strategy Share your creative outbound emails

[Joe N]

I was inspired by this post made by @Arpit131, and tonight I decided to craft a truly personalized email with attitude for an outbound sales attempt (will share in my next post).

I would love to make this thread a central resource for inspired ideas of how to grab the attention of a potential buyer with a well-written opening email. Members like @Ali have shared personalized intros in the past, and I know many found it incredibly helpful.

So post your original email creations, and let's give constructive feedback to one another on how to improve our email writing skills.

 

[koti arun kumar]

hello,
Since you are in the xxxxx.com business,
I thought you might like to know that I am selling the domain name xxxxx.com .

this domain can be forwarded to your existing site to capture some pre-qualified leads from people who type in the domains into their browser.

This domain should serve work to your advantage in the search engines and in Internet and offline marketing campaigns.
Kindly let us know if your business would be interested in this opportunity.

Best regards,
xxx

copied from np thread
https://www.namepros.com/threads/i-sold-my-1st-domain-for-1200.1012352/page-2#post-6099600
posted by np member @Isac
present using this template to my outbounding.
thank you .

 

[Joe N]

I am not sure about if the wordings I used in the outbound emails can grab their attention and convince them to take purchase action.

Feel free to post the text of what you use and others can comment.

 

[Joe N]

Here's another that I tried recently:


Hi <contact name>,

We're selling a great promotional domain that <company> might be interested in:

Refresh / Your / Wardrobe [dot] com

The term has become extremely popular, and is used regularly in fashion blogs and promotional articles. It's a familiar and fun call to action that could really help to kick-start a future campaign.

Can we discuss further?

 

[gtldomainer]

Thanks for the post. Although I haven't done much outbound, here is one from the past:

Hi there,
We're the owner of <domain> which is better and catchy one-word domain name for <business niche> or it could also be developed for SEO/user acquisition purpose for the main site. <domain> is a dictionary term which is understood worldwide and more SEO friendly (which Google loves)!

The name is on sale for a very reasonable price here: <link to domain.>Please reply to this message or click on the name for more information.

If you've any questions, I'd be more than happy to help.

Sincerely,
<name>
<phone>

Would love to hear your feedback,

HTH,

 

[frank-germany]

is there any evidence that a log tailored outbound email
brings in more sales
than a short
"domainx for sale" email?

 

[oldtimer]

I haven’t done any outbound for a long time ever since I became more passive with my domaining and I became more of a hobbyist due to having a heart attack and becoming disabled a few years back, but here are a few things you all might want to consider about your outbound emails:

The most important task is to find the right email for the decision maker in the company, for smaller companies it might be the CEO, but for larger companies its obvious that the CEO can not be bothered with purchasing domain names specially if it’s an already established company that has an existing website. You might have to do some research to find the person who might be in charge of purchasing domain names and related stuff, for larger companies that task might be assigned to the director of marketing or business development or the CFO. Most of the times you might be able to find the email for the right person in the about page of the company’s website. If you can’t find the right email you might have to guess by using one of the more popular formats that most companies use like:

JohnDough@ CompanyName.com
Or
John.Dough@ CompanyName.com
Or
John_Dough@ CompanyName.com

Most top level people usually use both their first and last name for their email although they might use their middle initial in some cases too.

The second most important thing is the subject line, there are certain words that might trigger an alarm and send your email to the spam folder, best to do a google search to see what these words might be, but I assume that something like “domain for sale” might be one of them. The subject line is a little tricky because on one hand you want (or actually need) to attract the attention of the recipient enough so that they will open your email, but at same time if you use the wrong words in the subject line they might not even get to see your email as it is filtered out. Remember that once your email becomes associated with spam in one case it might be flagged in other cases too and you may never be able to reach out to other potential prospects. It might be okay to put the domain name itself in the subject line, but don’t put for sale right after it. You might just say “DomainName .com needs your attention” or something like that.

So now you get to the actual content, You have to get their attention and get to the point in the first sentence and then give additional info in two or three paragraphs in a way that they can read as much as they are interested to or have the time to. The additional paragraphs have to be educational and convince the decision maker that it really is in their interest to buy your domain. Since most companies already have an established website you have to convey to them how important it is for their company to own additional domains in the field and category of their business since each domain can be used as a separate channel or portal to attract more customers and clients. You can also emphasize on the fact that many companies use different domain names to test or sell different products perhaps in different geo locations and demographics. You might use some of the larger companies that have hundreds of domain names as an example to convey this message. In the following paragraphs you can educate them about the power and prestige of a good domain name if you believe that you have a domain that they can upgrade to for their main website. Finally you have to put a sense of urgency and arouse their competitive behavior by indicating that you are giving them the first option for a few days to buy this domain and that they have to act fast otherwise it might fall in the hands of one of their competitors as it is going to be advertised to others next. If you have your domain in different market places it might be best to use the make offer option only while your are waiting for a response for your email so that the domain will still be available if they are interested to buy it. If this company is not interested then you can try a few other ones one at a time and give them each a few days to respond. Remember that this method is only for high quality domains and so the potential prospects need to be individually targeted instead of blanketing them with tens or hundreds of emails which will certainly be considered to be spam.

Finally you have to close by giving them a couple of complements about their company and tell them that you are very impressed by their products and services and that you would like to see them become even more successful by securing additional domain names and remind them that even if they don’t use them right away, but that it’s better to have them and not use them than not have the right domains when they need them for some of their future projects and plans.

Keep in mind that you should only offer high quality domains that are a perfect fit for the company and don’t waste their time by sending them mediocre domains, those you don’t need to do outbound for, just put them on a few marketplaces and if they don’t sell just drop them. Also remember that if you are talking to the top executives of the company you need to be very respectful, and professional and keep things at a formal level even if things don’t work out the way that you want it to.

Just to be sure that your emails are going to get through and that they are impactful perhaps you can experiment by sending each other some sample outbound emails (only send your sample outbound emails to those who have agreed here to participate in this experiment).

This might be one of my longest posts yet, but just trying to help.

Disclaimer: I can’t guarantee the effectiveness of such email or method, as I have said already I haven’t done any outbound for a long time now and I don’t remember if and when I got any responses as I haven’t sold that many domains overall and the ones that I did sell a long time ago weren’t for much to begin with , but everything I have suggested above just sounds logical to me and I hope that it sounds logical to you all too. The only way to know if it works is to try it.


IMO

 

[frank-germany]

The second most important thing is the subject line, there are certain words that might trigger an alarm and send your email to the spam folder,

no idea why people who haven't done stuff in a long time
try to educate

the easiest way to find
if an email is send to spam
and why
is to open a gmail account
and send that intended outbound mail
from the account, you want to use to the emails
to that gmail account


you will find that not to most talked-about words are the trigger for spam
but other stuff you would never have thought of

and you will find that google learns fast
while you send the emails

and that every email is different

you will have a lot of fun
( hope so )

or you will get mad
( I don't hope for that outcome )

 

[oldtimer]

no idea why people who haven't done stuff in a long time
try to educate

Frank, don't discourage participation and brainstorming on the forum, if you have something positive to add to improve on other's ideas then do so without putting anyone down. You need to stop being so negative all the time.

the easiest way to find
if an email is send to spam
and why
is to open a gmail account
and send that intended outbound mail
from the account, you want to use to the emails
to that gmail account

Of course the easiest way is to send yourself an email, but it's best to test it with one of the participants here because you are also testing the content too and if you just send the email to yourself the results might get skewed by the fact that today's AIs are smart enough to differentiate a little between when you are communicating with yourself or strangers. That is why it's also so important to be respectful and professional in your email.

you will find that not to most talked-about words are the trigger for spam
but other stuff you would never have thought of

and you will find that google learns fast
while you send the emails

and that every email is different

you will have a lot of fun
( hope so )

or you will get mad
( I don't hope for that outcome )

Remember you don't need to test a thousand key words just the few that are applicable here in the subject line and also the tone and essence of the content that are going to be analysed by AI.

Now Frank, as I said earlier if you have anything positive to contribute try doing it without putting others down. I was just trying to be helpful, not wanting to do silly back and forth arguments with anyone that is going to waste everyone's time here. The idea is to brainstorm together on this thread to find the ideal outbound email, no one knows everything but our collective knowledge and experience might produce some good results that can be beneficial to everyone, but in order to work together towards this goal we have to have mutual respect and cooperation.


IMO

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Appreciate the views from many different sides presented here, and good variety in examples. Thank you for starting thread, @Joe Nichols. Would you consider it on-topic to expand slightly the focus from just an outbound email to a first contact say on social media? Like if you were doing a DM on LinkedIn or Twitter, or even just a Tweet itself, about a domain name, how would that be the same, and possibly different, from an email. I think we are going to see more and more first contacts made in those places. I know some on NamePros have expertise in that topic. Anyway, let me know whether you think we can include that here, Joe, or would rather it go in its own thread.

Bob

 

[Joe N]

Appreciate the views from many different sides presented here, and good variety in examples. Thank you for starting thread, @Joe Nichols. Would you consider it on-topic to expand slightly the focus from just an outbound email to a first contact say on social media? Like if you were doing a DM on LinkedIn or Twitter, or even just a Tweet itself, about a domain name, how would that be the same, and possibly different, from an email. I think we are going to see more and more first contacts made in those places. I know some on NamePros have expertise in that topic. Anyway, let me know whether you think we can include that here, Joe, or would rather it go in its own thread.

Yeah, great idea Bob. Really I just wanted a place to get into the "how" of outbound contact, where we can all share real examples of content and techniques that have actually helped to sell domains.

If anyone has some specific examples to share from LinkedIn, Twitter, or other platforms, please feel free.

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

Here is what I'm using at the moment. Please feel free to give any feedback..

Dear Mr. / Ms. [Last Name],

I wanted to reach out to let you know the domain name: "Domain.Name" has become available. I wanted to see if you would be interested?

Best regards,
Me

That is what I use for a CEO or Owner

if it is to a VP or Marketing director I change it a bit to this:

I wanted to reach out to let you know the domain name: "Domain.Name" has become available. I believe this name could be a great digital asset for [Their Company], and I wanted to see if you would be interested?

Best regards,
Me


I use different subject lines, but usually its something like: Reaching out about "Domain.Name" name

I agree with this wording. Suggesting that your name would be a great fit is like telling them (the egos behind the company) that they aren't smart enough to know what fits and that you do, who doesn't really know anything about their company.

These people have spoken to many bullshitters in their lives. Keep it real. Work with their proven success and not against it.

And... they don't care about you slimming down your portfolio etc. That just sounds ridiculous.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

I was inspired by this post made by @Arpit131, and tonight I decided to craft a truly personalized email with attitude for an outbound sales attempt (will share in my next post).

I would love to make this thread a central resource for inspired ideas of how to grab the attention of a potential buyer with a well-written opening email. Members like @Ali have shared personalized intros in the past, and I know many found it incredibly helpful.

So post your original email creations, and let's give constructive feedback to one another on how to improve our email writing skills.

Now you're talking my kind of marketing Joe...I'm guessing I inspired this thread as much as Arpit
In the credit and debt recovery business I was in for years, we needed to customize and draft letters that motivated "end users" ie. customers to ACTION! I'm sure you remember me quoting one of my best friends and business competitors saying, "if you want a new good idea read an old book"

Whether I was writing a marketing letter to solicit new business for my company, or a letter that might motivate a debtor to pay his/her bill, the same principles apply. What I want to share with everyone is, whatever works today may not necessarily work tomorrow. Also, while "snail mail" is more expensive than email, strategic and targeted snail mail can produce a much better result. I'm sitting here looking at one of the most unique mail marketing pieces I've ever seen that was mailed to a small specialty tax business I've owned since 1987, and I think it will be PERFECT for selling my domains.

Thanks for pointing out Joe that CHANGE is inevitable in this industry, and it's things like this that will motivate domainers to participate

 

[frank-germany]

... but our collective knowledge and experience might produce some good results that can be beneficial to everyone,

agreed:
knowledge
and experience

 

[ThatNameGuy]

I haven’t done any outbound for a long time ever since I became more passive with my domaining and I became more of a hobbyist due to having a heart attack and becoming disabled a few years back, but here are a few things you all might want to consider about your outbound emails:

The most important task is to find the right email for the decision maker in the company, for smaller companies it might be the CEO, but for larger companies its obvious that the CEO can not be bothered with purchasing domain names specially if it’s an already established company that has an existing website. You might have to do some research to find the person who might be in charge of purchasing domain names and related stuff, for larger companies that task might be assigned to the director of marketing or business development or the CFO. Most of the times you might be able to find the email for the right person in the about page of the company’s website. If you can’t find the right email you might have to guess by using one of the more popular formats that most companies use like:

JohnDough@ CompanyName.com
Or
John.Dough@ CompanyName.com
Or
John_Dough@ CompanyName.com

Most top level people usually use both their first and last name for their email although they might use their middle initial in some cases too.

The second most important thing is the subject line, there are certain words that might trigger an alarm and send your email to the spam folder, best to do a google search to see what these words might be, but I assume that something like “domain for sale” might be one of them. The subject line is a little tricky because on one hand you want (or actually need) to attract the attention of the recipient enough so that they will open your email, but at same time if you use the wrong words in the subject line they might not even get to see your email as it is filtered out. Remember that once your email becomes associated with spam in one case it might be flagged in other cases too and you may never be able to reach out to other potential prospects. It might be okay to put the domain name itself in the subject line, but don’t put for sale right after it. You might just say “DomainName .com needs your attention” or something like that.

So now you get to the actual content, You have to get their attention and get to the point in the first sentence and then give additional info in two or three paragraphs in a way that they can read as much as they are interested to or have the time to. The additional paragraphs have to be educational and convince the decision maker that it really is in their interest to buy your domain. Since most companies already have an established website you have to convey to them how important it is for their company to own additional domains in the field and category of their business since each domain can be used as a separate channel or portal to attract more customers and clients. You can also emphasize on the fact that many companies use different domain names to test or sell different products perhaps in different geo locations and demographics. You might use some of the larger companies that have hundreds of domain names as an example to convey this message. In the following paragraphs you can educate them about the power and prestige of a good domain name if you believe that you have a domain that they can upgrade to for their main website. Finally you have to put a sense of urgency and arouse their competitive behavior by indicating that you are giving them the first option for a few days to buy this domain and that they have to act fast otherwise it might fall in the hands of one of their competitors as it is going to be advertised to others next. If you have your domain in different market places it might be best to use the make offer option only while your are waiting for a response for your email so that the domain will still be available if they are interested to buy it. If this company is not interested then you can try a few other ones one at a time and give them each a few days to respond. Remember that this method is only for high quality domains and so the potential prospects need to be individually targeted instead of blanketing them with tens or hundreds of emails which will certainly be considered to be spam.

Finally you have to close by giving them a couple of complements about their company and tell them that you are very impressed by their products and services and that you would like to see them become even more successful by securing additional domain names and remind them that even if they don’t use them right away, but that it’s better to have them and not use them than not have the right domains when they need them for some of their future projects and plans.

Keep in mind that you should only offer high quality domains that are a perfect fit for the company and don’t waste their time by sending them mediocre domains, those you don’t need to do outbound for, just put them on a few marketplaces and if they don’t sell just drop them. Also remember that if you are talking to the top executives of the company you need to be very respectful, and professional and keep things at a formal level even if things don’t work out the way that you want it to.

Just to be sure that your emails are going to get through and that they are impactful perhaps you can experiment by sending each other some sample outbound emails (only send your sample outbound emails to those who have agreed here to participate in this experiment).

This might be one of my longest posts yet, but just trying to help.

Disclaimer: I can’t guarantee the effectiveness of such email or method, as I have said already I haven’t done any outbound for a long time now and I don’t remember if and when I got any responses as I haven’t sold that many domains overall and the ones that I did sell a long time ago weren’t for much to begin with , but everything I have suggested above just sounds logical to me and I hope that it sounds logical to you all too. The only way to know if it works is to try it.


IMO

oldtimer...one other thing I'll share with regards to soliciting a response via email or other forms of messaging is to try and be as personal as possible when reaching out to a prospect. For example, I first made a connection with Rob Monster of Epik via Linkedin messaging, but before I did I learned from his Linkedin bio that Rob graduated from Cornell University and was on the Crew team at Cornell thus I spent a whopping $8.50 and purchased the domain CrewHappens.com just to give to him. Also, I happen to have two friends from Virginia Beach, Bob Scott (graduate of Cornell) and Myles Pocta who authored "Honor on the Line" https://www.amazon.com/Honor-Line-Spectacular-College-Football/dp/1475932081 a book about Cornell's football team in 1940 and "honesty and honor on the line" Again, my point here being I was able to show Rob that I cared enough about his life that just maybe a friendship and business relationship might evolve.

I could share other examples of responses I got from the CEO of GoDaddy, and most recently from one of the top female golf professionals in the world aboout 9Time™, but since the author of this thread doesn't trust or believe anything I say, I'll leave it at that However, I am glad he started this thread so I can share with you some of my "personal" experience.

 

[Joe N]

Now you're talking my kind of marketing Joe...I'm guessing I inspired this thread as much as Arpit
In the credit and debt recovery business I was in for years, we needed to customize and draft letters that motivated "end users" ie. customers to ACTION! I'm sure you remember me quoting one of my best friends and business competitors saying, "if you want a new good idea read an old book"

Whether I was writing a marketing letter to solicit new business for my company, or a letter that might motivate a debtor to pay his/her bill, the same principles apply. What I want to share with everyone is, whatever works today may not necessarily work tomorrow. Also, while "snail mail" is more expensive than email, strategic and targeted snail mail can produce a much better result. I'm sitting here looking at one of the most unique mail marketing pieces I've ever seen that was mailed to a small specialty tax business I've owned since 1987, and I think it will be PERFECT for selling my domains.

Thanks for pointing out Joe that CHANGE is inevitable in this industry, and it's things like this that will motivate domainers to participate

Thanks for sharing, Rich. Great point about snail mail. I think it's an avenue that's often overlooked by domainers. I've read some past posts from one or two other members who say they've had some success with it for selling higher value names.

Would you be willing to share the content of the well-written one you received? Or a picture of it?

 

[ThatNameGuy]

Thanks for sharing, Rich. Great point about snail mail. I think it's an avenue that's often overlooked by domainers. I've read some past posts from one or two other members who say they've had some success with it for selling higher value names.

Would you be willing to share the content of the well-written one you received? Or a picture of it?

I'm not exactly sure how to show it here, but the mail piece is on card stock about 4 x 6 inches and the design on the front is some sort of holagraphic? look that when you move it or go to turn it over, an attractive young lady on the cover is "smiling and thrusting her arm/fist in the air" where the tag line reads; "Say Yes To Online and On Time!" I have no doubt that i't an expensive mail piece, but it sure catches your attenion...at least it did mine. The company that sent it to my specialty tax business is called eFile4Biz.com and I intend to reach out to them to see where the mail piece came from, and when I find that out I'll share the information where I'm sure you should be able to see samples on their website? Stay tuned!

 

[frank-germany]

Now Frank, as I said earlier if you have anything positive to contribute try doing it without putting others down. I was just trying to be helpful, not wanting to do silly back and forth arguments with anyone that is going to waste everyone's time here.

the worst thing that can happen to you as a domainer
-or generally in life-
is following bad advice

running around in circles
not knowing which way to go

testing ideas of others
only to find out
that they either had no clue
or at least it doesn't fit your way of doing it

changing strategies based on information of somebody
of whom you think he knows what he is talking about

but actually that's not true
or he didn't test it enough

after a while
while you have spend useless money
while you have wasted countless hours
while you wasted success as you did it the wrong way
you finally recognize somebody just repeated stuff he didn't test himself.


posting ideas of others
neatly summarised in long, winding post,
is not discussing knowledge and experience.

But just wasting time
and money of fellow domainers.

Yes you will hate it
so what.
Doesn't make much difference to me.


I had registered domains
( aka : wasted money )
based on information of others
( Adam Dicker and others)

I have switched parking based on ideas of others
( aka : wasted money )
( redirect.com )

I have switch registrars based on recommendations here
( aka : wasted time)
( epik.com )

I have modified Landing Pages
( aka : wasted time)
( aka : wasted money )
( multiple )

I have modified asking price
( aka : wasted time)
( aka : wasted money )


I have done outbound
( aka : wasted time)
( aka : wasted money )

and so on and so on

taking advice from others is only great
when both have the same approach
and the same strategy
and both of you are brutally honest with each other
in terms of what worked and why
and what not and why

taking advice from people who earn money when you follow them
is highly dangerous
( Adam Dicker, Rob Monster, Scott Richter and many, many more )

And it's even more dangerous to take advice from people
who just repeat those recommendations
they acting as journalists.

Honest advice is only possible from a person who has spent his own money
tested stuff and lost
tested again and lost
over and over
and finally found something that works

and then is generous enough to share that here
there are a few
but rarely

you are not one of those, @oldtimer

 

[Joe N]

Okay, let's keep criticism respectful and focused on the content of the post/advice itself.

@oldtimer made a lot of great points. Agree or disagree with them as you will. I appreciate that he took the time to share, and also made sure to add the disclaimer that he has not done any outbound marketing in quite a while.

@frank-germany, I also like your point about how it's up to every domainer to test a variety of techniques and methods for themselves to see what works for them. That's the only way to truly find success, as none of us can ever completely replicate the success of others.

So let's keep sharing outbound content and tactics that we have tried, and let us know if they have been successful for you or not.

 

[oldtimer]

Honest advice is only possible from a person who has spent his own money
tested stuff and lost
tested again and lost
over and over
and finally found something that works

and then is generous enough to share that here
there are a few
but rarely

you are not one of those, @oldtimer

In all the posts and threads that I have made on NamePros I have always made sure that everyone knows that we are all learning together here by exchanging new ideas and never presented myself as an expert or know it all person to anyone, so there is no need for you to try to attack me because I never claimed that I was an expert in domains and domaining as the matter of fact I have always made sure that everyone knows that I am just a hobbyist and one that likes to hang on to his domains rather than selling them. But even as a hobbyist I am still entitled to have an opinion and should be able to participate in a discussion without being put down or attacked. If you have different ideas than me then you are entitled to present them here and if you believe that what I am saying is wrong then you can discuss and debate that in a more positive and constructive way, but as I said before you should not always be so negative and you should not use every thread to attack me or others because we might see the World in different ways than you do which I believe is at the roots of your constant and continuous attacks, we have to learn to be able to discuss domaining irregardless of our differing ideologies and World views.

So stop attacking and start coming up with new ideas.

So let's keep sharing outbound content and tactics that we have tried, and let us know if they have been successful for you or not.

I as much as anyone else here like to know if there are methods that people have already used that have been effective, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be discussing new ideas and methods that perhaps no one has thought of or tried yet. One of the most important subjects that needs to be discussed further is the length of the email and whether the domain name should be included in the subject line or not or even if it should be the only thing that’s in there. We have to figure out when it’s better to send a short email and when it’s going to be necessary to go with a longer email in order to educate the prospective buyers like for example in the case of New gTLDs, also we have to figure out in what situations it’s better to use stats and comps and when it’s better to leave those out. If there was one email that would work for all situations I am sure that we all would know about it by now, so I believe that this thread should be both about hearing from those who have had good results with their emails and also about brainstorming new ideas to find the ideal email for every specific situation. IMO

By the way thanks for creating this thread, with everyone's participation and input hopefully it will become a treasure trove for doing outbound.

 

[Nick]

The majority of these emails would go from my inbox to marked as spam before even reading a single sentence.