Cold email

Cold email is one-to-one style outreach to a prospect who hasn't contacted you or subscribed to anything. Done well, it's targeted (the right person at a relevant company), personal, short, honest about who's writing, and easy to opt out of. It's usually sent in small sequences of a first email plus a few follow-ups.

Rules depend on where recipients are. In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act makes no exception for business-to-business email and requires, among other things, accurate header information, a non-deceptive subject line, a valid postal address and a working opt-out honoured within 10 business days. In the EU and UK, GDPR applies to work emails that identify a person, alongside national electronic marketing rules. This is general information, not legal advice.

Industry bodies draw a line at deceptive practices: M3AAWG's position is that using deceptive and misleading delivery methods to send unsolicited email, including cold email, is abusive.

Cold email works when it reaches real inboxes and the right people. Bounces from unverified data, complaints from irrelevant targeting and sudden volume spikes from new domains are the usual reasons campaigns stop working. The basics: verified addresses, an authenticated domain, modest volume and a clear opt-out.

Skrap.ai covers the data side of cold email. Verify your existing list first with the free email verifier, then fill gaps with the email finder, which returns verified work emails. Keep people who opted out in the team-wide do-not-contact list. Templates and structure are in cold email templates.