You’ve found your potential clients, understand how to approach them, but find it challenging to put your thoughts into words. We’ve all been there.
From leveraging the right data to personalize email to choosing the right tone that reflects your brand, writing a sample welcome email that genuinely connects to your prospects can feel tricky. On top of this, you’d want your message to stand out from others in your prospect’s inbox.
So, how do you do this? In this article, we will discuss how to write a sample email to approach new clients. You will also learn:
What to do before writing a sample email for new clients
Diverse email templates to approach new clients
Best practices on how to write emails and approach new clients.
Let’s get started.
What’s an Introduction Email to Approach New Clients Online?
A business introduction email or a sample welcome email is the first email you send to a potential client to build meaningful relationships and ultimately sell your products or services. It explains who you are, highlights the value you offer, and includes a clear call to action, such as requesting a brief meeting or call.
The goal of a business introduction email to new clients is to initiate a conversation that could lead to a mutually beneficial business connection. This builds trust and a positive rapport between you and your potential client.
Keep in mind, if it’s the first email you send to a potential client, they probably don’t know you very well. So, reference any prior contact (if you’ve had any) or previous interactions they may have had with your brand, such as on social media or at an event.
Additionally, focus on the value you intend to offer for your clients, as that will engage them and usher them into your sales pipeline. In the next section, we will take a look at what to do before you write a sample email for your new clients.
What to Do Before Writing a Sample Email to Approach New Clients
Let’s admit it – you want to jump straight into writing your first cold email without a second thought. Resist the impulse. The best emails aren’t written hurriedly. They require careful research to highlight your prospects’ needs and address them with tailored solutions. While the document is the formality, the real work happens when you step back to research your prospects.
As a result, here is some groundwork to cover before you write an email to a new client.
1. Understand your prospects’ pain points and needs
If you had to explain your prospect’s problem in a single, compelling sentence, what would you say? Figuring that out gives you a purpose for sending that email. It’s the essence of crafting your email.
Here are three questions you can ask yourself to understand your prospect’s needs.
Who is my audience? (e.g., CEOs, CMOs, Head of Sales, Head of Operations, etc.)
Why do they need my service? (e.g., “They are losing 15+ hours every week on manual lead generation processes)
What solution can I offer them? (e.g., “An automated lead generation workflow can save time and let them focus on strategic business activities”).
Uncovering these three core issues shows that you listened to them and sets the roadmap for the next phase.
2. Segment your client list
Your clients are rarely homogeneous. Once you’ve identified why your prospects need your service and how you can help them, segment them by differences — even the smallest cue. This allows you to identify and sort the essential information needed to create highly personalized content for your clients.
If you’re wondering how to do this, here is a quick breakdown.
Collect and review your client’s information. Use platforms such as advanced survey tools, social media, databases, or public directories to do this.
Define segmentation criteria —- demographic (e.g., age, gender), psychographic (e.g., lifestyle or values), geographic (e.g., urban or rural).
Test and optimize segments to determine whether the criteria reflect your audience’s behaviors.
With this knowledge, you’d not only send a personalized message but also curate a customized experience that addresses their needs.
3. Verify their email address
An inaccurate email list is like pouring water into a basket. Wasted efforts and no replies. To avert this problem, you’d want to analyze your list and verify the email addresses.
Check your list for catch-all, duplicate email addresses, typos, syntax errors, or non-existent emails. This lays the groundwork for sending your emails to your prospects’ inboxes, not the spam folder.
How to Write an Email to Approach New Clients
The first impression is the best impression, they say. This holds true, especially when you’re approaching a new client with an email. However, it takes time to master how to craft those cold emails and create an email outreach sequence. But it’s not too hard when you know how to crack the code.
So, let’s start from the top. Assuming you’ve already warmed up your email inbox and want to start writing emails. You’ll find that sales emails prospective clients receive can be broken down into several essential elements.
Keep these tips in mind the next time you write a sample email to approach a new client:
1. A strong and personalized subject line
No two clients are the same. So, when writing emails, craft a subject line that takes advantage of the recipient’s curiosity or targets a specific pain point. Consider these examples below.
Now that you know why some subject lines do and don’t work, here are some tips to keep in mind. First, keep your subject line between a maximum of 4-6 lines. A good subject line is brief, relevant, and specific. It shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds to read.
Also, ensure your email subject line is not too sensational or clickbait. The goal is to get them to open the email. But if you’re lying to them and the subject line has nothing to do with the email message, they will just click away. Remember, lying to a potential new client is not the best way to start a relationship.
How you start an email matters. The first few lines should catch attention, not bore your readers. Even if you have the best product or most relevant service globally, no one will work with you unless you can get their attention. You can use comedy or humor, personalization, a direct question, and more to stand out and capture attention in your emails.
After a short and strong hook, it’s time to get to the point and introduce yourself.
Here, you’ll want to address the prospect’s most burning question, which is “What’s in it for me?”. It might be easy to go overboard and start talking about yourself here. But in reality, you’ll want to keep this under 2 lines at most.
For example, “I’m [name], and I’m reaching out because…”
4. Relevant pitch or sales proposal that pushes your ultimate value proposition
In your introduction email to new clients, note that different people have different needs. So curate your value proposition based on each prospect’s specific needs. Focus on their problems and highlight how your products can solve them.
For example, don’t just say, “our product can automate lead qualification faster.” Instead, say, “our product automates lead qualification, cutting the response team by up to 70%.” This helps your customers understand what they are getting from your service.
Additionally, include any proof that reinforces value. Think:
case studies,
demo videos,
customer testimonials,
industry certifications, or
success metrics to add to your credibility.
Before sending that cold email, make sure you’re targeting the right person and adding the right offer. From the intern to the business owner, see our full guide on how to find someone’s email address.
5. End with a click-worthy CTA
Many SDRs simply end their email halfway through, without a CTA. If the prospect is scratching their head trying to figure out what you want from them, chances are, they’re not going to reply. That’s why you must include a CTA.
The next time you’re sending an email, use action-oriented text in your CTAs. Also, keep it short and straightforward, create urgency, focus on the benefit, and follow a natural progression. Glenn Miseroy, CEO at Expandi.io, shares some examples of CTAs that work best for cold outreach.
Percival further opines, “The right CTA can turn ‘not interested’ into ‘tell me more.” So, rather than desperately asking your clients for their time, offer solutions that prompt them to speak to you.
Also, see our guide on email marketing call to action for more practical examples. Next, we’ll take a look at a good sample email example, deconstruct what makes it good, and then cover some templates below to understand how to write an email to a client for a new project.
Sample email template to approach new clients — example breakdown
Speaking of outreach, me and my team have been working on developing a brand new sales tool that writes unique, AI-generated first lines for your outreach emails.
What makes it different is that the tool automatically goes through the prospect’s Twitter, website blog, and other social media to find something relatable (not just their LinkedIn).
More than glad to send 50 no-cost credits if you want to try it out yourself.
Or can we get on a quick 5-minute call this Thursday or Friday if you’re game?
Right now, we’re focusing on getting the word out on the project. So, I would love your feedback.
What do you think?
PS – yes, this first line was written by our own tool. We eat our own dog food. :)”
What makes this sample email do well?
It’s highly personalized. It mentions someone (e.g., Hey Stefan) and what outstanding results they’ve achieved (e.g., achieving a 55% reply rate).
Effective and relevant transition to sales outreach. Since I’ve done a webinar on LinkedIn outreach, it’s safe to assume my interest in growth-hacking and marketing.
Clear call to action with 2 options. When you’re inviting someone on a call, explain what the call includes and how long it’s going to be.
Open-ended final line with room to ask more questions if needed.
So, while you can use some strong email sales templates, it’s essential to stay flexible and know how to repurpose sample emails for your own company.
Pro tip: Avoid replacing placeholder and personalization tags from a template and call it a day. You know your target audience best. So, tailor the sample email to each client’s needs. After all, each client, business, and industry is different.
Keep in mind, there are many email templates to approach new clients. Always adjust them based on your target audience and ideal clients. Just because one template worked for someone else doesn’t mean it’ll work for you, too.
Besides, there are no guaranteed sample emails for approaching new clients. Everything depends on your clients’ needs, their preferences, the value of your offer, and so on. That said, let’s take a look at some email templates that have worked for us that you can adjust for your business.
Six (6) Sample Email Templates to Approach New Clients
As mentioned earlier, the goal of an email template is to initiate a meaningful business connection with your prospects. However, they must be customer-focused and value-packed to forge a meaningful connection with your prospects and prevent your emails from being deleted instantly.
That said, here are six different ways you can write an email to approach a client.
1. Personalized cold emails
This high-converting email example is based on these four formulas:
A. A super personalized first line
B. Relevant value proposal.
C. Short case study, customer testimonials, or social proof showcasing your recent results
D. A strong call to action.
Here is a sample email to approach new client below.
TEMPLATE EXAMPLE
Subject line: Quick question on [company’s pain point, e.g., reducing customer churn by 40%]
“Hey {first_name},
Reaching out because I saw {personalization (e.g., that you shared Mike Brian’s LinkedIn post improving customer retention)}
We help [specific roles e.g., customer success leads] at [company type e.g., B2B SaaS companies] to achieve [specific outcome e.g., reduce churn by 30% without any headcount].
We’ve helped similar companies [e.g., company’s name] increase customer retention by [quantifiable outcome, e.g., 30% in 8 weeks] using our proven framework [e.g., automated engagement system].
Want to see the actual process and see if we can do something similar for your company?
[Your name]
Why is this email template successful?
Intriguing subject line: The subject line highlights the prospect’s pain points and teases them to open the email so they can read the solution.
A company similar to theirs: This makes the process relatable and also builds the sender’s credibility.
Clear CTA: The CTA guides your clients into taking action.
2. Using omnichannel dynamic GIFs to stand out in your audience’s inbox
This email is best done with an omnichannel outreach strategy. This means you can approach clients on multiple channels, such as LinkedIn, email, or phone calls. Besides, you can also send a follow-up email to a prospect after they’ve connected with you on LinkedIn.
TEMPLATE EXAMPLE
Subject line: Thanks for connecting {first_name}
“Hey {first_name}!
I just wanted to drop a quick email saying thanks for connecting on LinkedIn!
Using dynamic GIFs like the one below, we’ve managed to help our clients skyrocket their reply rate to as high as 55%+.
If I can help in any way, I’m always open to a chat and a coffee. :)”
Wondering how to add a GIF for every cold outreach email? Fortunately, this is all automated. So, you don’t have to manually check LinkedIn and craft new emails from scratch every time. Nor would you have to edit the GIF manually.
You edit and set the right size (usually 600×600 pixels) from the interface and add any dynamic GIFs as needed. You can include their first name, the company’s name, logo, or a website screenshot, etc.
You integrate it into Expandi by pasting the API code. And then click Sync from Hyperise in the right campaign below your body message from the Expandi campaign interface.
The campaign flow for this is:
Connect on LinkedIn.
If the request is accepted, check if the LinkedIn profile has an email that can be found automatically.
If the email is found, automatically send an email after a set period.
More info on approaching new clients with an omnichannel system is below. Keep on reading!
Now, let’s get back on track.
3. Congratulating them on a specific outcome
Everyone likes being congratulated for their hard work and achievements. This email takes it a step further and targets companies on their recent achievements.
Find these companies through VC deal websites or intent data providers such as Common Room, Trigify, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and more. You can also subscribe to business journals like TechCrunch, Bloomberg, VCNewsDaily, etc.
For instance, you can use these platforms to find recently funded startups or companies that launch a new product. Then, send a personalized email to congratulate them, ultimately warming the relationship.
TEMPLATE EXAMPLE
Subject line: Congrats on your $ [fundraising amount] raise, {first_name},
“Hey {first_name}!
Just saw your fundraising announcement, congrats on the {number} milestone!
At this stage, most teams I work with focus on scaling outbound efficiently, which keeps their CAC under control.
I recently helped [similar company 1] and [similar company 2] achieve quantifiable results [e.g., increase reply rate by 40%] through omnichannel tactics that combine email, LinkedIn, and phone calls.
I’ve got a few ideas on how to help [company_name] hit their post-fundraising sales faster.
Let me know if you wanna discuss the solution over a call.
Cheers,
[Your name].”
Why is this email template successful?
Timely relevance: It’s not some random outreach. It’s tied to what the prospects recently announced, making it thoughtful and intentional.
Social proof: It mentions similar companies they’ve helped and backs it up with a quantifiable result.
Light CTA: It gently nudges the prospect to take an action.
4. Post webinar sales message email to a warmer audience
If you’re a SaaS owner frequently running webinars, this email is a great way to approach potential new clients after the session. This works especially well if you already have an audience. Send post-sales messages after the webinar. Also, implement an omnichannel strategy by targeting prospects via email, phone calls, and on LinkedIn to expand your reach.
Based on your objectives, you can include a call to action such as booking a demo call to demonstrate your product one-on-one or nudging them to join your community.
We’ve had over [500+ attendees] sharing their biggest event challenges, and one thing has become clear — how to maintain and improve visibility after the event ends.
As a result, I want to invite you to our private Facebook group personally.
Here, you’ll find like-minded marketers and sales entrepreneurs who share outreach playbooks, best practices, and LinkedIn feature updates before they go public.
Join the group here: [insert link]
Drop by and say ‘hi.’ If you liked the webinar, I’m sure you’ll enjoy our little community.
Cheers,
[Your name].”
Why is this email template successful?
Catchy subject line: It connects to the webinar’s theme and sparks curiosity.
Pain point addressed: It references the prospect’s struggles and positions the community as the solution.
Clear CTA: It nudges them to take action by joining the community.
5. Custom video audit email
This email involves sending a personalized, custom video audit of you going over a few ideas for the leads so they can improve their business. The crux here is the value they get — what’s in it for them?
So, when using email to approach a new client, consider what they get in return. In this case, we’d be sending a valuable video audit that resonates with their needs. This lets them see that you actually put in the effort, and it’s not a “one-size-fits-all” audit that could be applied to other companies.
Subject line: Ideas to boost {company_name}’s LinkedIn ads conversion.
“Hey {first_name},
I noticed I was being retargeted by your LinkedIn ads. Have to say, the copywriting was on point! It targets the agency owners’ pain points and must pull quite a lot of leads.
I’ve been working with B2B ads for a few years now, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, you can always boost the conversion rate through proper A/B testing. For context, I’ve worked with B2B brands like [Company A] and [Company B], achieving results (e.g., increasing clickthrough rates by 2x) and using proven frameworks [e.g., A/B testing and ad-angle retesting].
I recorded a quick 2-minute video sharing three ideas on how I can help your company achieve similar results.
Take a look: [URL].
PS – If any of these ideas click, I’d be glad to get on a 5-minute call to test a few ideas.
What do you think about next Wednesday or Thursday?
[Your name]”
Why is this email template successful?
A strong subject line: It clearly states the value they get
Social proof: The result generated for other companies adds credibility to the sender.
Personalized video: It grabs the reader’s attention and offers value, proving the email isn’t generic.
6. The expert opinion email.
In this email, instead of offering help, you ask your potential clients to help you. It’s a unique way to stand out in a crowded inbox, and you’d be surprised to find out that people would actually love helping, especially when you’re asking their “expert opinion” on something.
This approach is a win-win for both you and your prospects, as it puts forth a great opportunity to work together and build a strong connection.
Subject line: Hi {first_name}, need your expert insights on {topic}
“Hi {first_name},
I came across your article – “[article_name]” on [website_name]’s blog. I was looking for some expert input on this very topic.
We’re currently working on [strategy project] and would love to have your perspective on [topic]. I’m sure your insights will help us develop our strategy.
Would you be open to discussing this next Thursday evening? You will also receive a copy once it’s published.
Feel free to let me know if you have any questions beforehand.
Cheers,
[Your name].”
Why is this email template successful?
Intriguing subject line: It hints at providing visibility for the prospects.
Clear value proposition: They gain exposure by participating in the project.
Strong CTA: It’s specific and provokes a yes or no answer.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that each brand’s audience is different. So, while the above templates might help, you can make your outreach even better by adapting the right mindset.
For that, let’s take a look at some of the best cold email best practices.
Best Practices on How to Write Emails to Approach New Clients
While you can adjust and reuse the above email templates to approach new clients, here are some best practices you can implement to generate more leads.
1. Building rapport before outreach
Think about it. You’d rather trust someone you already know than a person you’re meeting for the first time. That applies to cold outreach. The idea is to engage your leads by building rapport before sending your introduction email and giving prospects more reasons to reply.
Doing this warms the relationship with your leads, especially if you’ve engaged with them a few times on Twitter and LinkedIn. For instance, suppose you send a personalized email asking questions about their content, with no strings attached, they may find your name familiar the next time you reach out to them.
Sometimes, that’s all it takes to get your foot in the door. Wondering how and where to build rapport with your sales prospects?
You can try:
Social media.
Online content.
In-person events.
Asking for advice.
Find common grounds or shared interests.
Remembering and referencing small details
And more.
2. Leverage AI-powered tools to improve workflow
You don’t have to do everything manually —- researching prospects’ information, crafting personalized emails, and sending them to your prospects’ inboxes. Use AI-powered tools to automate these processes to save time and streamline your efforts.
Take Expandi.io, for example, you can use this platform to create hyper-personalized messages that feel natural and resonates with your clients. This goes beyond including your prospect’s first name. Think of dynamic fields, images, and GIFs. You can also A/B test messages to see which one performs better. On top of that, you can set message limits to protect the sender’s reputation.
Sending outreach messages with Expandi.io
3. A/B test your subject lines to improve your campaigns
A/B testing, or split testing, compares two or more versions of a single email or email campaign and sees which resonates the most with your target customers. Typically, you can do this by testing the client’s response to email A compared to email B.
Fortunately, this is easy, as most email tools allow you to A/B test different variables in an email campaign, such as:
Subject line (e.g., longer vs shorter, pain points, etc.),
Emojis in the subject line (with or without),
Your opening line, aka the hook,
The tone of your email (formal, conversational, casual),
The angle of your sales pitch,
CTAs (visual element, copy, placement),
And more.
When doing email A/B tests, make sure you change and test one variable at a time. Otherwise, you won’t be able to tell what caused the change in the campaign. Also, measure different metrics such as the open rate, reply rate, bounce rate, or clickthrough rate, to determine the effectiveness of your A/B tests and overall email performance.
For more info on A/B testing and other email variables, see our complete guide to email marketing KPIs for more info and real examples.
4. Send follow-up emails
If there’s one dead-simple way of increasing your reply rate, add follow-up email messages to your outreach campaign.
Research revealed that around 44% of salespeople give up after just one follow-up attempt. Low follow-ups equal fewer replies, and you don’t want that. So, follow up on your prospects to increase the chances of getting more replies.
For context, writing more follow-ups can triple your cold email reply rate. However, that doesn’t mean you should flood your prospects’ inboxes with as many emails as possible until they break and reply to you.
Percival Miseroy, CEO at Expandi.io, gave the 3×3 rules for following up on a prospect. He says, “You need 3 follow-ups with 3 unique values:
Follow-up 1: Reference a specific pain point they shared.
Follow-up 2: Share a customer story solving that exact issue.
Follow-up 3: Add urgency by tying your solution to an upcoming opportunity (e.g., a quarter-end goal).”
After doing this, A/B test your approach based on your target audience to determine its effectiveness.
5. Improving your campaign deliverability
Your emails should land in your prospect’s inbox, not the promotions or spamfolder. How do you do this? Set up some email deliverability steps:
Check your sender reputation — IP and domain reputation. The higher your reputation score, the more likely your emails will hit your prospect’s inbox.
Set up your email authentication protocols — SPF, DKIM, and DMARC — to validate your accounts with email service providers.
Warm up your domain to build a positive reputation. Start with a low volume (about 5 emails per day) before sending a large one.
Create email sending limits to prevent your email accounts from being blacklisted.
Craft personalized email messages to reduce the risk of being marked as spam.
Avoid spam words in your emails.
Verify your prospect’s email address to ensure you’re sending to the right account.
Avoid sharing IP addresses among multiple domains to prevent deliverability risk.
For a detailed guide on how to do all of the above, see our full guide to email warmup.
Note: The same applies to LinkedIn outreach as well. Using a LinkedIn automation tool like Expandi, you can set up LinkedIn connection limits by connecting with a few people at first, thus warming up your account before full-fledged outreach.
Setting up campaign deliverability with Expandi.io
This way, you protect your account from being banned, or in the case of emails, from being tagged as spam, or worse, your email getting blocked.
6. Don’t stick to one channel
Last but not least, if you want to turn sales leads into new clients, avoid sticking to one channel.
This is something we’ve mentioned above as well.
With many emails in your prospect’s inbox, they will likely miss your emails. However, if you send a LinkedIn connection request, an email follow-up, followed by a LinkedIn InMail or a Twitter DM, they’re more likely to notice you.
Thislets you create a multichannel sales workflow that expands your reach and increases replies from your prospects.
And for a more hands-on approach, you can build outreach “if-this-then-that” flows based on triggers and actions. We call these “Smart Campaigns,” which can fetch up to 3x the reply rate from your dream clients.
Multichannel outreach with Expandi.io
Finally, if this looks too overwhelming, don’t worry. You can simply use proven outreach flows and templates from our marketing funnel automation guide to save time.
Don’t forget your email signature at the end of your message. An email signature generator helps you add your contact details and links, so people can easily reach you and trust your message.
7. Include an opt-out option
Ever tried unsubscribing from an email and it proves abortive? That’s what happens when you don’t include an opt-out option. The result? Angry or frustrated customers who mark your email as spam and eventually block you. If this happens over time, your sender reputation gets affected. As a business owner, you don’t want that.
So, include an opt-out option. Your email shouldn’t feel like a prison. Instead, show that consent matters by letting subscribers opt out of your mailing list whenever they like. Plus, you abide by local laws such as the CAN-SPAM Act or GDPR and avoid legal sanctions, such as the $53,088 fine per email.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve the right templates, strategies, and best practices for writing your sample email for new clients, it’s time to make the move. Remember that the focus isn’t on you; it’s on your prospects — their pain points and needs. So, tailor your messages accordingly.
If you’re ready to launch that email and LinkedIn campaign, consider working with Expandi. Our LinkedIn automation tool lets you create personalized messages that resonate with prospects and automate the sending process in an efficient workflow. Get your free trial today!
FAQs
1. How do you use email to approach new clients?
To use email to approach new clients, structure your emails in the right way. Start with an intriguing subject line, include a brief, value-driven message that shows you intend to solve their problem, and add a clear CTA that nudges them to perform the desired action.
2. How do you write an introductory email to a prospective client?
An introductory email aims to initiate a conversation with your potential clients that could lead to a mutually beneficial business connection. So, instead of selling yourself, focus on the client’s pain points or needs and discuss how your products or services can solve their problems. Include relevant social proof, such as case studies or testimonials, to strengthen your case and build credibility.
3. When is the best time to send an email to new clients?
The best time to send an emai, you’ll want to address the prospect’s most burning question. Which is “What’s in it for me?”. It might be easy to go overboard and start talking about yourself here. But in reality, you’ll want to keep this under 2 lines at most.
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