Cold email principles

Cold email: keep it short and about one thing

A cold email is read on a phone, between other things. Write a few short sentences with one idea, in the first person, as one person writing to another. Cut anything that explains your whole product. No links and no attachments.

Cold email: open with one of two structures

The first line decides whether the rest gets read. Two openers work best for us:

• "I help X do Y by Z": who you help, the specific thing you help them do, and how in a few words.
• The question opener: one specific, true observation about them, then one question about it.

Weak: Hi {first_name}, I'm reaching out because we offer a platform that helps companies like yours...
Better: Hi {first_name}, I help [growing SaaS founders] [grow their audiences] by [connecting them with podcast hosts in their niche].
Better: Hi {first_name}, saw that {company} is hiring its first SDRs. Are you building outbound from scratch?

Only state what you know is true. If the observation comes from an AI Personalization field, give the field a fallback that still reads naturally. See Openers that get replies.

Cold email: give before you ask

End the first email with a small offer, not a request for time. "Mind if I send over [a short sample]?" is easier to say yes to than "Can we book a call?", and it starts the relationship with you helping.

Across the sequence, give, give, give: each email offers something useful, such as an idea, a resource, an intro or a sample. Ask for little. See Give before you ask.

Cold email length: give without sending a newsletter

Giving doesn't mean sending long content. Don't sign someone up for a newsletter they didn't opt in for, and don't paste an article into a cold email.

• Offer the give in a line, and send it if they say yes.
• If you share an idea in the email itself, keep it to two or three lines.
• If an email is longer than a phone screen, cut it.

Cold email subject lines

Short and plain, a few words, often lowercase. Specific beats clever: "question about {company}" or "{first_name}, quick one". Avoid words that read like marketing, such as "opportunity" or "partnership".

Cold email follow-ups

Never resend the same email, and never send "just following up". Each follow-up gives something new:

• Middle emails: a different give or a different angle, such as a new idea, a resource, or a question about whether you've reached the right person.
• Last email: short and direct. Say it's the last note, leave the offer open and make "not now" an easy answer.

Reference LinkedIn in a multichannel cold email

In an Email + LinkedIn sequence, the lead also sees your LinkedIn request and messages. Say so in a few words, so the two channels read as one conversation: "I sent you a note on LinkedIn too, so I'll keep this short." Do it in every email after the first touch. See the multichannel starter.

Cold email rules the Copilot follows

The AI Sales Copilot writes every sequence to these rules, and they hold for copy you write yourself:

• No links and no attachments in any sequence message. They hurt deliverability and read as a pitch. A link goes out only in an Appointment Setter reply, when the prospect asks for it.
• No claims you can't prove. Every number, client name or result must be real; soften anything uncertain, such as "teams we work with often" instead of a made-up percentage.
• A small, give-first ask in early touches, not a meeting.
• Short, first person, no em dashes and no slop. See Slop.

No links or attachments in cold email

Never put a link or an attachment in a sequence email: not your website, not a case study, not a booking page. Mailbox providers treat links and attachments in cold email as spam signals, and in a first email they read as a pitch.

Offer the give in words instead, and send it once they say yes. The Appointment Setter shares a link from your Assets or your booking link in its reply when the prospect asks. See Configuring the Appointment Setter.

Send cold email from a dedicated mailbox and domain

Copy only matters if it reaches the inbox. Don't send cold email from the mailbox you use every day: use mailboxes on a dedicated sending domain, warm them up with a warm-up service, and set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC. See Sending mailbox best practices.

Cold email variables

Variables use single braces: {first_name}, {last_name}, {company}, {title}, custom fields from your CSV, and AI Personalization fields by their exact name. Double braces don't work. See Personalization fields.