What is a cold email?
A sales email to someone who has not talked with you before.
What it means
A cold email is a sales email to someone who has not talked with you before. There is no earlier thread and no meeting behind it. It is the email version of a cold call, and it is often the first step in a sequence of several touches.
A cold email is also different from a marketing email sent to a list. It goes to one person, so it should read like it was written for them.
What it means for a sales email
Because the reader owes you nothing, a cold email has to be easy. Gong's cold email research found that short notes about the buyer's priority do better than a product pitch, buzzwords, or hype. Lavender found that short words, short sentences, and a scannable note are easier to read.
A strong cold email names something real about their situation, makes one point, and asks for something small, like whether the topic is worth a conversation. It does not open with your company history.
Research mentioned above: Gong, 2025Lavender, 2023
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