As we’re heading into a recession we’re testing every form of marketing known to man right now for our own company K&J Growth. In this article, I’m going to cover the best cold email template I’ve used but if you’re curious as to why we’re doing so much marketing:

a.) We’ve been able to get leads organically for a very long time but we predict that as people have less money to spend this is going to dry up.

b.) We need to test everything to find what is going to be our best outbound form of marketing and double down on the channels we find that are converting for us and apply this to our clients

To get this formula we’ve gone through multiple articles and our own data on cold emails and we’ve landed on an approach as of writing that has resulted in a 14% reply rate and over 48% open rate. Here’s the formula:

1. Creating a subject line – Here are a couple of quick wins for your website [Lead’s First Name]

• Make it easy: “Here are a couple” – Two things imply not a lot of work
• Tell the time: “of quick” – This means it’s not going to take too long to do read this or do it
• Make it personal: “for your website (lead first name)” – This is about me for me

2. The first sentence – I’m in the market for an investment fund and came across [company name] – looks like what you’re offering is working as it snagged my attention.

• Make it relevant to why you found out about them: “I’m in the market for an investment fund and came across (company name)” – This is an organic observation as opposed to a pitch
• Make them feel good: “looks like what you’re offering is working as it snagged my attention.” – Let’s them know they’re doing a good job before you deliver the punch line

3. The second sentence – I noticed a couple of things that will help you get more people to signup and inquire about investing with [company name] – this 1-minute video explains it.

• Tell the time: “I noticed a couple of things” – Only two things
• Link it to what they care about: “that will help you get more people to signup and inquire about investing with Fisher.” – His job is to get people to invest with Fisher
• Make it personal and quick: “this 1-minute video explains it.” – He’ll see my face on the Loom and the two changes are simple to implement

4. The third sentence – I shared this as my day job (we’re connected on LinkedIn) is running a performance agency that helps companies grow faster through our own unique marketing mix – we get paid on what leads we bring in.

• Give yourself credibility: “I shared this as my day job (we’re connected on LinkedIn)” – If they want to find out if you’re full of shit they can stress test this against your professional profile and establish another connection point
• Tell them what you do: “running a performance marketing agency that helps companies grow faster through our own unique marketing mix – we get paid on what leads we bring in.” – Gives them a brief understanding of what you do and your value proposition

5. The last sentence – If this is something you’d be interested in chatting about let me know and I would be happy to tee up a call.

A call to action: “If this is something you’d be interested in chatting about let me know and I would be happy to tee up a call.” – A one-liner to offer an opportunity to chat

We’ve only got a small sample size right now with a total of 60 emails sent so I’m assuming this success percentage will drop as we grow.

The most difficult part is creating the Loom’s which requires individual face time. To solve this I’ve had our team jump on the prospects we’re targeting websites and find the holes so that I can immediately jump in and record myself talking about those. The reason we’re using my face is that my LinkedIn profile has the most clout and we’re trying to reach C-suite execs who may be less likely to reply to a salesperson as opposed to the founder.

Lastly, if you’re running any cold emails I’d love to hear of the strategies you’re using to get people to reply in the comments.