Dream careers can start off with an internship. But, if you’re unsure if your dream role accepts interns—why not send an email and ask?
You’ll never know until you try. Who knows, you could even be their first intern. Sometimes, all it takes is a well-written cold email that’s enticing enough to give you an internship consideration.
So, stick around if you want to send the perfect internship application via cold email! In this article, we’ll be exploring:
- The basics of cold email.
- The best ways to send cold emails for internships.
- Mistakes to avoid when sending internship cold emails.
What Is Cold Email?
Whether you’re a student who wants to get experience or a professional trying to spark a new career path, cold emails for jobs can get you a foot in the door of many companies.
The basics of cold email are simple—it’s an email sent to people who don’t have any idea who you are. Think of this email as an introduction.
Your goal here is to at least get a reply. Best case scenario, you get accepted as an internship applicant and scheduled for an interview.
What Is The Best Way To Cold Email For Internships?
Cold email is a numbers game. The more emails you send out, the higher the chances of getting a reply.
If you want to get the most number of interview invites, looking at the following best practices for internship cold emails is a good place to start.
Build A List Of Potential Companies
Who you want to work for? Make a list. If they already have internship programs, you’re off to a good start. That's the easy part. The next thing you’d want to do is to identify who heads up recruitment and get their email.
Work Out Who To Send It To
Personalizing your cold emails is one of the best ways to get replies. Sending your internship application email to the right person already makes you look like you go the extra mile.
You could easily go send your application to a company email such as [email protected]. But the wrong person might see it and forget about your email.
The people you want to email are people from HR, recruitment, or talent acquisition. Try looking up their emails from places like LinkedIn.
Verify The Email Addresses
There are several ways you can go about verifying an email address. You can do it manually by sending an email to the address. If there’s an error or it bounced, the email’s probably dead.
Making sure emails are verified boosts deliverability, reduces bounce rates, and saves you a lot of time.
Don't do this manually. It's time-consuming, especially if you're sending cold emails to a long list of companies. Automate verification using Instantly.ai email tester feature instead—trust me on this one.
Write The Email
You want to send a personalized email to every company. Try using these cold email templates you can easily personalize.
As a rule of thumb, keep the email body short and concise. Use an engaging subject line. And be clear with your intent of applying for an internship. Once done, all that’s left is to hit send.
Send The Emails
Sending emails is the easiest part of this endeavor. But, if you do this wrong, you could end up hurting your email address’s reputation.
Email service providers might think your address is a bot if you send too many emails at once. We can eliminate this issue with Instantly’s email scheduler tool.
Analytics
Whether your cold emails are effective or not, looking at analytics can help you identify strategies you need to improve and what you need to let go of.
Yes, analyzing data can be a drag. Luckily, Instantly 's intuitive analytics dashboard is optimized so even beginners can get insight into the success of their initiative.
Follow Up
Not getting a reply isn’t the end of the world. In fact, most first-touch emails don’t get that many replies. Meanwhile, follow-up replies do.
You can automate follow-up replies using Instantly’s behavioral-based triggers. For example, you can set Instantly to send follow-up emails to prospects that haven’t replied for a week.
Interview!
Once the replies start rolling in, the next hurdle you need to face is the interview. Don’t forget to confirm your schedule through email. Prepare for common interview questions. And, most importantly, be confident!
Mistakes To Avoid When Sending A Cold Email For An Internship
If you’ve done everything listed above but still failing to see those interview emails coming in, you might be doing the following email mistakes:
Emailing The Wrong Person
If you’re emailing the wrong person, chances are you won’t get replies. Take the time to do your research on the exact person you need to send an email to. This could exponentially improve your chances of getting replies.
Using A Template Without Editing It
The worst thing you could do is copy-pasting a template without personalization. When using templates, make sure you’re reviewing every detail. This includes names, dates, company names, and job titles.
Killing The Recipient With A Wall Of Text
Nobody likes to read walls of text in an email. You’d want to send an email with around 100-125 words max. If you have an application letter, attach it to the email. But, for the main body, be as concise as possible with your skills, experience, and intent.
Not Following Up
As mentioned earlier, follow-ups can drastically improve your chances of getting a reply. Don’t assume that you weren’t put up for consideration. Chances are people that saw your email just forgot to send you a reply. So, don’t speculate and follow up!
Key Takeaways
Getting internship interview invites requires you to be proactive. The best way to achieve this is by sending out cold internship emails. But before doing so, consider the following:
- Cold emails are a numbers game. So, create a list of potential companies you want to send an internship application.
- Find out the exact person you need to send an email to. When you find a company, go to LinkedIn and find out who the people from HR or recruitment are and get details.
- Always follow up with your cold emails. This gives you a higher chance of getting replies than your first cold email.
If you want the highest possible chance of getting interview invites through email, you need a tool to assist you. That’s where Instantly comes in! Sign up for a free trial today and get the most out of your internship cold emails!
