How to Introduce Yourself in an Email: Tips and Examples

You know the adage: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That’s all fine and good if you’re introducing yourself in person. Dress nicely, use good posture, speak confidently—we’re all aware of those tips.

But what if you have to make your first impression via email? How on earth do you impress someone from an inbox? In this guide, we’ll provide six actionable tips to help improve your email introductions and make a lasting first impression.

As with any big task, breaking your introduction email into smaller steps makes it easier. Take each piece of a business email and use it to put your best digital foot forward. 

• Subject line: Use the subject line to attract immediate interest.

• Greeting: Pick a salutation that feels natural and appropriate—no need to be super formal. A simple “Hello” or “Hey” with the recipient’s name works fine.

• Introduction: Get to the point early to give them a reason to keep reading. 

• Body: Explain the purpose of your email and what action you’d like the recipient to take. Keep it simple and focused on them. Swap a traditional text email for a video introduction using a screen recorder like Loom to make your intro memorable and engaging. 

• Sign off: Use a polite and professional closing. Something like “Sincerely” or “Best regards” is a safe bet.

• Email signature: Include your name, job title, company name, and contact information. This signals that you are a legit person, not a robot or scammer.

How do the parts of an email translate into a successful email introduction? These six simple steps will ensure your email gets opened—and gets responses. 

Research your recipient

Before you begin crafting the email, research the person you’re emailing. You cannot send a personalized introduction if you don’t know the person you’re writing to. Go online and see what you can learn about the recipient. 

What are some pain points they might deal with? What are some challenges their industry faces? Where do they excel? See if you can find their LinkedIn profile to learn what they care about and have accomplished. 

Craft a catchy subject line

Your subject line is crucial to your email’s success, so write it first. If it doesn’t catch the recipient’s eye, they won’t open your email. You can write a compelling subject line by following some well-tested best practices. Asking a question can increase open rates by 50%, while adding personalization gets 26% more opens. 

Adding “video” to your subject line can increase open rates by 7%. Tools like Loom allow you to add video to your email in only a few minutes, so it’s easy to take advantage of that 7% bump.

Here are examples of eye-catching subject lines and why they work.

Hey, [Name], how’s my favorite unicorn? 🦄

Rachel Muir is a fundraising consultant who writes phenomenal subject lines. This one instantly catches the eye with personalization and a question. Plus, asking how the recipient is doing feels genuine and personal. This greeting is also flattering—who doesn’t want to feel like a unicorn?

Unicorns don’t work for every brand, so find a fun attribute appropriate for your company. Rachel uses an emoji, which can be excellent for grabbing attention in a crowded inbox. Note that emojis can help or hurt you depending on your audience and industry, so test them to see what works for you. 

What are you doing next weekend?

KopywritingKourse’s subject line incites curiosity by presuming a meeting is a given. The casual, open-ended question gets right to the point of the email and invites a response. Odds are the recipient will at least start to think about their schedule and whether they want to meet. They’re likely to open the email to learn more.

Struggling with a business decision? I made you a 1-page framework to help.

This subject line from byRegina is fantastic because it includes the email’s offer. The opening question identifies a pain point for the recipient, generating automatic interest. Then, a simple solution immediately follows. The recipient will want to see what the framework is, so they’ll open the email. 

Note: this subject line is a little long and might get cut off in the inbox preview. Even if it does, the opening question is likely to pique enough curiosity that the reader will keep going.

Customize your greeting based on your recipient

The right greeting determines whether the recipient will keep reading. Address the email to an actual person— no “Dear Sir or Madam” or “To whom it may concern.” If the recipient has a specialized job title, like Mayor or Doctor, use it. It’s better to be more formal than too casual. Don’t use gendered titles like Mr. or Ms. unless you’re sure they’re correct. Using a title that doesn’t align with their gender or gender identity will turn them off completely. 

Personalize the introduction

The average person spends about two hours a day reading professional emails. A generic email blast won’t convince them to spend time on your introductory email. Show off what you learned during your research. For a job application, you might want to explain your excitement about working for that company or highlight a mutual connection. For a potential client, share something you noticed about their company and how you can help. 

Consider adding video to go the extra mile. Intercom used Loom for its cold sales emails and saw open rates increase by 19%. Intercom’s sales reps could make a personalized Loom in about two minutes. 

Show what you have to offer

It’s time to get honest. If you’re writing an email introduction to someone, it’s because you want something from them. Humans are egotistical, though. If you want the recipient to read and act on your introduction email, you need to make it about them.

Reaching out to a prospective mentor? Share some things you admire about them and what they can teach you. Selling a product or service? Go in hard with the benefits for the recipient and save the features for your demo call. Share your offer quickly and concisely – they’ll be much more likely to click on your CTA.

Be prepared to follow up

No answer doesn’t necessarily mean that the recipient isn’t interested. Emails pile up, people get busy, and then they forget. Send a follow-up email or two if they don’t respond the first time, especially if you can see that they opened it. Some email tools, like Constant Contact, can automatically resend your email to people who didn’t open it. 

And while resending the same email can be enough of a nudge, you may want to change things up. Consider sweetening the offer with a discount if they respond by next week, or include a quick Loom video to inspire interest. Loom even lets you embed a video thumbnail, making your email pop without slowing the load time.

With those six steps, your personal introduction email will soar. Here are a few tips to add extra fairy dust:

• Be clear and concise: Even a killer personalized email will fail if it's rambling or hard to follow. Stick to short paragraphs with a few sentences each. Use an editing tool like Grammarly to flag hard-to-read sentences and unnecessary words. Get your point across quickly and effectively with strong language. 

• Be respectful and professional: Keep your introduction email professional, even if your style is casual. Can you use phrases and contractions? Sure. Slang or profanity? Not a good idea. Keep your tone positive throughout, and thank the recipient at the end.

• Show your enthusiasm: Don’t be shy about showing your value. You only have a couple of minutes of the recipient’s attention for your email introduction, so make the most of it. Your enthusiasm for your prospective partnership can be infectious.

For an email introduction that stands out, consider using a tool like Loom to add a video. Your video introduction will blaze past all the “I’m writing to inquire about…” emails. This quick video shows why.

Take a look at these two cold email examples to see some of these best practices in action.

The email subject line, “Quick question,” is intriguing enough to get an open. The sender drops a couple of hints about researching the target company with “I’m seriously impressed with what you’re doing!” in the opening and “I love your website - it’s really slick!” in the PS. 

Some specifics would add more impact and avoid the impression that this email is from a mail merge template. The language is powerful, and the tone is confident with phrases like “a ton” and “skyrocket.” They present a clear offer—qualified leads resulting in more sales—then back it up with social proof by sharing some clients and results.

This sender goes the extra mile with personalization. Kristen leverages the information she found during her research to find points that connect her to the recipient. She points out that they’re alums of the same university and that they’re both in marketing. Kristen is primarily looking for advice from Garrett. But, she calls out specific skills she hopes to learn from him and offers to reciprocate if she can. Finally, she includes a clear call to action: Send some times you’d be free for a quick call.

Loom CEO Joe Thomas, in the clip above, takes his professional introduction email even further with a video. He’s able to pack in tons of information in only three minutes. It’s much more engaging than text and gives a sense of the real person on the other side of the email. A simple video like this will attract attention over the dozens of text-based cold emails in your recipient’s inbox.

It’s crucial to set the right tone. Unique details aside, an email intro is personal if it sounds like a human wrote it to another human. As you write your email, have a clear picture of the person you’re writing to. If you send an email that’s generic or clearly AI-generated, the recipient will delete it. Avoid being too technical, stiff, or jargon-heavy, but watch out for being too casual. Instead, use a balanced, respectful tone as if you were really talking to the other person.

Another critical mistake is forgetting to include a clear and compelling call to action. Spell out what you want the email recipient to do next and why. Without a CTA, even the best email introduction will go nowhere.

Finally, proofread carefully. Your intro email is your chance to make a solid first impression. Don’t waste it with spelling or grammar mistakes. If you’re including a Loom video, Loom can help you “proofread” it. Quickly edit while you’re recording and use AI to remove filler words and make you sound more confident.

Your email introduction is your digital first impression. Put the same effort into your introduction email as an in-person introduction. Do your research, be professional, show what you have to offer, and be yourself. And if you really want to impress, add a Loom recording to showcase who you are and why the reader should connect with you. 

Make your email introductions unforgettable with Loom. Try it today.