If You Want To Nail An Email Introduction To A Busy Person, Here's How - Forbes
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Detailed article with templates on how a venture capitalist who has made thousands of intros does email introductions.
A little formatting goes a long way:
A little rich text formatting can go a long way towards evoking action in an introduction. Bold the ask in the e-mail. This draws the readers’ eyes to the actionable element in the message. Take the time to use hyperlinks instead of naked URLs. Sending someone a messy, multi-lined URL filled with gibberish shows that you didn’t respect them enough to spend less than 15 seconds turning it into a link. Use underlines and even strikeouts where appropriate for emphasis. If someone needs to call you, always include your phone number in an obvious spot. People will also sometimes make dopey mistakes in their professional e-mails like mixing multiple fonts.
It's important to follow up:
Following up is one of the most meaningful things that you can do after making an introduction. It’s also one of the only ways to find out if the relationship worked out, how your e-mails landed on your targets, and what you might want to do to adjust how you behave in the future. This follow-up doesn’t need to be long. I suggest a “Twitter-sized” request for an update is usually more than sufficient to show that you care. One additional follow-up afterwards if there’s no response is sufficient — if you get nothing after that, let it be. Something like “just bumping this to the top of your inbox” is good etiquette. Once is plenty — if there’s no response after that, it’s a ‘no.’
Lean into the response:
When you receive a response from an important person to one of your intro requests, it’s important to “lean into the response.” When you receive the reply, send them dates when you’re open for a follow-up meeting, times when you can meet, and places that’ll be convenient for you. That makes it easier for the other party to respond, and shows that you’re excited about the meeting.
Adam - I agree on the power of this. It is one of those basic things that a lot of people drop the ball on.
8:32 PM Sep 29 2013