How long should a cold B2B email be?
Aim for 80 to 120 words: a line on why them, two on the problem and its cost, one on proof and a single small ask. Most cold emails are read on a phone.
A cold email is judged in a few seconds, often on a phone screen that 120 words already fill. Our first SaaS customers playbook recommends a body of 80 to 120 words built as problem, impact, proof and next step. Anything longer reads like a brochure; anything much shorter rarely gives the reader a reason to answer.
Here is how 95 words split in practice: 15 on the trigger (a new hire, a job ad, a tool change), 35 on the problem it creates and what it costs, 25 on how similar companies solved it and 20 on a specific ask. That leaves no room for your company history, which is exactly the point.
The ask matters as much as the length. 'Open to a 10-minute call next week?' earns more replies than 'Let me know your thoughts', because it is concrete and small. Ten minutes is also the standard call length on Meetcatcher, and in practice it is enough for both sides to see whether there is a fit.
Checklist before you hit send
- Subject under seven wordsSpecific beats clever, for example 'Quick question about scheduling overruns'.
- First line about themOpen with something true about their company, not about yours.
- One problem, one numberName a single problem and a rough cost of it, such as hours lost each week.
- No attachmentsKeep the deck and case studies for the reply; in a first email they look like marketing and can hurt delivery.
- One question at the endAsk for one small, specific next step that can be answered with yes or no.
Follow-ups should be shorter still, around 40 to 60 words, and add something new each time; see how many follow-ups are too many. Judge the result by replies rather than opens, using a normal reply rate for cold emails as your benchmark.