How I Write a Cold Email That Gets a Reply (Not a Pitch)

This is the part people get wrong. They find a business with an old website and email them: “your website needs a redesign.” That’s a guess. You don’t know what that business needs — you’ve looked at their site for five minutes.

So the first email isn’t a pitch. It’s one thing you actually checked, and one easy question. The goal is a reply. The reply starts a conversation, the conversation tells you what they need, and then you can help.

Before you write anything

• Open the website yourself. Research gives you a shortlist, not permission to email. Use the site like a customer would: on a phone, looking for the phone number.
• Only say what you checked. Footer year, last blog post, whether the phone is tappable, whether there’s a form, what their Google listing shows. One wrong claim and you’ve lost them.
• Mark anything you couldn’t confirm. If you’re not sure about the review count, leave it out.

What I actually check, in about five minutes

These are the things you can state as fact, because the reader can look and see the same thing. Everything in my emails comes from this list.

Is the site alive?

• The copyright year in the footer
• The date of the last blog or news post
• On WordPress, when the pages were last edited (add /wp-json/wp/v2/pages?per_page=100&_fields=slug,modified to their domain)
• Broken links, menu items that go back to the homepage, leftover template text

Is there anything for Google to rank?

• Thin pages. Twenty services on one page, 40 words each, is one page — not twenty. There’s nothing for Google to show when someone searches a single service.
• No page per service, no page per town. “Kitchen remodeling in [city]” needs a page called that.
• Do they come up at all? Search their main service plus their city and see whether their own site appears, or only their Google listing.
• Does an AI answer name them? Ask ChatGPT or Claude “best [service] in [city]” — the models quote pages with real, specific content. A site with one thin services page never gets cited.
• Google listing: is the website link even there, are the hours right, when was the last review?

Can a visitor actually contact them?

• Is the phone number tappable on a phone, and visible without scrolling?
• Is there a short quote form, or only an email address?
• Are there real photos of their work, or stock images?
• If they run ads: what page does the ad land on, and does that page do any of the above?

Do they know what’s working?

• Is there analytics on the site at all? Is Search Console set up?
• If they’re paying for ads, do they know the click-through rate, and what those clicks do next?
• Can they say which calls came from Google, which from an ad, and which from word of mouth?

That last group is the one nobody can answer, which is why the email asks instead of assuming. You can see the thin pages and the missing form yourself. You cannot see their numbers — so ask.

The four steps of every email I send

1. Something good about them, tied to a fact. The rank, the reviews, the years in business.
2. One or two things I found. Not a list of faults. Two is plenty.
3. What I’d do about it, given free: a homepage concept, a list of pages, one fix they can hand to anyone.
4. One easy next step. A short meeting, offered only if it’s already on their mind, with an easy way to say no. Never a calendar link.

Under 150 words. Plain text. No attachments, no images, no tracking pixels, two links at most.

The question that does the most work

Most owners can’t answer it. They know the phone rings. They don’t know which calls started on Google, which came from an ad, and which were word of mouth. It isn’t a sales question, so it doesn’t feel like one — and the answer tells you whether they need pages, ads help, or nothing at all.

A different angle for each type

• A — outdated site. They rank, they have reviews, but the site is years old. I build a homepage concept from their own photos and send one link, framed as “in case it’s useful”.
• B — alive but invisible. Recent reviews, busy business, but their site doesn’t come up for their own services. I name the two gaps I found, then ask the tracking question.
• C — paying for visitors. They run ads or rank page one, and the site loses those visitors. I give one fix away free, then make the longer point: ads stop the day the budget stops, pages you own keep working.

Two emails I actually sent

Names, numbers and links are swapped for placeholders. The first is a type A (outdated site), the second a type B (alive but invisible).

A dermatology practice

Subject: [Practice name]: [000] reviews, 2016 website. Ideas for you

Hi Dr. [Name],

I spent some time going through [Practice name] online. You're #2 on
Google Maps for "dermatologist [city]" with [4.7] stars from [000]
reviews, and your training in both dermatology and internal medicine
really stands out. Patients clearly trust you.

I also went through your Medical, Surgical, Cosmetic, [Laser] and
[Device] pages. They're thin for what you offer. Each page covers many
treatments in a few lines. The Medical page lists over 20 conditions,
from acne and eczema to hair loss and psoriasis, without explaining any
of them. More people now ask Google and tools like ChatGPT before they
book, and those answers come from pages that explain each condition
clearly.

I also sketched how your homepage could look with your own photos and
details, in case it's useful: www.example.com/your-website-redesign

If you'd like to talk about the website, growing organically and
tracking what works, I'd be glad to meet for 15 minutes and walk you
through what I found. If not, no problem at all.

[signature]

A deck and porch builder

Subject: [Business name]: missing from Google Maps and search

Hi there,

I spent some time going through [Business name] online. A family-run
team with over [40] years in deck, porch and patio construction, and
[thousands of] decks built in [area], is a lot to be proud of.

I also searched "deck builders [city]", "screen porch builders [city]"
and even your own name, "[business name]". Your website wasn't in the
first three pages for any of them, and I couldn't find you on Google
Maps by name or by phone number. Those spots go to [Competitor 1],
[Competitor 2] and Yelp lists, so that's where the calls go too.

I put together a quick demo of how your homepage could look, clean and
modern, keeping all your own wording: www.example.com/your-website-redesign

If you'd like more traffic and leads from the website, I'd be glad to
meet for 15 minutes and walk you through what I found. If not, no
problem at all.

[signature]

What both do: they open with something true and good, with a number the owner can check. They name exactly what I looked at, the pages by name or the searches word for word, so it’s clear I spent time on it. They point at one gap that costs them customers, not at the design. The concept is offered “in case it’s useful”. And the meeting is offered only if the website is already on their mind, with an easy way to say no.

Don’t hide who you are

I’m in India and most of the businesses I email are in the US. My name, my business, my website and my address are all in the signature. Being upfront is what separates you from the emails people expect to be a scam.

What builds trust isn’t hiding where you are — it’s naming real clients they can click, and saying something about their business that only someone who looked could say.

Keep the profile links (Fiverr, YouTube, anything with reviews) for the reply. In the first email they take up space and price you before anyone has decided they want you. When someone writes back asking who you are, that’s when they do real work.

The signature

Suhaib Naikoo
Arenex Digital · arenexdigital.com
[WhatsApp/Phone] +91 …
[street, city, country]

If you'd rather not hear from me, just reply and let me know.

The address is required by US anti-spam law, and the opt-out line does something practical: it gives an unhappy reader an easier option than the spam button. Every spam complaint hurts your domain.

Follow-ups

• Four days later: reply in the same thread. If they never opened the page you sent, resend the link with one quick fix they can do today. If they did open it, send a 60–90 second screen recording walking through it.
• Five days after that: one short last note. Then stop.
• Someone says stop: mark them closed and never email again. Same day.

What I never do

• Tell a stranger their website needs a redesign
• Send a video, an attachment or an image in the first email
• Use tracking pixels or link shorteners
• Send the same email to two businesses
• Claim anything I haven’t opened and checked myself

The whole thing in one line: you’re guessing at the start, so don’t pretend otherwise. Say the one true thing you found, offer something useful for free, and ask a question that’s easy to answer. Then let the conversation tell you what they actually need.

The prompts I use to find these businesses — and the dashboard I track them in — are in Cold Email Prompts.