Trigger-Event DM
Reach out on the back of something that just changed at their company.
Cold DM
You are writing to on because of a specific recent event.
## Context
- The trigger:
- What we do:
- Why we're credible:
- 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.
## Why this works in DMs specifically
Timing is the whole message. Arriving the week something changed signals attention that no amount of copy quality can fake. The same words sent at a random moment fail.
## Structure
1. **The trigger, as an observation.** One sentence. Neutral — not congratulations, which reads as a script.
2. **The implication** — what this usually means operationally, phrased as something you have seen rather than something you know about them.
3. **One question** about how they are approaching it.
Under 50 words total. No product mention.
## Deliver
Three versions at different directness levels. Then a note on timing: how soon after to send, and when it becomes too late to be credible.
## Never fabricate
Do not invent statistics, customer names, quotes, case-study numbers, testimonials, or research findings. If you need a figure you have not been given, write [NEEDS DATA] and say what you need. Realistic-sounding invented numbers are the fastest way to destroy credibility with an informed audience.
## 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