Funny cold emails: 7 templates for better prospecting

Some feel humour has no place in the business world. Some would argue that watching Steve from sales slip on a well-placed banana improves office moral. Whichever side of the debate you fall on (sorry again Steve), a funny sales email can help you cut through the hundreds of generic emails and spark a connection with a prospect.
We’ve previously covered how to write prospecting emails in a fair bit of detail: be brief and follow our golden rules. We also looked at why you should send follow-up emails, which revealed how much sales revenue is driven by the second, third and fourth email.

This post is a little different. We don’t advise using humour often, but done in the right way, it can be a great tool for getting a response from the stubbornly silent types.

Why humour improves sales emails results

First, let’s talk about something vital to comedy: timing. When is the right time to add a touch of laughter to proceedings?
In your initial outreach, you should introduce your proposition in a sensible way and use research to demonstrate how you can help the prospect.
First chasers are a simple nudge, second chasers should further emphasize the benefits you can offer and the pain points you can soothe.
The final email, known as ‘the breakup’, is one final attempt to connect. You’ve got nothing to lose at this point. 
Including a humorous message at this stage of the outreach, sales reps will stand out from the competition. Humorous information is more memorable – meaning your prospect will be more likely to remember your pitch.
We are also more likely to buy from people we like, and a funny sales email is a modern shortcut to getting someone on your side. Put someone in a good mood, and they are much more likely to find some time in their calendar.
Please note, the below templates are all 100% real emails that we have sent to prospects. The email recipients’ identities have been disguised to protect their anonymity.

Funny sales email templates for openers

As we’ve said, we don’t generally advise using humour in opening emails. We think that the initial outreach should get to the point and ask for a quick call.
However, we do like to test and learn. The below email template was an experiment we ran, proving that even in an initial outreach email humour can drive results.

Funny cold email templates for follow-ups

Follow-up emails are where humour starts to come into its own. You’ve laid out your proposition, now you are just trying to get their attention, so a funny cold email can be just the thing to do that.
You don’t always need cows. You don’t even need images. To be honest, laugh out loud humour isn’t necessary either, just a lighthearted approach can sometimes work wonders, as the following email shows.

Even though this person had no need for our services, the line about the tree got to them. They still took the time to write a reply and suggest we follow up with them at a later date.

A different prospect relied to this email template with a simple offer:

Chasers with Adele

Adele chases pavements, we send chaser emails. And combining the two seemed to work pretty well.

This person wasn’t sure if they liked the approach or not – but it clearly had the desired effect of lifting the email above the chatter and getting a reply.

A picture is worth a thousand laughs

Finding an amusing image (but one that makes a point about the risk of missing out) meant that this funny sales email template was short but sweet.

And the reply…

Funny email templates for the final chaser

Email humour can be wide ranging; we’ve used cute kittens as well as cows stuck on gates, as you can see below.

You can perhaps see that email working if the prospect likes kittens. But the below response demonstrates that it connected with someone who is clearly not a fan.

Dogs work as well as cats

Maybe we thought that man’s best friend would be more popular than the internet’s favourite fluffy meme. Either way, dogs and funny emails tend to work well when combined.

The recipient of this one went on quite a journey, but ultimately ended where we wanted them – on the phone to a sales rep.

Homer says please

Dog, cats…. what about yellow cartoons?

This prospect enjoyed the light-hearted, helpful approach in our emails, and even thanked us for being so persistent.

Although it’s clearly not always going to be appropriate, including some wit in your sales emails can break through the natural barrier people have to cold contact.

We’ve learned a lot from sending 14 million emails: how to use humour is just one lesson. Sopro are sales prospecting experts. We can write your emails, take care of technical set up and more.

Get in touch to find out how we can bring our expertise to your business.