112: The 6 Most Common Cold Email Mistakes
And how to fix them
Read on jed.substack.com
Read time: 4min
Welcome back to The Practical Prospecting Newsletter!
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Agenda
The 6 most common cold email mistakes
How to fix them
The 6 Most Common Cold Email Mistakes
Three factors determine cold email success:
Deliverability — are you landing in the inbox or spam?
Targeting — are you reaching out to the right people at the right time?
Messaging — are you saying the right thing to them?
In today’s newsletter, we’ll deep dive into how to solve #3.
Assuming you’re landing in the inbox, and you’re confident you’re reaching out to the right people, the only thing left to test is messaging.
After running thousands of email campaigns for dozens of clients, I’ve created a simple system that helps me “check off the boxes” and diagnose the real issue behind why my emails aren’t converting.
Here are the 7 most common email mistakes:
Subject lines fail to capture attention, leading to low open rates.
The email doesn’t feel like it was written for them, making recipients ignore or delete them.
The problem described doesn’t resonate, so the reader doesn’t feel compelled to take action.
Even if the problem resonates, the recipient doesn’t believe your solution is the answer
Lack of credibility makes recipients doubt whether they should trust you.
The CTA isn’t compelling or clear, so the reader doesn’t know what to do next.
How to Fix Them
Mistake #1: Subject lines fail to capture attention, leading to low open rates.
Solution:
Stop overthinking them. Open rate tracking is so unreliable at this point that there’s no point in trusting the data.
Assuming you’ve taken the right deliverability steps, just stick to the best practices and move on.
Best Practices:
1-3 words MAX
Make it look like a colleague would send it
Keep it vague enough to make them curious
Mistake #2: The email doesn’t feel like it was written for them, making recipients ignore or delete them.
Solution:
Once the recipient is compelled by your subject line to open the email, you have a fraction of a second to capture their attention with the first sentence of your email before they click away.
That’s why you MUST make the first sentence of your email about them and the research you’ve done.
If you’re already doing that and still not getting results, try getting more specific.
Bad emails rely on surface-level signals. For example, people who just changed jobs.
Instead of saying: “Saw you just joined [company]”.
Go a level deeper: “Looks like you’re focused on [topic] in your new role with [company]”.
Mistake #3: The problem described doesn’t resonate, so the reader doesn’t feel compelled to take action.
Solution:
Find at least five recordings of discovery calls with your target persona.
Copy the transcripts from your call recording tool, and drop them into ChatGPT with this prompt:
"Analyze this sales call transcript and extract the top three pain points mentioned by the prospect. Summarize each pain point in a short, clear sentence that I can use for cold email messaging.".
Then, A/B test those pain points to find the one that resonates most. This tactic works so well because you’re using REAL problems from REAL potential customers in their language.
Mistake #4: Even if the problem resonates, the recipient doesn’t believe your solution is the answer.
Solution:
Just because you know their potential problems, doesn’t mean they’ll automatically believe what you’re offering is the solution.
You can overcome this by understanding how they’re likely getting the job done without you, and then highlighting the gaps or inefficiencies in their current approach.
Show them why their existing solution/process is falling short and how your offering fills that gap in a way nothing else does.
Use comparisons, real-world examples, or data to make it clear why sticking with the status quo is costing them time, money, or missed opportunities.
Mistake #5: Lack of credibility makes recipients doubt whether they should trust you.
Solution:
Even if you know their problem, and convince them your solution is the best choice to solve it, they STILL might not trust you.
You need to bridge the gap between claim and credibility.
Instead of just stating the outcome of using your solution, show proof (i.e. case studies, specific examples, or social proof ). And more importantly, explain HOW.
For example, instead of saying “We help teams book 10+ meetings per month,”
Say, “Last quarter, we helped [Company] increase meetings by 43% by automating follow-ups—here’s how.”
Adding specifics makes your solution more tangible and believable.
Mistake #6: The CTA isn’t compelling or clear, so the reader doesn’t know what to do next.
Solution:
Understand that the people you’re emailing have packed calendars and a million priorities.
So what can you offer them that’s not a meeting?
I just talked about this in my last newsletter.
Try using the prompt I shared there to come up with ideas, then A/B test them until you find a CTA that resonates.
Thanks for reading,
Jed