So, you think you’re ready to hit “Send” on your new cold email? Wait: before you do that, let’s look over three important things you should check to make it a success.

How to avoid cold email regret

Cold email can be intimidating, but will probably be more warmly received than a cold call. A cold email is invaluable as it allows you to express all of your ideas without bombarding the person over the phone. You may call at an inconvenient time and get hurried off with an obligatory “thanks for the call.”

With email, your prospect can look over your message when it’s a good time for them. However, almost all of us have “email regret.” Excited to get a positive response, you didn’t check the cold email you sent out. So you notice a typo you can’t correct or a better way you could have worded it. Sometimes, moments after hitting “Send,” you find out your work was in vain as the email bounces. 

Next time, save yourself from groaning and double-check the following things before you send an email.

Subject lines should create interest and curiosity

The first thing your prospect will see is your subject line. First, try to think about the emails that this individual gets. Are they perhaps getting dozens or maybe more than 100 emails just like yours every day? You can imagine how easy it would be to ignore a subject like so many others. 

Stand out from the rest

To help your email stand out from the rest, try to think of the best way you can capture the value of your offer in a few words. Sure, it can be difficult, but write down as many versions as you need until you find the perfect one. 

Also, you can check out these 50 subject line examples to get some inspiration.

Does it look like spam?

Next, you want to make sure your subject line doesn’t look like spam. When it does, you run the risk of being deleted without opening or getting a spam complaint. Moreover, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) may even put your email in the junk folder instead of the inbox. 

So, ask yourself: does this subject line look spammy? Maybe it needs some editing.

Inspire curiosity

Curiosity is one of the most exploited feelings in marketing and sales – for good reason. Capitalize on that and you’ll see your open rates grow.

Be careful, though: there’s a fine line between evoking curiosity and using clickbait to boost your opens. So, let your approach be thoughtful, concise, and reflect what you can bring to the table.

Of course, leaving the subject line blank creates a negative impression. It means you don’t know how email works or you’re just lazy. That’s not what you want to communicate. 

Remember: your subject line should be working for you, not against you. Double-check it, make sure it serves a purpose, and that it makes the recipient want to open your email.

Copy should be short, sweet and engaging

Now that you’ve nailed your subject line, how can you keep your prospect reading? What you write in the email is essential because this is where you must get to the point. 

QuickMail founder and CEO Jeremy Chatelaine says a good cold email  “positively opens a conversation.”  Keeping this in mind will encourage you to write in a way that inspires a reply as opposed to shutting the door.

Be engaging

So, how can you make your copy engaging? After all, there is an outcome you’d like from your cold email: a positive response to your request.

First, deliver on the promise you made in your subject. You did a great job highlighting it, now it’s time to go into details. What is it that you have to offer to the person on the receiving end? Express it clearly and confidently while focusing on the benefit of your product or service. As you know, people tend to care more about what they get, not about doing you favors. 

Bonus tip: an email that is too gushing may come across as insincere or sycophantic. Nobody likes an apple-polisher. On the other hand, almost everyone responds to sincerity. 

The way that you write the email will communicate who you are. Does the copy put you in a good light? Think about what your words say about yourself or your company.

Be brief

You don’t want to barrage the recipient with a novel. Their time is precious, just like yours, and they may get impatient reading your message. Chances are, there is a way to be polite and brief. After all, brevity is its own courtesy. Short and sweet will always beat long-winded. So, consideration above all else.

Be clear

Have you ever gotten an email with no real direction? You maybe asked yourself, “okay, so what is it that you’d like from me?” If the purpose of a cold email is simply you expressing appreciation or to introduce yourself, you should explicitly state that. 

On the other hand, if there’s a call-to-action you’d like to include, make it visible and easy to follow. Your prospect should understand right away what you’d like them to do – don’t make them guess. 

Check what you’ve written to make sure your copy is short, sweet, and to the point. 

Use valid email contacts

Before you send the email, it’s always a good idea to make sure your contact is valid. ISPs have a number from 0 to 100 to determine how legitimate you are as a sender. Using an email checker ensures you preserve your sender reputation. 

You may be thinking if you get an occasional bounce, isn’t that normal? Although bounces happen to everyone sometimes, you can almost eliminate them with the proper precautions. 

“If you get bounces and spam complaints, your emails will start landing in the spam folder,” says ZeroBounce CEO Liviu Tanase. “When you send cold emails or marketing offers, that’s the last place you want to be. To reach the inbox, consider validating your email list regularly and pruning out bad contacts,” Tanase advises.

Apart from invalid addresses and people who mark you as spam, a good email verification service also removes catch-all, spam traps, role-based and abuse addresses. All of these can lower your sender reputation score, so weed them out without hesitation to ensure good deliverability.

By the way, QuickMail has a native integration with ZeroBounce, so including the email verifier in your workflows is a breeze.

Are you confident? Take a break and then hit “Send”

Is your email ready? Way to go! Nonetheless, it doesn’t hurt to take your eyes off of it for a while. If you can take a break, you’ll be amazed at what looking at your work with fresh eyes can do. Give it a day or at least a few hours. When returning to it, you may notice a mistake or something lacking clarity – and get a chance to correct it.

Also, is there a trustworthy person who could look things over for you? Have them look over your email and encourage their feedback. With their proofreading and suggestions, you can get out of your head for a moment. Furthermore, you can use an online spell checker to correct any typos. 

If you have a killer subject line, an email that’s short and sweet, and you have the right email address, you can send with confidence. Follow these guidelines and watch your successes with cold email grow.
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Author: Paul Leslie is a Content Writer for email validation company ZeroBounce. He has a rich background in content creation as a writer, researcher and interviewer. Paul has conducted more than 800 interviews distributed via radio and podcasts.