Best B2B Cold Email Templates to Transform Your Business

B2B cold emailing stands out as one of the most practical and effective tools for sales outreach today. It’s a great strategy for getting more clients and transforming any struggling business into an industry-leading enterprise.

However:

Creating effective cold emails is far from shooting off simple, random messages to strangers. It’s an art form that requires extensive sales experience and a deep understanding of the prospect’s needs. 

This article will teach you everything you need to know about B2B cold emailing and how to craft engaging emails that convert into sales.

So, let’s dive in!

What Is a B2B Cold Email?

A B2B cold email is any unsolicited email you send to a company or individual that hasn’t had prior contact with your business. It’s a proactive sales approach that enables companies to introduce themselves quickly, build client solid relationships, and promote new offers effectively.

Unlike B2C email marketing, B2B cold emails are personalized and targeted toward specific decision-makers. The main objective of launching a cold emailing campaign is to make a first impression and offer value to potential buyers.

Is B2B Cold Email Legal?

One of the most common questions business owners ask when they first learn about cold emailing is: is it legal?

The short answer is: yes, B2B cold emailing is legal, as long as you’re adhering to a few simple and specific emailing regulations.

In the United States, for example, the CAN-SPAM Act sets the rules for commercial emails and gives recipients the right to stop receiving irrelevant emails. Canada, Australia, and all European countries also have similar regulations to protect both businesses and online customers from spam.

Your sales and marketing teams can adhere to the majority of these regulations simply by targeting relevant leads, using clear subject lines and body content, and including an easy-to-find unsubscribe option.

How Successful Are Cold Emails?

Cold emailing can be either seen as widely successful or dead — depending on your reference point. 

If you compare your results today to cold emailing in the early 2000s — then, of course, your open rates and engagement rates will be much worse. However, with the right cold outreach tactics and tools, cold emails can be the one of top lead generation channels for your business.

Cold emails typically have an average open rate of 44%, according to QuickMail.io. But with a good lead list and some optimization, you can get that number up to 60% or more. As for response rates, they often range between 15% and 25% — but that can be increased through consistent follow-ups and strong CTAs.

Want to see some real-world examples? Here’s a case study of how Martal helped Awin generate more qualified leads with b2b cold emailing.

How Do You Write a Cold Email for B2B?

Crafting a b2b prospecting email starts with having a clear understanding of your target buyers, their pain points, and their business objectives. You also need to have a solid lead list with verified email addresses to minimize your bounce rate and enhance the success of your B2B cold emailing campaigns.

To write an effective B2B cold email templates, you need to perfect the following elements:

Subject Line

The subject line is the email element that has the most effect on your open rates, and accordingly your response rates. That’s because the title of your email shapes the first impression cold prospects will have about your brand as a whole.

A winning subject line is concise, direct, and intriguing — but it must also be curiosity-enhancing. It gives a hint about the topic of your email and why you’re reaching out to the prospect while you don’t know them.

Greeting

The greeting is the first sentence in your email body that includes the recipient’s name. For example, “Hello {Name},” “Hi {Name},” “Greetings {Name}”, etc. It’s crucial to include the cold lead’s name here to make it personal. This simple step shows that you’ve done your basic homework of researching them and it will also help you avoid spam filters.

Custom First Line

Including a custom first line in your email is an excellent way to grab attention right off the bat. It helps you establish a strong connection with the prospect and keep them reading. And it’s also a great technique for avoiding spam filters as you’ll be personalizing a good portion of your email body. 

The way to write custom first lines is simple! In a couple of sentences, you could mention something relevant to the target company. For example, you can congratulate them on any good news they’ve shared recently. Or you can genuinely tell them about something you admire about their brand.

Quick Introduction 

Your introduction should be brief and on-point. Talk about your business and what you do in a few sentences — and be sure not to promote any products or services at this point. You should give a general overview of your company and how it’s serving clients similar to the prospect.

Social Proof

Providing social proof in the first email isn’t aimed toward making a conversion. However, showing off your achievements early on is crucial for establishing trust and giving cold prospects a reason to respond or at least consider your company.

It’s best to highlight social proof for B2B cold emails in the form of relevant case studies. You can summarize what you did and the results achieved in a few sentences — without even having to attach a PDF file or link to an external page.

Call to Action (CTA)

Chances are, your ideal prospects are either too busy or not so impressed with your cold email. That’s why you should never let them decide on their own what to do next.

It’s best to include a simple call-to-action (CTA) to nudge the lead to take the next small step. Maybe you can ask them a short question that they can easily respond to within a few lines. Or perhaps you may encourage them to schedule a call with you through a direct link. 

Whatever your CTA is, just make sure it’s purposeful, clear, and easy to perform.

Email Sign-Off

Your email closing won’t affect your cold emailing performance that much. However, it’s best to stick to something simple and professional — such as “Best,” “Sincerely,” “Cheers,” or just a “Thank you.”

Note that it’s important to include a professional email signature with all your necessary contact details. This enables you to gain the trust of prospective clients and avoid spam filters when your email account is new.

How Long Should a B2B Cold Email Be?

The ideal length for B2B cold emails should be between 80 and 200 words at most. Anything too short or too long will affect your reply rates and get you ignored by prospective clients. 

When thinking about cold email length, it all comes down to the busy nature of the business world and the limited attention span of your potential prospects. You want to keep your email body below 200 words and break it down into short paragraphs and shorter sentences. 

On the flip side, an email that’s too short may come off as lazy and spammy, especially if you don’t put a lot of effort into personalization. You want to at least be able to introduce yourself, communicate your value, and include a call to action.

What Makes a Good B2B Email?

Aside from the main cold email elements mentioned above, there are other crucial components that you need to work on to perfect your B2B lead generation email sample.

Here’s how to take your B2B prospecting emails efforts to the next level:

Personalization — This includes using the prospect’s name in your greetings, adding a custom phrase at the beginning of your email, and providing relevant social proof to showcase expertise.

Concise messaging — You should be quick to get to the point and state the purpose of your cold outreach. A short email with an easy-to-understand value proposition is the best way to win at B2B cold emailing.

Consistent follow-ups — The right follow-up strategy can boost open rates and double engagements for any B2B cold email campaign. You need to set up a follow-up strategy using automated tools and proven cold email templates.

Outreach timing — Different periods of the month, days of the week, and times of the day will result in different open rates and engagements. You want to send out your emails at a time when your target leads are free and in front of their computers.

Spam avoiding practices — Spam triggers can get your cold emails sent straight to the spam folder, resulting in a lot of wasted time, effort, and business opportunities. Those can be trigger words in your subject line or body, mistakes in your outreach process, or simply the reputation of your email address based on past activity.

How Many Cold Emails Should You Send per Day?

The maximum number of cold emails you can send per day differs based on a variety of factors — including whether you’ve warmed up your email address. A good starting point would be 30-50 B2B emails a day, then increasing that number to reach 100 or more depending on your cold emailing objectives.

Warming up your email address means starting very slow by only sending 5-10 cold emails per day to people you already know. This enables you to build a good reputation as you’ll be getting responses from the start. Consequently, this shows your email provider that you’re not some random person looking to send thousands of emails to complete strangers.

After that step, you can gradually increase the number of emails you send each day until you reach your daily target for sending cold emails. Avoiding suspicious email activity with a new email address is essential for not triggering spam filters.

Another crucial element that will affect how many emails you can send per day is response rates. When the email provider sees that your prospects are happy to hear from (because they’re engaging with your cold emails,) you’ll be less likely to face any trouble with spam filters. So make sure to only reach out to targeted leads and include strong CTAs to get more replies. 

What Is the Best Time to Send B2B Email?

The best send time for sending B2B cold emails is between 1 PM and 3 PM during the prospect’s local time. Make sure to avoid reaching out on weekends and busy days of the week such as Monday and Friday. Preferably, you should schedule your first emails to be delivered on Tuesdays or Thursdays. 

Of course, these are mainly predictions based on cold email studies and experiments from the past. The only way to find out the best time to cold outreach for your company is by testing out different days and times and then making a judgment based on open rates and responses.

Best B2B Cold Emails Templates to Transform Your Business

Here are a few highly-effective b2b cold email templates to help make your first campaign successful:

1. AIDA Formula (Attention – Interest – Desire – Action)

Hello {prospect’s name},

Attention: Congratulations on the growth you achieved with {recent accomplishment/project/product launch}, amazing news!

Interest: As your business continues to grow, you might be experiencing some pains like {biggest challenge the company is facing}. That’s where we come in.

Desire: My name is {your name}, and I’m the {your job position} at {your company name}. Recently, we’ve helped one of our clients with {successful case study related to the challenge}, leading to a {tangible result or benefit}.

Action: Would love to help you achieve the same results at {prospect’s company name}. Can we schedule a call this week to discuss this further?

Thanks,

{email signature}

2. BAB Formula (Before – After – Bridge)

Hey {prospect’s name},

It’s impressive to see the progress you’ve made so far at {prospect’s company name}, congrats on the {recent accomplishment}!

Before: I understand that your company might now be struggling with {pain point}, and that’s impacting your {specific area}.

After: Imagine a solution that would make all your {current challenges} go away — allowing your team to fully focus on {desired results}.

Bridge: That’s something we’ve always done with our clients at {your company}. We’re a {short introduction about your company}. Our {product/service} has recently helped businesses like {successful case study related to the challenge} overcome {challenges} and achieve {tangible result or benefit}.

Would such a solution be interesting to you at {prospect’s company name}? If so, I’d love to schedule a brief call with you this week to discuss how we can help you transform your business.

Regards,

{email signature}

3. PAS Formula (Problem – Agitate – Solution)

Hi {Prospect’s Name},

I recently came across your work on {project/article/presentation} and was truly impressed by {positive result/achievement}!

Problem: In today’s competitive market, {specific problem} can be a real obstacle for companies in the {prospect’s industry}.

Agitate: Without a proper {solution}, your business might struggle to {desired outcome #1} and get {desired outcome #2}.

Solution: My name is {your name}, and I’m the {your job position} at {your company name}. We’re a company that specializes in helping {target clients/industry} achieve {tangible result or benefit} through {solution/product/service}.

Are you available for a quick call this week to discuss how we can help {prospect’s company name} achieve {specific goal}?

Best,

{Email Signature}

4. 4 Ps Formula (Promise – Picture – Proof – Push)

Hello {Prospect’s Name},

I noticed {prospect’s company name} recently {made a change/launched a new product/expanded to a new market} — awesome news…

Promise: How would you like to capitalize on that growth and further improve on {specific area}?

Picture: Imagine a quick solution that can get you {desired outcome}, while also freeing up your team to focus more on their core daily tasks.

Proof: At {your company name}, we specialize in helping companies like yours achieve {desired outcome} through {solution/product/service}. Just recently, one of our clients was able to achieve {successful case study related to the challenge}, and we’d love to do the same for you.

Push: Would you be interested in a free [audit/review] of your [specific area]? I’d also be happy to send you insightful suggestions or a few ideas that might help you grow faster.

Cheers,

{Email signature}