Getting the structure of your cold email right can define whether your email will be read or not.
But how do you get people to answer your emails? Let’s see how the pros do it.
Cold email sent by Adrian, the co-founder of Dragonfruit Media, got a 76.2% open rate and 66.7% reply rate, 100% meetings booked, and 64.2% conversion rate.
Today, we’re here to share all of their outreach secrets!
Our results blew literally every other acquisition method we have out of the water. Gonna be using lemlist to blast them out at scaling them next quarter! – Adrian, Dragonfruit Media
Let’s start with the fact that a perfect cold email structure exists.
And when you know what to do, you can boost your cold email campaigns in minutes.
Imagine 100% meetings booked with a 65% conversion rate.
Why imagine when you can do it? Let’s get to it.
What is a perfect cold email?
A perfect cold email has a particular structure that makes a recipient argentina phone number list immediately reply to you.
In short, a perfect cold email structure is:
Short and clear
Personal
Grabs the attention
Friendly
Has a catchy subject line
Has a clear CTA
Has a funny sign-off
To the point
Features a video
Now, let’s put this proven perfect cold email structure to practice.
Write a cold email with our free cold email generator
The anatomy of the email that made us immediately reply
The email Adrian sent to our CEO, Guillaume, was the first step of the 7-step sequence to follow. In total, 21 emails like this one were sent, and each had a personalized pitch video.
Goal? Their agency was doubling down on direct outreach as their acquisition channel. They wanted to hyper-focus on generating leads through cold email and augment through video pitches for high-value prospects.
Target? SaaS founders and expert coaches/consultants that could use Youtube to build a loyal community. They wanted to reach out to companies producing valuable content that have 5k+ subscribers and have made at least 10 videos (aka the ones that already have an acquisition channel built using Youtube as a top-of-the-funnel).
So how did Adrian’s outreach get us hooked from the start?
Let’s go through his cold email structure together:
perfect cold email structure
1. Catchy subject line
cold email subject line
Why does this subject line make prospects open the email?
It’s personalized with first and company names, which grabs the prospect’s attention.
The value is made very obvious from the beginning so they know what’s in it for them.
The question in the subject line triggers interest and generates curiosity in seeing the rest of the email.
There are many ways to write good subject lines that can boost your chances of getting replies. We have provided a list of 59 subject line templates to help you get inspired.
2. Friendly greeting
cold email greeting
What makes this greeting a good option?
“Hey” is an informal greeting that sets a friendly tone right at the start. As “Hey” is something that we use in communication with our users, it was a safe option for Adrian to go with.
It’s personalized with the prospect’s name which gives the impression that the rest of the email is carefully crafted just for them.
If you don’t wanna sound too informal but still give a warm greeting, “Hi” is always a good choice.
3. Personalized intro line
cold email custom intro line
How did this icebreaker help them build a connection with prospects?
They showed they invested time in research about the prospect by congratulating them on their business success.
They gave positive feedback about the prospect’s tool as a common ground for future conversations. In the end, who doesn’t like to hear positive feedback about their work?
They presented a clear understanding of what their prospect does exactly, which makes prospects believe their offer might be a good fit.
If you need more intro lines inspo to make your audience continue reading your cold email, check out our How to start an email guide.
4. Video pitch
Then, they didn’t only share an idea in the pitch – they made an entire video (seriously, you need to check this one out).
A message for the Lemlist team
Then, they didn’t share just an idea in the pitch – they made an entire video (seriously, you need to check this one out).
What makes this video pitch one of the best ones we received?
It’s 100% customer-focused as Adrian talks about genuine motivation and will to help the prospect, aligned with the brand’s mission statement.
So, here’s why having a custom video in cold outreach is a good choice:
Videos won’t just grab prospects’ attention but also prove you’re willing to go that extra mile as each video took them around 30 hours to make (that’s why you need to make sure you’re targetting your ideal persona!).
The video gives the prospect a sense of having a real conversation and shows emotion that is harder to show through writing.
In just a few seconds, you can mention the pain point, the solution, and the value for the prospect, including interesting graphics that will be engraved in the prospect’s memory.
The personalized GIF as an addition grabs the prospect’s attention as it’s 100% personalized with their logo and is a unique way to tease into watching the whole video.
If you’re wondering how to create your own sales video that will get you replies, here’s our How to use video for sales guide.
