How to Write Cold Emails That Actually Get Responses

The cold emails that get replies aren't the ones with the best subject lines. They're the ones that prove, in the first sentence, that the sender knows something specific about the recipient's situation. Subject lines earn the open. The opening line earns the read. The pain line earns the reply.

Cold emails under 75 words get 2x the reply rate of emails over 150 words. Length is usually a symptom of unclear thinking - if you know exactly what you're saying and to whom, 75 words is enough. If you need 200, you're still figuring it out.

Why this happens

Most cold emails fail not because of length or timing or cadence, but because they're written from the product out. The sender knows the solution and describes it. The recipient has a problem they haven't necessarily connected to that solution. The email skips the step where the connection gets made.

The result is an email that reads as a vendor pitch to someone who didn't ask for a pitch. Even if the product is relevant, the framing hasn't earned the right to make the case. The email gets deleted not because the reader isn't interested in the problem - but because the email didn't prove it understood the problem before selling the answer.

What to check first

Before you audit the subject line or test a new sequence tool, run four questions against the email you're currently sending:

Does your opening line prove research? Not "I came across your profile" - that proves you know how to use LinkedIn. "I saw you posted about SDR ramp time after your last two hires" proves you actually read something. The research has to be specific enough that a mail merge couldn't have generated it.
Does your pain line name the problem in their language or yours? Your language: "optimize outbound efficiency." Their language: "we're sending 200 emails a week and booking two calls." One of these reads as familiar. The other reads as a vendor.
Is your CTA answerable in under 10 seconds? "Let's find a time to connect this week or next" requires them to open a calendar, check availability, and decide whether you're worth 30 minutes - all from a cold email. "Does this match anything your team is dealing with right now?" takes four seconds to answer. Low-friction CTAs get more replies.
Does the email feel like it was written for one person or for a list? If you removed the first name and the company name and the email could have been sent to 1,000 people, it reads that way. One genuine specific observation about the recipient - something real and current - changes the read entirely.

How to fix it

Write the pain line first. Before the subject line, before the opening, before the CTA - write one sentence that describes the specific problem your prospect has, in their words, not yours. This is the hardest part of the exercise. If you can't write it in one sentence, the email isn't ready. No amount of subject line testing will fix a message that doesn't know what problem it's addressing.

Once you have the pain line, build the framework around it:

Opening line - prove research. One sentence. Reference something real and specific to this person or company. A job posting, a recent announcement, a public quote, a product update. Not generic flattery. Not category-level observations. Something that proves you spent more than 30 seconds on this recipient.

Pain line - name the problem. Use their language. Pull it from reviews, community posts, job descriptions, LinkedIn comments - anywhere your ICP describes the problem in their own words. The goal is for the recipient to read this line and think "yes, that's exactly it" before they know what you're selling.

Proof line - connect your product to the outcome. One sentence. Not a feature list. Not a company description. A direct connection between the problem you just named and the specific outcome your product produces. "We help [your type of company] [achieve the outcome] without [the thing they hate doing]" is a useful structure, not a template.

CTA - ask one small question. Make it answerable. Make it relevant to the pain line. Make it something they can respond to without committing to anything. "Is this on your radar for this quarter?" works. "Here's my Calendly link" does not.

Remove the guesswork

Knowing whether a cold email lands before you send it at volume is nearly impossible when you wrote it - you know what you meant, which makes it hard to see what the recipient actually reads. RightEngagement tests your cold email and outreach sequences against simulated target buyers and returns a reply intent score, tone fit rating, and specific rewrite suggestions by section. You find out whether your opening line is proving research, whether your pain line is resonating, and whether your CTA is sized right for a cold first touch - before you scale.

Test your cold email with RightEngagement