Before anything else, the first step of a successful cold email is to make sure it gets opened.

From our experience, the best subject lines are short and to the point. In fact, we’ve used the subject line “quick question” for more than 2 years and have consistently seen between 60-80% open rates.

There are a lot of variables and moving parts with cold email, so keep it simple with your subject line. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Personalized lines are the best way to stick out from the crowd in an email inbox and grab a prospect’s attention.

If someone sees that you took the time out of your day to do a little research on them and write them a note about what you found, chances are they’ll give your email a chance before deciding whether to respond or not.

Here’s a quick example of a first line:

“Saw you went to UNC… Go Tar Heels! Noticed Michael Jordan also studied there, you’re in great company!”

We know how eager you may be to tell prospects all about your business and how you’ll be able to help them.

This is great, but try your best to hold off on that with your initial email. Almost no one is going to have the time to read and respond to an extremely long email, so save all of the juicy info for once you actually hear back from them!

Instead, keep your initial cold email short and to the point.

For example, a script that works extremely well for a sales agency:

“Are you looking for commission-only sales reps?”

That’s it! This is an extreme example, but it’s a very real example of a one-sentence cold email that converts at a high level and generates leads.

If you pair all 3 things together (simple subject line, personalization, and short scripts), you’re bound to get results with cold email.

Test a few different strategies, identify a winner, and double down on that moving forward… You’ll have a consistent stream of leads as a result.