7 Customizable Email Intro Templates to Skyrocket Your Outreach

Address the pain

What pain does your product or service cure? This email opening works by directly addressing your prospect’s biggest challenges and obstacles. 

Hi {{FirstName}}, 

A lot of {{TargetMarket}} I speak to struggle with {{PainPoint}}.

For example, if you’re representing a CRM company, your target market might be struggling to manage large numbers of prospects using a spreadsheet (or even pen and paper). If you’re working for a recruitment agency, your prospective clients might hate their current job, or be sick of working long hours for little recognition.

Don’t guess at which pain point to mention. Talk with your existing customers and find out what problem they solved with your product or service. What was keeping them awake at night? If you’ve done your research properly and described the reader’s biggest pain point, I guarantee this intro of email will get their attention. 

Call out your competitors

Lots of businesses like to pretend they don’t have any competitors. Trust me though, your prospects already know about your competition, and acting as if they don’t exist won’t do you any favors. 

Instead, address the fact you have competitors and let your prospects know why they should use you instead. 

Hi {{FirstName}}

I was talking to some of {{Competitor}}’s customers recently and they told me they’ve been struggling with {{KnownCompetitorIssue}}. Is that the case with you? 

This shouldn’t be about trying to bad-mouth your competitor though – that’ll just make you look petty. Instead, look for known issues and differences that are relevant to your target audience. For example, if you’re selling accounting software tailored to small businesses, but your prospects are using a more generic solution, highlight this using the template. 

Show you’ve done your research

A key part of effective cold outreach is coming up with an email that feels like it was written directly to the prospect. One way to add that personal touch is to do some research and then use it in your email.

Hey {{FirstName}}, I love the work you’re doing with {{LatestProject}}. 

I just read your article about {{ArticleTopic}} on the {{SiteName}} blog, and what you said about {{SpecificTopic}} really got me thinking.

Yes, this template uses a little bit of flattery, but it still sounds sincere. Everyone likes to receive a compliment, but it’s a lot more effective when it’s genuine. 

Take a look through their website and their social media and find something that resonates with you and your offer. Stick to recent, business-related posts; this introduction isn’t going to work if you’re talking about something they said five years ago, and mentioning personal posts can come across as creepy. 

It’s another cold email! 

And now for something completely different… 

Hi {{FirstName},

I know what you’re thinking: Yes, this is a cold email. But, before you hit delete, I thought you might want to know how {{ProspectCompany}} can {{GetValue}}.

Rather than try to pull the wool over the reader’s eyes, this immediately addresses the potential objection while interrupting the normal pattern in emails. After addressing this in the intro of email, quickly move to how you can best help the reader and their business. 

If you’ve done your research and what you’re offering is genuinely valuable to the reader, this should hold their interest long enough for them to read the rest of the email. It’s a different approach to 99% of cold outreach, but that difference is what makes it so likely to be effective. 

Jon Buchan at Charm Offensive uses humor to great effect. Here’s one example:

Greetings Helen,

You’ve never heard of me. (Hi, I’m Jon). I got your details from a list. gasp. But hey, at least you’re list-worthy, that’s gotta be worth something right?!

From using “Greetings” as an opening to admitting you’re a stranger who got the prospect’s details from a list, this seemingly breaks every cold email best practice. However, that’s why it’s unlike anything else that your prospect will read that day. 

This might feel uncomfortable, especially if you work in a “boring” industry, but that’s the exact reason you should try a new approach. 

Lead with your value proposition

While there are plenty of tricks and hacks that email marketers like to use to increase opens and clicks, nothing can replace a solid value proposition. Proposify CEO Kyle Racki shared the following email, describing it as the best cold email he’d ever received:

Kyle, I wanted to give you a quick shout to introduce you to FullStory, a new tool that helps companies understand customer experiences like never before. 

The easiest way to get a feel for FullStory is to check out the 30 second demo of me interacting with your site…

The email then shares a personalized video and finishes off with an offer of a two-week free trial. 

Similar to our first template, where we led with the customer’s pain points, this intro goes straight to what the product can do for the reader. Following the same pattern, you can use this as a customizable opening for your next outreach email:

{{FirstName}}, I wanted to introduce you to {{Product}}, a new tool that {{ValueProposition}}.

Of course, the real skill is coming up with a compelling value proposition in just one sentence. What’s the number one, biggest outcome that your product delivers? Once you’ve managed to distill that into a concise package, you’ll have a highly effective email introduction.

The friend in common

If you’ve ever been in a room full of strangers, you’ll know how difficult it can be to start a conversation with someone you’ve never met before. Similarly, emailing a complete stranger and persuading them to read your email is hard work. 

When someone first sees your email, they’re most likely thinking, Who is this person, what do they want, and how did they get my email address? However, if you can get an introduction from a mutual, trusted connection, then a lot of that uncertainty and concern disappears (leaving you to focus on making that compelling offer). 

Hey {{FirstName}}. I hope you don’t mind me reaching out, but {{MutualConnection}} mentioned you could do with help {{FixingProblem}}.

Again, this intro of email can only be used when you have a genuine connection in common – faking a friendship just to use this intro is pretty much guaranteed to backfire. 

However, you can generate new opportunities by following up with your most satisfied customers and asking for referrals. Do they know anyone else who’d benefit from your product or service? If they’re really happy, they may even do the hard work for you and send the email themselves, making this approach even more effective.

Looking under the hood

Your outreach should be as relevant as possible, and today’s technology makes it easier than ever to find the prospects who’ll benefit the most from your product. One way is by using technographics to look up companies that use a complementary solution. 

For example, if you’ve just launched a product integration with a leading software partner, you could reach out to people who use that software with the following email introduction template.

Hey {{FirstName}}, I noticed you’re using {{Software}} over at {{RecipientCompany}}. 

It’s pretty awesome, right? We’re big fans at {{SenderCompany}} – we’ve actually just launched a snazzy new integration that lets you {{ValueProposition}}

You’ll still need to offer a compelling benefit, but knowing that your solution fits right in with the tools they’re already using makes this a particularly compelling email intro. 

Even if you don’t have a direct integration, you can use a similar approach and open your email with how your product makes their existing tech stack even more effective. 

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