Write an email that gives value up front

What it does

A hand-written email to a top account has one job: be worth reading even if they never answer. So it gives before it asks. The gift is in the email itself, not behind a link or a call, and it’s built for this one company. What the gift is depends on what they do. A list of buyers suits a company that sells to businesses, but there are plenty of other ways to be useful.

What you need

• The account and the person (see find the people who buy what you sell)
• An hour to make something useful for them
• Your own email account. These go out by hand, one at a time

How it works

1. 1

   Pick the gift

   Choose something they’d pay someone to make, that you can make in under an hour for this one company. Ideas:

   • Their next customers. A short list of companies that look ready to buy from them, with the person to talk to (see build a list of 25).
   • A fix you spotted. One broken step on their site, in their sign-up or in their checkout, with what you’d change.
   • What their customers say. The three things that come up most in their public reviews, good and bad, in the customers’ words.
   • How they compare. One number next to others like them, from public data, with where it came from.
   • An introduction. Someone you know who they’d want to meet.
   • Something you’d do in their seat. A short teardown of one campaign, page or offer, with one change to try.
2. 2

   Open with why them

   One line that says why you’re writing to this person. Something true about them or their company, in your own words. Not a compliment you could send to anyone.

3. 3

   Give it, in the email

   Put the useful part in the body: the five names, the fix, the three themes. A link or “happy to send it over” makes them work for it. If the full version is bigger, give the best part now and offer the rest.

4. 4

   Say why it matters to them, then ask one easy question

   One line that connects the gift to their world. Then one question that takes five seconds to answer, like “Want the rest?”. No pitch and no meeting ask. If they want to talk, they’ll say so.

   The shape

   Subject: [THE GIFT, 2 TO 4 WORDS, LOWER CASE]
   
   [FIRST NAME] - [ONE LINE ON WHY YOU'RE WRITING TO THEM]
   
   [ONE LINE THAT SETS UP THE GIFT]
   
   [THE GIFT ITSELF: 3 TO 5 SHORT LINES]
   
   [ONE LINE ON WHY IT MATTERS TO THEM]. [ONE EASY QUESTION]?
   
   [YOUR NAME]

   Prompt for Claude or ChatGPT: check a value-first email

   Check this email to [NAME, TITLE, COMPANY] against these rules and fix what breaks them:
   1. The first line says why I'm writing to this person, and it's true and specific to them.
   2. The useful part is in the email itself, not behind a link or a call.
   3. Everything in it is specific to their company. Nothing I could send to anyone else.
   4. One line on why it matters to them, then one easy question. No pitch, no meeting ask.
   5. Short enough to read on a phone. Plain words.
   6. Don't add any fact that isn't in my draft.
   
   [PASTE YOUR EMAIL]

5. 5

   Send it by hand

   From your own inbox, one at a time, never from a sequence. Read it out loud first. If they answer, the gift did its job. If they don’t, the follow-ups add more of it (see run one account for a week).

What good looks like

An email the person would forward to a colleague, because it’s useful on its own. It’s about them, the useful part is right there, and it asks for nothing but a quick reply.

Mistakes to skip

• Putting the gift behind a link or a call. Give it in the email.
• A gift anyone could get, like a generic report or a blog post. It has to be made for them.
• Pitching in the same email. The gift stops being a gift.
• Sending it from a sequence. These go out by hand, one at a time.