The art of the cold call is something insurance agents spend their entire careers trying to perfect. Today, the cold call is usually a cold email. From the sender’s perspective, the goal of the cold email is to make an introduction, provide information the recipient deems valuable, and — more than anything — evoke a positive response.
The inclination to cast a wide net and write a novel in the body of the email in the hopes that something in there might strike the right chord with the recipient is the wrong one. It actually does the opposite and scares the reader away by overwhelming them with too much information. And when many professionals read their email on a smartphone, it's easy to delete anything that's too long.
So, what is the right length of an email? Software app Boomerang conducted a study on the topic and found that emails between 50 and 125 words were most likely to receive a response.
That isn’t a very long email, so you have to make the most of every word. Get to the point ASAP. The first sentence of your email should tell the recipient exactly why you are contacting them. Introduce yourself, establish any connection between you and them — personal, professional or otherwise — and give them a reason to keep reading. If there is an industry trend they should be aware of, good or bad, tell them in that first sentence and how it might impact their business. This will buy you their attention and keep them reading the next paragraph.
As you get into the second paragraph of your email, which is where you state your value proposition and convey critical information, keep brevity as a priority. Grammar and syntax are important, but this isn’t a college essay. Use bullet points to carve out key pieces of information that grab the reader’s eye. Maura Nevel Thomas, an award-winning international speaker, trainer, and author on individual and corporate productivity, says that bullet points are effective because they break up chunks of information and that “the formatting alone is more pleasing to our eyes since it creates white space.”
Your third — and final — paragraph is where you make your ask. You only need one or two sentences at most. If you want to schedule a meeting, ask for a meeting. If you want to offer a quote, ask if you can give them a quote. The recipient wants to know exactly what you’re looking for from them. Be polite and cordial, but don’t beat around the bush. And if you’re nervous about asking for their business — which is a common anxiety we all have to face sooner or later —remember that this is business and that the person on the other end of your email is doing the same thing to their clients and prospects.
Use every word effectively, employ tools like bullet points to keep things brief, and be as direct as possible. With those rules in mind, you’ll keep your emails effective and digestible, and you’ll be more likely to get a positive response.