How do you write a cold email?
The job of the first email is not to sell but to get a reply. This guide covers the structure that produces one.
updated · 2026-09-17
What is a cold email and how do you write one?
A cold email is the first business email you send to someone you have never spoken to. A good one is short, carries a concrete fact about the reader in the first two lines, and asks for one small thing. It is not a pitch; it is a question that can be answered. What sets the reply rate is not the length but whether it is obvious at a glance that it was written for that person.
What is a cold email?
A cold email is the first business email you send when the reader expects nothing from you. It is not a newsletter, because nobody subscribed. It is not an advert either, because it is written to one person.
That changes how you measure it: the number to watch is not the open rate but the reply rate. An email that was opened and not answered did not work.
Why do the first two lines matter so much?
The reader decides in two lines whether the email is worth reading. Introduce yourself there and it reads like any other pitch. Write something about their company that is true this week and it separates from the rest.
That fact has to be concrete: a new location, a job ad opened, a partnership announced. An observation about the industry does not count, because it could be written to anyone.
Pocufy
Three agents run the part of these steps that repeats every week: defining the audience, building the list, writing each email for the person, and following up on the reply.
What should the email ask for?
The smaller the ask, the easier the reply. Asking for fifteen minutes gets more answers than sending a proposal.
Ask one question. An email with two questions looks like work to answer, so it gets postponed — and a postponed email is a forgotten one.
- Keep it short: four to six sentences is enough.
- Put the company-specific fact in the first sentence, not the last.
- Ask for one small thing.
- Always include an opt-out link.
- Check your SPF and DKIM records before you send.
When do you send the follow-up?
Getting no reply to the first email is normal. A short follow-up three to five working days later brings in a meaningful share of the answers.
The follow-up does not repeat the first email; it carries a new fact or a smaller ask. Pushing past the third follow-up gets you onto the blocklist directly.
Common questions
The rules depend on the recipient and the jurisdiction. Business-purpose email sent to a publicly listed corporate address, carrying an opt-out link, is common practice in B2B. Publishing your own privacy notice and honouring opt-out requests permanently is not optional.
As many as your sending address can carry. On a newly connected mailbox you start with dozens a day and raise it in steps. Raising the number past the point where personalisation quality drops lowers the reply rate.
Pocufy
Rather than doing all of this by hand, try it: paste your website link and get your first customer list in ten minutes.
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