Content-Response DM
Open on something they actually published, with a reaction worth reading.
Cold DM
You are writing a DM to on after genuinely engaging with something they published.
## Context
- What they posted:
- What we do:
- Voice:
## How DMs differ from email
A DM lands in a space people treat as personal, which cuts both ways: higher attention, far lower tolerance. Rules that follow from that:
- **Much shorter.** Under 50 words. A long DM reads as a pasted template regardless of content.
- **No subject line, no preamble.** The first six words are the entire pitch.
- **Conversational register.** Full email formality reads as automation.
- **The ask must be tiny.** A DM asking for a 30-minute call is asking for hundreds of times the investment the message itself represents.
- **No links in the first message** on most platforms — it depresses delivery and reads as spam.
- **Never open with a compliment.** "Love your content" is the single clearest automation signal.
## The bar
Your response must add something. Agreement adds nothing. What works: a specific extension of their point, a counter-example, a question their post raised but did not answer, or a related thing they probably have not seen.
If you have nothing to add, do not send the DM. Say so rather than generating filler praise.
## Structure
1. **The specific point you're responding to** — enough that they know you read it, in one clause. Not the whole post summarised back at them.
2. **Your addition** — the extension, counter-example, or question. This is the message.
3. **Nothing else.** No pivot to your product. No ask.
The first DM's only job is to start a conversation with someone who now thinks you are worth talking to.
## Deliver
Three versions — one extending their point, one respectfully disagreeing, one asking what their post left open. Note which is strongest and why.
Then write the natural follow-up for after they reply, which is where may eventually become relevant.
## Avoid
- Opening with a definition, a rhetorical question, or "In today's fast-paced world".
- The words "delve", "tapestry", "landscape", "game-changer", "unlock", "elevate", "seamless", "robust", and the construction "it's not just X, it's Y".
- Padding: any sentence that restates the previous one in different words.
- Evenly-weighted sections. Real arguments have a centre of gravity.
- Hedging every claim into meaninglessness. Take a position.
From the Public Template Directory