How to write a cold email: research, structure and follow-ups

To write a cold email, pick one person for a clear reason, find one or two true facts that explain why they in particular should care, and ask for one small next step. Keep it short enough to read on a phone, make the subject line describe the email, and include your name, your company, a postal address and an easy way to opt out. Then follow up once or twice with something new, and stop when they ask.

This page covers the process. If you want finished examples to adapt, see cold email templates.

A worked example

Suppose Sam sells software that tracks equipment maintenance for commercial laundries, the kind that serve hotels and hospitals. Sam wants a first conversation with the operations director at a regional laundry with three plants. The example is hypothetical, and each step below shows what Sam would do.

Step 1: Decide who, and why them

Before you write, finish this sentence: "I'm writing to you, not to someone else, because ___." If the honest answer is "you're on a list," the email will read that way.

A good reason is specific to the person or their company:

Their company did something public that relates to your offer, such as opening a plant, posting a job or announcing a new customer.
Their role usually owns the problem you solve.
They wrote or said something public about the topic.

Sam's reason: the laundry's careers page lists an open role for a maintenance planner at its newest plant, which suggests maintenance is being organized there right now.

Step 2: Do the research, and keep it short

Spend a few minutes per prospect, not an hour. Look for facts you can use in one sentence:

Company website: locations, services, customers they name, recent news.
Job posts: roles they are hiring for often show what they are trying to fix.
Public talks, articles or interviews by the person.
Industry association pages or trade press for the sector.

Write down the one fact you will use and where it came from. Do not use personal details unrelated to their work, and do not pretend you learned something from a conversation you never had.

If you do not understand the reader's job well enough to guess what matters to them, talk to people who do that job before you write to prospects. A few conversations with operations managers will teach you more vocabulary and priorities than any template. B2B market research covers how to plan those conversations.

Step 3: Write the subject line

The subject line should say what the email is about. The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide requires that the subject line of a commercial email accurately reflect its content. Avoid "Re:" on a first message, fake urgency and anything that pretends to be a reply or an invoice.

Sam's subject: "Maintenance planning at your [city] plant."

Step 4: Write the body in four parts

Why you are writing to them. One sentence using your research.
Who you are. One sentence: name, company, what you do for people like them.
Why it might matter to them. One or two sentences in their terms. A reasonable guess about their situation is fine if you present it as a guess.
One small ask. A short call, a yes or no answer, or a pointer to the right person. One ask only.

Sam's draft:

Hi [first name],

I noticed [laundry] is hiring a maintenance planner for the [city] plant. When a new plant comes online, maintenance schedules often start in a spreadsheet that the other plants don't share.

I'm Sam, and I run [company]. We build maintenance tracking for commercial laundries, so washers, dryers and ironers across all plants sit on one schedule.

Is getting the new plant onto the same schedule as the others something you're working on? If so, I'd like 20 minutes to hear how you're approaching it.

Sam [last name], [company] [Postal address] · If this isn't relevant, reply "no" and I won't follow up.

That is under 120 words. Read it aloud; if a sentence exists only to sound impressive, cut it.

Step 5: Add the basics every commercial email needs

The FTC guide says CAN-SPAM has no exception for business-to-business email. For a commercial message, it requires accurate "From" and routing information, a subject line that matches the content, a clear disclosure that the message is an advertisement (the law allows leeway in how you do this), a valid postal address, and a clear way to opt out. You must honor opt-outs within 10 business days. The guide lists penalties of up to $53,088 per violating email. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Outside the US, rules differ. The UK ICO's B2B marketing guidance says you must not hide your identity and must give an address for opting out; sole traders and some partnerships are treated like individuals, who generally need to have consented. UK GDPR applies when the email address identifies a person. Check the rules where your recipients are.

Deliverability matters too. Yahoo's sender requirements ask every sender to authenticate mail with SPF or DKIM and keep spam complaints below 0.3%. A short list of well-chosen people is easier to keep under that line than a large, loosely targeted one.

Step 6: Plan your follow-ups before you send

No reply to a first email is common, and it does not always mean no interest; the reader may simply have been busy. A follow-up is reasonable if it adds something. Decide in advance:

How many: one or two is a common limit for a single person. There is no proven number, so pay attention to how people react.
Spacing: several business days between messages.
What each adds: a new detail, a sharper question, or a direct "should I close this out?"
When to stop: immediately if they ask, and after your last planned message if they stay silent.

Send follow-ups in the same thread so the reader has context. Put anyone who opts out on a do-not-contact list so a future campaign does not email them again.

Step 7: Check the draft before sending

Does the first sentence show why you chose this person?
Is every factual claim true, and could you say where it came from?
Is there exactly one ask?
Does the subject line describe the email?
Are your name, company, postal address and opt-out line included?

If your reply rate stays low after several careful sends, check the audience before rewriting the email. No replies to your outreach? covers what to check first.

When the person is hard to reach by email

Some people you most need to reach receive more cold email than they can read. When a short list of conversations matters a lot, Instant Expert is another route: it finds people who match a description you write, you review who it finds, it sends your invitations, and you pay only for calls that get booked. The directory page for operations professionals in facilities management is an example of the people it can find.

Your next step: pick five people you want to reach, write down your one-sentence reason for each, and draft the first email for the person with the strongest reason.