A business promotion email template works when it promotes one specific thing to people who already have a reason to care: a new service to past clients, a new office to local contacts, a new adviser to the clients they will look after. The template below is built on that principle and adapts to each of those situations. This article answers how to write a promotion email for a service firm that reads as news rather than an advert, and how to save and send it from the levelpartner.ai platform.
What a promotion email is for
In a 10 to 250 person firm, a promotion email usually has one of four jobs. Announcing a new service. Announcing an expansion, such as a new office or a new market. Introducing a new senior person. Or promoting an existing service that clients do not know you offer.
The fourth is the most commercially useful and the most often skipped. Many firms find that long-standing clients have no idea about half of what they do. A single, specific email can change that.
The template
Subject: [Firm name] now [does the new thing]
"Hi [first name],
A short note to let you know that [firm name] now [offers the service / has opened the office / has welcomed the new person].
[One sentence on why: the problem clients brought to you that led to this.]
[One sentence on what it means for the reader specifically.]
If it is relevant to [company or situation], [named person] would be happy to talk it through. You can reply to this email or book a time here: [link].
[Signature from a named person]"
Why each part is there
The subject line states the news. No teaser, no wordplay. The reader should know what the email is about before opening it.
The "why" sentence turns the promotion into a story about clients rather than about your firm. "Several clients asked us to help with their CRM after we built their campaigns" is more credible than "We are excited to announce".
The "what it means for you" sentence is the only part that must change for each audience. For a past client, it might reference their project. For a local contact, the new office's location.
One named person and one action. Readers act when they know exactly who they would be talking to.
Adapting it for the four industries
An agency announcing a new paid search service tells past web clients that their site can now be supported by search campaigns run by the same team. A consultancy introducing a new partner tells clients in that partner's sector who to contact. A mortgage brokerage announcing protection advice tells its existing mortgage clients they can now review cover with the adviser they know. An estate agency opening a lettings arm tells landlords who sold through it that they can now let through it too.
Before you start
- One clear promotion, not several at once.
- A segment of contacts with a genuine reason to care, built as a smart list.
- A named person who will handle responses.
- A booking link or a reply-to that reaches that person.
How to set it up
- Go to Marketing, then Emails, and open the Templates tab.
- Start a new template and build it from scratch.
- Paste the template text into a Text element.
- Replace the placeholders with custom values such as first name.
- Write the why and what-it-means lines for this audience.
- Click Save Template.
- In Contacts, build the audience with + Add smart list.
- From the template's three-dot menu, choose Create Campaign.
- Click Send or Schedule and pick a weekday morning.
- Enter the named person as Sender Name and Sender Email.
- Add the smart list under Recipients and click Schedule.
- In Automation, notify that person when anyone books from the email.
Imagine the firm sends the template to 3,200 past mortgage clients, signed by the new protection adviser, with each email naming the year the client's mortgage completed. Say 60 clients book a review over two weeks. If one in three of those took out a policy, that would be 20 new protection cases from clients the firm already had. Every figure here is an assumption.
What it replaces
It replaces the assumption that clients will find out what you do from your website. They will not. It also replaces the long "what's new at our firm" newsletter section that lists five updates and gets action on none of them.
The time it takes each week
An hour or two to adapt and send each promotion. Then a few minutes a day for a week to follow up responses. Most firms need a promotion email only a few times a year.
The mistake most people make
Promoting everything at once. An email that announces a new service, a new office and a new partner gives the reader three things to ignore. Send one promotion per email, and space them out.
When not to send one
Do not send a promotion to people with no reason to care. A new lettings service is irrelevant to a buyer who moved into their home last year and has no plans to let. Segment first. If you cannot build a segment with a genuine reason to care, the promotion belongs in your regular newsletter instead.
For more promotional angles, see these email advertising examples. For the wider set of client-facing templates, read B2B email marketing templates for the key moments in a sale. To launch a genuinely new product, the product launch email template covers the extra steps.
Troubleshooting
Low response. The segment is too broad or the "what it means for you" sentence is generic. Narrow the list and make that sentence specific.
Unsubscribes spike. The email reached people who had not heard from you in years. Exclude contacts with no engagement in the last year.
Responses go to the wrong person. The reply-to is the default address. Set it to the named person in the template.
The email reads like an advert. Remove adjectives and the words "excited" and "delighted". State the news plainly.
Frequently asked questions
Should a promotion email include pricing?
Only if price is the news, for example a new fixed-price package. Otherwise, let the conversation handle it.
How often can we send promotion emails?
A few times a year to the same audience is reasonable. More than that and they start to feel like a sales feed rather than news.
Should we follow up a promotion email?
One short follow up to people who opened but did not respond is fine. Send it a week later and keep it to two sentences.
Is it better to send from the managing director or the person responsible?
From the person responsible. The reader wants to know who they would actually work with.