Spec project · Email sequence
Three emails that move a lead from a free template to a free trial
Spec project. The business, the brief, and every detail about them are invented. Nobody paid for this work or ran it.
The brief
Tallyboard is project management software for small marketing agencies (5 to 30 people). These leads downloaded a free client report template but haven't started a trial. Facts supplied in the (invented) brief:
- Tasks, files, deadlines, and client updates on one page per project
- Clients get a link to a live status view
- Imports from Trello, Asana, or a CSV in about ten minutes
- 14-day free trial, no credit card
- $12 per user per month
Goal of the sequence: trial starts. Sent on day 1, day 3, and day 6.
Who it's for
An agency owner or operations lead who already runs a task app, a chat app, a shared drive, and at least one spreadsheet. They are tired of tools and suspicious of anything that calls itself all-in-one.
The copy
Email 1, day 1. Objection: "I don't have this problem."
SubjectWho has the latest version?
PreviewIf you've asked that in Slack today, this one's for you.
Hi {{first_name}},
Thanks for grabbing the client report template. I hope it saves you an hour this week.
A question while you're here. When a client emails to ask where their project stands, how many places do you check before you answer?
For most agencies it's four: the task board, the shared drive, Slack, and somebody's memory.
Tallyboard puts the tasks, files, deadlines, and client updates for each project on one page. Your client gets a link to a live status view, so a lot of those "where are we on this?" emails stop arriving.
Mara
Tallyboard
P.S. The template works fine on its own. It also plugs into Tallyboard if you ever want the numbers to fill themselves in.
Email 2, day 3. Objection: "Not another tool."
SubjectYou don't need another tool
PreviewYou probably need fewer.
Hi {{first_name}},
I'd be suspicious of this email too.
Your team already has a task app, a chat app, a drive full of folders, and a spreadsheet somebody built in 2022 that nobody dares delete. A fifth thing sounds like the opposite of help.
So here's the deal. Tallyboard replaces the task app and the spreadsheet, and it pulls files in from the drive you already use. Importing from Trello, Asana, or a CSV takes about ten minutes.
If you finish the 14-day trial with more tools than you started with, we got it wrong and you should leave.
Mara
Email 3, day 6. Objection: "Switching is too much work."
SubjectTry it on one project
PreviewPick your messiest client. No card needed.
Hi {{first_name}},
Last one from me on this.
You don't have to move the whole agency to find out if Tallyboard fits. Pick one client project, ideally the messiest one, and run it in Tallyboard for 14 days. Leave everything else where it is.
At the end you'll know two things: whether your team opened it without being nagged, and whether that client asked for fewer updates. If both answers are no, cancel. We never asked for a card, so there's nothing to undo.
Mara
Why I wrote it this way
Each email takes on one objection and has one link. The ask gets bigger across the three (look at a sample, try the import, start the trial) while the commitment I describe gets smaller (one project, 14 days, no card).
Email 2 agrees with the reader's suspicion in the first line. An agency owner has been pitched "one tool to replace them all" many times, and arguing with that experience would lose them.
The emails come from a named person and read like one person wrote them. If Tallyboard were real, I'd test subject line 2 against "A spreadsheet from 2022", because the specific detail might beat the claim.