A cold email goes to someone who does not know you and did not ask to hear from you. Fill in who they are, why you picked them and what you do, and Hemmingway writes one short email: the reason you chose them first, what you do in a sentence, one piece of proof, and a small ask.
Every line comes from your answers. It will not make up a compliment about their company, a mutual contact or a result you did not mention.
What makes it work
- The reason you chose them is the email. Something they said, built or posted, and why it made you write. If that box is hard to fill, do the reading before you send anything.
- One proof, and a real one. A customer of the same kind and what changed for them. A list of services proves nothing.
- Ask for something small. A short call, a yes or no, the name of the right person. A stranger will not agree to a big thing by email.
An example
Asked for a cold email to Linnea, who runs operations at a bakery chain with twelve shops, because she said on a podcast that their stock counts are still done on paper, from someone who builds simple stock-count apps for small food shops and whose proof is a butcher with four shops that cut its Monday count from three hours to forty minutes, asking for a fifteen-minute call next week, an email along these lines is what to expect:
Subject: Stock counts on paper
Hi Linnea,
I heard you say on a podcast that stock counts across your twelve shops are still done on paper.
I build simple stock-count apps for small food shops. A butcher with four shops cut its Monday count from three hours to forty minutes with one.
Would a fifteen-minute call next week be worth your time?
No praise for her company, no list of features, and short enough to read on a phone.
Not only for sales
The same form writes a cold email for a job, a favour or advice: give your experience as the proof and ask for a short conversation. How to write a cold email has an example of each. For a first message on LinkedIn, use the LinkedIn message generator. When a week passes with no answer, the follow-up email generator writes the nudge.
Common questions
Is the cold email generator free?
Yes. Hemmingway has a free trial with no card needed, and this tool opens it with your answers filled in. You sign up once, and the email is written in the chat.
Can I send the same cold email to a whole list?
You can, but it will read like it. The line about why you chose this person is what earns a reply, so run the form once for each person who matters.
Is cold emailing legal?
The rules on unsolicited email differ by country, and by whether you are writing to a business or a private person. Check the rules where your recipient is before you send in any volume. Hemmingway is not the place to get a legal answer.
Will it sound like AI?
It is built not to. Hemmingway-1, the model behind it, came first on sounding like a person in our own blind test, Human-Likeness. It still helps to read it aloud and change any word you would not use.