B2B Cold Email Sequence

Below is a complete four-email outreach sequence written for a two-person agency selling technical SEO audits to ecommerce marketing managers. Read it end to end to see the structure, the pacing and how each email earns the next one.

Email 1 · Day 1

Subject: your product pages

Alt subject: quick thing I noticed on Northfield Supply

Hi Rachel,

I was looking at Northfield Supply's site and noticed something worth a minute of your time.

About 40 of your product pages are indexed twice — once with the size variant in the URL, once without. Google's picking whichever it likes, which usually isn't the one you'd choose.

It's a small fix. Most teams just haven't looked.

Worth me sending you the list of URLs? No charge, takes me ten minutes to pull.

Umair

Why it works: Leads with something specific about their site, not about the sender. No pitch and no meeting request — just an offer of something small and free. “Most teams just haven't looked” removes blame, which matters when you're pointing out someone's mistake.

Email 2 · 4 days later

Subject: re: your product pages

Hi Rachel,

Following up on the duplicate URLs.

I pulled the list anyway — 43 pages, mostly in your footwear category. Happy to send it over whether or not we ever work together.

Want it?

Umair

Why it works: Four lines. Most follow-ups repeat the first email at greater length; this one moves things forward by having already done the work.

Email 3 · 5 days later

Subject: different question

Hi Rachel,

Different question, then I'll leave you alone.

Most ecommerce teams I speak to know their site has technical issues. What stops them fixing it usually isn't budget — it's that nobody can say which problems actually cost money and which are just noise in an audit tool.

Is that roughly your situation, or is technical SEO handled?

Either answer is useful. If it's handled, I'll stop emailing.

Umair

Why it works: Changes the question entirely. “Then I'll leave you alone” and “either answer is useful” lower the cost of replying, which is usually what's blocking a response.

Email 4 · 7 days later

Subject: closing the loop

Hi Rachel,

I'll assume this isn't a priority right now, which is fair.

The list of duplicate URLs is attached anyway. Someone on your team can action it in an afternoon.

If it becomes relevant later, you know where I am.

Umair

Why it works: Gives the thing away with nothing asked in return. It's the email that most often gets a reply, because there's no longer anything to resist.