Why Cold Email for Digital Marketing Agencies Works

When planning email marketing for your agency, your initial consideration might be the traditional cold email. But is it still an effective strategy in 2025?

The short answer is: yes, cold emails are still effective if executed correctly.

How can you make cold emails work for your marketing agency and ensure they don't go unnoticed?

I explored this topic thoroughly, and here’s what I discovered.

What is cold email marketing?

Cold email marketing is a strategy aimed at converting leads into prospects and ultimately clients. To achieve this, a cold email outreach campaign targets individuals who might be interested in your service or product. Ideally, the campaign utilizes an email list enriched with details such as:

• first and last name

• job title

• email address

• company name

Additional information, such as a blog post or a product/service offered by the lead, can be used to personalize the cold outreach sequence.

7 tips to craft a good cold email

Although every digital agency is different, there are some general best practices you should follow when writing cold emails.

Know your audience

Understanding who you’re emailing is essential. You should not only know the recipient's role but also:

• their full name,

• their interests,

• their preferences and dislikes.

This allows you to tailor your message specifically to the reader, making your email as personalized as possible.

Knowing your target audience will enable you to:

• Address them by name,

• mention recent articles they may have written,

• directly address their pain points,

• customize your solution, and

• use language they are likely to respond to.

Make your subject line stand out

Did you know that 47% of email recipients open emails based solely on the subject line? Clearly, it plays a crucial role in capturing attention.

In fact, we’re likely to open an email only if:

• we know the sender (and we either know their email’s going to be important)

• the subject line looks interesting

When sending cold emails, you don’t fall into the first category. Therefore, it’s crucial to craft an effective subject line. Use intriguing and attention-grabbing words, ensuring the subject is concise yet descriptive. While emojis can be beneficial, use them sparingly, especially if your audience might not value them. Personalization and addressing pain points often lead to a higher open rate.

Hook them

Has your prospect opened the email? Congratulations, but this is just the beginning of the battle. Now, you need to make sure they actually read it and respond. Your first lines have one main goal: to make the reader go through the following lines as well.

Although it might feel tempting to focus on yourself on those first lines, remember that we’re always more likely to keep reading if we relate to the text in front of us. And the easiest way to make your prospect feel curious is by putting them at the core of your entire message.

Although this may sound a bit harsh, it is true: we’re far more likely to connect to a stranger that makes us feel important than we’re to connect with someone who starts off by talking about themselves.

Some of the ways you could do this in your cold emails include:

• referring to their accomplishments or aspirations

• mentioning a mutual connection (even if it’s just digital)

• asking something about their pain points

• mentioning something they posted about on LinkedIn

• referring to a recent blog post they wrote/were included in

The key here is to make your prospect feel like they’re being listened to. Once you’ve accomplished this, you can go ahead and dive a little deeper in your offer/proposal.

Follow up

Yeah, yeah. I’m sure you don’t like it when someone keeps following up with you. But did you know that according to statistics from growthlist.co:

• The first follow-up email can increase response rates by as much as 49% and

• three follow-up emails achieve a notable 9.2% reply rate?

Cold emails can easily go awry if not handled properly, making you appear desperate and pushy, which could harm your brand.

Therefore, carefully consider your approach and send follow-up emails that add value without making your prospects feel pursued.

Ensure your value proposition is clear

The most common mistake in cold emails is overwhelming the reader with too much information, resulting in a cluttered message. To prompt your prospect to act, present your offer and value proposition with clarity.

Clearly specify what you are offering, how it benefits them, and why they should trust you. Your prospect must understand why your offer is appealing and, crucially, how it stands out from others they have received.

Underline your credibility

Welcome to the internet, where in 2022, over 300,000 phishing reports were filed in the United States alone. This figure excludes the countless individuals who did not report phishing attempts, as well as the numerous other methods through which people can be scammed online, especially via email.

In such an environment, it’s crucial to establish your credibility. Why should your cold email prospect trust you? What reasons do they have to invest their time and money in you? Does your company hold any significant accolades? Have you been featured in any magazines or blogs? Are there any reviews that can enhance your reputation?

Nail the right timing

This task is challenging but crucial for cold emailing. Ensure your emails are sent at optimal times to prevent them from being lost in your prospect's inbox. Proper timing increases the chances of your prospects opening, reading, and responding to your email.

Consider the following when determining the best timing for your cold emails:

• Understand your prospect’s business cycle: Some businesses are more open to marketing services during events like Black Friday or in January for the new year.

• Identify triggers in your prospect’s calendar: Are they involved in industry events, undergoing changes, or launching a product? These triggers can increase their response to your email.

• Monitor your prospect’s social channels: Note when they are active to find the best times to email.

• Run tests repeatedly: There's no perfect timing for cold emails, so experiment to find what works best for responses.

You might not achieve success immediately. However, by adopting a data-driven and learning-focused approach, you can refine your cold email strategy.

Examples of how to write a cold email

Alright, now that the theory is out of the way, let’s go over some cold email templates agencies can use to reach out and capture cold leads.

The great personalized

Subject line: Let’s create something great together, Jake!

Hello Jake,

I recently came across your website and I just wanted to say I love your latest article on driving better productivity for software development teams. I particularly enjoyed the psychology-driven approach you took to the topic.

My name is John, and I work for ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency. We specialize in crafting custom software solutions that can help transform businesses like yours—and put good content in front of more potential readers organically.

I think articles like the last one you wrote could reach at least 1,200 people every month (according to both Ahrefs and Semrush data). We’ve already done something similar for ClientOne and ClientTwo already (attached you will find graphs on how we grew their website traffic in six months).

Would you like to discuss how we can help you make that happen?

I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

John

The value-based pitch

Subject line: You can double your website traffic within 4 weeks

Hi Jake,

I’m John from ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency. I recently looked at your website analytics and was absolutely amazed by the results. You’ve done an incredible job getting your message out there, but I think you could be doing even better.

Our team specializes in SEO, and we’ve already doubled website traffic for ClientOne in four weeks (check out the graph attached). I’m confident we could get the same incredible results for you as well.

Would you like to discuss how we could make this happen?

I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

John

The “your competition is doing this, why aren’t you already?”

Subject line: YourCompany is actually better than TheirCompany

Hi Jake,

I just came across your website and thought I’d drop you a line. YourCompany is an amazing business, with a lot of potential.

In fact, a quick check of your analytics reveals that you are actually doing better than TheirCompany in a lot of areas. The way I see it, however, what they do differently is focus more on long-tail keywords, rather than top-of-the-funnel ones. This is likely to help them bring more qualified traffic to the website, and thus convert more of their site visitors into actual customers.

The good news is you could do this a lot better. Your content is already top-shelf, so all you’ll need is a little SEO magic.

We specialize in helping businesses like yours grow their online traffic exponentially and turn more visitors into paying customers. We’ve worked with more than 340 companies like yours, and their reviews say a lot more than we ever could (link to testimonials/reviews).

Would you like to discuss how we can help?

I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

John

The conversation starter

Subject line: What’s your take on Scrumban, Jake?

Hi Jake,

My name is John, and I was just browsing through your company blog. That’s some great content right there! I particularly enjoyed your article on agile methodologies. It made me curious—what’s your take on the methodology?

As someone who’s been frequently involved in projects that flopped because the team was not clear on how to divide tasks and work together, I feel that articles like yours should be seen by a lot more people.

All the best,

John

Once they reply, you could keep the conversation going for one or two more emails and then drop a “by the way” in the form of:

I could help with that, if you’re interested. I run an SEO agency (ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency) and we specialize in helping businesses like yours get more visibility online.

We’ve already worked with ClientOne and ClientTwo and had great results with them.

Attached are the graphs showing how their website traffic and sales skyrocketed within 6 months.

The name-dropper

Subject line: ClientOne 10x’d their site traffic in 18 months

Hi Jake,

I hope you’re doing well. My name is John, and I’m the founder of ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency.

I recently worked with ClientOne, and I’m proud to say that we 10x’d their website traffic in 18 months (check out the graph attached).

I’m sure your business could benefit from similar results. I’d love to chat with you about how we can make this happen.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

John

Bad cold email examples for agencies

Now that we’ve gone through some good examples of agency cold emails, here are some bad ones too.

No context

Subject line: Got a minute to spare?

Hi there,

I’m John, and I’m the founder of ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency. I’ve been in the SEO industry for a while and I think we could be of assistance to your business. Would you like to discuss how we could work together?

Thanks,

John

No personalization

Subject line: Hi, can I help you with your SEO?

Hi,

I hope you’re doing well. I’m John and I run an SEO agency called ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency. We specialize in helping businesses like yours get more visibility online. I was wondering if you’d be interested in learning more about what we do.

Thanks,

John

No value proposition

Subject line: SEO help?

Hi,

I’m John from ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency. We provide SEO services and I think we could help you out with your website. Would you be interested in learning more?

Thanks,

John

No call to action

Subject line: Let’s chat about your SEO needs

Hi there,

I’m John and I run an SEO agency called ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency. I noticed that you’re not taking advantage of SEO to grow your online presence.

Thanks,

John

Focusing only on yourself

Subject line: Want to hear more about my agency?

Hi,

I’m John and I run ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency. We were founded in 2017 and so far, we’ve been able to help more than 340 companies boost their website traffic with SEO. We got three nominations for the Best SEO Agency Award in 2020, and we’re looking to build on that success.

We can provide high-quality SEO services in a quick, affordable manner. Would you like to hear more about us?

Thanks,

John

Sounding unrealistic

Subject line: Get 10x more website traffic in one month

Hi there,

I’m John and I run ThisIsYourNextSEOAgency. With our help, you can get 10× more website traffic within one month! We’ve got a team of experts who will work tirelessly to ensure that your website ranks first in search engine results.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks

Automate your cold emailing

With the templates at hand, you’re pretty much ready to start your cold email campaigns, right? Before you do, think about how to automate this task. After all, you’re not going to send emails from Gsuite and schedule each follow-up manually, right?

Cold email automation tools help you kick-start campaigns and measure how effective they are. They’ll track the open-rates, clicks, and allow you to easily follow-up with anyone who replies to your campaigns.

If you’re not sure which tool to use, check out this post, where I put together the best cold email software.

Cold email marketing FAQ

Conclusion

While cold email isn’t an exact science, following the best industry practices can help you create higher-converting emails. Focus on personalizing the emails, making it about your customer and not about yourself, clearly highlighting the value proposition, and driving home an engaging call-to-action. All this can help you stand out from an ocean of cold emailers, improve your response rate, and get more business for your agency.

Contrary to popular belief, lead generation via email marketing isn’t dead. They just need to be done the right way—and anonymous, canned emails aren’t it. Pushy sales tactics aren’t going to help either. Nor is it going to help if you stalk your prospects on social media and bombard them with messages, fake likes, and empty comments on their LinkedIn and Twitter posts.

The best way to get a stranger’s attention is by providing value upfront. One-on-one conversations and personalized emails focusing on the recipient’s needs can help you establish relationships, build trust, and eventually get the sale.

So, next time you’re crafting your cold emails, make sure to keep these tips in mind!