Cold email template

Cold email template for web designers (with real examples)

A first email to a small business whose website is losing them customers, built on one thing you can see on their site in two minutes.

Subject: booking at harbour physio

Hi Anna, Your booking button opens a phone number, so anyone looking at your site after 6pm can't book until the next day. I made a 2-minute video showing how other clinics take bookings straight from the page, and what it would take on yours. Want me to send it over? Tom

52 words. The business and the people are made up; the shape is what works.

Why this gets replies

It opens on her business, not on Tom. The inbox preview is the fact about her booking button.
The fact is something she can check in ten seconds, so she knows it isn't a mass email.
It says what the problem costs her (bookings after 6pm), not what Tom does.
The offer is free and small. Saying yes costs her nothing, so a reply is easy.

Facts to open with

The first line is the whole email. Spend two minutes on their website, shop or Google listing and find one of these:

The booking or contact button only gives a phone number
The site is slow on a phone (try our mobile speed check)
The menu, price list or brochure is a PDF
The copyright year in the footer is years old
There are no photos of the actual team or place

Then say what it means for their customers, not what you'd do about it.

The free offer

A free 2-minute screen recording showing the one thing on their website that costs them the most customers, and how to fix it. Small, finished and useful even if they never hire you. That's what makes "yes" an easy reply.

Follow-ups

In the same thread, each one shorter than the first and adding something new. Stop the moment they reply.

About 4 days laterHi Anna, one more small one: your contact page has no map, so new patients can't tell which side of the harbour you're on. The video covers both, if it's useful?

Two weeks later, the last oneHi Anna, I won't keep writing. If online booking moves up the list, just reply "video" and I'll send it.

Send this to 50 businesses, each with their own fact. ScoutKite finds small businesses who published their email on their own site, reads each site, and writes this kind of email from one true fact about them. You approve every one; it goes from your own inbox.

Use this template →

The rules ScoutKite will follow

"Use this template" starts a campaign with these rules and the free offer filled in. You can change any of them.

Keep it under 70 words
Open with one thing on their website that a customer would trip over
No links, no portfolio, no prices
End by offering the video and asking if they want it

Check yours

Writing your own version? Run it through the cold email checker for spam words and length, and get follow-ups from the follow-up writer. More templates: seo consultants, bookkeepers and accountants, photographers, social media managers.