Although in common parlance cold email and email marketing may seem synonymous, there is a sea of differences between them, rooted in their intent, structure, recipients, and even their level of distribution.
Cold emails are addressed to people who most likely have never heard of you, your product, or your company. On the other hand, well-regulated email marketing is aimed at subscribers, people who expressly decided to sign up to your database.
From this characteristic, the tone of a cold email will differ from email marketing. As it is the first contact that the recipient has with you, the cold email intends to surprise, to generate a hook so that the email is not ignored or deleted.
The type of language is also a differentiator, a user subscribed to your newsletters or recurring emails will accept that personalization within an email is minimal, in the end, is aware that it is part of a database and that hundreds of users receive the same news. Their interest does not lie in personalization, but in the valuable content that you share regularly.
For a cold email, the best strategy is to opt for a language that generates a personal link, because, in the end, the intention is to be a 1-to-1 email, like the conversions you have with acquaintances, family, or friends.
But, for whom do I have to personalize? Therein lies another differentiator; cold emails require the effort of prospect research, where specific information is important. Unlike email marketing, cold emails will be sent to a small group of people, so you have to send a different message to each of them for one simple reason; no two people or companies are the same.
As already mentioned, the frequency and quantity of emails sent are also important. For users subscribed to your newsletter, it is acceptable to receive a monthly, biweekly, or even weekly mailing, since the information is of interest to them. But you can not constantly send a cold email to one person, within this strategy usually send 2 to 9 emails, the first one is contact and the next one is follow-up.
In summary, email marketing is a marketing strategy (as its name suggests), in contrast, cold email is a sales tool, focused on creating valuable contacts and not on the large distribution of information.