How to write successful cold emails

How I got responses from Mark Zuckerberg, Justin Trudeau and others..

A few years back, I was invited to speak at a conference in a Nordic country. As a child, I had always dreamt of visiting this country and this invite was literally a dream come true. It was an all-inclusive trip, an offer that I couldn’t refuse…

But there was one problem. I had a flight to the US in less than 72 hours and visa process for this country required at least 20 days! (Indian passport holder woes 😭)

I couldn’t miss my US flight since I had to give a presentation at an important conference. So, I decided to write a cold email to the Ambassador of this Nordic nation and requested for a visa within 48 hours. Within 12 hours of email, I got a call from a guy who told me to come to the Embassy to get my visa stamped. When I went there, the Embassy guys treated me like VIP; they were instructed by the Ambassador to grant me visa asap. In less than 36 hours of my cold email, I had my visa stamped!

This flight landing video is a testament to the fact that cold emails are a superpower ;)

This is just one of the instances wherein I used cold emails to get work done. I must have written 500+ cold emails in my life. Some people who have responded to my cold emails include Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Vinod Khosla, Jeff Bezos, Justin Trudeau etc. to name a few.

I’ve been doing this from last 8 years. However, when I started writing cold emails, I was pathetic at it. Since I never had warm intros or privileged family backgrounds to grant me connections, I kept refining my skill.

So how do you write a great cold email that gets you a response? Let me share some hacks that I’ve discovered :

• Keep your emails short : If you’re writing to important people, make sure that you don’t take up their time. If you write an email longer than 200 words, the success rate will drop drastically. The email should be short enough to be read easily on phone.

• It takes time : It takes countless iterations to write a great, crisp cold email. I spend at least 2-3 hours on writing a cold email from scratch. If it’s a super important email, I spend days on refining it.

• Be clear with your ask : Do you want an interview? Are you looking for a job? Do you have a question? A lot of people write something generic like - “I want to pick your brain on XYZ topic for 20 mins. Can we get on a call?” Such kind of asks lead to nowhere.

• Have a catchy subject line : Your subject line has to interest the recipient. One tip to make great subject lines is to write 10 versions of a subject line and then choose the best from those.

• Time it well : Don’t send an email on weekends. The best time to send an email is 9-10 am on weekdays. That way, your email will land on top of the list.

• Be persistent : Unless you get a NO, assume it is a YES. Keep sending (polite) reminders to the person.

• Keep trying : Writing successful cold emails is an art, science and psychology all jumbled in one. Just like any other skill, you get better at it with time.

Writing a great cold email can land you job, press, visas, investments, time, fancy dinners and what not.. So, if you want to have this superpower, start working on it right now!

P.S. - Let me know in the comments if you’ve written cold emails before and do share your experience. Also, subscribe to my newsletter if you want to receive my articles in your email. 😊