What Is a Cold Email? Meaning, an Example and the Rules
A plain definition of a cold email, one example, how it differs from spam and what US law asks of the sender.
Robbert Veer, Founder
5 min read
A cold email is an email sent to a person or business that has had no contact with you, written to start a conversation. An agency owner who writes to a local roofer about a fault on the roofer's website is sending one. What separates it from spam is the reason. A cold email is written for one reader, about something that reader can check.
What is a cold email in plain words?
A cold email is a written introduction to a stranger, sent for a business reason.
The cold email meaning rests on the word cold. In sales, a cold contact is someone who has never heard from you. The reader did not ask for your email and may not know your name.
Three things make an email cold.
- No earlier contact. No meeting, no form filled in, no referral.
- One person writing to one person. A named sender writes to a named reader at a business the sender chose.
- It asks for a conversation. A reply, a call or a short meeting.
Cold emailing is the practice of sending these to a list of chosen prospects, often as a short series.
What does a cold email look like?
A cold email is short and about the reader. The business and the sender below are made up.
Subject: Summit Roofing's quote form on a phone
Hi Mr. Dalton,
I tried to ask for a quote on summitroofing.example from my phone this morning. The form asks for 14 fields, and the Send button sits off the edge of the screen.
Some homeowners will give up and call the next roofer.
I build websites for trades here in Tulsa. Would a two-minute video of what I would change be useful?
Dana Whitfield
That email is 65 words. It holds a subject that names the business, one thing the sender saw, what it costs the owner, one line about the sender and one question.
Our guide on how to write a cold email builds each line, and the cold email templates page has eight first emails to copy.
Is a cold email the same as spam?
No. A cold email and spam both arrive unasked, and the likeness ends there.
| Cold email | Spam | Newsletter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who gets it | A business the sender chose | Every address on a list | People who signed up |
| Why them | Something specific about that business | No reason | They asked for it |
| The wording | Written for one reader | Identical for everyone | Identical for every subscriber |
| The sender | A named person who answers | Often hidden | A brand |
Could your exact email have gone to 500 other businesses? If it could, expect the reader to treat it as spam.
Is cold emailing legal?
In the United States a cold email is legal when it follows the CAN-SPAM Act. The Act covers all commercial email and makes no exception for B2B email (FTC).
Five of the Act's eight requirements shape what a first email must hold.
- No false sender details and no deceptive subject line
- A valid postal address in the message
- A clear way to opt out
- Opt-outs honored within 10 business days
Each email that breaks the Act can carry a penalty of up to $53,088. Other countries set their own rules. This is not legal advice. Our post on whether cold email is legal covers the Act.
Does cold email work?
Cold email can work, and the result depends more on who you email than on what you write.
In a 2019 Backlinko and Pitchbox study of 12 million outreach emails of every kind, 8.5% got a reply (Backlinko).
We scored 20,000 Dutch company websites and sent 3,570 cold emails to three groups. A random sample from the other 80% of websites replied positively 0.50% of the time. Businesses with the weakest 20% of websites replied positively 1.60% of the time to a generic email and 2.35% of the time when the email named the problem.
Selection made a positive reply about 3.2 times more likely. The gap between the two emails to the weakest group was not statistically significant, with p = 0.238. The test covered Dutch companies and email only, and our write-up has the numbers.
Does a cold email have to be the first contact?
No. A cold email can be the second thing a business receives from you.
In the sequence Leadodo calls the Outbound Machine, a posted letter arrives on day 1 and the first email follows on day 4. That email is still cold, because the owner has never replied. It can now point to the letter.
Our guides explain why the letter goes first and how cold email works for agencies.
Questions
What is a cold email used for?
A cold email is used to start a conversation with someone who does not know you. Agencies use it to reach local business owners. Job seekers use it to reach hiring managers, and founders to reach investors.
What is the difference between a cold email and a warm email?
A warm email goes to someone who already knows you, such as a past client or a referral. A cold email goes to someone with no link to you, so its first line has to give a reason to keep reading.
How long should a cold email be?
Under 100 words is a workable limit. One finding, one cost and one question fit in that space.
Who should get a cold email?
A business where you can name one specific reason for writing. For an agency that reason is usually on the prospect's website. Twip, the AI inside Leadodo, scores every website in a search out of 100, and sites that score below 40 form the shortlist.
Next step. See how your Outbound Machine sends the letter first and the emails after it. See the Outbound Machine.
