The Cold Emailing Blueprint for Generating Leads (2025)

If you want to proactively reach out to your prospects and start meaningful conversations, cold emailing is one of the most effective ways to do it.

You have complete control of who you reach out to, how you craft your message, and when you hit send.

The best part?

It doesn’t require a massive budget, but the returns you can generate can be game-changing.

In this cold email lead generation guide, I’ll walk you through the exact steps I followed to build cold email systems for multiple businesses.

So jump in and keep reading!

Step-by-Step Process to Generate Leads using Cold Emails

As promised, here’s the tried-and-tested process that has helped me generate thousands of leads through cold emailing: 

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
2. Set Up Cold Email Infrastructure
3. Warm Up Your Email Accounts
4. Build a High-Quality Prospect List
5. Craft Personalized Cold Emails
6. Set Up Automated Follow-Ups
7. Test Inbox Placement
8. Track Metrics and Optimize
9. Qualify and Convert Leads
10. Scale and Expand Outreach

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

The first step is to create an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and a Buyer Persona.

The ICP tells you which companies to target, and the Buyer Persona tells you which people within those companies to engage with.

Here are some simple questions you should ask yourself to build a basic ICP:

1. What industry or sector does my product or service fit best in?
2. How large should the company be in terms of employees or revenue?
3. What common pain points does this type of company face that my product can solve?
4. What budget range does this company typically allocate for solutions like mine?
5. Which types of companies should I exclude as a poor fit?

And, here are some questions to ask when creating your Buyer Persona:

1. What is the job title and level of seniority of the person I should reach out to?
2. What is their role in the decision-making process (final approver, influencer, or end-user)?
3. What are their main goals and KPIs at work?
4. What specific challenges or frustrations do they face?
5. What objections or concerns might they raise about my product or service?
6. What communication channels do they prefer (email, phone, LinkedIn, communities)?
7. What motivates them to act (saving time, hitting revenue targets, reducing risk, improving efficiency)?

Depending on your solution, you can have multiple ICPs and buyer personas.

Here’s an example: a SaaS platform might serve both early-stage startups and mid-market agencies.

In such cases, it makes sense to define separate ICPs and personas so you can tailor your messaging and outreach more effectively.

With that clarity in place, you can move on to the next step.

2. Set Up Cold Email Infrastructure

Next is to set up your col infrastructure.

This is critical for your outreach, so don’t skip it

1. Set Up Your Secondary Domains and Email Accounts
2. Set Up Authentication Records

1. Set Up Your Secondary Domains and Email Accounts

When doing cold outreach, you should never use your main domain. 

The reason:

If something were to go wrong and you get penalized by ESPs (Email Service Providers) with spam flags or blacklisting, your primary business domain could lose its reputation.

Therefore, consider purchasing one or more secondary domains that appear natural and closely related to your brand.

For example, if your main site is company.com, you could use getcompany.com or trycompany.com.

Then, create professional email accounts on these domains using Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

If you’re wondering how many domains and email accounts you need for your outreach, here are some practical guidelines:

• You can send a maximum of 50 cold emails per day from a single email account.
• You can have up to three email accounts per domain.

Check out my complete guide on How to Set Up Secondary Domains & Email Accounts for Cold Outreach

2. Set Up Authentication Records

Next step is to configure your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records (authentication records).

This is a critical step when it comes to email deliverability.

Without proper configuration, ESPs are more likely to treat your messages as suspicious or send them straight to spam.

Heads up, there is a bit of technical work involved here since you’ll need to update your domain’s DNS settings.

Here’s a help doc on How You Can Set up your domain’s SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.

3. Warm Up Your Email Accounts

After you’re done setting up your cold email infrastructure, the next step is to warm up your email accounts.

If you start sending cold emails right away to people you’ve had zero prior interaction with, ESPs (Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.) will see this as suspicious and flag you for spamming.

So, here’s what you should do:

• Start by sending 5-10 personalized emails/day to professional B2B recipients.
• Build conversational threads.
• Slowly ramp up the daily sending volume.
• Keep checking your email reputation to make sure that it’s improving.

Now, doing this manually is not quite possible!

You probably don’t have access to a couple of dozen professional high-trust email accounts to send and receive messages with every day.

Even if you did, you would have to spend a lot of time sending emails back and forth.

This is where email warmup tools come in.

With these tools, you can completely automate the entire process.

All you have to do is connect your email accounts, do a basic setup, and the tool will handle the rest:

• Gradually sending and receiving emails
• Opening them
• Replying to them
• Even pulling them out of spam folders if needed

Within about 4 weeks, this consistent and natural-looking activity builds your sender reputation and signals to ESPs that you’re a trustworthy sender.

This way, your emails will be able to avoid spam filters when you start your actual outreach campaigns.

4. Build a High-Quality Prospect List

While your email accounts are getting warmed up, you can start building your cold emailing list.

Now is when your ICP and buyer persona, created in the first step, come into play.

Use them as filters to decide which companies belong on your list and which decision-makers you should add from those companies.

You can go to LinkedIn and use its advanced filters to find companies that match your ICP. 

To find their email addresses, you can use LinkedIn email finder tools.

Alternatively, you can skip this roundabout approach and use B2B business databases directly.

These tools let you filter companies and decision-makers by industry, size, role, location, and more.

Plus, they give you verified email addresses instantly.

5. Craft Personalized Cold Emails

Okay, now we get to the main part – writing those cold emails that’ll convert contacts into revenue.

Here’s the 6-step process I personally follow to write cold emails that generate leads, every single time: 

1. Write a Short, Compelling Subject Line
2. Craft a Personalized Opening
3. Deliver Value
4. Close With a Soft CTA
5. Sign-Off With a Closing Line
6. Add a Signature

Step 1 – Write a Short, Compelling Subject Line

This is the very first thing your recipients will notice, and it usually decides whether they even open your email.

Keep it short, clear, and relevant.

• ❌ “Offering Cold Email Lead Generation Services” → Too generic, salesy, and gives them no reason to care.
• ✅ “John, Generate 5K Leads for {Company}?” → Short, personal, and directly speaks to a pain point.

Check out this list of 200+ cold email subject lines you can use to get inspired and write your own!

Step 2 – Craft a Personalized Opening

This is where you prove your email isn’t a copy-paste blast.

Personalize it with something specific about the person or their company.

You can reference a LinkedIn post, promotion, funding announcement, or even a pain point you know they’re facing.

Example: “Hi Jane, came across your LinkedIn post about the difficulties of B2B lead generation, and I couldn’t agree more.”

It shows you’ve done your homework and you’re talking to them, not just “someone in sales.”

Step 3 – Deliver Value

After your personalized intro, get straight to their challenge and how others like them are solving it.

The faster you connect the dots between their pain and your solution, the more likely they are to keep reading.

Example: “Outbound works fine at low volume, but deliverability and reply rates crash as soon as teams try to scale.

Teams that keep results steady usually focus on tighter targeting and sharper messaging.”

You’re showing you understand the problem and that there’s a path forward.

Step 4 – Close With a Soft CTA

Your call-to-action is what finally ties your entire cold email together.

This is where you ask your recipients to take an action that is favourable to you.

But remember, in cold outreach, the action should be low-commitment.

Don’t ask for a 30-minute call right away. That feels like work!

Instead, use a low-commitment question that makes it easy for them to respond in one line.

Try something like: 

• “Does this sound like something you’re dealing with?”
• “Would you be open if I shared how others in your space are approaching this?”
• “Is this a priority for your team right now?”

Remember: your aim is to outline a precise, actionable next step, without compelling a reply. 

Step 5 – Sign-Off With a Closing Line

How you end the email matters more than you think.

Keep it friendly, professional, and consistent with the tone of your message.

Examples: Thanks, Warm regards, Best, or if you want to nudge a response: “Looking forward to your thoughts.”

I also have 60+ Impressive Email Sign-Offs To End Email Perfectly, check them out!

Step 6 – Add a Signature

Lastly, you need to add a signature to your cold email: it’s your digital business card. 

It’ll tell the reader who you are, who you work for, and how to reach you (through other ways). 

Here’s an example of a good signature: 

You Name,
Role/Designation | Company Name
Phone Number

Such a signature, which gives the reader context on your role + company, will help you build trust and credibility with them. 

6. Set Up Automated Follow-Ups

Your prospects are busy people just like you and me, so there’s a high chance your first cold email may get missed or simply won’t get a reply.

This is why follow-up emails matter. A well-timed follow-up brings your message back into your prospect’s view and gives you another chance to start the conversation.

On average, it takes 3–5 touchpoints before you get a response.

An important point to keep in mind here is spacing your follow-ups.

Here’s the timeline I suggest you go with for this cold email sequence: 

• Follow-up #1 → 2 days after the first cold email.
• Follow-up #2 → 3 days after the first follow-up.
• Follow-up #3 → 4 days after the second follow-up.

Now, if you’re planning to do this manually, let me tell you upfront that it is very tedious.

It becomes impossible to keep track of who to follow up with, on which day, and with what message as your list grows.

The most logical option is to automate your follow-ups.

You can use email automation tools to help you completely automate the cold emailing process.

7. Test Inbox Placement

Your email accounts are warmed up, and your emails (along with the follow-ups) are ready to go.

But before you start sending your emails, always consider running an inbox placement test for all your email accounts.

This test will show where your emails will land in the inbox: The primary, the promotions tab, or the spam folder.

Additionally, you will also get detailed info on many other factors that could be affecting your deliverability, like:

• Spam content
• Improper configuration of authentication records
• Too many links or images
• Blacklist check for your IP and domains

If you only have one or two accounts for sending, you can use a free deliverability and spam test tool to run quick checks.

On the other hand, if you’re doing cold outreach at scale, you should get a dedicated inbox placement tool.

8. Track Metrics and Optimize

After you start sending emails, you need to track how your campaign is performing so you know what’s working and what needs to be fixed.

Let me quickly walk you through the most important metrics you need to track: 

• Spam Rate: % of emails going to spam folders; accepted standard – <0.1%.
• Bounce Rate: % of emails that couldn’t be delivered; accepted standard – <0.3%.
• IP + Domain Reputation: The trust score your ISP has assigned you; aim for “high.”
• Clickthrough Rate: % of readers who clicked on the links in your email; aim for 3-5%.
• Reply Rate: % of readers who replied to your cold email. The accepted standard – ~5%.

The spam rate, bounce rate, and IP + domain reputation are part of email deliverability metrics.

Whereas clickthrough rate and reply rate fall under email engagement metrics.

Both are equally important.

Good deliverability without engagement means your emails are being seen but ignored, and eventually, ESPs will start flagging your emails as spam.

9. Qualify and Convert Leads

Once you start getting replies, you will have to start prioritizing the prospects who are most likely to turn into customers.

Your focus should be on the ones who:

• Show intent by asking questions or sharing their current challenges.
• Have decision-making power or influence in the buying process.
• Indicate urgency to solve their problem soon.

This set of people becomes your high-value leads. So start nurturing them and take the conversation to the next step.

Try to get on a short call, demo, or deeper discussion.

Your focus should be on their pain points and frame your product as the solution.

10. Scale and Expand Outreach

Once you’ve built a system that consistently lands in the inbox, gets replies, and converts prospects into leads, you can think about scaling.

And when I say scaling, I mean scaling your outreach without hurting deliverability.

Here’s how to do it safely:

• Add more domains and accounts
• Automate prospecting or use AI prospecting tools to prospect faster
• Segment your lists
• Personalize smartly by using tested and working templates.
• Keep monitoring metrics carefully.

If your key metrics are dropping, pause the campaign, identify the potential problem, fix it, and continue.

It is a slow process, so don’t rush it, as you can end up hurting your entire campaign.

5 Best Cold Emailing Templates for Lead Generation

Cold Emailing Template for Sales Outreach

Subject:{First Name}, do you need help with [email marketing - example solution]?
Hi {First name},

I am {Your name} from {Company name}.

Our company helps platforms like yours to {one liner about your product}. I want to connect with you to understand how you operate in this area and how our solution can simplify the process.

Would you like to connect tomorrow around {time}?  Looking forward to our meeting.

Thanks, {Your name}

Cold Emailing Template for B2B Partnership

Subject:{First Name}, do you need help with [email marketing - example solution]?
Hi {First Name},

I'd like to introduce myself as your {Your Role} here at {Your Company Name}. I work with businesses in the {what you work in} industry, and noticed you visited our website in the past.

This inspired me to spend a few minutes on {Company name} website to learn more about how you're approaching {What they are into}. I noticed some areas of opportunity and decided to reach out to you directly.

{Your Company} is working with similar companies in your industry, such as {X Company Name}, to help them accomplish {Y goals}, and give them the {Z tools/solutions} to succeed.

Do you have 15 minutes to discuss {Prospect's Company} this week?

If so, you can book time directly onto my calendar here: {Meetings Link}

Looking forward to meeting,

{Your Name}

Cold Emailing Template for Business Development

Subject:{First Name}, do you need help with [email marketing - example solution]?
Hi {First Name},

I know you’re super busy doing [specific things you’ve noticed they do well], so I’ll make this quick.

At {company name}, we have great {product/service/customer support} that can help you solve {pain point}. We’d like to {how you can help}.

Are you available later this week to speak on the phone for 15 minutes? We’d love to see if we can help you!

Thanks,

{Your name}

Cold Emailing Template for Meeting Scheduling

Subject:{First Name}, do you need help with [email marketing - example solution]?
Hi {First Name},

My name is {Your Name}, and we work with organizations like yours to {Your offer}.

I looked at your website [or other] and I have a few ideas on how exactly you can increase [your offer] by using our tools. For example, {add how you can help with an existing issue}.

This is just one of the many ideas I have to help {insert company name} undertake this.

Let’s set up a meeting and discuss this further.

Cheers,

{Your Name}

Cold Emailing Template for Lead Generation

Subject:{First Name}, do you need help with [email marketing - example solution]?
Hi {{name}},

{Inform ‘Why’ you are sending this email}

As you’re {what they are into], {pain point/s}. If you’re struggling to keep up, I’d love to show you {solution/s your business provides}.

Can I have ten minutes of your time next week to give you a personalized demo?

Best Tool That Will Help You Generate Leads Through Cold Emailing

You know the strategy, you have the working templates, all that’s left is a good cold email software to put it all into action.

This is where Saleshandy comes in.

It is an AI-powered cold email automation platform that you can use to:

• Set up your cold email infrastructure
• Warm up your accounts
• Find relevant prospects along with their verified email addresses

• Create personalized cold email sequences with automated follow-ups
• Build sub-sequences that get triggered based on prospect actions (like opens, clicks, or replies)
• Run inbox placement tests to see where your emails are landing

• Track performance with real-time metrics (opens, clicks, replies, bounces)
• Scale safely with multiple domains and inboxes

With all these features and more in a single place, you can focus more on starting conversations and converting leads.

You also get an entire deliverability stack with features like AI bounce guard, spam checker, domain health monitoring, and more.

This ensures that your cold emails always land in the Primary inbox of your recipients.

The best part is Saleshandy’s AI Sequence Copilot.

With this feature, you can use AI to create entire cold email sequences just by entering details of your business goals, offers, and your target audience.

You get all this at cost-effective pricing as well!

Saleshandy base plan starts at $24/month, allowing you to send up to 6,000 emails monthly.

Send More Cold Emails And Generate More Leads!

Cold emailing is a low-investment, high-reward strategy.

If you do it right, you can generate multiple times your investment. The best part is that once you have built a system, it keeps bringing in leads.

In this blog, I’ve walked you through a step-by-step process to generate leads using cold email, from:

• Setting up your infrastructure
• Warming up accounts
• Writing personalized emails
• Automating follow-ups
• Testing deliverability
• And scaling safely

I have also shown the best cold email outreach tool that can help you automate the entire process: Saleshandy.

So, put these steps into action, and turn cold emailing into a predictable lead generation engine for your business.

Cold Email Lead Generation – FAQs

1. Is cold emailing legal?

Yes, cold emailing is legal as long as you make sure to follow email compliance laws like CAN-SPAM (US), GDPR (EU), and other local regulations.

2. Is cold emailing still an effective way to generate leads in 2025?

Absolutely – cold emailing is still one of the most effective ways to generate leads in 2025. That’s because it’s a low-effort strategy that you can scale quickly (1,000 to 10,000 emails in two weeks) at low cost (cold email tools start at around $30/month).

3. How long should a cold email be?

After analyzing over 1 million emails, I found that the sweet spot is 50 to 150 words. Emails in this range had the highest reply rate of 73%. More interestingly, super short emails (15 to 35 words) came next with an 18% reply rate.

You can read my detailed blog on How Long Should a Cold Email Be to see the full breakdown.

4. How do I keep my cold emails out of spam?

If you want to avoid spam filters and land in the Primary inbox, make sure to: 

• Warm up your emails before starting your cold email campaign.
• Personalize your emails beyond just using the first name of recipients.
• Don’t use spammy words.
• Avoid attachments, links, or HTML code.
• Include an unsubscribe link. 

5. What is a good cold email response rate?

Response rate (reply rate) differs from industry to industry. That said, anything between 3% to 6% is generally considered good. Hitting 8% or more puts you in the excellent range and shows that your targeting, messaging, and deliverability are all on point.

6. How many follow-ups should I send?

The maximum number of follow-up emails you should send is 4, spread out over the course of a month. If you send more than this, you will look pushy and risk damaging your reputation with the prospect.

7. How do I measure if my campaign is successful?

To measure the success of your cold email campaign, track the following key metrics: 

• Clickthrough Rate: Anything between 3-5% is good.
• Reply Rate: Anything near or above 5% means you’re running a good campaign.
• Conversion  Rate: The average cold email conversion rate is 1-5%

These metrics will tell you whether you’re generating awareness, leads, and clients through your cold email campaign.