Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
    Steep learning curve
    4.6
    star
    star
    star
    star
    star-half
    Not publicly available
    Collaborative teams
    Connected planning
    Complexity and steep learning curve
    4.6
    star
    star
    star
    star
    star-half
    Not publicly available
    Companies with complex sales structures
    Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy
    Complexity for smaller teams and potentially high costs
    4.7
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    star-half
    Not publicly available
    Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts
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    4.7
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    star-half
    $30/user/mo
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    Custom: upon request
    Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software
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    Lack of ability to configure the product based on user needs
    4.8
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    star-half
    Not publicly available
    Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights
    A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility
    Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow
    4.9
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    $30/user/mo
    $50/user/mo
    Smaller sales teams
    Powerful automation
    Lesser user base and average user interface
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    star-half
    Not publicly available
    Companies with scalable needs
    Automated Commission Calculations
    Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app
    ERP vs. CRM
    ERP
    CRM
    Summary
    Backbone of a business's internal operations.
    Backbone of customer-centric interactions and operations.
    Goal
    To centralize and streamline core business processes in a company.
    To increase customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty, and boost sales.
    Focus
    Internal operations and processes across departments (finance, accounting, inventory, supply chain, HR, and sales).
    All interactions with leads and customers.
    Manages
    Internal business data like financial data, inventory levels, production details, supply chain, HR info.
    All customer data like contact info, purchase history, communication history, customer preferences and more.
    Users
    Finance, accounting, operations, supply chain, and HR departments.
    Customer-facing teams like sales, marketing, and customer service.
    Benefits
    Streamlines operations, improves data accuracy, enhances decision-making, boosts collaboration, increases productivity.
    Improves customer relationships, increases sales, strengthens customer service, personalizes marketing campaigns, provides insights.
    Price
    $150 per user per year on average.
    $10 to $30 per user per month on average.
    PRM Tool
    Rating
    Feature
    Pro
    Con
    Mobile App
    Integrations
    Free Plan
    Pricing
    4.65
    star
    star
    star
    star
    star-half
    Org-wide alignment
    User-friendly layout and database
    Suboptimal as a personal CRM
    square-check
    Lack of tracking system
    square-check
    Team: $20/month
    Business: $45/month
    4.7
    star
    star
    star
    star
    star-half
    Social Media Integration
    Easy contact data collection
    No marketing/sales features
    square-check
    Lack of tracking system
    square-xmark
    7-day trial
    $12/month
    4.75
    star
    star
    star
    star
    star-half
    Block Functions
    High customization capability
    Not a dedicated CRM
    square-check
    Limited
    square-check
    Plus: €7.50/month
    Business: €14/month
    N/A
    Open-source
    Open-source flexibility
    Requires extensive manual input
    square-xmark
    Limited
    square-check
    Self-hosted
    $9/month or
    $90/year
    3.1
    star
    star
    star
    Simple iOS app
    Ideal for non-tech-savvy users
    iPhone only
    square-check
    iOS only
    Limited
    square-xmark
    1-month trial
    $1.49/month or
    $14.99/month
    3.6
    star
    star
    star
    star-half
    Smart Contact Management
    Feature-rich and flexible
    Reported bugs
    square-check
    Rich
    square-xmark
    7-day trial
    Premium: $13.99/month
    Teams: $17.99/month
    4.4
    star
    star
    star
    star
    star-half
    Customizable Interface
    Customizable for teamwork
    Pricey for personal use
    square-check
    Rich
    square-xmark
    Standard: $24/member
    Premium: $39/member
    4.7
    star
    star
    star
    star
    star-half
    Integrated Calling
    Integrated Calling
    Too sales-oriented & pricey
    square-check
    Rich
    square-xmark
    14-day trial
    Startup: $59/user/month
    Professional: $329/user/month
    4.8
    star
    star
    star
    star
    star
    Business Card Scanning
    Business Card Scanning
    Mobile only
    square-check
    Limited
    square-check
    $9.99/month
    4.45
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    star
    star
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    star-half
    160+ app integrations
    Comprehensive integrations
    No free app version
    square-check
    Rich
    square-xmark
    14-day trial
    $29.90/month or
    $24.90/month (billed annually)
    Capterra Rating
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    4.5
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    square-check
    14-day
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    €15/month/seat billed annually
    €792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat
    Versatility and free plan
    4.2
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    star
    square-check
    30-day
    square-xmark
    But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations
    €25/user/month
    €500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI)
    Best overall operational CRM
    4.3
    star
    star
    star
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    star-half
    square-xmark
    square-check
    Limited to 3 users
    Comprehensive incentive management
    €52/user/month billed annually
    Small-medium businesses and automation
    4.5
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    star
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    star-half
    square-check
    14-day
    square-xmark
    €14/seat/month billed annually
    €99/seat/month billed annually
    Sales teams and ease of use
    4.1
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    star
    square-xmark
    square-check
    Limited 10 users
    $9.99/user/month billed annually
    $64.99/user/month billed annually
    Free plan for very small teams up to 10
    CRM goal
    Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months.
    SMART Breakdown
    1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation).
    2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking.
    3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements.
    4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives.
    5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date.
    Actions
    Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation.
    Step 2: Personalize marketing automation campaigns based on lead demographics, interests, and behavior.
    Step 3: Develop targeted landing pages with clear calls to action for qualified leads.
    Step 4: Implement lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads for sales follow-up.
    Step 5: Track and analyze campaign performance to identify areas for optimization.
    Outcomes
    Increased sales and revenue
    Improved marketing automation ROI
    Marketing and sales alignment
    Data-driven marketing optimization
    Table
    CDP Software
    CRM Software
    Approach
    Data-centric
    Customer-centric
    Focus
    Interactions across various channels and touchpoints, both online and offline.
    Sales, marketing, and customer service interactions.
    Functionality
    Automatically collects, organizes, tags, and makes data available in real-time.
    Helps businesses track customer interactions, sales pipelines, prospects, and service requests.
    Goals
    Personalized customer experiences across all channels.
    Better customer relationships, streamlined processes, and improved profitability.
    Benefits
    Data integration, management, and accessibility, allowing for detailed analysis and segmentation.
    Better communication within teams and with customers by organizing information about customer interactions and history.
    Data Handling
    Handles both identified and anonymous data, stitches together various data points.
    Deals primarily with identified customer data.
    Use Cases
    Personalized marketing campaigns, targeted advertising, content customization across multiple channels.
    Managing campaigns and leads, enhancing customer service, providing better customer support, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
    Examples
    Insider, Bloomreach, Salesforce Marketing Cloud CDP
    HubSpot, Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional, and Zoho CRM
    CRM
    Free plan
    Best feature
    Best for
    Con
    1. HubSpot CRM
    square-check
    Sales automation
    Sales teams
    Up to 1,000 contacts
    2. Insightly
    square-check
    Custom fields
    Basic needs
    Not enough info about the free plan
    3. Agile CRM
    square-check
    Deal and sales pipeline tracking
    Small teams
    Up to 10 users
    4. Zoho CRM
    square-check
    Lead and contact management
    Businesses of all sizes
    Limited to 3 users
    5. ClickUp
    square-check
    Unlimited tasks and unlimited members
    Personal use
    Up to 100MB storage
    6. EngageBay
    square-check
    Live chat
    Small and midsize enterprises
    Up to 1,000 branded emails per month
    7. Bitrix24
    square-check
    Unlimited users and 5 scrum teams
    Big teams
    Up to 5GB of cloud storage
    8. FreshSales
    square-check
    Easy to use and simple setup
    Beginners
    Up to 3 users
    9. Mailchimp
    square-check
    Very beginner friendly
    Marketing teams
    Send up to 500 branded emails per month
    Type of Affiliate Marketing
    Unattached
    Related
    Involved
    Format
    Paid advertising
    Social media or YouTube channels
    Dedicated website or blog
    Focus
    Quick income
    Your niche
    Your audience
    Engagement with your audience
    square-xmark
    square-check
    square-check
    square-check
    square-check
    Very close connection with your audience
    Pro
    Little effort
    Higher credibility thanks to your niche
    Long-lasting and scalable
    Con
    Paid ads cost a lot
    Potential for bias since you don’t use the thing you promote
    Require time, effort, and dedication

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