Teaching My Cold Email Practice

I asked her to do this because I wanted to go on podcasts, have interesting conversations, and reach new audiences. But I also wanted to see if someone else could replicate my methods using the predecessor to this guide.

After using Listen Notes to identify 24 shows that would be a good fit, she visited each show's website to find the host's email or, if that was unavailable, a contact form. Then, she wrote most shows a message along the lines of the following email:

Hello,

I launched Writing for Software Developers last May, sheltering in place at my mother's house six days before my virtual college graduation. Despite these obstacles, the book did over $20,000 in sales in its first week without any pre-existing audience. Since then, I've been on a mission to help as many software developers as possible realize that they possess the skills they need to become great writers.

In Writing for Software Developers, I give a step-by-step outline of my technical writing process. I would love to come on your show and talk about the importance of strong writing in the developer world and how to write great technical tutorials.

[Show-specific information was placed in this paragraph]

I have previously been featured on IEEE's Software Engineering Radio, along with other shows. I have a flexible schedule and live in USA central time.

Best,

Philip Kiely

The email she wrote had several strong qualities:

• A tried-and-true hook
• A plainly stated request in the second paragraph
• Show-specific information that went beyond personalizing a template
• Social proof to overcome objections
• Clear next steps to follow up

The strategy worked. From 24 queries, we received 6 responses and booked 4 shows, a ~16 percent end-to-end conversion rate. Thanks to this process, I appeared on Indie Bites, The Not-Boring Tech Writer, 10 Minute Tech Comms, and Side Hustle School (a top .05 percent show on Listen Notes—that's in the top 1,000 podcasts in the world by listeners).

More importantly, the exercise proved that cold email is teachable. Writing great cold email is a skill that anyone can develop.

Best,

Philip