3 tips for sending cold emails
So recently, I had to send a few cold emails to try getting validation interviews from folks in the art space. So I googled for relevant museums and galleries and emailed them relentlessly.
And I waited.
As you can imagine, I received 0 replies from all of them (out of 20 mails i sent out). Only a few Out-of-Office mails. I mean I can’t blame them. Every morning when I wake up, I get so many emails on my phone. Social media updates, school emails, newsletters, and a bunch of promotion emails that I never seem to be able to unsubscribe from (the picture at the beginning of this article was just a single day’s worth).
Problem
So, I decided to work on my strategy and break down the problem at hand.
Why would someone skip my email and not give me a reply?
- Too much time required for a cold email, with little or no reward for them.
- Generic template email, even if it was individually addressed with sincere wording.
- Just not something I am interested in.
With these questions, I analysed the situation and crafted a better response.
Solution
1: Lower the ask
Asking someone for a validation interview of 30 minutes which they could otherwise spend ordering a cup of boba tea, is a lot (well, it could be coffee or tea and some boba tea shops have coffee, anw I digress).
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Instead, I decided to just ask for a short chat and if possible just point me to someone they knew would spend 30 minutes with me.
“I was wondering if you are free for a short chat about <insert Gallery name>? If not, could you connect me to someone who is in the Gallery instead?”
2: Create a connection
How do you connect with someone who you haven’t met before? In this day and age, it is actually much easier to do so with Social Media and even LinkedIn. However, there are people who go by pseudonyms or just do not use LinkedIn in their industry. I only noticed this after doing research on this project but they are many, many artists who do this (think Banksy).
What I did was actually just directly reference the article in which I found the contact in the first place. Adding a direct URL link to it, just in case the contact forgot that they were in the article. It would be nice to note the person’s role as well, to show that you did your research.
“ I am currently working on a project that is related to <this industry you are in>, and came across this article where you were the photographer: <insert link>”
3: Filter your audience
You know how the ads that appear in your feed are always so tempting because you have been searching information about it? In the same way, you would want your email to only reach people that could be interested in your content / or willing to talk to you.
In another course, I was looking for panelists to attend a forum we were organizing. Instead of looking for people directly, I looked for past forums similar to our topic and browsed their panelists. I managed to find a professional who was not only a panelist for one forum but have been active in various other events as well. It made sense to assume that he would be interested in appearing for forums.
Result
After applying my techniques, I got a reply from my first email after a few days. The panelist I reached out to also replied about their interest. I would just say that its almost a 100% success rate for me, hence I thought to share my humble tips.
I hoped that my 3 takeaways will help you and I would hope even more to hear your views as well, both positive or negative, so that I could improve this skill of mine as I am always looking for new connections through cold emai.
