Writing Perfect Cold Emails:<\/strong> Before we dive into bad cold emails, here\u2019s where you can learn how to write an effective cold email.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n While you may not understand the contextual nuance of the email since you don\u2019t know the sender or the receiver, let us explain. This situation can be equated to a scenario where, say, a person was selling propulsion engines and they pitched to a carpenter company. In this scene, the sender did not do proper targeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only did this sender get the target audience wrong, they also go on to assume that the sender will find their product offerings useful and that they\u2019re going to get a meeting. A classic example of throwing darts in the dark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This email doesn\u2019t explain what\u2019s the benefit for the reader, or the reason why they\u2019re messaging the reader in particular. Right now they\u2019re just spraying what their product does to a large crowd and praying that someone has a need for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sender is audaciously assuming that the reader will talk to them. Unless you\u2019ve connected with them before, you shouldn\u2019t assume that the prospect will give away 15 minutes of their time for a sales call. Instead, you could use permission-based CTAs to end your cold email and follow-ups. For example, ask them if it\u2019s okay to send over a couple of insightful assets they can get value from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are two colors of fonts, and random bolding peppered throughout the email. While the intention to stand out from the inbox is good, this isn\u2019t the way to go about it. At first glance, people may be irked by the different colors because colorful text, randomly bolding, too many exclamation points, or random capitalizations, too, are usually associated with spam emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What should you do instead:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The maximum you can go with changing the format is not using uppercase when writing \u2018Hi\u2019 and the first line of the email. That may catch the reader\u2019s attention. Also, pay attention to the content of your email. Is it personalized to the reader? Does it have a \u2018What\u2019s in it for me\u2019 for the reader? Does it have a clear CTA?<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the content, and pattern breaks in this email are wonderful, this SDR loses the reader\u2019s attention the moment they read short forms. First lesson, know your audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Using short forms like \u2018urs\u2019 and \u2018cuz\u2019 while messaging a content head, someone who\u2019s getting paid to notice grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, was a lapse in judgment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This email had actually got a couple of things right\u2013like the pattern interrupting opener, the \u2018What\u2019s in it for me\u2019 for the reader, showcasing the social proof\u2013a good mix of things that could get the prospect excited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But they failed to win trust because of these minor errors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In B2B prospecting, it\u2019s not recommended in any circumstance to use \u201cSir\/Mam\u201d. Using such salutations is a cultural way to open an email in some countries. But when you\u2019re prospecting on a global platform, stick to \u2018Hi\u2019 or \u2018Hello\u2019 or you could even forgo the salutation completely to break the prospect\u2019s reading pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is definitely part of a large spray and pray campaign considering a) it doesn\u2019t have any personalization and b) the content has clearly been copied and pasted from elsewhere. Using templated emails is totally fine, copy and pasting content from elsewhere, too, but format it before you put your email together. Make sure you use a single font size, and a single color. And when you want to highlight a particular point, italicize or bold it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This email was targeted at a C-suite executive. CXOs are aware that you\u2019re trying to sell something in cold emails, so they\u2019d simply prefer to get directly to the point, or you have to try to win their attention with a small amount of personalization in the introduction of the email. The cold email is your real estate to use judiciously to win their attention, don\u2019t waste it on pleasantries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rep here is focusing on trying to win over the prospect with just the power of social proof. They do not explain the benefit for the prospect. Social proof is obviously a great way to get someone\u2019s attention but we know better than to put all our eggs in one basket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What to do instead? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Social proof is a formidable weapon to highlight how the benefit you\u2019re providing is validated by others in the industry. It\u2019s even better if you mention how you have helped competitors achieve a goal that the prospect is probably currently behind on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n G2\u2019s top-performing SDR<\/a>, Nanditha Menon, tells us in our SDR X Factor series<\/a> how she uses social proof to create FOMO in her cold emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019d write, \u2018Hey, this is what your competitor is doing. This is something you\u2019re way behind on in the game, and it\u2019s something you\u2019re missing out on.\u2019 She would also attach statistics to support her claim to convince the prospect that they\u2019re indeed lagging behind their competitors.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Bonus<\/strong>: Since you\u2019re looking at bad examples of cold emails, we thought it may help you if you also check out bad examples of follow-up and break up emails. To the prospect you\u2019re sending this to, all of the emails in your sequence are probably cold emails. In that way, we suggest you optimize all of your sales emails to get more replies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s one thing to consider something funny and another thing completely to not be able to understand that humor is subjective. What you find funny may not evoke the same laughs from another person. If the receiver is a woman, this is going to leave them uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A golden rule to follow (or take a print out of and stick in your office) is that you should never sound passive aggressive, or be too emotional in a bid to guilt trip the reader. That is going to leave a bitter memory in your prospect\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For context, this email was sent to a c-suite executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This email was sent to a founder, who is probably caught up the whole day or week, and would have no time to recollect who sent the email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What should you do instead:<\/em> If you\u2019re emailing a C-suite executive, you need to mention the context of the email\u2013information like have you connected with them before, what did you connect about?, what is the current email about, and what do you want them to do now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This email doesn\u2019t mention any call to action. A cardinal sin, for marketers. But it can be one for salespeople as well. Here\u2019s why: Firstly, they have already given you a minute\u2013to read your sales email\u2013and if you don\u2019t clarify what you want from them, they will ignore your email. The prospect, on their busy day, will not go deciphering what you want them to do because of what\u2019s called the decision fatigue\u2019<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Psychiatrist Dr. MacLean sheds light on the topic, \u201cby the time the average person goes to bed, they\u2019ve made over 35,000 decisions and all of those decisions take time and energy, and certainly can deplete us.\u201d So, when you leave the decision making up to the prospect, expect no engagement from them as there\u2019s a high chance they will ignore it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what should you do instead: <\/em>Why not make their lives easier and tell them what they should do? Whether it\u2019s to download an ebook, click on a link you sent or book a meeting with you, they can decide in a quick second, at least they won\u2019t ignore you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Write Perfect Email CTAs<\/strong>: Here\u2019s 10 techniques to write that perfect CTA<\/a> that\u2019ll motivate your prospects to take the next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From having poor email etiquette to missing out crucial elements you should have included in an email- both of which we saw in the bad email examples above-there are many ways reps err when writing a professional email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These mistakes can crop up if you\u2019re multitasking or are highly stressed (which, let\u2019s admit you always are, and, to be honest, is completely normal)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a Nutshell<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember the audience you\u2019re trying to reach with your cold email. If you\u2019re emailing a c-suite executive, keep it short, well-formatted, formal and error-free. Feel free to add emoticons or emojis, sentiment and sparkle if you know you\u2019re reaching someone young. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But then again, some rules of emailing are set in stone, and following them would be your best bet at getting a response. Here\u2019s how to write a great cold email by following the rules mentioned above: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mention links to your LinkedIn profile, your company\u2019s website, and how they can reach you. This will establish credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear , Greetings. Reaching out to discuss a business collaboration. We provide innovative solutions like X,Y, Z. We\u2019re an ABC company. I look forward to meeting with you to explore our collaboration. Regards, Name, ABC company. Here are some questions off the top of a reader\u2019s mind: Dear who? Greetings for when? Business collaboration\u2026Why? Meeting\u2026.What? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"rank_math_title":"Breaking Down 7 Bad Cold Email Examples We Received","rank_math_description":"We look at 7 bad cold email examples we received and break down what makes them bad. Read on to find out how to write great cold emails.","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13526"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20287,"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13526\/revisions\/20287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Example 1 \u2013 Too Focused on Self, What\u2019s in It for the Receiver?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"too-focused-on-self-what-s-in-it-for-the-receiver\"](\"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/too-focused-on-self-what-s-in-it-for-the-receiver-1024x803.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s Wrong With the Email?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Example 2 \u2013 Too Many Colored-fonts End up in Trash<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"an-real-email-with-many-colored-fonts\"\/](\"https:\/\/e24205.n3cdn1.secureserver.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Group-21452-2-1024x874.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s Wrong With This Email?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Example 3 \u2013 Abbreviations Should Stay In Whatsapp Chats<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"this-terrible-usage-of-short-forms-cannot-](\"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/bad-email-example-3-1024x554.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s Wrong With This Email? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Example 4 \u2013 Don\u2019t Use Sir\/Ma\u2019am Salutation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"image-showing-not-to-use-salutations](\"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/bad-email-example-4-1024x905.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s Wrong With This Email? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Example 5 \u2013 Stop Giving Pleasantries Any Real Estate<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"image-showing-the-need-to-stop-giving-](\"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/bad-email-example-5-1024x876.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s Wrong With This Email? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Example 6 \u2013 Proof that Humor Is Subjective<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"proof-that-humor-is-subjective\"](\"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/bad-email-example-6-1024x937.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s Wrong With the Email?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Example 7 \u2013 Zero Context Follow-up Emails End-up Unanswered<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"this-image-describes-the-bad-example-of](\"https:\/\/www.klenty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/bad-email-example-7-1024x711.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s Wrong With This Email?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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9 Email Etiquette Mistakes That Put off Recipients<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Helpful Resources:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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