Using Humor In Your Cold Emails

Bruce Martinus | 1/3/2021 | 8 min read

There’s a bunch of people who love using humor in their cold emails, while others find them cheesy, unprofessional, or childish.

Here’s the thing…

There’s way too much noise in people’s inboxes, and on the internet in general, for you to just follow the traditional route and be the same as everyone else.

Having sent both ‘professional’ and funny cold emails, it’s pretty clear that using a bit of humor can definitely have an impact on your campaign performance

Is It Professional To Be Funny?

The truth is that not everyone will be responsive to funny emails – you should consider the personality type of your target audience, and more importantly, the person you’re speaking with.

But people don’t automatically lose their sense of humor just because they wear a suit and tie.

They still like to laugh, you know.

The reality of sending funny cold emails is that you could potentially be the highlight of someone’s day.

Look at it like this;

They presumably have an important role in the company, maybe the founder or CEO, hence why they’re receiving emails from strangers asking for their business.

They spend all day putting out fires, deleting hundreds of useless emails, making sure people are happy, sitting in meeting after meeting, problem after problem…

Then they get an email from a nice stranger (you) that forces the tiniest of sniggers out of them.

Sometimes that’s all it takes to make someone’s day.

Of course, you need to be able to effectively get across what you’re trying to say and what you’re offering, but it can definitely be done in a more uplifting tone.

Humour Can Be Very Effective

Most messages that people receive are straightforward, serious, and extremely bland.

What adding a bit of sauce (humor) does:

1) It breaks the ice a little easier

2) It makes you a hell of a lot more likeable

3) You can have loads of fun doing it!

People applaud creativity.

In fact, the majority of prospects would choose to work with the person that displayed their creativity right from the start over the person who’s sent them the same generic message that they’ve seen hundreds of times before.

So, why wouldn’t you want to add a little bit of creative humor to your cold email?

But for a funny cold email to work, it’s important to understand the following things:

You need to be familiar with the industry, your prospect, and what problems they’re having to deal with. Your message can’t be a one-size-fits-all approach. Find out the personality traits of the people you’re speaking to, then you can tie in your humor based on their characteristics.

Identify the common interests that you and your prospect share.

Being too serious is bad, but don’t completely go off-topic by trying to cram in as many jokes as possible. The perfect balance should be an email that’s light-hearted but also explains how you can help them, and what you’re offering.

One of the best things about sending humorous cold emails is that even when a prospect isn’t interested in what you’re offering, most will send you a nice response telling you how much they appreciated your email.

And that doesn’t only make you feel warm inside, but it leaves the door open for potential business in the future.

That’s the magic of it – using humor makes you more distinguishable and more memorable.

Remember that you’re not trying to re-invent the wheel here, you’re only trying to improve it by transforming a bland generic email, adjusting it to match your prospect’s personality, and adding a little bit of creativity to get a positive reaction out of them.

If you feel naturally comfortable using humor then you should definitely try it out.

If not, then don’t worry – there’s plenty of inspiration out there to borrow, such as comedy films, stand-up shows, meme pages, etc.

When something funny pops up that you think might be relevant for your cold emails, test it!

Go and brighten up someone’s day.