If you read Cognition regularly, you already understand I write about my career events, client case studies, content experiments, brand breakdowns, etc.

This issue is no different.

I am spending four hours a week pitching ideal prospects, and I have identified patterns in my pitching strategy.

Honestly, I wasn’t even aware of my methods until my designer, Priya, asked me about cold emails. She was interested in my strategy and asked if I could share screenshots of emails that worked for me.

I am gonna tell you what I told her, but before we get started, say hello to our sponsor:

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Coming back to pitching and what worked for me, there are usually a few things that go in a cold email:

• Subject lines and preview text

• Personalization

• Proof of work

• Offer

• Friction Reduction

• Social Proof

• CTA

…and all the popular hacks you usually find on the web.

Out of all these, my pitching strategy relies heavily on two factors and two factors alone:

1. Niche

2. Hyper-Personalization

Niche

If you have niched down to one form of content (blogs, emails, SM, etc.) or industry (B2B, B2C, D2C, etc.), one of the most difficult decisions is to say no to brands outside your niche.

It is essential to pick one direction and march forward for a decent amount of time. Any other path you choose will slow your progress toward becoming an expert.

The point I am trying to make is I don’t compete in any other niche.

I know emails and newsletters are my thing and I stick to them.

I love a brand that doesn’t do emails? I just need to shut up, move on, and find another client.

On the contrary, it benefits (and benefits really well) when I pitch to brands looking for email copywriters or newsletter strategists.

They might be looking at a pool of hundreds of applicants, of which 20% are experts in the niche at most.

Meaning: I will rule out 80% of competition just by belonging to a niche because brands will look for experiences similar to their role.

Example:

I looked at an opportunity in the Fueler community, where an agency was hiring an email copywriter. I see at least five opportunities on Fueler daily, but I don’t apply to all of them (you already know the reason by now.)

When I saw an opportunity in my niche, this is the LinkedIn connection request I sent to the agency owner:

…and I got this reply:

See how niche helps you stand out?

Not only the niche but also a strong proof of work helped me. I am sure the prospect has clicked on my portfolio, convincing them to take this forward.

Hyper-Personalization

I am more of a quality-over-quantity guy.

I select exactly how I would like to contribute to the brand and pitch them the idea. I don’t say, “Do you have any email copywriting role?”

Instead, I give them a plan mentioning what they lack or what could be better. From line one, it would be clear that I have done homework, have a plan, and would love to work with them.

Example:

I have become health conscious lately and I am learning about nutrition, food habits, exercises, etc. But I couldn’t find any text-based content to rely on.

Then one of my favourite quotes hit me:

…and pitched a brand doing cool work in the nutrition space.

I backtracked the brand to the founder’s WhatsApp with some contacts, and this was my pitch (I asked for a 10-minute call to pitch the idea. I didn’t get any response, so I followed up with this):

The purpose was to clearly show my vision of helping the brand grow with content. As you can see, it is personalized for the brand, and they clearly know I am not copy-pasting the message anywhere else—and I am serious about working with them.

That’s all I have for this issue.

Niching down and hyper-personalization for pitches worked better than anything else I tried. It may or may not work for you - only one way to know!

Take care, stay safe, and write cold emails!

Love,
Vikra