5 Best Cold Email Templates In 2024 (30%+ Response Rate)

Most cold email templates suck.

In this article, I share five templates that actually work.

These templates have all been used in real campaigns, and have achieved significant results:

1. General B2B template (30%+ response rate)
2. Gift + demo template
3. Ask about frustrations template
4. Selling advertising space template
5. Direct offer

1. General B2B template (30%+ response rate)

Below is a template that I used when acquiring users for Emailchaser:

I explain the framework used in this template in my article How To Write A Cold Email.

This template works well, but only if you understand the fundamentals behind it. I recommend that you study the above article for at least an hour before attempting to use this template.

2. Gift + demo template

This works great if you have a very small lead list.

It involves sending companies a bottle of champagne and handwritten note to congratulate them on their recent fundraising round, and then following up with a cold email to ask if they would be open to a demo.

Below is Brex’s ex-Chief Revenue Officer describing how this strategy became their most successful outbound campaign ever:

A lot of people in the cold email community think that you need to send thousands of emails to get a single customer.

This is false.

The above strategy proves that building a small targeted list is more effective (when done right).

If you want to learn how to build a targeted lead list, then check out my article How To Build A Lead List For Cold Email.

Additionally, the below LinkedIn post discusses this concept, and shows why focusing on the prospects that have the most potential is the better strategy:

3. Ask about frustrations template

This template works well if you are building a product that acts as an alternative to an existing market leader.

It involves making a list of leads that are already using your competitor’s product, and then emailing them to ask if there is anything that frustrates them about their product.

Below is the template:

The below tweet thread from Nathan Barry shows how he used this exact template to grow ConvertKit to over $100,000.00 in MRR.

My software company hit $1,500 MRR and then got stuck.

...Until I pivoted marketing tactics.

Here’s the exact method I used to scale to $100k MRR in the next 12 months: pic.twitter.com/9k8V1jMkh3

— Nathan Barry (@nathanbarry) October 27, 2022

4. Selling advertising space template

If you have an audience, and you want companies to pay to advertise to your audience, then this template is effective.

The below tweet thread from Sam Parr shows how he used this template to land his first advertiser for his newsletter “The Hustle”:

I sold The Hustle's first ads. About $100k worth.

Here's the 1st cold email I sent that got a sale. It was Wealthfront.

Maybe sent emails to 20 diff brands, 5-8 showed interest.

We had 93,535 subscribers. I charged them $26 per 1,000 sends. pic.twitter.com/L7uEYaG5Di

— Sam Parr (@thesamparr) December 22, 2022

Below is an image showing this template:

5. Direct offer

This template works well if you have a great offer with lots of social proof.

If you have zero online prescence, then this probably won't work.

Frequently asked questions

Final thoughts

The templates mentioned in this article are good for most cold email campaigns.

I recommend that you read my article How To Write A Cold Email. This article will help you understand how to take one of the above templates, and mold it for your specific situation.

You may also enjoy my other article 12 Reasons Why Your Cold Emails Are Not Getting Replies.