Can you approach someone you don’t know but want to speak to via email? Yes, you can. Just make sure you send a personal email, not a “form letter”.
Your first order of business is to get the email opened. A great way to do that is to write something that makes the recipient curious.
Like (I hope) the subject line of this email did you.
But then you and I “know” each other. I can be a little playful. If this was the first time I communicated with you I would (probably) not use that as the subject. Instead, I might use something like this:
“Quick question”.
I got an email with that subject not long ago and yes, I did open it.
Because I was curious.
This may not suit you, however, or your market. What then?
Well, you don’t want to appear too familiar. So “Hey there. . .” won’t make the cut.
You can’t bore someone into opening an email. So forget about using “I hope you’re doing well”.
And you don’t want to come off like you’re selling something, so, “May I send you some information about our xyz services?” is a dog that won’t hunt.
So what can you say to make ’em curious?
I’ll tell you tomorrow.
Okay, cheap trick. Having more fun. I’m not going to tell you what to say. That’s something you have to figure out.
If you were writing to me, what might you say to get my attention and make me curious to read your email (other than “Quick question”)? What’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Do you have an accountant? If he didn’t know you from Adam, what might you say to make him curious?
(“This is about your wife” would get your email opened, but. . .)
Start paying attention to (unsolicited) emails you get that make you curious enough to open. Write down the subject they used. Spend time brainstorming other ideas.
Put your list away for a week or two. When you come back to it, you’ll see a lot of subject lines that make you cringe and say, “Oy vey, what was I thinking” but you may also see a few gems.
Go ahead and try one.
C’mon, you know you want to.
