How To Send Reply-Worthy Messages via Email or Social Media
Never send cringe-inducing messages again with this simple structure and template
Don’t you just get turned off when you get a message that feels copy-pasted? It’s one of those semi-triggering things that make some of us feel like we’re nothing more than just a number to a brand.
According to Markempa, “Empathy-based marketing is about walking in your customer’s shoes to understand their experience and how we can better help them get what they want.” Now, more than ever, empathy-based marketing is a must.
You’re probably flooded with LinkedIn connect requests, DMs, and emails that all have one thing in common — lack of research. Avoid silly and embarrassing mistakes and improve your response rate by putting just a 2–3 minutes of time into learning about the messages intended recipient(s).
This is especially important if you’re doing cold messaging where the average response rate is 1% (so 1 response for every 100 people. Just because it says “cold” and goes out to the masses it doesn’t have to FEEL cold but that’s a whole other article…
So if you never want to send another cringe-worthy message again and instead send attention-worthy messages, follow the structure below.
1. Know Who Will Read Your Message & Understand Their Driving Factors
You want to understand who’s likely going to be the first (or only) person to intercept your initial message. By understanding who might open your message, you can better gauge what to say that will motivate them to respond. People should feel like they just discovered something really cool in their inbox.
If you’re reaching out to bigger brands or public figures, know that your message is likely being read by a team member or executive assistant. If that’s the case, everyone wants to look good in front of their bosses. What can you pitch (and in a clear and concise way)that will make the team member feel like they’ve discovered a needle in a haystack?
2. Write a Personalized Subject Line and First Sentence
If your message takes the form of an email rather than a LinkedIn InMail or Instagram DM, you’ll need to think about subject lines. Your subject line is the first thing people will see when deciding to open your message. The goal? To inspire enough curiosity to get them to open the message.
But also, the first sentence in your email is like a second subject line.
Whether it’s through email or social, your first sentence shows as a preview in the inbox. Every line should keep people curious and interested enough to want to read the next line.
3. Keep Your Intro (and Overall Message) Clear and Concise
Nobody knows who you are yet. They don’t care for your two paragraph-long intro. Save that for when you’re face-to-face IRL or on a video call. Keep it simple and sum up the parts of who you are that’ll appeal to the reader in a few short sentences.
In one particular experience, the agency I was working at had a two-page script for pitching influencers that rarely ever got a response.
I wont even read a friend’s 3,000 word text, much less some stranger’s message in my inbox. So I condensed the message into one to two short paragraphs, tested subject lines, and saw responses roll in.
4. Get to the Point
Why should they care to keep reading? After a brief intro, clearly state why you’re reaching out. What do you want and what’s in it for them?
This is where you want to plant the seeds of what’s possible if they were to further explore your offer. Don’t write your messages from a self-serving place. And don’t be that person who wastes people’s time and patience by insisting on the need of getting on a call just to deliver information.
It’s always refreshing for both parties to deliver friendly and upfront information. In short, treat people the way you’d appreciate to be treated in whatever type of engagement you’re initiating.
Sometimes you have to put the blinders on and do what feels right rather than what some guy with Ferraris in his garage in a YouTube business pitch ad is telling you.
5. Give a “This or That” Style CTA for Next Steps
Give clear next steps on what they should do if they want to move forward. You don’t people confused jumping through hoops alone as they figure out how they can proceed. They won’t jump through hoops anyway. Best case scenario, they’ll mark the email as important but forget it exists.
The goal is to make the process seamless and crazy easy to follow.
Don’t just leave them high and dry on the pitch with no stupid simple CTA to act on. For example, you might ask them if they are available either Tuesday or Wednesday at 10am EST so you can send a calendar invite. Keep it black and white, this or that rather than open-ended so that replying back is a simple decision to make.
6. Keep Compliments Genuine & Specific
Anyone can say I love your work. But if you are to give a compliment, be specific. Did you recently read a blog by the reader? Or maybe they were a guest on a podcast you love and they shared a takeaway that resonated with you.
Tell them that! It carries more value than a general and impersonal compliment.
Putting It All Together
Below is a sample message created for a pretend scenario where an agency owner is reaching out to someone interesting to host on their company’s podcast.
Hi Victoria 👋I'm Diana, host of The Really Popular Marketing Podcast with over 500K listeners and a combined social media following of over 5 million followers.I’d love to invite you to be a guest on the next season of The Really Popular Marketing Podcast. Your advice on Someone Else's Podcast about how important it is to take scheduled breaks to avoid burnout really resonated with me.Our audience struggles with this and would surely love your take on energy management as a marketing professional (also open to another topic if you want).I'm wrapping up guest invites these next two weeks. If you'd like to be a guest simply reply telling me that you're in so we can coordinate our episode recording date (and tease your upcoming episode on a live video to our 2 million Instagram followers).Looking forward to hopefully having you as a guest!
Diana Briceño
Did you see how we combined all the ingredients? Also, note how we created a friendly hint of urgency by telling them about our timeline.
So, to recap, here are all six steps in a bullet-pointed list. Feel free to copy and paste this into a note for reference.
- Know Who Will Read Your Message & Understand Their Driving Factors
- Write a Personalized Subject Line and First Sentence
- Keep Your Intro (and Overall Message) Clear and Concise
- Get to the Point
- Give a “This or That” Style CTA for Next Steps
- Keep Compliments Genuine & Specific
Next time you do your cold messaging, you can refer to these steps as a template for your message structure. Don’t forget to have a professional email signature with links to your website and social accounts so the reader can learn more about you too.
Now get out there and build some relationships!
