Top 7 Writing Frameworks That You Can Use To Write Cold Emails

I remember posting once on LinkedIn that “Email is the cockroach” of the marketing world. Trends may come and go, however, email is permanent.

Cold email is no secret either. You, me, and everyone else get 100s of cold emails from salesmen and marketers. But how do you write winning B2B emails? Especially, for B2B sales? There are several writing frameworks to help you write sales outreach cold emails. AIDA, PAS, BAB, STAR, and whatnot marketers have devised. Every day, out of nowhere, a random email marketing guy would coin a new email writing framework. This is the only thing I don’t adore about marketing. People keep coining new terms and acronyms, not for the new things, thoughts/perspectives, but for the same old stuff— by repurposing and repackaging them. The worst, these very terms become industry jargon.

Anyway, here are some popular writing frameworks that you can use in your cold email templates to generate leads, pique the audience’s interest, convert them, continue upselling, and above all, deliver an amazing customer experience (CX).

1. AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)

• The first stage i.e., attention is to charm the audience with either your subject line or your first sentence (esp the pre-text visible right after the subject line of your email).
• Next, this framework is about writing the sales email in such a way that you establish a common ground for your target audience and you, by highlighting the exact pain points you can solve for your audience. The intent is to get the audience interested in you. State a need or problem that the reader has, but don’t be pushy even when it’s a sales email.
• After you have got the audience interested, you need to instigate a desire in them to use your product or service. Show them how their needs or problems can be met or solved by using your product. Don’t tell them, show them.
• Lastly, don’t just expect them to do the task on their own. Make it easy for them to act. Add a CTA to take some action, like book a meeting, sign up for a trial, or visit a pricing page.

When you perform those four steps, you will be done with your AIDA writing framework and will have cooked a sales-focused cold email template.

2. PAS (Problem, Agitate, Solve)

The next addition to your writing framework for composing your b2b sales email copy is PAS. How to compose emails with PAS approach?

• Be specific about which problem the prospect is facing
• Agitate about the issue by emphasizing all the pain points revolving around the problem to make your audience feel the urgency and the need for a solution.
• Present your product or service as the solution. Solve it for your audience by giving them a simple, easy-to-implement solution/service. This can be your product/service.

3. BAB (Before-After-Bridge)

• In the first part of the b2b cold email, describe the current situation i.e., before they use your tool. Also talk about the the resulting problem(s) if they continue to be in the same situation longer, in a way that makes the audience feel or take cognizance of the issues. Highlight the aggravating/gruesome pain, it should be relatable.
• Write the next section of the b2b cold email such that the audience can visualize a parallel situation i.e., after they start using your products/services. This ‘after‘ situation must be free from that pain you talked about in the ‘before’ phase of the email. Here, highlight the perks and the good stuff of the resulting state of affairs. Basically, you need to describe the bright future that will exist once the problem is solved.
• Lastly, describe how your product or service can take the prospect from the land of despair to the land of happiness by being the bridge that will take them from the ‘before’ to ‘after’ state.

That’s it, that was your BAB writing framework to write a cold email.

4. 4Ps (Picture, Promise, Prove, Push)

Structure your B2B cold email templates with the 4Ps framework to get good conversions. Here is how you write those high-performing emails-

• First, make the audience picture what you envision for them. Begin with a scenario or narrative that captures the imagination of the customer. Show them a potential business scope that they either already have been contemplating about or something that gives them a completely new positive perspective of things, or instills a new hope in them.
• Next, promise them an action or an outcome that could be pivotal in making what you envisioned a reality.
• Win their confidence by showing proof that by placing their trust in you they will be making the right decision. Show them your track record as evidence or testimonial to prove your promise.
• Push to make them act. Always include a clear call to action and tell them what exact action needs to be performed to proceed.

5. The 3Ws (Why, What, Why Now)

• Talk about the Why. Detail about the reason why you are reaching out to the prospect. Be as straightforward as possible. Don’t write puzzles here.
• Be direct about What you are offering that makes you worthy of their attention. Yes, talk about the benefits, but try being focused on the problems it solves for the prospect.
• Describe Why Now is the right time, what benefit it brings to act now, why it could be a terrible idea to not delay it if one aims to get substantial benefits…and in the process increase the importance of the action for the prospect.

6. QVC (Question, Value Proposition, Call to Action)

• Ask a radical, provocative question to your audience, that makes them stop and think. There you have their attention. Now, build a narrative around this question to set the premise for the rest of the email body.
• Clearly articulate the core value proposition of what you offer and what that can mean for the audience and their organization.
• Leave the audience with a call to action that makes it crystal clear to them what they need to do next if they are keen on the offerings.

7. STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result)

This may at first sound much like BAB, but it’s different. Here is what the STAR framework entails to write stellar B2B emails-

• First, build a smooth premise to talk about a problematic situation that your tool solves. Remember, here you are only supposed to talk about the situation, not the offering (tool/service).
• Explain what it takes to overcome the situation/challenge you spoke about. It better be a herculean task that they cannot do on their own without upsetting the business economics. Be very brief about the tasks.
• Explain what actions the target prospect can perform using your tool to tick all the boxes specified in the last section.
• Give the recipients a glimpse of what the result can look like by presenting them with the tangible results that other clients may have realized.

The appropriate structure to use would be determined by your audience and what you are offering. You may also borrow from more than one of the frameworks that are shared above to compose a unique email writing framework of your own. This will ensure that you pop out sharply and easily differentiate yourself from the rest amongst the pile of cold sales emails that get streamed to an executive’s inboxes these days.

If you’re a B2B IT company, or early-stage SaaS startup looking for email marketing services, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Here, use this email template-