Write a cold email with this AI prompt

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Stand out in your prospect’s inbox with a super-personalized cold email that’ll have them hitting reply with a “Let’s talk.”

The thought of sending out a cold email sends chills down your back. You’re stuck in analysis paralysis because you’re not sure what to write. And when you do actually get something down, you hate it because it sounds too “sales-y.”

Here’s what to do: Prompt AI to help you write a reply-worthy cold email you can send to your dream client. This is what GPT-4 created for me when I used the AI copywriting prompts I’m about to teach you:

Here’s how to use GPT-4 to get similar results for your business or client.

Step 1: Gather all the research you have on your prospect

The goal of Step 1 is to get all the research you have on your prospect. This is where you use all that research you’ve been collecting in places like Evernote or a Google Doc.

Time-saving tip: As you gather insights about a prospect, organize all your notes in a word processor, like a single Google Doc. Then, when you’re ready to start cold emailing, you can quickly copy all of it into the prompt you’re about to learn.

Step 2: Create your role

Now you’re going to write out your role, so GPT-4 can step into your shoes and write the cold email from your perspective.

This is probably the most writing you’re going to do in this prompt, but it’s worth it because it’s going to help GPT-4 write better cold emails for you. Once you complete this step, you can use it over and over again with different prospects.

Check out Trust Insight’s cheat sheet on how to write better prompts to learn more on how I structured this prompt.

To demonstrate this prompt, I am going to have GPT-4 take on the fictional role of a SaaS founder based in Toronto, Canada, who’s looking for beta users to try out her restaurant inventory tracking app. This cold email campaign is targeted at the owners of local thriving restaurants.

In creating this role, I answered the questions:
Who? Who am I, the person sending this email?
What? What did I create?
Where? Where am I?
Why? Why would what I created matter to the email recipient and why am I sending this email?

Step 3: Prompt GPT-4 to write you a personalized cold email

In GPT-4, tell it to write a personalized cold email.

At the top of the prompt, you’re going to paste in the role you created in Step 2.

The next part of the prompt is the actual instruction to write the cold email and additional instructions regarding things like the subject line and tone and copywriting framework. Modify this part as you wish. Have fun with it and try different tones, subject line formats and copywriting frameworks.

You’re going to finish off the prompt by pasting in your notes on your prospect below the line “Notes to include casually in the body of the email:.” Take all that gold you gathered in Step 1 and paste it into the chat.

Then, when you write to a new prospect, all you have to do is switch out the data you paste in this section with the notes you have on that prospect.

Save even more time when you’re reaching out to more than one prospect by having GPT-4 automatically enter the name of your recipient’s business by adding “[ insert email recipient’s [ business type ] ]” where appropriate in the prompt.

For this demonstration, I added this to personalize the signature line and made the business type “restaurant.”

If your notes don’t explicitly state the purpose of your email somewhere, remember to tell GPT-4 what your goal is in sending the email.

For example, if my notes didn’t include the line “Pitch her to try out Plentiful,” I would add something like, “Goal of email is for Amber to try out Plentiful.”

Copy paste this prompt:

[ GPT-4’s role / what you completed in Step 2 ]

Your job today is to write a personalized cold outreach email.

Write the email with these instructions in mind:

Tone and voice:
Subject line:
Email body / copywriting framework:
Salutation:
CTA:
Signature line:

Notes to include casually in the body of the email:

[ Notes on your prospect / what you completed in Step 1, and if needed, tell GPT-4 what the goal is in sending this cold email  ]

In seconds, AI had generated the following for me:

Remember to read your emails over before hitting send and make sure it says exactly what you want it to say.

Before sending out the email GPT-4 created for me, some things I’d edit would include omitting the word “friendly” in the second paragraph and the PAS signifiers AI added to the body of the email for some reason.
Another thing to watch out for are cliches. ChatGPT seems to love cliches. In my demo email, GPT-4 opened the with a sneer-inducing “I hope this note finds you well…” Cut lines like this and anything else that sounds insincere. If you’re stumped on how to make a cold email sound sincere, start with what you yourself would want to read from a total stranger asking for your business.

See the email GPT-4 wrote, here.

I tried this AI prompt to write a cold email for a real estate agent. Here’s what happened.

I had GPT-4 take on the role of a fictional real estate agent in Toronto, Canada, who’s a pro at selling and renting out commercial spaces. This cold email is targeted at the owners of thriving restaurants. I want to start building a relationship with these restaurant owners so I can be top of mind when they start expanding their restaurant locations.