The Data-Backed Cold Email Formula (The Exact Words & Length)

“Does cold email even work anymore?”

Countless sales leaders ask me this every week.

They’re trying everything:

• Mandatory weekly “Prospecting Days.”
• Requiring AEs to block daily “Outbound Power Hours.”
• Telling reps to send more personalized emails.

But they’re giving reps little to no guidance on what a great cold email looks like.

So we analyzed 85M+ cold emails to figure out exactly how the top reps book meetings on cold email, step-by-step:

1. How long should your cold emails be?
2. What language should you use?
3. Is personalization even worth it? (and if so, how)
4. What makes a great cold email pitch?
5. What cold email CTAs perform best?

And at the end, I’ll give you an email framework that combines them all: The Reply Method. It’s my go-to framework that combines all of the above for double-digit replies.

I’ll also draw from my firsthand experience at Outbound Squad training reps at companies like Gong, Zoom, Shopify, and Rippling.

Let’s dig in.

How long should your cold emails be?

Emails should be digestible on a mobile device WITHOUT scrolling. Most of your prospects are opening emails on their phone.

Gong data shows that cold emails should be under 100 words:

That means you really only get ~3-4 sentences.

Short, punchy, hyper-skimmable emails is the idea here.

(we’ll walk through what those 4 sentences should be at the end)

What language should you use?

Pitching in cold emails literally reduces your reply rates by up to 57%.

Your solution has no context without a problem. Your prospect doesn’t understand why a titanium non-stick cook pan matters unless you hit them with the problem first — the egg sticking to the pan, the smoke detector going off, etc.

So always lead with their priorities and problems (boosts replies by 20%), then explain the solution using social proof (boosts replies by 41%).

Here’s an example email:

Is personalization even worth it? (and if so, how)

With all the information at your finger tips these days, there’s no excuse for not personalizing your cold emails.

Personalization can boost cold email replies by 5x:

But here’s the thing…

Not all types of personalization are created equal, especially when you’re prospecting into director and above prospects.

Data shows that director+ prospects respond to activity-based and company-based personalization above the rest:

Activity-based personalization performs best because it shows intent. If a prospect is opening your emails, downloading content, attending webinars, was a previous closed lost deal — prioritize those first.

Otherwise, executives value company priorities over individual personalization. It’s nice if you reference someone’s alma mater, but the reality is an executive cares about whether or not you can help them hit their company priorities.

Here’s an example email that uses company-based personalization:

What cold email CTAs perform best?

How you END emails is equally important to how you start them.

There are 4 common types of CTAs as listed below:

One CTA rules them all: If you can come up with a compelling offer, you’ll increase your reply rates by 28%:

You want the buyer’s time, but it’s the worst thing you can ask for. We pushed “interest-based CTAs” for the longest time — but prospects are so inundated with cold emails that even those only see a modest improvement above the baseline.

You need to offer your prospect something of value that they’ll get out of the meeting, even if they don’t buy.

There are 3 types of offers you can pitch:

1. Offer #1 (easy) - Pitch The Blind Date: Position who the buyer will meet with. Hype up the AE, sales engineer, or yourself. Show them that meeting with you is worth their while.
2. Offer #2 (medium) - 1:Many Offers: These are high-quality, reusable insights that feel tailored. Think: competitive benchmarks, industry research, or best practice guides.
3. Offer #3 (hard) - 1:1 Offers: These are custom-tailored experiences or resources created specifically for the prospect. This requires serious effort to customize the offer. This works best at the enterprise & strategic levels. Examples include:
   • A free risk analysis benchmarking their performance against their competitors.
   • A personalized audit of a website checkout flow.
   • Visiting and experiencing the brand firsthand, then sharing insights.
   • Offering free data, licenses, or pilots.
   • Hosting workshops with their team and your internal experts.

These take more work, but they convert like crazy.

You’re not just showing that you understand the account — you’re proving it. And you’re providing massive value.

Here’s an example email leveraging a 1:many offer:

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The Reply Method: The framework for double-digit reply rates

This is a simple cold email framework that gets double-digit replies because it uses many of the data-backed insights above.

It’s called the Reply Method and I’ve taught this to over 10,000+ sales reps.

Here’s what the email looks like step by step:

Here’s one last email example so you can see this in action:

Verdict: Cold emails work, but you can’t wing it

Prospects don’t respond to automated sequences anymore. Your reps need a simple, repeatable structure.

The data shows that when you properly execute the Reply Method:

• Top 25% reps land 4.3x more meetings than avg. reps
• Top 10% reps land 8.1x more meetings than avg. reps

Want more? The Ultimate Cold Email Data Report breaks down 20+ data-backed email insights that separate the top reps from the pack.

Download the report for free here