Broadly defined, a pitch email (or an email pitch) is a business email containing an offer or a proposition that you send to a potential client or partner. What differentiates it from spam is value for the recipient: email pitches, unlike spam, are “the real deal” — i.e. they contain relatively personalized offers or propositions that are specifically related to the recipient’s business and can actually be beneficial to them or their company. Moreover, pitch emails are typically personalized, which is something spam emails never are.
Contrary to popular belief, pitch emails and not necessarily cold emails either. Unlike cold emails that always imply addressing someone you’ve never met, pitch emails can be sent to people you’ve been in contact with: as long as these emails have a business-related offer or proposition, they can still be considered pitch emails.
Depending on the pitch subject, pitch emails can be of different types. The most common types include:
At the end of this article, you’ll find brief descriptions and samples for each of these types. But first, let’s break down the writing process of a typical pitch email since it is basically the same, regardless of the pitch type. After that, we’ll share a bunch of proven tips to help take your pitches to the next level. And then — it’s finally time for examples.
Writing pitch emails is rarely simple. But luckily, whatever you’re pitching, the general structure of a pitch email is always more or less the same. To put together a decent pitch email of any type in just five steps, follow the guidelines below.
On receiving your pitch email, your recipient can only see these two elements: the sender’s name and the subject line. Supposing you’re following email etiquette rules and using your real full name as the former, the first thing you need to take care of is the subject line.
To be compelling enough for the recipient to click on it, a pitch email subject line has to be:
The last point is super important: typically, decision-makers in any company receive piles of emails a day, so your pitch email subject line needs to clearly indicate that your message is at least worth opening.
To craft catchy subject lines that stand out, you can borrow some techniques from marketers and salespeople — for example, you can use some ideas from our article on catchy subject lines for sales. But since not all of these techniques are applicable to pitch emails, you’ll need to be really picky.
A generic “hey there” might be okay for a marketing email — but in pitch emails, personalization is key. Starting with a polite hello and addressing the recipient by name helps establish rapport and lets the reader know they’re not seeing yet another spam email.
Moreover, including the recipient’s name in the subject line or in the introduction paragraph of your email can help you reach the right person even if you don’t have their precise email address and have to use their department’s address instead.
Next, briefly introduce yourself: mention your name, company name, job title or professional occupation. Then, proceed with explaining why you’re approaching the recipient with whatever you’re pitching and describe your pitch subject in a few sentences — typically, 3-4 are enough.
Though you might be tempted to get into detail right here in this paragraph, keep your introduction short to keep your reader engaged and prompt them to continue reading.
Now that you’ve established a connection and made it clear that what you’re offering is relevant to the recipient, you need to explain how they or their company can benefit from accepting your offer or proposition.
For product or service pitches, it can mean listing the ways your product/service can solve their problems and alleviate pain points.
For collaboration pitches, you’ll need to highlight the positive outcomes of the collaboration.
For business pitches, laying out enticing figures can be the winning strategy.
You can also mention the pricing here, especially if it is your competitive advantage or you have special offers on the table. That said, you need to remain succinct and try to keep this paragraph around 2-4 sentences long.
At the end of your email, thank the addressee for their time and attention and gently ask for feedback. You can also offer to schedule a call in case they are interested. To wrap it up, use a sign-off phrase such as “Sincerely, [Your name]” for strictly formal emails (e.g. pitches to potential investors) or something more casual like “Best regards, [Your name]” in other cases (e.g. collaboration pitches).
Finally, remember to add your email signature featuring your full name, credentials, contact info (office address, phone number, email) and a link to your or your company’s official website. Optionally, you can include your photo or brand logo, links to your business social media profiles, and other info you consider relevant. To achieve consistency and a professional look in all your business emails, you can use an email signature generator.
Here’s a good example of an email signature that looks nice, clean, and professional:
When designing an email signature for your pitch email, you can follow the guidelines from our article on the topic. The article is best suited for realtors, but even if you’re not one, don’t worry — you can easily adapt most of the tips to fit your specific industry, whatever it may be.
Before we move on to the examples, here are a few not-so-obvious tips on writing successful pitch emails. Using them can help take your email pitches to the next level and increase your chances of getting that craved-for positive reply.
People instinctively trust people they know, even though vaguely, more than complete strangers. That’s why cold pitches (i.e., pitches to people you have no connection with whatsoever) are always the hardest to nail, so it’s best to avoid them if you can help it.
To “warm up” your recipient, research that person and the company they represent, and try to connect via a referral or a social network such as LinkedIn prior to sending your pitch to them. You can also use a networking event, online or offline, to acquire connections. Even if they won’t remember you, a reference to an industry event you’ve both been to will have a positive effect.
You wouldn’t want to send off your carefully crafted pitch to someone who has nothing to do with it, would you? To save yourself the trouble, always double-check the recipient’s address to make sure it’s written correctly.
And that’s not just the address that needs checking, but the recipient’s name as well.
Moreover, typos, errors, and grammar mistakes should not make their way into your email either. To ensure you got everything right, re-read your pitch email a couple of times prior to hitting the “Send” button, and use grammar checkers (Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Google’s built-in checker, etc.) if necessary.
Depending on the type of your pitch and the person you’re addressing it to, you might want to tweak the tone of voice of your email slightly. For example, sales and collaboration pitches can be more casual and conversational (within certain boundaries), while business pitches call for a more formal approach.
When you’re unsure what tone of voice to choose, it’s always best to err on the side of formality. This way, even though you risk sounding a bit stiff, you’ll at least avoid coming off as ill-mannered and unprofessional.
As we’ve already mentioned earlier, it’s crucial that your pitch is concise and focused. That means it’s best to omit any unnecessary and/or irrelevant details that might distract the reader from the gist of your message.
In case the recipient needs additional information, they can ask for it in their reply email. To prompt them to do so, you can add a short sentence indicating that you’ll be glad to provide further details at their request if they are interested in the offer.
Emails that scream they are copied and pasted are a definite “no” when it comes to pitches. Even in marketing communications, personalization is one of the general best practices — but in business, personalizing every element of your email is a must.
The same as in marketing, personalization starts from the subject line — for example, you can mention your recipient’s name or their company name right away. If you’re sending a bunch of emails at a time, using A/B testing will help you pick the subject line that works best.
Apart from subject lines, it’s worthwhile to add personalized details such as company/brand names in the email body whenever possible (using merge tags will make the task easier). Approaching the “value” paragraph the right way, following our advice in the previous section, will also add a personalized feel to your email.
In email marketing, sending follow-up emails after getting no response is a commonly used tactic. For pitch emails, it works just as well. If your first email went unnoticed, following up with another one can make a difference between losing a prospect and closing a deal.
To avoid being too pushy, be sure to wait about a week before following up. But don’t wait too long unless you want to start all over again. In your follow-up, mention your initial email and briefly reiterate the essence of its contents, wrapping up with a cordial request for any sort of feedback.
Last but not least — the sad fact is, pitch emails, especially cold ones, don’t get positive replies very often. The best thing you can do about it is to accept the fact and not get too downhearted if you get a “no”.
In fact, you can consider yourself lucky if you get any answer at all because that means the recipient considered your offer significant enough to be noticed. Whenever you get a negative answer, warmly thank the person for responding and ask for permission to write again when you have another idea, thus securing a connection for future pitches.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed? In this section, you’ll find pitch email examples of six different types that illustrate how you can put theory into practice. Use them as a model while perfecting your pitch writing skills — but don’t copy and paste them word by word when sending actual pitches!
A sales pitch email is an email that salespeople send to potential customers. Essentially, it’s a brief presentation of your offer aimed at sparking the prospect’s interest and encouraging further contact.
Product or service pitches are a lot similar in essence. The difference is, they are somewhat more focused on the specific features of your product or service, while sales pitches are more about the business in general.
Both of them, however, should focus on how your business, product, or service can help solve the prospect’s problems/alleviate their pain points. That said, you can add or omit certain details and shift the focus slightly depending on your pitch subject.
Now, here’s what a sales pitch might look like. In this example, we don’t get into detail and describe the specific features of the services the company offers. Instead, we’re focusing on how beneficial working with the company can be for the prospect’s business.
The following example, in turn, highlights the product and some of its features, which is typical for a product/service pitch. However, it’s important to only mention those features that can be useful to the recipient and their business.
Business pitches contain a brief presentation of a business or a business idea to people who can help it grow and develop. These are typically investors or potential business partners, but you can also target business pitches at influential people who might share your idea with their connections or audience and thus give it a push.
Collaborations with influencers (bloggers with a large number of engaged followers) help businesses raise brand awareness and grow their customer base. To reach out to influencers, brands send collaboration (partnership) pitch emails. There, they introduce their company, the offer, and the benefits the partnership can bring to the influencer.
For influencers, partnerships with brands are their bread and butter. Oftentimes, big social media influencers and celebrities get offers from brands on a regular basis without having to reach out themselves. But for the smaller ones, pitching brands the right way is the key to success, growth, and financial wellbeing.
Article pitches (or media pitches) are sent out by journalists and PR agents to suggest story ideas to editors. To hit the mark, such pitches need to be relevant to the media and contain details such as the article’s working title, its outline, and a short summary of the story.
Guest post pitches are similar to article pitches, except that they might also include details concerning the hyperlinks the article needs to feature.
If you’ve ever considered pitch emails spammy, annoying, or ineffective, it’s high time that you changed your opinion. In reality, pitch emails can often bring stunning results, provided that you handle them properly.
To master email pitches, use our guidelines and tips, and learn from the sample pitches provided in this article. To make your pitches unique, simply tweak the templates, combine the elements when necessary, and maybe add a touch of your personal style. As the general structure is always the same, you won’t need to change much anyway. Good luck!
