Book a call
← All agencies

Cold email for branding agencies.

This is the cold email plan we'd run for a branding agency that serves established firms in one industry. Rebrands happen for public reasons. A merger or a new partner or a funding round or an expansion gets announced before the rebrand starts.

Part 01

Is this for you?

Part 02

Your market.

Your market is every established firm in your industry that will need a new identity in the next year or two. For most firms you can't know that from the outside. For a lot of them the trigger is public.

These are the signals worth looking for.

  1. 01

    A merger or acquisition

    Two firms joining need one name and one look. Accounting firms and wealth managers merge often and announce it in the press and on LinkedIn.

  2. 02

    A name change or new partners

    A new partner's name on the door or an old name dropped. The website and the signs and the documents all need to change.

  3. 03

    New funding

    Crunchbase shows the round. Companies often rebrand around a raise to look ready for bigger customers.

  4. 04

    An identity unchanged for years

    The Wayback Machine shows the site and the logo unchanged for years. The firm has grown and the brand hasn't.

  5. 05

    An inconsistent brand

    Compare the logo and colors on their site and LinkedIn and Google listing and documents. Several versions of the same logo is a sign nobody owns the brand.

  6. 06

    A new service line or office

    Expansion into a new market or service often outgrows the old name and positioning.

Part 03

Segments.

  1. 01

    Merging firms

    Lead with the merger and the name question that comes with it.

  2. 02

    Name changes

    Lead with the change and the places the old name still shows up.

  3. 03

    Newly funded

    Lead with the round and the customers they now want.

  4. 04

    Unchanged for years

    Lead with the year the Wayback Machine shows the current look went up.

  5. 05

    One sub-industry at a time

    A merging accounting firm and a manufacturer entering a new market have different reasons to rebrand. Keep them in separate campaigns.

Part 04

Lead magnet.

  1. 01

    The consistency sheet

    Screenshots of their logo and colors and fonts across the site and LinkedIn and Google and their documents side by side on one page.

    It works because the problem is visible without any opinion from you. The fix is an identity system and that is what you sell.

  2. 02

    Name directions for the merged firm

    For merging firms. A shortlist of name directions with the domain checked for each one.

    It works because naming is the first hard question after a merger. Once they are talking names with you the identity follows.

Part 05

Front end offer.

  1. 01

    A one day positioning sprint

    A paid workshop at a small fixed price. In one day it produces a one page positioning statement they can use straight away. Credit the fee against the full project.

    It works because they leave with something usable in a day. Once the positioning is clear the identity is the obvious next step.

    Run it within two weeks of the call.

Part 06

The emails.

  1. 01

    The merger email

  2. 02

    The consistency email

  3. 03

    The direct email

    Swap {{proof_line}} for one real result of your own. A rebrand you did and what changed after it. If there is no result yet then leave the line out.

  4. 04

    The follow ups

    • Follow up one. Share one observation. "The biggest gap is {{gap_example}}. It's the first thing a new client sees."
    • Follow up two. Offer the sprint. "If it helps we run a one day positioning session at a small fixed fee. It counts toward the full project."
Part 07

The list.

At firms the managing partner or the CEO signs off on a rebrand. The marketing director runs it day to day.

Part 08

After they reply.

How much to expect.

Results depend on the offer and the list. Three outbound agencies that publish their own numbers land between one booked meeting per 1,000 people contacted and one per 2,000. One of them also tested 650,000 cold emails with a plain offer and got about 3 to 6 interested replies per 10,000 people.

Those are other people's numbers and not a promise about your market. Your market's number only comes from testing it.

Want this run for you?

We build and run this campaign for one agency per industry.

Book a call

Thirty minutes on your market and how we'd reach it.

More branding studios.

See all agencies →