Dear Freelancer, Some Tips on How To Write a Good Cold Email
A cold email is not and never will be a cover letter. In a cover letter your only goal is to sell yourself. When you send a cold email, you’re trying to accomplish two things. One, is if this particular client is in need of outsourced help. Two, introducing yourself. That’s all. You’re not going to include any fancy attachments, because again, you’re not trying to sell yourself - yet.
The perfect length of a cold email should be no more than 2 short paragraphs. No one reads past a third paragraph, some might, but I think if you let yourself believe that less is more, you then leave the reader wanting to know more about you and your skillset.
My very first cold email was to Dany Levy, the founder of DailyCandy. Raise your hand if that name brings back fond memories of sample sales, and life before direct to consumer. The way I decided to email her was pure happenstance. One night a friend and I had stopped into this casual restaurant somewhere on 1st Ave, East Village (long gone, can’t even remember the name) and there was a large party of eight or so girls. Dany was at the head of the table, she stood up to make some kind of informal speech accompanied by a toast. They were celebrating something. As my friend and I were on a waiting list to be seated, I couldn’t help but stare at the group. Then, it hit me who she was and I excitedly tugged at my friend’s elbow. I said, that’s Dany Levy and went on to explain that I had just read about her in The New York Times. In fact, I had cut out the article and tacked it onto my bulletin board (vision board for gen z’ers). This was peak DailyCandy when they had launched in other cities. Naturally, I convinced myself that this was in fact kismet and that I had to go and talk to her at some point in the evening. My friend, of course, said that it would not be a good idea to interrupt their work dinner. Thankfully, she was right, but after reading about her in the paper, already a fangirl of DailyCandy, she was in my eyes a local celebrity. My friend couldn’t commit to the 45 minute wait for a table, so as we were about to leave something caught my eye. On the hostess stand was a clear fishbowl jar filled to the brim with random business cards. Nearest the top was a familiar illustration against a clean white card stock. I walked up closer to the fishbowl as one does if they were actually peering into a real fishbowl and the card read DailyCandy, underneath was Dany Levy, Founder. Beneath it was her email. I memorized it by heart (it was just dany@dailycandy) all the while my friend was already pulling me out the door. (Now looking back, wasn’t the point of dropping your card into the potluck jar a free lunch or something? Love that for Dany)
