How To Ask For A Meeting With Email: Best Meeting Request Email Examples And Tips

In one of our previous posts, we provided you with useful email templates for scheduling an interview with a prospect. In this article, let’s talk about a broader problem – how to successfully use emails for requesting any business meeting. 

I’ll share some ready-made meeting request email templates you can add to your collection and tips on asking for availability for a meeting. 

But let’s start with the meeting request email definition. What is so special about this type of email?

What is a meeting request email?

A business meeting request email is an email you send to ask for an appointment with someone. This can include your prospect, current customer, business partner, potential influencer, investor, team, and others.

There are many reasons you may want to send a meeting request email, for example:

• Making a sales pitch
• Attracting an investor to your product
• Following up with business leads and more. 

In this post, we’ll focus more on how you can successfully use email for requesting meetings with your potential customers. The templates and tips I’ll provide will also work fine for other targets – with minimum customization.

Benefits of sending meeting request emails

Of course, there are other ways to ask for a meeting: you can do it by phone or in person. But requesting a meeting through email proves to be the most effective way, and here is why:

It’s trackable 

If you want a successful business deal, you should get used to a rigid way of communication. Not any detail should be missed out. 

Unlike on-the-spur conversations or calls, email allows you to easily track your correspondence and get back to it whenever needed. Thus, you and your interlocutor can always stay on the same page and plan the deal according to the email thread history.

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It’s convenient

In business, you should be extra careful with people you’re going to cooperate with, whether that’s a sales prospect or potential partner. Any pressure on them can cost you lost deals or contact breaches. 

Email is the best way to maintain healthy business relations while requesting a meeting – you can find the most appropriate tone and language to address a person, while they can plan their response without feeling embarrassed or pressed for time.

It’s effective 

The majority of business deals are now handled online. Chances you’ll meet with a targeted person at a sales conference or any other business event and have face-to-face communication are relatively low.

And speaking about calls, I doubt your potential customer or investor will be ready to answer them immediately or answer your follow-up calls at all. Not a surprise that 9 out of 10 people want to use messaging to interact with businesses.

How to structure a meeting request email 

Let’s look at the anatomy of your business meeting request emails. 

Subject line

Before writing a business meeting request email, think about a catchy subject line that will tempt a recipient to open your message. Here I advise you to refrain from long, complicated subject lines – busy people you’ll be writing your emails to won’t bother to read them. Stick to something not complex but catchy and personalized, for example:

• What about a meeting next Tuesday? (suitable for quick responses)
• Are you free on Friday afternoon? (informal) 
• Requesting a meeting at your best convenience (formal)
• I know you are busy, [Name], but I need your opinion (personalized and appealing to the recipient’s expertise)
• We’d better discuss it this week (creating a sense of urgency)
• Are you available for a short discussion? (intriguing) 
• I have something special to share with you (appealing to the feeling of exclusivity)

Need more subject line ideas for your business emails? Find them in one of the Snov.io posts.

RAP model for email body and sing-off

Don’t create long-reads. Instead, your email should be brief yet meaningful. I’ve read thousands of emails and, pretty often, people tend to beat around the bush instead of making it all up to a point.

To avoid this popular unhealthy trend, I recommend applying the RAP method, which has proven helpful in structuring the body of a business meeting request email.

I know, there might be some good old Eminem’s song playing in your head at the moment, but RAP is something different in email marketing. This is an abbreviation for 3 key bricks each of your business meeting request emails should stand on:

R = Reason

Dedicate the first few lines of your meeting invitation email to provide a clear overview of the meeting’s purpose. Your recipient should understand why you’re emailing them and how their presence will impact the meeting.

Consider the example: 

A = Action

What follows is a kind of call to action that would encourage your email recipient to continue communication, shifting it to the form of a business meeting. As a rule, this part of an email tells your addressee the meeting details, such as the date, time, meeting type (online or offline), channel (for online meetings), or physical location (for offline meetings).

For instance:

P = Professional ending

You should crown your meeting request email with a sign-off that will tie everything together and leave a pleasant aftertaste, so the person you’re writing to will be more inclined to respond to your request positively. The general rule of thumb here is the following: your ending must fit the general tone of your email. Say, if your email body is formal, don’t use an informal sign-off. 

Feel free to find the best ways of writing a professional email signature in one of our posts.

How to ask for availability for a meeting: examples and tips

In this section, I’ll provide you with actionable meeting request email tips and templates. 

Choose a proper style for your cold email

Cold outreach has never been easy. If it’s your first time contacting your leads, your emails should be almost perfect to make people want to open and react to them, let alone accept your meeting invitation. 

The first thing you should do is determine what communication style is most relevant to your prospect. Do some research to find out how they prefer communicating, formally or informally, and adjust the tone of your meeting invitation request email accordingly.

I suggest you add both formal and informal meeting request email samples to your template list.

Formal sample: meeting request email example # 1

If your prospect appreciates a less formal communication style, try to win their attention with an easy-going meeting request email:

Informal sample: meeting request email example # 2

Note: No matter what style of communication your cold email conveys, ensure you start by introducing yourself. Remember, you’re contacting a person for the first time – they should understand who is talking to them and see the logic behind your meeting request. 

Use a hook 

Business people are probably the most reluctant email readers in the world. It’s natural as they have no time for things that don’t resonate with their current needs and goals. So, you have a pretty challenging task while sending them your meeting request email –  grabbing their attention from the very start. 

A solution?

You need a good hook…

There needs to be a sentence or two at the beginning of your message that will make your recipient read it further and agree to meet with you.

One way to catch their attention is to demonstrate that you’ve spent time learning about what they’re doing, their objectives, needs, and pain points. Marketers like calling it ‘doing your homework,’ meaning you need to do extensive research on the company whose representative you’re going to invite for a meeting. 

Consider an example of a meeting request email that will help demonstrate you’re not a stranger passing by your prospect’s Inbox – you do know what air they breathe.

Meeting request email sample #3 

As you see from this template example, you can easily do your research about the prospect on LinkedIn. Just go to their page and read the information they post to understand better what their company is striving for and how they prefer to collaborate.  

Another way to hook your email recipient is to tell them about their competitors. If you’ve helped any other companies like theirs, don’t miss a chance to mention it just from the start. This will signal to your prospect that they might be missing something valuable, something they’ll learn while meeting with you. 

Meeting request email sample #4

FOMO (fear of missing out) is one of the best psychological strategies to hook the attention of your email recipient. Don’t neglect it in your meeting request email.

Emphasize the value of a meeting 

If you want a recipient to accept your email invitation, you need to persuade them your meeting will bring them real value. There’s a certain trick to doing this. 

First, stress their pain points and tell them there’s a way out of their problem. Then mention your solution, adding its several benefits as a tease. Finally, create intrigue and invite them for a meeting where they’ll be able to learn further details.

Let’s look at how you can use this technique within your email template:

Meeting request email sample #5

Don’t mention your prospect’s pain point right at the beginning of your email. Start it with a small compliment. This psychological trick helps you win over the recipient, so when you reach the point of asking for a meeting, they already have positive feelings about you.

Ask questions

If you want to create a meeting request email that will convert, make it engaging! 

One of the simplest ways to do this is to ask questions. This way, you let your recipient imagine they’re already answering them. This creates the effect of dialogue in your email message and the feeling this dialogue should logically continue – at your meeting, of course.

Take a look at the meeting request email template you can use in this case:

Meeting request email sample #6

People like it when others treat them like experts. Asking questions is one of those tricks to provoke further conversation with a recipient.

Provide meeting options 

Another way to engage your email recipient and get them to accept your meeting invitation is to create an illusion that it is they who choose to have a meeting with you. 

For instance, you can provide alternatives for the date or time of a meeting, the channel of communication (e.g., Zoom or Skype), or even topics for further discussion. 

Here’s a template you can use as a part of your meeting invitation strategy:

Meeting request email sample #7

As you see, the recipient is given options: they can choose a better time for a meeting and the pain point they prefer to discuss. It looks like they rule the game, but you know, it’s you 😉

Use numbers

People love numbers. Business people can’t live without numbers, as they’re used to dealing with money, analytics, and statistical data. And they’re also particularly sensitive to wasting personal time on petty things. Why not use these qualities in your meeting request email? 

While describing how your prospect will benefit from your cooperation, be specific: state how much revenue they’ll see and in what period. Besides, mention how long your meeting will last to assure your email recipient they won’t lose precious hours yet gain a lot of value in return. 

You can do it right in your subject line like in the following example:

Meeting request email sample #8

Just keep in mind: whenever you provide any statistics or other data, it must be super relevant to the prospect. Add only those numbers that your email reader will be indeed interested in.

Follow up

The last but not the least important hack I’d like to share is actually not a hack – it’s a postulate. 

Do. Follow. Up.

Your initial meeting request email has been ignored? Well, there can be dozens of reasons a prospect is silent. Just send them a reminder to show you’re patiently waiting for them to accept your meeting request. 

Here’s an example of a follow-up email sample requesting the meeting:

Meeting request email sample #9

Following up must become your daily email marketing practice on your way to closing business deals, so add a portion of good follow-up email templates to your collection.

Wrapping up

If you want to request a meeting with your prospect or potential business partner, email is the most effective means. It’s trackable, gives more freedom to think it all over, and offers you to prepare your invitation compellingly. I hope the hacks and email samples I’ve provided in this post will help you create your own irresistible meeting request emails.

And if you need a platform that will streamline your email communication and LinkedIn outreach, care about personalization, and send timely follow-ups for you, Snov.io is without a doubt a number one choice. Combine Snov.io cold email features with its CRM power, and you’ll get everything you need for successful outreach.