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MarketingSales · 4 min read
Cold email that ships
Most cold email reads like it was generated. Even the human-written ones. There’s a small set of moves that make a cold email actually arrive.
The bar for cold email has fallen so low that a half-decent one stands out by being barely competent. That’s an opportunity, if you’re willing to do the work to actually be good.
What works in 2025
- A subject line that wouldn’t embarrass you on a postcard.
- First sentence about them, not you.
- One specific observation about their business.
- A small ask, a single yes/no question, not a meeting.
What ruins it
"I noticed you’re the [role] at [company]" kill. "I’d love to grab 15 minutes" kill. Anything mail-merged in obvious ways, kill. The bar is human, specific, useful. Anything less is filler.
If you wouldn’t send it to a friend, don’t send it to a stranger.