If you’re here it’s because you’re looking to land more clients for your web design or development services using email.
Whether you’re a growing agency or a solo web designer, we’ve collected some high-performing email templates you can use to start conversations with business owners interested in your services.
The key to success is to take the main lessons from each template and customize it to your unique business and client needs.
If not, you won’t stand out in your potential clients’ inbox, and you won’t get replies.
I’ll show you the key elements of a successful outreach email, and then show you real templates and examples to help you get inspired and start your outreach campaigns.
Let’s dive in.
Key Elements of a Successful Web Design Cold Email Template
1. Personalization is Mandatory
Today, everyone seeing results from cold email is personalizing their outreach in some form.
No, that doesn’t mean you can use someone’s first name and expect results.
A great way to further personalize your emails is with a custom opening line.
For example, opening your email with a line like:
Congratulations on the new product launches - big fan of [product name]
Saw you were nominated for {{award}} – great to see {{company.name}} is doing well.
Your opening line should be completely unique and if you sent it to anyone except your recipient, it wouldn’t make sense.
If you send a generic email template with no personalization to 100 prospective clients, you’ll be lucky to get a single reply.
To create personalized emails, you can use cold email software like QuickMail, which allows you to add custom fields to hundreds of emails at the same time.
Here is an example from QuickMail:
What's best, you can start your personalization with Quickmail! Get started with a free 14-day trial.
2. Have a Clear Value Proposition
Your recipient needs to clearly understand the benefits of your services in a way that they understand.
As a web designer, you might be thinking in terms like “responsive design”, “clean code base”, “headless CMS”, “WordPress vs. Wix”...
But, your client isn’t thinking in those terms. In fact, they might have never even heard of the terms you use every day.
Your client is thinking in terms of:
Conversions
Revenue
Business growth
Your customers don’t care if you build their website on WordPress, Squarespace, or code it from scratch. All that matters is that it performs well, and helps their business grow.
A simple way to show the value you can add is to show off how you’ve helped other clients to catch their attention.
For example:
We helped [Similar Company] launch their new website and they’ve seen a 125% lift in conversions.
I recently redesigned [Similar Company]’s website and they’re getting 30 more bookings per month now.
Where possible, use a value proposition that’s backed by data that relates to a metric your recipient cares about.
Focus on what your recipient wants to hear, and you’ll have a strong value proposition.
3. Highlight Your Unique Strengths
It’s also worth mentioning why they should choose you.
Now, that doesn’t mean you need to write a long paragraph describing your life’s work.
It means you need to briefly show your secret sauce — what makes your web design agency or services uniquely placed to help your customer.
For example:
Do you only work with restaurants?
Do you serve eCommerce companies?
Have you won multiple prestigious awards that your recipient will know?
This is key because your prospective clients are hearing from other web designers pitching their services. Showing why you’re unique will help you get more responses from clients that can see you’re the perfect fit for them.
In your template, use a sentence like:
We’ve worked with 20+ eCommerce brands and know the difficulties of designing high-converting product pages.
We’ve worked with [Similar Company], [Similar Company], and [Similar Company] in the last year - all have seen great results.
Ideally, your recipient will recognize the companies you’ve worked with and it’ll act as important social proof.
4. Make Replying Easy With a Simple Call-To-Action
Your email needs to be simple to reply to for your recipient.
And no, that doesn’t mean saying: “Can you send me your details to include on the invoice?”.
Your cold email call-to-action is there to start a conversation.
It could mean:
Asking an open-ended question
Checking their availability for a call
Asking if they’re interested in learning more about your service
If you start with a hard-sell, you’ll put good-fit prospective clients off, even if they would have potentially been interested. Remember, the person you’re emailing may have never heard from you before. You wouldn’t ask a stranger on the street to hand you money, and you can’t treat your email recipients like that either.
Example call to actions you can include:
Are you considering updating your website in the next few months?
Do you have time for a 15-minute call this week?
Keep it simple and clear. Ensure your recipient doesn’t have to jump through hoops to reply, and you’ll get more responses.
Should You go with a Responsive or Plain-Text Template?
If you're a web designer it’s tempting to show off your design skills with a responsive email.
I’d advise avoiding that and sticking with a plain-text email.
Plain-text emails are more natural to the recipient and don’t feel like a marketing tool in the same way that an elaborately designed responsive email template would.
That said, you can add images to your emails sent with QuickMail - just click the add image button.
However, images can affect your email deliverability, so I’d advise running tests to see how your campaigns perform with and without images included.
Next, I’ll show you cold email outreach templates you can use to land more web design clients.
7 Web Design Cold Email Templates to Find Clients and Grow Your Business
1. Open-Ended Pitch to Prospective Clients
This pitch is a cold introduction email with a simple premise. It’s designed to get a reply from someone that fits your ideal customer profile.
You’ll break the ice with a personalized opening line, then, explain what you do, and results you’ve seen with companies like theirs.
If your recipient was considering making any website updates, your value proposition will resonate with them because you've shown them your past results that they'd love to emulate.
Here’s the template:
Subject: Help with {{company.name}}’s website?
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
Noticed that you recently launched a new product line. Hope they’re selling well so far.
Wanted to introduce myself as I work with [Their Industry] companies in [Location], helping them with their web design needs.
Last month, we helped [Similar Company] with a website update and they’ve seen a 150% increase in conversion rate.
Are you considering updating your website in the next few months?
Best
{{inbox.name}}
2. Suggest Interesting Ideas for Their Business
Based on your experience, you’ll have existing ideas that will help companies get great results, even if you’re not working together yet.
A creative way to reach out is to pitch them on your ideas directly. If they’re similar to ideas your prospects have already been considering, it’s a perfect way to start a conversation and build interest.
The key is not to sound like you’re criticizing their existing efforts. Highlight how your suggestions can lead to material improvements, and it’s a good way to start a conversation if your recipient has already considered the ideas you’re mentioning.
Here’s what it looks like in practice:
Subject: Ideas for {{company.name}}
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
Saw that {{company.name}] recently won an award at [Award Show/Event]. You deserve the recognition!
I was checking out your website and noticed a few areas for quick wins:
Adding a way for customers to get notified when products are back in stock
Adding a blog to help with your SEO efforts
Implementing a contact form so clients can quickly reach out with questions
I helped [Similar Company] with #1 and they’ve seen a big boost in revenue from it this year.
Are those ideas you’ve been considering trying?
Best,
{{inbox.name}}
3. Follow-Up Emails To Improve Your Reply Rate
If you want a higher reply rate in your cold email campaigns, you’ll need to follow-up.
Your prospective customers are busy, and a friendly reminder doesn’t hurt.
Over 55% of replies come from a follow-up.
The key with your follow-up emails is to add more value.
For example, highlight a new case study, or ask a new discovery question to encourage a response. You’ll inevitably slightly repeat yourself. As long as you still include a new angle, that’s okay.
In the follow-up example below, we’ve re-iterated the personalized introduction, but in a new way. We’ve also added a case study to improve social proof, and included a clear call-to-action.
You may need to send more than two follow-ups. Make sure each one is different, adds value, but has the same goal: to start a conversation.
Here’s what your follow-up template can look like:
Subject: [Same as initial email]
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
Based on your recent [Relevant Company News], I thought you’d be interested in this case study on how we helped [Similar Company] with their design projects: yoursite.com/case-study
Since we worked with [Similar Company] they’ve seen a 400% lift in engagement with their website, which has resulted in a record-breaking quarter for them.
Do you have 20-minutes to chat about how we could help {{company.name}} this week?
Best,
{{inbox.name}}
4. Reach Out to Prospects Hiring a Web Designer
If you see a company has posted a job vacancy for a web design-related role, you can consider reaching out.
Some companies may simply want to hire in-house but others will be open to discussing, if you can prove why working with you is a better option than hiring someone full-time.
This email can often result in a clear ‘No’ — some people will be set on hiring in-house.
However, many business owners may not have considered working with a web design agency or consultant because they don’t personally know any. If you can reach out at the right time with a compelling offer, it’s a good way to prospect for new business.
Here’s what that looks like:
Subject: Question about [job title] vacancy
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
I saw that you’re hiring a [Job Title] and from the description it looks like redesigning your website is part of the scope.
Reaching out because I recently helped [Similar Company] redesign their website and they loved the results - they’ve seen a 3x increase in engagement with key pages.
Are you open to working with an external designer on this project?
Best,
{{inbox.name}}
5. Seeking Referrals From Existing Clients
Referrals are a powerful way to grow your web design business.
Your existing customers may know potential clients for your business. But if you don’t ask, they might not send them your way.
You can also offer your clients an incentive to refer new clients to you. For example, a set fee per meeting booked, or a recurring fee based on the package your newly referred clients sign up for. Make sure to mention that in your email. Even if your clients don’t reply, they’ll keep it in mind.
Here’s an email template you can use to get more web design referrals:
Subject: Thank you + a small request
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
Hope you’re doing well and [Project you worked on] has delivered great results for {{company.name}} since we last spoke.
If you’re pleased with the results of the work we did for you, I’d be grateful if you’d consider referring us to your friends that need help with similar challenges.
In exchange, you'll receive a 10% commission on any monthly package they choose or a 10% flat fee for one-off projects.
Thank you again for working with us, and let me know if you have any questions about our referral program.
Best
{{inbox.name}}
6. Asking for Testimonials from Existing Clients
Reviews and testimonials are a perfect way to build trust with prospective clients.
You can use your email campaigns to ask your existing client base to leave you a short review that you can feature on your website or in your marketing materials.
Here’s a template you can use for that:
Subject: Providing a testimonial for {{company.name}}
Hi {{prospect.first_name}},
Thanks again for choosing us to work on your [Project] for {{company.name}}. Everyone on our team enjoyed it and we’re thrilled that the end result is what you were looking for!
Would you be open to leaving us a short, 2 - 3 sentence testimonial in reply to this email?
If you need inspiration, we’ve collected what other clients have said here: website.com/testimonials
Many thanks in advance,
{{inbox.name}}
Tools to Power Your Web Design Email Campaigns
1. Automatically Send Emails and Follow-Up with QuickMail
If you’re using email outreach campaigns to find new prospective clients, you’ll need a cold email tool to manage it. If not, you’ll be manually sending emails for hours every day, and setting calendar reminders to follow-up with prospects. That’s not a good use of your time.
Instead of doing everything manually, try QuickMail. Our software allows you to integrate your Gmail, Outlook, or custom hosted email address and start sending personalized outreach at scale.
All you have to do is:
Create personalized outreach campaigns, complete with follow-ups
Import your prospective client list
Hit Send!
Once your campaigns are running, you’ll be generating positive replies automatically.
You can schedule multi-step campaigns, with delays between emails, and custom fields to personalize every email that goes out.
All you need to do is look out for replies in your inbox and walk them through how you do business. You can try QuickMail for free here.
2. Source and Verify Emails with an Email Finder
There are a variety of tools out there to find your prospects’ email addresses.
Clearbit Connect and Dropcontact are both good options for this.
You can even link Dropcontact (and other tools) with QuickMail so your prospects’ emails are automatically verified as you import them.
Or, you can manually verify email validity once your prospects are inside QuickMail.
This is an important step because if the emails you’re sending to aren’t valid, you won’t get through to anyone.
3. Organize Your Prospects in Google Sheets
This might feel underwhelming. You wanted to hear about a powerful tool you’d never considered, right?
Well, a simple Google Sheet is a powerful tool in your outreach campaigns. It'll enable you to store your prospect list in a simple place, where you can add extra details about your prospects that you can use in your emails.
For example:
A personal note or opening line
Their company name
Their job title
In practice, your spreadsheet could look like this:
Then, you can link up your sheet with QuickMail. Whenever you add a new contact you want to reach out to pitch your web design services, they’ll be automatically imported, ready to be started on a campaign.
To link them, head to Settings, then go to “Drives”, and you’ll be ready to connect them.
It’s a perfect way to stay organized and avoid manually importing prospects every time you want to launch a new campaign to generate new business.
Staying organized is key to success with your cold emails, and Google Sheets is a completely free solution.
Treat Your Cold Emails as a 1:1 Communication Channel
In the past, cold email has sometimes had a bad reputation. That’s because companies and individuals used email to send thousands of generic emails per day to unqualified prospects who would never be interested in their services.
As a result, many business owners you’ll be emailing have a natural filter for generic outreach.
To stand out, you need to prove that you’ve researched your prospect and are only reaching out because you believe they’re a perfect fit for your services.
Even as you scale up and send more emails out, always remember to personalize and treat every email in your campaign as if it was a standalone, personal email.
If your prospect is qualified, and sees you’ve spent more than 30 seconds sending your email, you’ll get far more replies, and far more revenue from your campaigns.
