cold email to potential client

How to Cold Email a Potential Client and Why This Saved My Freelance Business

6 August 2020 | by Gina Lucia

Have you been struggling to get new clients for your business? Have you also tried every technique in the book?

Well, in this post, I’m going to outline why cold emailing is the solution to all your problems and how to cold email a potential client.

Nod your head if this sounds familiar.

  • You know you can help loads of people and businesses to solve their problems, but you can’t seem to find them or reach them.
  • You’d hoped that if you created an amazing website with the most beautiful imagery, wording, and services that people would flock to you and buy those services.
  • You’ve tried all the advice out there from coaches and gurus telling you to be consistent, be active on social media, create an email list, et cetera, but none of it is working.
  • You’re sick of being told to invest in long-term strategies when you need to be making money now.
  • You’re also sick to death of having no idea if your messaging or services are even resonating with your potential clients.

This was me too just one year ago, and it clearly wasn’t working.

I had a serious build it and they will come mindset.

Why cold emailing works

Cold emailing was the solution to my problems and here’s why.

  • Finding and contacting potential clients was easier.
  • You don’t need to spend nearly as much time tweaking your website or being active on social media.
  • You can find clients and therefore work faster.
  • You’ll get real-time feedback to help you improve your pitch and your services quicker.

Yes, it’s daunting and scary, but you’ll be thankful you have a reliable way to find new clients, especially when you need them the most.

So let’s break it down.

What is cold emailing?

Cold emailing is essentially emailing somebody you have no prior connection to. In this case, it’s done to introduce yourself to a client. It’s that simple.

In fact, you’ve probably received cold emails yourself. The sad fact is that these cold emails you’ve received were probably annoying, not personalized to you, and generally didn’t work.

That’s not what you’re going to do, though.

Your aim should be to craft a tailored and personalized email to your potential client so that you can introduce yourself in the most professional and helpful way possible.

Think about it this way, you wouldn’t attend a networking event, meet somebody and then suddenly start spouting off all your services and what you can do and how much it costs without even understanding their business.

First, you need to develop a relationship. And although this may take time, actually it can happen way faster with cold emailing.

cold email course

How to send a cold email to a potential client

So to start your cold emailing strategy, here’s what you’re going to need. Your ideal client in mind.

  1. A way to find their email address.
  2. A way to contact them.
  3. A way to track all your cold emailing efforts.

In this case, I’m presuming you already have your ideal client in mind.

How to find a potential client’s email address

So let’s move on to number two, which is finding their email address.

When cold emailing you’ll want to find a very specific person to contact. In most cases, this is the person in charge of the business. But you’ll have to determine that for yourself depending on what you’re pitching.

So head on over to their website, and here’s my best tip. To find the right email address, use a tool. I use Hunter.

To find the right person to contact, check their about page. Here you’ll usually find a list of people working for that particular company, ideally with their first and last names which you can use to match up to an email address.

Hunter provides you with a Chrome browser extension, or you can use the website itself to find the right email addresses.

For the browser extension, all you need to do is click on it and it will pull up a bunch of email addresses for the website your viewing. Then match it up with the name you found on the about page and you’re good to go.

How to craft the perfect cold email

Now we have the right email address, it’s time to send a cold email to your potential client.

Here are the components of a really good first cold email:

  • Why you’re reaching out.
  • Who you are and what you do, and specifically how it can help them.
  • Proof of what you do works.
  • A call to action to get them to reply to you.

And here’s the kicker. All of this should be done in as few words as possible. You want them to read your email and reply. That’s the main goal of a cold email.

Once you’ve crafted this, the benefit of these cold emails is that you can craft and re-tweak them as you go, depending on the feedback you get from your potential clients.

How to track your cold emailing efforts

Once sent, the next stage of cold emailing is tracking. This is one of the most important steps. Without tracking who you’ve emailed, you won’t be able to know how many people you’ve emailed, when you email them and therefore when you need to follow up and email them back.

So with that in mind, I recommend setting up a CRM or customer relationship manager.

This is an easy tool you can set up that will help you keep track of the relationships you’re developing with these potential clients. It’ll allow you to track who you’ve emailed, how they’ve replied, and if you need to do follow up, create to do’s, etc.

My CRM of choice is HubSpot. It just so happens to be free.

It’s also really uncomplicated and easy to use if you stick to the foundation of HubSpot. You can even sync it up to your email client, which means it will automatically track all your emails and make less work for you.

DISCLAIMER: This article contains affiliate links.

5 Comments

  1. Nicole

    16th March 2021 at 2:18 AM

    Hi! I’ve been enjoying your YouTube videos. I’m interested in the cold pitching master class, but couldn’t find it in the links below the videos. I did see your $39 course though; is it the same thing?

    • Gina Lucia

      16th March 2021 at 9:48 AM

      Hey Nicole, I’ll email you!

  2. Ruby Luna

    18th March 2021 at 12:37 PM

    Hi! Thank you for sharing! This is a good read since I’m new to freelancing, this is a really big help.

    • Gina Lucia

      18th March 2021 at 4:44 PM

      Ah that’s wonderful to hear! If you ever need any extra help, just ask 🙂

  3. Diana

    23rd March 2022 at 6:15 PM

    Thank you for this article! It helps me a lot!

Comments are closed.