This is the cold email plan we'd run for an agency that builds custom websites for one industry. A website is the most public thing a company owns. You can judge it in thirty seconds and so can their buyers.
Your market is every established firm in your industry whose website no longer matches the business. Firms grow and add services and merge and the site stays the same.
These are the signals worth looking for.
The Wayback Machine shows how long the current design has been live. An old copyright year in the footer is a quicker tell.
Google's PageSpeed Insights scores the phone version. A red score means buyers on phones are left waiting.
BuiltWith shows the platform and the plugins behind the site. Outdated setups are slow and hard to update safely.
Two firms joining or a new name means a new site is coming whether they planned for it or not.
A service they announced on LinkedIn that their website never mentions.
A new marketing manager often wants the website fixed first.
At firms the managing partner or the CEO signs off on a new site. The marketing director runs the project.
Their homepage redesigned as a single image with their own content and brand in a clearer layout.
It works because they see their own firm looking the way they wish it did. The mockup takes real design time and it makes sense because a custom site is a big project.
Present it on a 15 minute screen share. Walking through why each part moved is what turns a picture into a project and they'll want to react before anyone else sees it.
A recording of browsing their site on a phone with each point where a buyer gets stuck marked.
It works because leaders rarely look at their own site on a phone.
Watch it together on a call. Seeing it once with someone explaining each stumble is usually enough to start the conversation about a rebuild.
A short paid project at a fixed fee that produces the sitemap and the wireframes and the content plan. Credit the fee against the build.
It works because they get a usable plan either way. Once the plan exists the build is the obvious next step.
It starts with a 20 minute call to agree the goals and who signs off. Deliver within two weeks of that call.
Each segment gets its own email because a specific email gets more replies than a general one. Split each segment by sub-industry too so the examples in the email fit the reader.
Keep each email under 100 words with one reason for writing and one line of proof and one offer and one question. The proof lines are examples of the kind of result to use. Swap in real results of your own before anything goes out.
Lead with the year the current design went live. Offer the homepage mockup.
Hi {{first_name}},
The {{company}} homepage looks the same as it did in {{wayback_year}}.
We build sites for {{industry}} firms only. Mocked up what the homepage could look like today.
The last site we rebuilt for a firm like yours doubled its contact form inquiries in the first three months.
Want me to walk you through it?
{{sender_first_name}}
Lead with their score. Offer the phone walkthrough.
Hi {{first_name}},
Ran {{company}}'s homepage through Google's PageSpeed Insights on a phone. It scored {{mobile_score}}.
Recorded a walkthrough of where a visitor on a phone gets stuck.
A client whose site we rebuilt went from 34 to 91 on that score and now gets more inquiries from phones than from desktops.
Want me to walk you through it?
{{sender_first_name}}
Lead with the news and ask for a call directly.
Hi {{first_name}},
Saw the news about {{news_event}}. The website is usually the first place people check afterward.
We design and build websites for {{industry}} firms and nothing else. We had a merged firm's new site live six weeks after its announcement.
Worth 15 minutes to plan the new site?
{{sender_first_name}}
Lead with the service they announced and the page it deserves. Offer the discovery sprint.
Hi {{first_name}},
Saw {{company}} now offers {{new_service}}. The website doesn't have a page for it yet.
We run a short planning sprint at a fixed fee that maps the pages and content the site needs. The fee counts toward the build if you go ahead.
A client that did the sprint had its first inquiry for a new service a week after the page went live.
Interested?
{{sender_first_name}}
Send two follow ups in the same thread three to five days apart.
Each reply should end in a booked meeting that actually happens. The lead magnet and the offer get delivered on that call and never go out as a file to read later.
The replies below cover the three ways people say yes.
They asked for the mockup. The call explains every change.
Hi {{first_name}},
Happy to. The mockup makes more sense with the reasons behind each change. Fifteen minutes on a screen share is enough to walk through it.
Does Tuesday at 10am or Wednesday at 2pm work?
{{sender_first_name}}
They want the sprint. The call agrees the goals and who signs off.
Hi {{first_name}},
Great. I need 20 minutes with you to agree the goals for the site and who signs off. The sprint wraps up within two weeks of that call.
Does Thursday at 11am or Friday at 3pm work?
{{sender_first_name}}
They said yes to a call. Tell them what they'll leave with so they show up.
Hi {{first_name}},
Perfect. I'll bring what the new site needs to say on day one and a realistic timeline. You'll leave knowing what to launch first.
Does Monday at 1pm or Tuesday at 9am work?
{{sender_first_name}}
Results aren't guaranteed and nobody honest can promise a number before the first emails go out. A few things decide how a campaign does.
The first few weeks show how the market responds. The list and the copy and the offer get sharper from there.
We build and run this campaign for one agency per industry.
This page is a starting point and a strategy we'd happily test ourselves. Working together gives us more context on your agency. That context lets us add better strategies and build better lists and offers and automations for you.
Thirty minutes on your market and how we'd reach it.