20 Email Outreach Templates to Grow Your Business
Having a fancy website used to be enough to promote your business, but that stopped working at least 10 years ago. Now you’re competing for attention with millions of websites and SEO algorithms that change constantly. Social media may seem like a good idea but is increasingly pay-to-play for businesses.
That’s why we’re firm believers in email as the best way to grow your business. It’s how we built our company, and it’s how we help thousands of customers build theirs too.
However, it can also be intimidating. Staring at a blank email and waiting for a bolt of inspiration can be time-consuming and if we’re honest, a little scary.
We want to help you get past that. That’s why we include a comprehensive library of templates for all our customers in Reply. Have a sneak peek at twenty of our top-performing templates you can put to use today, free of charge, whatever kind of email outreach you’re doing.
Inbound sales and follow-ups
When most people talk about email outreach, their first thought is outbound email. While outbound is an important part of any email outreach strategy (spoiler alert: our next section will show you how), it’s important to remember that not all outreach has to be cold email. In fact, emailing your inbound leads is a great way to turn casual visitors into happy customers.
Inbound traffic refers to all those leads who’ve come to you, usually in search of help to solve a pressing problem. When someone hands over their email in exchange for some kind of value, it’s important your emails over-deliver. By the end of your inbound campaign, your prospects should be excited to see what your next email contains and what other ways your business can help them. Every email, every sentence, every word, should contribute to the feeling that they’re in the right hands, and giving you their email address was the best decision they could’ve made. You don’t want them regretting giving out their email and marking all your messages as spam.
An inbound email outreach campaign is a golden opportunity, and easy to set up with Reply. To help you get started, here’s one of our favorite inbound email sequences for when people sign up a webinar.
Email #1: The webinar opening
Subject: Your webinar registration
Hello {FirstName},
Thank you for registering to attend our recent webinar on “How to Create 3x More Opportunities”.
If you are still evaluating ways to increase your sales efficiency, I would love to chat about your current workflow and how Reply.io can assist you in booking more meetings. With Reply, you can set your sales outreach on auto-pilot so that your sales professionals can focus their efforts on revenue-generating activities.
Would you have any availability this Tuesday or Thursday?
I look forward to any opportunity to be of assistance.Kind regards,
Email #2: The webinar follow-up
Re: Your webinar registration
Hello {FirstName},
I just wanted to circle back around on my previous email. Is there any interest in a consultation on how to optimize our platform to scale and automate your personalized 1:1 communication?
If your schedule permits, I would love to chat this week.
I look forward to hearing from you.Kind regards,
Email #3: The webinar final follow-up
Subject: Book 3x More Meetings [Option A] / Free 14 Day Trial — Sales Auto-Pilot [Option B]
Hello {FirstName},
I have reached out a few times but haven’t heard back. I know things get busy but I’m hoping to assist you with automating your sales outreach efforts in order for you to focus your energy on revenue-generating activities.
If interested in testing Reply for your needs, please click on the following link to download your free 14-day trial, Reply.io
I look forward to any opportunity to be of assistance.
Kind regards,
The results? This particular sequence had an impressive 78% open rate and 29% reply rate.
What goes into a successful inbound email?
- Make it clear why you’re emailing. Use the email’s subject line and opening lines to tell the prospect why you’re emailing them. Reassure them this isn’t a cold email. Sending a ‘warm’ email has a major advantage over cold emails, so make the most of it.
- Establish a strong relationship. In our inbound campaigns, our rep will introduce themselves and offers to act as a guide, helping with best practices to increase their open rates and grow their business.
- Follow-up. Use Reply to automate your follow-up emails and remind them they were interested in your service (else they wouldn’t have given you their email?), and why they were interested in the first place; spell out the key benefits of your service.
Rather than leaving things to chance, you can easily set up an automated drip campaign in Reply. Once you’ve added your inbound leads to a campaign, Reply will email them the full sequence (including your follow-ups), stopping when you get a reply and automatically sorting the responses.
Outbound sales and follow-ups
As amazing as inbound email campaigns are, they’re not always possible. They rely on an already established source of traffic, which may not be practical for a new business who don’t have consistent leads coming in or a lead-magnet to leverage.
In this situation, outbound is a great way to get some initial traction. You can get great results in a short amount of time. Once you’ve researched your ideal customers and added their details to your email outreach software, you can get in touch with them at scale.
However, cold email doesn’t have the best reputation. For many, it’s just another term for spam. To overcome the inevitable barrier, try using one of the following templates that help show the value you can offer:
Email #4: The technology they use
Subject: Marketing on {eCommerce platform}
Hey {FirstName},
My name is Daniel.
The reason I’m reaching out is that I was browsing {Company}’s website and I noticed that you’re using Shopify as your eCommerce platform.
While we are focusing on marketing services for stores that are built on {eCommerce platform} and already helped {Company1} and {Company2} with SEO and PPC for their online stores, I thought we might have a great synergy.
Are you available for a brief call next Wednesday at 1PM EST?
Email #5: Hiring intent
Subject: Growing your sales team?
Hi {FirstName},
I’m reaching out to you because I noticed that you are expanding your sales team at {Company}. I assume, as a {ProspectTitle}, you want your company’s sales to grow as well, so would you like an idea of boosting {Company}’s email outreach activities?
Reply is designed for sales teams and helps them to grow their pipeline by using our platform to double their number of conversations with right-fit accounts and contacts by automating sales communications with existing and prospective clients while keeping them warm and personal.
Are you available for a 10-minute call to see how we could help {Company}’s sales team?
Results from a cold email, sent using Reply, based on a company’s hiring intent.
Email #6: Short and sweet
Subject: Automating your outreach
Hi {FirstName}.
I’ll keep this short to make the 26 seconds it takes to read this(yes, I timed it.)
Reply helps other companies like FreshWorks, WeWork, 99tests, Dribbble, Hubdoc with new business development and allows them to send cold emails that feel warm, whether it’s inbound, outbound, a trial or an existing customer — we put their outreach on autopilot while keeping communication personal.
If this sounds useful, I can explain how it works.
Thank you for your time.
Email #7: Personalized to job/industry
Subject: Help for {Standardized Job Title}
Hi {FirstName}
William from Reply.io here — an outreach and sales acceleration platform for sales teams.
I’m reaching out to you because, recently, I went through your Linkedin profile and noticed that you are {Standardized Job Title} at {Company}. While we have already helped companies in {Industry} industry automate communications with existing or potential clients and put email outreach on autopilot, you, as {Standardized Job Title}, might be interested in the features which Reply has:
1. {Related feature N.1}
2. {Related feature N.2}
3. {Related feature N.3}I’m wondering if you’d find this kind of solution useful? If so, I’d be glad to explain how it works.
P.S. I just checked the weather in {City} and it will be {Weather} degrees and it’s going to be {Weather Condition} tomorrow — {Weather Comment}.
Email #8: Valuable content
Subject: {Content Type} for {Standardized Job Title}s
Hi {FirstName},
I thought, you, as {Standardized Job Title}, would find value with this {Content Type}, {Content Description}.
We see ourselves as an effective sales acceleration platform for {Industry} related companies like {Company} to scale email outreach while keeping communication warm and personal.
If this sounds useful, I’d be happy to explain how it works.
Email #9: Website visits
Subject: Curious how {Our Company} can help?
Hi {FirstName},
AJ from Reply here leading the Growth Team — an outreach automation tool for sales teams.
I’m writing to you because I noticed that a number of your colleagues at {Company} have visited our website a lot during the last few weeks.
I was wondering whether they were trying to figure out how {Company} might improve cold outreach to your existing and potential customers?
With the number of people researching our company, would it make sense to talk for 10 minutes these days?
Thank you for your time.
Email #10: The follow-up
Subject: RE: {Original Subject}
Hey {FirstName},
I just wanted to float my emails to the top of your inbox one more time.
I’ve been trying to reach out to you a few times about the possibility of attracting new customers at {Company} using an outbound channel. I’d love to know if you have any plans for this.
Thank you for your time.
What goes into a successful outbound email?
- Personalization. That doesn’t mean just including a {FirstName} merge tag though. Your email should be tailored to the reader, showing you’ve done your research and have clearly demonstrated what’s in it for them.
- Base it on prospect’s actions. We’re a big fan of triggered cold emails, reacting to and referencing your recipient’s actions. We have templates based on what technology the prospect is already using, their hiring intentions, or visits to our website. Other examples would include social media mentions, abandoned cart sequences, or re-engaging warm leads.
- Clarity. Cold email is a harder sell. People have their guard up, which means it’s essential to make it clear why you’re getting in touch with them and what value they can get from your email.
It’s also important to make sure the email addresses you’re using are the right ones. Incorrect email addresses hurt your overall delivery rate and increase the chances your message will be flagged as spam to others. To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, validate all your email addresses before starting a campaign (Psst: Reply includes free email validation for all users, with advanced validation options for high-level users).
If you’re still struggling to get replies to your email, check out our full guide of tips to get more engagement from your cold emails.
Staffing and recruiting emails
You can use email automation software for more than just selling a product or service. One popular use for Reply is getting in touch with potential candidates for a job opening.
When talent teams were asked about which outreach channels they used in 2018, 37.6 percent of respondents stated they use email the most, making it the most popular candidate outreach channel.
So rather than relying on job boards or hoping your next dream candidate will come knocking on your door, take the initiative and try one of these templates.
Email #11: From the CEO
Subject: Looking for the best Ruby engineer to join ABC Inc
Hi {FirstName},
My name is Jason and I am CEO at ABC Inc. I found your profile on github while looking for the top engineers with Ruby experience. I was impressed by your background and decided to drop you a note.
You probably don’t often see CEOs reaching out to potential candidates to discuss career opportunities. But our company success so far is based on finding the best people and putting them together to work on fun, challenging and exciting projects. That’s why I focus a lot of my personal time on recruiting the greatest talents for our company.
We might have a position to tell you about, but that conversation can’t begin until we listen to you first and make sure we are on the same page.
Please, let me know if you interested to learn more and I will connect you with someone from our team.
Email #12: The personalized invitation
Subject: Love your ABC, XYZ projects on github
Hey {FirstName},
I’m an engineer at Stripe. I came across your github profile and really liked your ABC, XYZ projects. I wanted to see if you’d be interested in working with us at Stripe — if you’re up for it, I’d love to grab coffee next week to chat.
Best regards,
Email #13: Make a connection
Subject: New career opportunity
Hi {FirstName},
I know a little bit about your background and had some ideas in mind. However, I work differently, and if you are open to chatting I’d like to begin with a dialogue instead of a pitch selling you a job. We might have a position to tell you about, but that conversation can’t begin until we listen to you first and make sure we are on the same page.
I realize that my email may or may not have arrived at the right time. However, my goal is to connect with and understand an outstanding individual’s professional frustrations/aspirations and then align those needs with the startup that can best fit or help achieve that person’s goals.
What’s the best way for us to connect?
Email #14: The quick question
Subject: Quick question
Hi {First Name},
I wanted to get in touch to find out if you are keeping half an eye open for a new job?
I’m looking for developers urgently for a client of ours in the {location} area and wondered if this may be of interest to you…Let me know
Kind regards
Email #15: The short follow-up
Subject: RE: {Original Subject}
{FirstName},
Is the below of any interest to you?
What goes into effective staffing and recruiting email?
- Skip the long introduction. People’s time is precious, so don’t waste time explaining what your company does. If the candidate is familiar with what you do, it’s pointless. If they’re not, they’re not going to sit through a detailed history. A few words about your company or the industry covered will be enough.
- Do your research. Your cold email will be better than 99% of the others if you can demonstrate you’ve done your research. Include evidence, such as comments on recent projects and achievements, so people can see they’re not just another entry in a database.
- Have a realistic CTA. A change of career is a huge decision, one that takes time. You’re unlikely to get people to sign up for a job on the spot. Instead, try and get them to have a chat, or encourage them to learn more about the job opening. Either way, make sure your call to action is clear.
For more advice, check out our complete list of tips and templates for staffing and recruiting emails.
When sending out a recruitment campaign, you’ll often be working as part of a larger team. You might need to collaborate with other people in other departments and delegate different tasks to different staff. That’s why we created Reply Team Edition, to help teams with their collaboration and workload management. Whatever your team looks like, Reply Team Edition can help you do your optimize your campaigns, available on all subscriptions at no extra cost.
PR and link-building emails
Want to spread the good word about your business? You can use Reply to get the attention of journalists and influencers. Whether you want a backlink from a popular site or news coverage, sending the right email can get your foot in the door. But you only get one chance to make a good first impression. The right template can help you appear professional and increase the odds of a favorable response.
Art of Emails has a massive collection of email templates, including these examples of great PR and link-building emails.
Luke from Pest Pro App got his company featured in Life Hacker by offering them an infographic to complement their existing content. You can use the same tactic to get your content shared on popular websites with this template:
Email #16: Help them out
Subject: Free {ContentUpgrade} for {Website}
Hey {FirstName},
I really liked your article on {PopularPost}. Great stuff!
You actually inspired me to take this a step farther and create something even deeper in the subject of {PostCategory}.
I thought I’d reach out to you because I just published a {ContentUpgrade} on {PostCategory} and I thought it might interest you. It covers {ValueSummary}, all based on research and with sources to back it up.
Would it be OK to pass it along? I’d love to get your opinion on it.
Either way, keep up the good work with {Website}.
Best,
When he didn’t get a response to the first email, Luke followed up with a link to the infographic. You can try this out as a follow-up template.
Email #17: Link-building follow-up
Subject: Free {ContentUpgrade} for {Website}
Hey {FirstName},
Were you interested in that {ContentUpgrade} I mentioned? I forgot to post the link within it.
You can find that here:
{ContentUpgradeLink}
Regards,
Email #18: Pitching your personal story
Subject: Story for your article about {RelevantTopic}
Hey {FirstName},
I saw you’re writing an article about {RelevantTopic}.
I have a good story for you. I actually {RelevantStorySummary}.
My gamble paid off. I {ResultsOfStory}.
Happy to provide a few insights with your audience about how to decide {RelevantTopicQuestion}.
Let me know if this sounds interesting? Can provide more details to flesh out the story.
Email #19: New major feature
Subject: Exciting new feature at {Company}
Hey {FirstName},
Really enjoyed your recent article about {Topic}! {TopicInsight}.
Also wanted to share some exciting news: {NewFeature}:
[animated screenshot]
One angle that may be interesting to explore: would {NewFeature} help {CommonProblem}?
Email #20: Interesting patterns or trends based on user behavior
Subject: Interesting data about {CurrentTopic}
Hey {FirstName},
I’ve following your articles for a while, great insights into {RelvantCategory}.
Our whizzes at {Company} have been crunching a lot of numbers and the data has revealed patterns of {Overview}:
{InsightOne}
{InsightTwo}
{InsightThree}Some interesting questions this poses:
{QuestionOne}
{QuestionTwo}Let me know what you think?
What goes into an effective PR and link-building email?
As you may have picked up, there are some particular points to consider when writing a link-building/PR email:
- Give them an angle. If you want a journalist to write about you, they need a good reason. As much as you might think your new website or upgraded feature is amazing, most people don’t give a damn. Tell them why they (and their readers) should care.
- Make their lives easier. If you want a link, you need to give something in return. This could be a content upgrade, a new resource, or a front-page story. It should be a win-win situation. Don’t be tight; give this some thought and effort and they’ll be eager to give you a backlink.
- Do your research. If you’re asking a favor from a journalist or influencer, it’s essential to demonstrate this isn’t a mass email sent to thousands of people. Tell them what it is specifically about their site you enjoy and appreciate. Why would a link or a mention mean so much to you? Why would their particular audience benefit from what you’re offering?
However, as much as a good template can improve your results, it’s important to not rely exclusively on just one template. Every audience is unique. To find the best email for your particular audience, it’s essential to test your campaigns and analyze your results.
For example, if you see your campaign has a low open rate but a high reply rate, you can try out a different subject line to grab more attention. A high open rate and low reply rate indicates you might need to try a different template or tweak your email message to encourage engagement.
By giving you all the statistics and results for your email campaign at a glance, Reply can help you quickly see where you can optimize your message.
Conclusion
Email outreach is a powerful tool, whether you’re dealing with inbound leads, outbound leads, trying to find your next dream recruit or get a link back from a popular site. While it might seem like a lot of work, by using these templates, applying the tips, and automating your outreach, you can boost your reply rates and get better results for your business.
Originally published at https://reply.io.
