Quick win guide

Send your estimator to everyone who already asked you for a price

The fastest leads you will get this month are already sitting in your old emails, your CRM and your phone. They asked what it cost, never got a straight answer, and went quiet.

You are helping me write a reactivation campaign. I run a home service business and I have an online pricing estimator. I want to contact people who asked me about a job in the past and never booked, so they can finally get a price.

Before you write ANYTHING, ask me these questions one at a time and wait for my answer:

1. What is my business name, and what do I actually do? Describe it the way I would to a neighbour.
2. Who is this list? Pick one: people who enquired and never booked, past customers, or a general contact list.
3. Roughly how long ago did these people contact me, and what were they usually asking about?
4. What is my estimator link?
5. What is the honest reason they never heard back properly? Was I too busy, did I not give them a number, did the job stall?
6. For past customers only: what is a genuine reason to get in touch NOW? A season, a service interval, a follow-up stage of work.
7. Am I sending this by email, by text, or both? If text, have these people specifically agreed to receive marketing texts from me?
8. What is my first name, and how do I normally sign off?

Do not proceed until I have answered all eight. If any answer is vague, ask again.

If I answered "text" to question 7 but cannot confirm these people opted in to texts, tell me plainly not to send it and to use email instead. Do not write the text message.

Then write:

A. Three subject line options, all under 45 characters, none of them clickbait.
B. An email of no more than 150 words.
C. If and only if consent is confirmed, one SMS of under 320 characters.
D. A one-line reply I can send to anyone who responds asking a question.

Hard rules you must follow:

- Say plainly, in the email, what they originally asked about. Vagueness is what makes reactivation emails feel like spam.
- If the honest reason from question 5 is that I dropped the ball, say so in one short sentence. Do not dress it up.
- Give them an easy exit near the end. Something like "if the project is long gone, no problem at all".
- No urgency, no deadline, no discount, no fake scarcity.
- Say estimate or range. Never say quote.
- Plain language, short sentences, written the way I talk. No marketing adjectives.
- The SMS must open with my business name and end with a clear opt-out such as "reply STOP".
- Never invent a statistic, a testimonial, an award or an offer I have not told you about.

This is the single fastest thing you can do with a new estimator. Not because it is clever, but because these people already raised their hand once. You are not persuading a stranger. You are finishing a conversation that stalled because you could not give them a number quickly enough.

Step 1: find the lists you forgot you had

Most people think they do not have a list. Almost everyone does. Go and look in all of these:

Put everything into one spreadsheet. Name, email, phone, roughly when they contacted you, and what they asked about. That last column is what lets you write something specific later.

Step 2: split it into three groups

These groups need different messages. Sending all three the same thing is why most reactivation campaigns land flat.

Group 1 is where the quick wins are. If you only do one, do that one.

Step 3: write it

Four examples below. Use the prompt at the top of this page to adapt them, or just edit them yourself. Each has a note explaining why it is built the way it is.

Step 4: send in small batches

Do not send to everyone at once. Three reasons, all practical:

• You can fix the message. Send fifty, see what comes back, adjust, send the next fifty.
• You can handle the replies. A hundred sent at once and a busy week means somebody waits three days for an answer, which wastes the whole exercise.
• Your email stays deliverable. A sudden large send from an address that normally sends ten emails a day is exactly what spam filters look for.

Fifty a day from your normal email address is plenty. If your list runs to thousands, use a proper email tool rather than your inbox.

Step 5: be ready to answer fast

The whole point is that people complete an estimate. When one lands, ring them that day. An estimate that sits for two days is worth a fraction of one answered in an hour, and you already know what they want because they told the estimator.

Read their answers before you call. It is the difference between "hi, you enquired?" and "hi, I see you are looking at the back half of the roof, is the leak still active?".

Before you send: the bit most guides skip

Email and text messages are governed completely differently, and the difference matters. This is general information rather than legal advice, and rules vary by where you and your customer are, so check your own position if you are unsure.

What to expect

Be realistic, so you can tell whether it worked.

• Most people will not reply. That is normal and is not a sign the message was bad.
• A handful of completed estimates in the first 48 hours from a list of a hundred is a good result.
• Some replies will be "we already had it done". Those are useful too, because you can take them off the list.
• The real gain is often slower. People who now know your prices come back months later already comfortable with the number.

You can do this once a quarter to new cold leads without wearing it out. Doing it monthly to the same people wears it out fast.

Troubleshooting

Want a second opinion on your message before you send it? Email [email protected] and paste in the draft.