Re-engagement ·SaaS ·Professional
Learn why they left. Winning them back is not this email's job.
Write a plain-text email from [SENDER] to someone who has just cancelled their [PRODUCT] subscription. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
The cancellation has already gone through. This email does not try to reverse it.
Rules:
- 80 to 120 words. Calm, short, no theatre.
- Confirm the cancellation in the first line, plainly, with no attempt to make them feel it.
- Say what happens to their data: [WHAT HAPPENS TO THEIR DATA]. This is the most useful thing in the email and most cancellation emails leave it out.
- Ask exactly one question about why they left, and make it answerable in a sentence. No survey, no rating scale, no link to a form.
- Do not offer a discount to stay. Do not offer a pause. Do not mention a feature that is coming. They have decided, and arguing with the decision is what makes people tell other people about it.
- One line saying the door is open, phrased so it costs them nothing to ignore.
- Never invent a number, statistic or customer count. Where a figure belongs and I have not supplied it, leave [XX].
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line under 40 characters that confirms rather than pleads. Return subject, body, sign-off.
Re-engagement ·Agency ·Professional
Restart the conversation. The work, if any, is two emails away.
Write a plain-text email to [CLIENT], a past client we have not worked with in [HOW LONG]. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
I am writing because of [THE PROMPT], not because the pipeline is thin.
Rules:
- 90 to 130 words. Three short paragraphs.
- Open on [THE PROMPT]. A reason to write that is external to my needing work is the only thing that separates this from a pipeline email, and clients can tell instantly.
- Reference the work we did in half a sentence, specifically enough that it is clearly them and not a template.
- Do not ask how they have been. Do not say "I hope this finds you well". Do not say "I was just thinking about you", which is almost always untrue.
- No proposal, no availability, no attachment, no rate card. If they want to work together they will say so, and if they do not, mentioning it makes the email awkward to answer.
- End with a question they can answer in one line, about their work rather than about a project.
- Never invent a number, statistic or result from the previous engagement. Where a figure belongs and I have not supplied it, leave [XX].
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line of five words or fewer that references the prompt, not the relationship. Return subject, body, sign-off.
Re-engagement ·Ecommerce ·Friendly
Get one signal back — an open, a click or an unsubscribe. All three are better than silence.
Write a plain-text re-engagement email from [BRAND] to a subscriber who has not opened anything in [HOW LONG]. Write the words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
The single action this email drives: [THE ASK].
Rules:
- 100 to 150 words. Short sentences.
- Name the gap in the first line. Do not open with "we miss you" and do not pretend this is an ordinary send.
- Give one honest reason to look again: [WHAT CHANGED]. One. A list of five reasons reads as a catalogue and gets skipped.
- Make leaving easy and say so in plain words. Put the unsubscribe sentence in the body where they will see it, not only in the footer. A clean list is worth more than a name that never opens.
- One ask, written as an ordinary sentence with the link inside it. No buttons, no second ask.
- Do not apologise. Do not offer a discount unless I gave you one to offer.
- Never invent a number, statistic or figure. Where a figure belongs and I have not given it, leave [XX].
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case throughout.
Write a subject line under 40 characters that names the situation rather than baiting the open. Return subject, preheader, body, sign-off.