Cold Outreach Checklist

🧑🏼‍🍳 Key Ingredient Checklist

📄 General Guidelines

• Full length should fit on a smart phone.
• Don’t trigger spam reflexes!
• Best practices usually don’t help
• Stuff often-said by others = triggers people's spam reflex
• Put yourself in their shoes. Do it many times.
• Test small batches (5-10 emails) until you find copy that really works, then turn on the jets.

🪄 Helpful Tricks

• Get. Reps. In.
• Add time pressure
• Write 3 orthogonal emails. Re-read when your mind is clear. Pick the one that resonates the most. Or test all 3!
• ex: one over-indexed on shortness, another on social proof, another on casualness, etc etc
• Know the metrics
• Open rate = subject line performance / deliverability.
• CTR = email copy
• Action Rate = (CTR)*(open rate)*(product appeal)/(friction)
• Mention something related but niche so they know you did your homework (ex: old blog post, one-liner in podcast, etc).

🔁 Feedback loops

• Send it to yourself and check how it looks from mobile & desktop
• Clarify the end action you want recipients to take
• Ex: reply to email, buy the product, fill out the form, etc.
• Open rates and CTR are leading indicators, BUT not what really matters. What matters is getting them to take the final action (ex: buy, sign up, etc). Judge yourself on that metric.
• Before turning on the jets: ask if the CTR, open rate, & action rate sound intuitively good.
• If yes, then fire away. If no, then keep iterating with batches.
• General #s: open rate = 60-70%, CTR = 15%, Action = 5-10%

✅ Examples of Good Copy

❌ Examples of Bad Copy

• Honestly, just look at your spam folders and notice patterns at how similar everything is

• The best cold emails are personalized. There is no one method that will work.
• Use AIDA format: Attention, Interest, Desire, & Action.
• Be helpful. Give, give, give. Don’t wait for a response to give.
• Figure out what they want. What will make them look good.
• Make it ridiculously easy for someone to respond
• Do all possible intellectual work for them first. Be specific.
• Have a low commitment ask.
• Keep it short
• Full length should fit on a smart phone.

• Introduce yourself, but only relevant points
• Leave something out of email & follow up 1 min later to include it. Shows that it isn’t automated.

• If in tech, you can be casual.
• Show your momentum / traction, show evidence why you’re the high growth young person everyone wants on their team
• Say you’re a student (if you’re recruiting). Sales is about people, momentum, & stories.
• 10 unique cold emails > 100 copy & pasted emails
• Build the muscle. Cold message 3-5 ppl a day.
• It’s a mentality. Just reach out to more people. Increase your surface area of luck.
• Give with no expectation of anything in return
• Know why you’re reaching out. What do you really want? Why?
• Make it easy for people to help you too. Be specific
• Follow up with helpful, concise resources. Email is just the start. Great relationships require a long-term mentality.