10 Essential Email Templates Every Service Provider Needs
If you’ve been in business for more than 5 minutes, there are certain emails you write over and over and over again.
Every time you have to tell someone the project isn’t a good fit.
Every time you need to tell clients you’re raising your rates.
Every time you have to gently (ahem) remind a client to pay their invoice.
The problem is that every time you have to write one of these emails, you feel like you’re starting from zero. If you get a request to pick your brain and you don’t offer free brain picking? You can easily spend 20 minutes trying to finesse your response. Or worse, you can spend 20 seconds replying with “NO!”
(Psst! Already know you don’t want to write these yourself? No problem — grab my set of 21 effortless email templates!)
Rather than start from scratch every time, create your own templates. These are essentially canned email replies and they’re perfect for any email you have to write more than three times. Ready to stop reinventing wheels when you could be devoting those skills to making money? Start a Google doc and write these 10 essential canned email responses.
The “Why Does It Cost So Much?” Email:
It happens. Every once in awhile, a potential or even existing client will ask you to justify your prices. While it can be tempting to tell them it costs that much because it costs that much, it’s better to do a little gentle coaching. Remind them of all that goes into providing a great client experience.
The “Can I Pick Your Brain?” Email:
If you enjoy sharing your experience, tips, and expertise with others, absolutely go for it. I’m a big fan of sharing with people just starting out, with potential collaborators, or when I think there’s a good chance the person asking might be interested in paid services. But I’m not a fan of freebie seekers who fall outside those categories. If you’re like me, you’ll want to have a template ready for this one.
The “This Is Outside the Scope of Work” Email:
Scope creep is so real. You and your client agree to a certain set of deliverables. You start on the work then get a request to include one or two more things that “shouldn’t take long!” Most of the time, clients don’t even realize they’re doing this. Rather than doing more work for the same money (and resenting your client!) be ready with a response instead!
The “Oops, Gonna Miss the Deadline!” Email:
Sometimes we’re the ones who agree to a timeline and then discover that we’re not going to complete the work on time. Life happens! Rather than avoiding your client and hoping they don’t notice, email them instead.
The “Are You Still Interested?” Email:
Ghosting isn’t limited to dating apps. Sometimes people ask for a proposal or a quote and then…crickets. Don’t just shrug and say “Oh, well.” Follow up! Write a quick email to remind them you’d love to work with them.
The “Not A Good Fit” Email:
Ever get on a discovery call and get an “off” feeling? Maybe they seem hard to please, use red flag phrases, or your gut just says NO. When the client isn’t a great fit but you don’t want to burn bridges, have a response ready to go. That way you won’t spend an hour trying to figure out how to say “I don’t want to work with you” nicely.
The “Next Steps” Email:
Something I learned the hard way is that the more people spend with you, the more they want to know exactly how your process works. They want to know what the timeline looks like, how they’ll access deliverables, how many phone calls there will be, etc. This is information you’ll need to share more and more as you raise your prices so start including it in client communications now.
The “Request for Testimonial” Email:
There’s nothing like social proof when you’re selling services. Happy customers are everything! When you create marketing materials like social posts or ads, you’re going to want some testimonials. Don’t write these requests from scratch every time!
The “You Might Also Like…” Email:
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve added something to a cart and then gotten a suggestion for something else I “might like.” Dang it — they get me! There’s no reason you can’t use this same technique with your services. Leverage the upsell or downsell with your clients! Use a template to suggest something that might (genuinely) meet their needs.
The “Raising My Rates” Email:
If you write zero other templates, write this one! It can be difficult for lots of reasons to come up with the right words to notify clients that your rates are going up. First of all, you HAVE to raise your rates every so often. (I mean, have you seen America lately??) You’re worth it, you deserve it, and you have to do it. If you come up with the right words once, SAVE THEM and use them again the next time!
It took my way longer than it should have to realize how helpful it is to use templates for these kinds of emails. Now I have them all saved in one spot so I can grab the one I need and get back to business that pays the bills! If you don’t want to write these yourself, you’re in luck! I wrote these and 11 others you can copy, paste, tweak and send without missing a beat. Grab them here!
Here’s what the templates look like. You’ll receive a link that gives you instant access to a Google Drive folder with all 21 templates — along with a couple 1-minute “how to use this” videos!