Sequence template · 4 steps over 16 days

Agency new business: pitching one service to marketing leads

For agencies selling a specific service to heads of marketing: a four-step sequence built on one observation about their current marketing, with a small first step.

Goal. A first conversation about one named service with heads of marketing at target companies

Step 1Day 0, campaign start

Subject Something I noticed about {{company}}'s {{service}}

Hi {{first_name|there}},

I run {{service}} at {{agency_name}}, and before writing I looked at how {{company}} does it today. One thing stood out: {{observation}}.

That is not a criticism. It is the kind of thing that happens when a team is busy shipping and nobody has time to step back. It is also exactly what we fix for {{sector}} companies.

If you would like a second pair of eyes, I can walk you through what I saw in twenty minutes, no deck. Would that be useful?

The observation is the whole email. It must be specific, true and checkable in two minutes. If you have nothing to observe, the company does not belong in this campaign.

Step 2Day 4

Subject Re: Something I noticed about {{company}}'s {{service}}

Hi {{first_name|there}},

Agencies often ask for a retainer before proving anything, which is a lot to ask of someone who has never worked with them. We do it differently: a small, fixed-scope first step, {{first_step}}, priced so it is easy to approve and easy to stop.

If the result is good, we talk about more. If not, you keep the work.

Would that be a more comfortable way to start at {{company}}?

Lowers the commitment. Name a real first_step you sell as a fixed piece of work, such as an audit or a one-month pilot.

Step 3Day 9

Subject How we would approach {{service}} for {{company}}

Hi {{first_name|there}},

To make this concrete, this is how we would approach {{service}} at {{company}}: start from {{observation}}, agree what success looks like in your numbers rather than ours, run {{first_step}}, and review together before deciding anything further.

We say no to work that does not fit, and we would tell you if that were the case here.

If you would like this as a one-page proposal, reply and I will send it.

Fresh subject, and the method laid out in one paragraph. The proposal, if requested, goes out as a tracked offer link.

Step 4Day 16

Subject Re: How we would approach {{service}} for {{company}}

Hi {{first_name|there}},

I will close this here. If {{service}} comes up in planning at {{company}} later this year, the offer of a look at {{observation}} still stands and costs you nothing but twenty minutes.

If someone else at {{company}} owns this now, a name would be welcome and I will not write to you again about it.

Thank you for reading.

Short close. Marketing leads plan in quarters, so the door stays open without a date.

Use this sequence when your agency sells one nameable service (paid search, lifecycle email, brand identity, technical SEO) and you can say something specific about how each target company does it today. It is a research-first sequence. The list is short, the observation is real, and the ask grows smaller with each step.

Who to put in it

Heads of marketing, marketing directors, and in companies under a hundred people the founder who runs marketing on the side. One person per company, or two if the service sits between marketing and another function such as product or sales. Pick companies in one sector per campaign so the sentence about who you fix this for is true. Twenty to forty companies per wave is realistic, because each observation takes time to write.

What to change before sending

observation is a custom field and every row needs one, written in a single sentence a stranger could verify: a landing page that loads slowly on a phone, a newsletter that has not changed format in a year, ad copy that contradicts the website. The personalisation article covers how custom fields flow into the sequence and how to catch a blank in the To check queue before it sends. If you want to test two openers, use A/B variants on the first step only and read the comparison table after the wave; the method is in A/B testing cold email subject lines and variants.

Name a first_step you genuinely sell at a fixed scope. If everything you do is a retainer, rewrite step two honestly rather than inventing an audit.

How to read the replies and when to stop

“Send me the proposal” after step three is the yes this sequence is built for. Send it as a tracked offer link, following the golden rules of sending offers and proposals, and move the company into the proposal follow-up sequence. “We have an agency” is a Maybe later; ask when the contract renews and tag the company. “How did you find that?” is a genuine question about your observation and often turns into a conversation; answer plainly.

Do not measure this campaign by reply rate alone; a handful of conversations with the right companies is the goal, and reply rate is the wrong north star explains why. Stop after step four, and revisit silent companies only when you have a new observation to make.