Tips For Writing Cold Emails
Cold emails can be an intimidating thing to write, and an incredibly hard thing to write well.
With that being said, cold emails are still an effective way to get a job interview directly with a company that you admire!
What is a Cold Email?
A cold email is an email that you send to a boss/hiring manager at a company that they are not expecting or have requested.
Typically, a person looking for a job will stumble across a business that they find intriguing, and will send the hiring manager an email asking for an interview. Sometimes the person sending the email will choose a business that someone in their network recommended that they contact.
How to Send a Good Cold Email
The first thing you should do is to determine what you want out of the email. You probably don’t expect the hiring manager to reply with a job offer and the keys to the kingdom, but you can realistically ask for an interview or a meeting.
As with all good emails, you need to start by writing a decent subject line. Good subject lines get your point across without coming off as scams or spam. They relate to the main message of your email and its call to action.
“Request for interview” or “ (Last Name followed by position desired) inquiry” would both be solid choices for subject lines.
Make sure that the person you are emailing is either a hiring manager or someone with hiring authority. You don’t want to suddenly realize that you sent an email to the company’s advertising department and not someone who can hire you.
What to Add Vs. What to Omit
The goal of this email is to eventually talk to a hiring manager either in person or remotely. Because of this, you want to make sure that you have something to talk about that isn’t in the email.
Attached to your email should be a copy of your resume, references and some examples of your work/portfolio.
You don’t want to go into great detail about why you think you are the person for the job or what makes you qualified. These are all things that you should explain to the hiring manager during an in-person interview. Your resume and portfolio should be the things that convince the hiring manager to consider an interview with you. Once you get the interview, you can go over all the reasons why you are the candidate for the job.
Track Whether or Not Your Email Was Opened
As I’m sure you are well aware, not every email you send will generate a response. However, there are things you can do to figure out why you didn’t get one.
You can install the free Chrome extension Mailtrack which will let your know when an email was opened if at all. Basically, if your email was not opened that means that either your subject line was off or that the hiring manager simply has yet to see it. However, if your emails are being opened it means that either your resume and portfolio were not enough or that your email was poorly worded.
If your resume was the problem, we can help with that. Click the following link to schedule a free consultation with a professional resume writer who can maximize your chances of landing your dream job!
If your email was the problem, then it’s time to problem solve. Show the email to some friends and relatives to get an understanding of how you should rewrite it. From there, send off the new version to see if you will get some different results.
