A US filmmaker bought pillows for a newlywed stranger through their registry — then a bold cold email changed her career

Viv Ford (@vivford), a filmmaker, wanted to make a TV show but had no investors to support her project. Later, she found a production house and felt they might be interested in her concept. Curious, Ford dug further, found a woman associated with the company, and sent her an email. Now, in most cases, we don't usually expect a response to cold emails, right? But the filmmaker did something so unusual that not just the woman replied, but that incident also paved the way for Ford's first-ever show, "The Crypto Castle." Ford recalled the incident on February 14, and her video has over 100K views on her Instagram. 

When Ford googled the woman, she realized she'd just gotten married. In fact, the filmmaker stumbled upon her registry and decided she should send her something from the list. Ford, basically, wanted to grab her attention and knew no better way than sending a stranger a wedding gift. "I spent 20 bucks and bought her pillows, and that did two things," the filmmaker confessed. Ford explained that the woman was notified that someone named Viv Ford, whom she didn't know at all, had sent her a wedding gift. And that made the woman open the mail that read, "Hey, I just bought something off your registry in hopes you would read a cold email." So, just like Ford, make sure you do your research on whom you're reaching out to if you want your cold emails to get a response. Notably, that incident flipped the filmmaker's career, and she was able to release her first-ever television show, "The Crypto Castle." The six-part series is based on Ford's real-life experience in 2015 when she moved into a San Francisco hacker house with fourteen crypto-obsessed roommates. 

EmailTooltester surveyed 1,800 people and found that respondents receive an average of 15 cold emails every week, which amounts to 780 emails a year.  While average open rates for cold emails are between 40-60%, average response rates are between 1% and 5%. So, how can you make your cold emails stand out? Well, cold emails with personalized subject lines are apparently 26% more likely to be opened than the rest. In fact, timings also matter, and the survey found that the best time to send a cold email is Monday, between 5 AM and 8 AM, when such emails get an average reply rate of 2.3%.

Meanwhile, impressed by Ford's genius plan, @trap.yoga.queen shared, "My coworker once got a Starbucks tumbler delivered to the office. The note said, 'Hi. My name is X. I applied to the open role on your team; I'd love to buy you a coffee." Similarly, @lizlewiswrites commented, "I love it. 15 years ago, when I’d make briefing binders for my boss about senators we were meeting with, I’d throw in info about their new marriages, etc., and their registries. He loved it." @tayo.shoes wrote, "That’s another level of getting someone to read your emails."

You can follow Viv Ford (@vivford) on Instagram for more lifestyle content. 

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