15 Best Cold Email Templates for B2B to Get More Leads [2025]

Tina Sang

Mar 7, 2025

19 minutes read

Writing B2B emails that people in your target audience actually open isn’t easy. Not only are your emails competing with hundreds of others to get noticed, but they might not be reaching the decision-makers you need them to reach. Take a look at these cold B2B email stats: 

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  The average open rate of cold emails is only 23.9% (Mailmodo)

  
  
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  The typical cold email response rate is just 1% (Hubspot)

  
  
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  In 2024, approximately 361.6 billion emails are sent and received every day—4.1% more than 347.3 billion in 2023 (Oberlo)

  
  

And writing them takes forever.

So how do you do email marketing in a way that cut through the noise and automates lead generation efficiently? Systematizing works. Try these proven cold email campaign templates you can tweak to fit your brand voice, offer and buyer persona. 

Best Cold Email Templates for B2B

1. The Pain Point Addresser B2B Cold Email Template

Ultimately, your product/service is a solution for a pain point your customers face. In a cold B2B email, catch their attention by coming right out and stating that pain point plainly. Don’t try to be too clever here; the most effective cold emails are those that get straight to the point and get the reader thinking about their pain point (and how the offer, like a free webinar or case study, will resolve it). 

2. The Helpful Resource Offer Cold Email Template

One of the most effective ways to break the ice with a cold prospect is to offer something for free. But it can’t just be anything—your offer has to be something valuable to the prospect. An in-depth case study about tracking TikTok metrics is useless to a introdogwalker who relies on word-of-mouth referrals, but extremely valuable to an up-and-coming video marketing agency. 

Be generous and offer resources that align with your prospect’s wants and needs. This is where AI tools like Artisan can eliminate guesswork—our B2B data tools can instantly show you exactly what’s resonated with specific customer avatars. Once you’ve determined which offer is ideal for the clients you’re targeting, an effective email template would be something like this: 

3. The Personalized Cold Sales Email Template

This template is ideal for any B2B outreach where your offer involves building on the prospect’s existing achievements. It’s highly personalized, and this personalization starts with the subject line. 

4. The Question and Curiosity Approach Cold Email Template

Asking questions shows that you’re engaged with the prospect. Questions are how we learn about each other, which is why we ask and answer so many of them in conversations. With this cold B2B email template, you show interest in the prospect and ask them to engage by asking a question that’s relevant to their industry or pain points. Here is an example:

5. The “I Saw Your Post” B2B Email Template

Another effective B2B email template is one that mentions a recent social media post by the prospect. Just like asking a question, mentioning a social media post is a way to engage personally, making the email a conversation rather than a hard sell. Take a look at an example of this kind of email in action: 

6. The Mutual Connection Email Template for B2B

When you have a mutual connection with a lead, that can be a great opening for a cold B2B email. Capitalize on this by mentioning in your message.

7. The Brief Cold Email Template

B2B cold emails should be short. How short depends on a few factors, like your offer and the recipient. When you’re emailing a busy decision-maker, the email needs to get straight to the point, like this email: 

8. The B2B Cold Email Template to Find the Decision-Maker

Sometimes, you’re not sure who the decision-maker is at the company you’re looking to connect with. When that’s the case, it’s perfectly fine to just ask. Use this template:

9. The Effective Cold Email Template to Get a Response

When you need an immediate response, your email needs to communicate urgency. Here is a template you can use in this situation: 

 10. The B2B Cold Email Template to Use When The Prospect is Busy

Similar to the brief B2B cold email template, this template is best for prospects who are busy and unlikely to read a multi-paragraph email. Consider it for a follow up email. 

11. The B2B Email Template When You’re Getting Ignored

If you’re getting ignored, you need a cold B2B follow up email that shows the prospect why it’s in their best interest to speak with you. Be explicit; tell them exactly what they’re missing by ignoring you. Here’s a template you can tweak:

 12. The AIDA Formula B2B Cold Email Template

The AIDA formula guides potential customers through the purchasing process in four stages: attention, interest, desire, and action. Use this in cold emails to encourage connections and sales. 

13. The PAS Formula B2B Sales Email Template

The PAS formula stands for Problem-Agitate-Solution. It's a popular copywriting framework for all kinds of marketing materials, including B2B cold emails. It works by first naming the reader’s problem, then using imagery to really emphasize the weight of the problem and the discomfort it’s causing the reader. After sufficiently agitating the reader through this imagery, the text offers a solution: your offer. 

Here’s a PAS template you can tweak for your own offer:

14. The BAB Formula B2B Email Template 

The BAB formula stands for Before-After-Bridge. It's another popular copywriting framework used in B2B emails because it paints a picture that the prospect recognizes: their current situation (before), their desired situation (after), and the bridge between these two situations: the sender’s product/service. 

Take a look at this brief example: 

15. The FAB Formula Cold Email Template

The FAB formula stands for Features-Advantages-Benefits. It’s another classic copywriting framework used in sales and marketing.

With it, you present your product or service in a way that highlights its key features, translates these features into specific, tangible benefits, then explains the value the benefits provide. Here’s a quick example: 

How to Write a B2B Cold Email That Gets Responses

1. Write Eye-Catching Cold Email Subject Lines

An email’s subject line makes or breaks it. When a recipient is scrolling through their inbox, they’re making snap decisions about which emails to open and which to delete. 

So what makes compelling subject lines? 

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  About 50 characters, or 6-10 words

  
  
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  An intriguing hook they just can’t resist

  
  
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  Personalization

  
  

The first point is pretty straightforward; compelling subject lines aren’t more than 50 characters or so. But how can you hook recipients in just 50 characters—and personalize it? 

Think about your offer. What makes it so difficult to resist? In other words, which pain point are you providing a solution to? Mention this through a provocative question, numbers and data, or just come straight out and name the problem, then offer a solution. 

2. Use Personalized Greetings

Instead of simply “Hope you're well,” start off your cold email outreach with a personalized greeting like:

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  Hi, Jeremy. It was great to meet you at the SAAS Expo in Austin!

  
  
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  Dear Bijal, Congratulations on your recent graduation!

  
  
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  Hey Andres, Thanks for stopping by the shop last Wednesday.

  
  

Notice how each personalized greeting goes beyond using the prospect’s name and includes a quick note about a recent achievement or interaction they’ve had? This authentic personalization shows the recipient that you took the time to learn about them instead of just sending the same mass email you’re sending to your entire list. 

Does this mean you have to manually write every email’s opening section, rather than dropping a prewritten email with a first name personalization field into your CRM and calling it a day?

Yes. If you want to connect with recipients through personalized cold emails, you need to show them you took the time to get to know a bit about them beyond their contact information. 

3. Present Your Value Proposition in the Opening 

Emails need to be snappy. Get straight to the point and right after your personalized greeting, state your offer. This tells the recipient exactly why you’re emailing and if they’re the right target, captures their interest and entices them to continue reading. 

In the next few sentences, highlight the benefits of your offer. This could be a limited-time discount, a competitive edge they can leverage, or a more comprehensive service than your competitors can offer. Be upfront about why your offer is in the recipient’s best interest, and through your writing’s tone, show your excitement about it without coming across as pushy or sales-y.

4. Keep the Body Paragraphs Clear and Concise

An email isn’t an essay. After you’ve made your introduction and stated your email’s purpose, provide any additional details the reader needs to make the decision to respond. Nothing more. The email’s body paragraphs should be clear and concise, leaving opportunities for the reader to ask related questions during their phone call with you. 

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you write body paragraphs:

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  Use bullet or numbered lists to highlight key points

  
  
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  Paragraphs should be no longer than 2-3 sentences

  
  

If there’s space and a genuine benefit to including a testimonial or other social proof, include this brief section before your closing. 

5. Close the Sales Email for B2B Professionally

The last step in writing an effective cold B2B email is including a well-crafted closing section. This is where you ask them to take action, whether that’s responding to the email, calling you, setting up a meeting through your website, or purchasing your offer. 

Start off the closing section by thanking the recipient for their time. They chose to open and read your email, and acknowledging this goes a long way. Then, include the call to action, or CTA. This is the most important part of any cold B2B email, and the right call to action can be the difference between getting results and getting nothing. Here are a few examples of effective CTAs: 

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  Ready to get started? Click here to schedule your discovery call.

  
  
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  Like what you see? Lock in your rate now. 

  
  
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  Interested in learning more? Just hit “reply” and let’s talk. 

  
  

End the email with an appropriate sign-off, then follow this with your name and a professional email signature. Make sure your signature includes your company name and contact information.  

Upgrade Your B2B Email Outreach With AI Sales Tools

So we’ve established that simply sending out mass emails isn’t going to get you the results you want. But we also know manually writing each email isn’t a realistic solution. So what can you do?

Leverage AI tools like Artisan to assist with B2B email outreach. Today’s business world moves faster than ever, and it’s only going to keep speeding up. If your business wants to stay competitive, you need to be not only using AI tools, but using them to their maximum functionality. At a glance, here’s what Artisan’s AI B2B email tools can do for your next email campaign:

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  Beat writer’s block. Artisan generates exactly the email you need using cutting edge software and expansive data sets.

  
  
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  Personalize emails to prospects. Using these same data sets, Artisan writes emails tailored to each Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

  
  
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  Save time. Above all, AI tools save you time. And time is your most precious commodity.

  
  

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Author:

Tina Sang