Home Advice For The Young At Heart How College Grads Can Jumpstart Their Careers With Cold Email

How College Grads Can Jumpstart Their Careers With Cold Email

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by Brooklin Nash, Head of Content at Wiza.co

Even if you’ve been on a job search for months and no one has hired you (yet), that  doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. Employers get hundreds of applications, and it can be difficult to stand out as an applicant.

But there’s one way you can bypass those job boards and make a memorable impression: cold emails.  

Cold emailing works. And it could be the ticket to your next career position.

Why You Want to Use Cold Email.

You just graduated university or you’re about to, so you need a job or an internship. And let’s say none of your connections or people in your network have promising leads. 

That’s where cold emailing comes in handy. You can personalize each one, so you wouldn’t be spamming a massive email list.

Here are the two best reasons to use cold emailing to jumpstart your post-graduate career:

The stats don’t lie: with a well-written, targeted, and personalized cold email, you can get about half of the people to open your emails. So if you email 30 leads, you could potentially have 15 people respond with job opportunities. 

Personalization works: the key factor of a successful cold email is the personal touch you put into each one. You’d start with a template (more on that below) then use the person’s name, company name, and do a bit of research on them so you can mention their relevant career experience and accomplishments. Doing this can increase your chances of getting a response. 

How To Send Cold Emails For Internships Or Jobs.

Here’s how you can cold email people and actually get responses. The most important step is the first one: getting solid leads. 

Collect good leads.

The first step is to find your leads. But they can’t just be any leads, they have to be solid, relevant leads. 

Where do you find these types of leads?

The best place to go is LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This tool helps you find people based on industry, location, keywords, and more.

You can save LinkedIn profiles to a lead list, extract their emails, and then begin cold emailing them. It’s the quickest way to find relevant leads in mass quantities.

Create an email template.

Once you have your leads, you can write your email template. The idea of cold emailing is to contact as many people as you need in little time. A template helps you achieve this. 

Here’s a basic email template you can try:

  • Use “Dear [NAME]” at the top so you can quickly insert the person’s name
  • Introduce yourself and start with a compliment (examples: “I read your article on ___ and loved” or “I see that you accomplished X in your career and that’s what I’m pursuing as well”)
  • Give them a little more info about yourself for context (not too much because this template should be short and sweet)
  • State your ask (examples: “I would love your advice on…” or “What are your thoughts about…?”)

Be personal.

Once you’ve written your template, you can now personalize each email. This is extremely important. 

Here are some tips for getting personal:

  • Use their name
  • Use their company name
  • Mention an article they wrote or a career accomplishment they’ve listed on their LinkedIn profile

Get to the point.

These emails should not be long. The people you’re emailing probably don’t have a ton of time, so don’t waste theirs by writing fluff.

Be as concise as possible without sounding robotic or apathetic. 

Use a professional email address.

Lastly, don’t send these cold emails from an unprofessional-looking address – beliebergirl732@hotmail.com doesn’t give potential employers a great first impression.

Instead, send it from an email address like yourname@gmail.com or yourname@yoursite.com. It leaves a much better impression because it shows you’re serious about getting that internship or career position. 

The Two Main Takeaways.

There are two things I want to highlight from this post – two things you need to start implementing in your cold emails.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator and personalization.

The former lets you collect hundreds of emails at once. And the latter helps you send emails that actually get opened so you can connect with other professionals.

 

Brooklin Nash specializes in helping B2B and SaaS companies build their online brand, authority and organic following. He heads up content for Wiza.co and runs a content consulting business on the side. With seven years of content marketing experience, Brooklin joined Wiza to create helpful content around LinkedIn, cold email and lead generation.

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