Best startup outreach email template

Hi Amy,

Thank you for sharing your outreach email template. It's great that you're reaching out to businesses to introduce your startup and also asking for their input on a common issue they face.

Here are a few tips that might help you improve your email:

First, personalization: While it's great to include the recipient's first name, you can also personalize the email by mentioning something specific about their business. For example, "I noticed that your business is located in [city], and I wanted to reach out to see if our app could be useful for your staff scheduling needs."

Second, value proposition: While you don't want to come across as too salesy, it's important to convey the value of your app in a concise and clear way. Try to communicate what sets your app apart from other solutions in the market and how it can benefit the recipient's business.

Thid, call-to-action: It's important to include a clear call-to-action in your email. If the recipient is interested in learning more about your app, what's the next step? Is it a demo or a follow-up call?

Overall, your template is a good starting point, and with some personalization and clear communication of your value proposition, you can make your outreach email more effective. Good luck with your startup!

This looks great! In general, I'd say:

• Focus on making the subject line enticing enough to open. Keep it short, informative and cater to mobile users as well (i.e. so they can see the full subject line on their device and thus decide to open the email). The subject line will top the cake in getting folks to open your emails.

• For the body, I'd suggest tailoring this towards a more established approach, i.e. that you're validating a start up idea, but you're already running one vs working/researching on an idea that hasn't yet begun. If it sounds like you're already well into your startup journey, you'd likely get more responses. E.g., Where you've put,

"I am working on a new idea. An app to help local businesses to schedule their staff shifts."

I'd say something along the lines of,

"I'm validating my startup's concept of an app to help local businesses like yours, to schedule their staff shifts. Do you have pain points in this area?"

then ending with something like,

"do you have a moment free to help me understand your challenges? here's [link to form] a short form, or my calendar is open [link to scheduling tool] if you have ~10-15m free in the coming weeks for me to get a better understanding..." -- or similar, just thinking out loud here :)

• keep it super short and to the point - the quicker they can read / grasp the request at a glance, the easier it is for them to respond.

• If you're targeting UK companies, beware of privacy / compliance issues around GDPR and give your contacts an easy way to unsubscribe from future comms from you. An opt out link phrased like, "click here if this isn't relevant to you" is better in comparison to "unsubscribe", FYI, which might make it look like you've signed them up to a newsletter.

• your follow ups will be where the magic really happens. Most cold outreach emails experience a smaller open rate in the initial email in comparison to the second -- or even 7th -- touch point.

• experiment! Start with a smaller list, use A/B testing for your subject lines, CTAs, your copy and optimise as you go along. Apollo.io. is a great free tool for this to do it at scale.

Good luck and hope we get to follow along your journey!

Possibly, it is better to have a link to a questionnaire (i.e. Typeform). Also, I would suggest putting kind-a a short analysis. Something like:

__________
We were using app X for stuff schedule management but it didn't work for us as it has A, B, and C issues. Later, we examined app Y and got the same story. Once we tested app Z, we figured that it has no D, E, and F points.

Based on all these points, we decided to move with a new startup idea and create the best app for both of us.

bla-bla-bla "Please, help us help you" pass the questionnaire here: [link]
__________

I suppose this would work better, as they definitely using the app, and experiencing the problem. What's more, we are pushing on pain points (that the top 3 apps (X, Y, Z) as a rule are a mass market), so the response rate should be better.

As for the questionnaire, you would be able to cover the points you are looking for. Such as features, what tool they are using, what they don't like in it etc.

Disclaimer: I can be wrong, it is just my opinion :)

I think your outreach email looks great! Your approach is focused on gathering feedback from the businesses and understanding their needs before trying to sell your idea. This shows that you care about the problems they are facing and are committed to developing a solution that can address their needs.

Your email is concise, clear, and straight to the point. The first sentence clearly states the purpose of your email, and the question you ask at the end is an excellent way to encourage the recipient to engage with you.

To make your email even more effective, I would suggest adding a personal touch to it. Perhaps mention why you are passionate about helping businesses with staff scheduling or how you came up with the idea. This will help to build a connection with the recipient and make your email more memorable.

@AmyWilliamson When doing cold outreach I always suggest tailoring the messaging to a market segment. You can go after many segments too!
So if you are building a Scheduling app for staff shifts, is there a particular type of business you want to target? If you include the type of business in the message it makes the buyer feel like you are building a solution tailored to them.

I once attempted such a start up for Home care businesses in the UK. My emails always tried to display knowledge about their sector. I since shut it down though.

It looks short and great.