Double-Opt-In Intros

Many people have written about the concept of the double-opt-in introduction, so I’m not the first to this concept ( just google it) and you’ll find plenty). The basic idea is that both parties need to agree before an introduction is made. I think the benefits are pretty clear, and it’s really the only way I made introductions these days Usually, one party has inherently opted in since they asked for the introduction and that’s what I want to talk about in this post — the right email asking for the introduction.

However, as I was looking over posts on this concept I noticed a lack of detail on how to make the introducer’s job easy by sending the right introduction request. In fact, asking for an introduction for the double opt-in usually involves either two emails or a phone call and an email. The first communication is when you actually ask someone to make the introduction to you — and this can be done during a call or with a personal message to your contact.

In many ways, the most important email is the second one you send — after someone has agreed to make the introduction. This is your opportunity to both make the introducer’s job easy and increase the odds of getting someone to agree to the introduction. This email should be designed to be forwarded by your contact to the person you’re looking for an introduction to. It should be succinct and cover all the key things the person you want to meet needs to know so that the introducer doesn’t have to write that themselves:

• Who you are.
• Quick background on your company or service.
• Why you are asking for an introduction.
• Why the introduction is useful to the other party.
• Thanks to the introducer for making the connection.

All told, the emails should be 5–10 sentences. It’s okay to include an attachment with a presentation or document — but you should really cover the key points in the body of the email.

The introducer can then forward this message with a quick note about how they know you and their job is done. Easy for them — and you got to explain who you are and why you want the introduction. This is much easier for the introducer than trying to write an intro to you, your company, why the introduction makes sense, what they think you’re looking for, etc — and you can probably explain it better than they can anyway.

So, if you ask me for an introduction (and maybe you ended up here because you have and I pointed you here), please with a nice, forwardable email that I can use to introduce you — I’m sure you can explain the ask better than I can!

Originally published at https://jeffkeltner.com on April 7, 2020.