How to Write a Networking Email in 2024 [W/ Tips & Samples]

When to Use a Networking Email?

You can use networking emails to either establish a new relationship (be it professional or personal) or to foster an existing relationship. 

As such, networking emails come in handy for various situations, some of the most common ones being: 

• Contacting a stranger that you only know through the Internet.
• Writing to someone that lives or works in a different state or country.
• Requesting an informal interview or a meeting, usually to gain insight into an industry.
• Following up with someone you met once before at a networking event.
• Communicating with someone you know but lost touch with.

So, there’s no one-fits-all networking email formula that you can use to network online. Instead, each networking email should be tailored to the situation, the receiver, and the results you want to get from a particular interaction.

How to Write a Successful Networking Email

Without further ado, here’s a step-by-step guide to writing a successful networking email:

#1. Do Your Research

If you’re going to send a networking email to someone you don’t know, it’s essential to spend some time researching them first. 

After all, you don’t want to reach out to a stranger to ask them about their job position and experience only to find out that they aren’t working there anymore. That would fail to establish rapport and probably make you look lazy and uninterested. 

Lucky for you, the internet makes it quite easy to research people and you can get some valuable information simply by doing some of the following: 

• Google the person’s name. Typically, their LinkedIn profile and other relevant social media platforms will come up, along with their website (if they have one). 
• Add the city they live in or the company they work for in the Google query, especially if the person has a common name or more than one result comes up when you Google them. 
• Use LinkedIn or LinkedIn alternatives directly, to filter out all the non-professional information that might come up on Google.

Once you’ve done this, note down any useful information for your networking email, including the person’s company and industry, their job title and professional interests, as well as anything you might have in common. 

#2. Write an Attention-Grabbing Email Subject Line

Your email subject line must be captivating if you want the recipient actually to open your networking email. 

Otherwise, you may have written the best networking email out there and it’ll probably go unread if your subject line is something like “care to network?”. 

Take, for example, the following subject lines: 

These subject lines are uninteresting to the receiver and will probably lead to an unopened email. Want to make sure your emails are opened? You should:

• Add value to your email subject line by trying to include an element that will make your email worth the receiver’s time and attention.
• Be specific and personal by personalizing your email. That way, the receiver will know the email is from someone they know - or might be interested in meeting.

Here are some examples of some on-point subject lines:

#3. Mention How You’re Similar

Nothing connects people more than their similarities - especially when they include the same hobbies, passions, or field of studies. 

Think about it - are you more likely to get a cup of coffee with someone you have something in common with, or with someone you struggle to find a common ground with?

Most probably it’s the first one. 

So, spare a line or two in your networking email to remind the receiver how the two are you are similar even if it’s a small similarity, like having attended the same elementary school or having the same favorite author. 

The one thing you shouldn’t do is make up a fake similarity just to get the receiver to like you. If they agree to meet up and mention how awesome it is you share something in common, the truth will probably come out and make you look bad. 

#4. Praise Their Work/Accomplishments

Paying an honest compliment to someone’s work can go a long way to ensuring your networking emails gets a reply! 

On top of showing that you’re familiar with the person’s work, praising their accomplishments can also effectively show how it has inspired or helped you—something most seasoned professionals are more than glad to hear. 

That said, it’s important the way you praise their work doesn’t come off as brown-nosing. For example, saying something like “your work is super inspiring” can come off as an empty compliment meant to sugarcoat your email. 

Keeping things genuine and specific, on the other hand, can add a lot of value to your networking email and is guaranteed to make the receiver respond to your networking efforts. 

To give a genuine compliment on the receiver’s work, make sure to mention something specific about it and explain how it impacted you, instead of using generalizations and unnecessary fluff. 

#5. Keep It Brief

Another way to ensure your networking email actually gets read is to keep it short and sweet. 

After all, the people you’ll be contacting are most probably busy people, which means their time is their most valuable asset—and they won't go around wasting it. 

As such, keeping your networking email brief and to the point is essential - especially if you’re contacting someone for the first time. This is the first time they’re hearing about you, so they probably don’t want to spend too much time reading a chapter-long email. 

While there’s no rule of thumb on how long a networking email should be, try to keep it between two and three paragraphs, with each paragraph not containing more than three sentences. 

#6. Mention How You Can Help

In the best-case scenario, professional networking consists of a mutually beneficial relationship between two or more individuals. After all, people are going to be more predisposed to help you if they also get something in return. 

Take this fact into consideration and use the body of your networking email to also mention how you can help the receiver - even if it’s something small, like offering them feedback for their work or writing a blog post about them on your website. 

So, even if you feel like you have nothing to offer back - and that can be the case if you are in an entry-level position contacting, say, a seasoned professional or an academic - keep in mind that even the simplest offering can go a long way.  

Oftentimes, just offering something in return for the receiver’s time and attention will show that you’re grateful for the opportunity and that you’d actually appreciate getting a response from them. 

#7. Follow Up

You might follow all the instructions above to the T, write the perfect networking email, and still not get a response. 

Although this may happen because the receiver just doesn’t want to network, more often than not it will be because they’re busy, or simply forgot to reply after your networking email gets buried in a sea of other emails. 

As such, you must send a follow-up email and remind them that you’re looking forward to a reply and to professionally network with them. 

To ensure that your follow-up doesn’t come off as disrespectful and impatient, however, do the following:

1. Wait at least one week before sending your follow-up email. Doing so faster will make you come off too impatient.  
2. Don’t guilt-trip the receiver. Networking skills are a thing and being friendly and pleasant are definitely two of them! Most people don’t respond well to guilt-tripping - especially those who don’t even owe you a response. 
3. Don’t make any assumptions. Remember, it’s not your place to assume why the receiver couldn’t or didn’t want to reply to your networking email, so the last thing you want is to waste your follow-up making assumptions. 
4. Keep your follow-up brief and pleasant. Your follow-up email should be even shorter than the initial one! Something along the lines of “this is a quick follow-up to make sure my email didn’t end in your spam folder” is much better than an emotionally-charged email where you blame the receiver for ignoring you.

And here’s what a successful follow up email looks like: 

3 Tips for an Effective Networking Email

Now that you know how to write a killer networking email step-by-step, check out these simple tips to help you truly shine. 

You can use them for basically any networking email you send, regardless of the specifics of the situation:

1. Personalize your networking email. It doesn’t matter if your networking email is meant for someone you only met once, a childhood friend you lost touch with, or a college acquaintance. There is always a way to make your networking email personal and show the receiver they’re not just a name in the list of your networking contacts. Say, for example, that you’re writing a college acquaintance. You can establish rapport by reminding them about classes you took together, or even a good time spent at a party. A lot of things can make your email personal, as long as they’re genuine! 
2. Proofread before pressing send. Look, it’s very hard to justify vocab and grammar mistakes in the 21st century. With so many spellcheckers, grammar checkers, and what-have-you out there, sending a networking email with typos or obvious grammar mistakes will show that you’re rushed and unprofessional, which might harm your networking efforts more than you know. As such, make sure to double and triple-check your networking email before sending it. We recommend using Grammarly for this. 
3. Stay in touch. When you get down to it, the real point of networking is building long-lasting professional and personal relationships that can be of benefit in more than one case. One networking email, follow-up, or even personal meeting is not enough. To truly reap the benefits of networking, you should strive for a continuous relationship with your networking contacts. For instance, you can share with them relevant industry articles and research from time to time, or invite them to various networking events that could be of interest to them. Showing that you’re thoughtful and involved in fostering your relationship will make your networking contacts more responsive to you. 

3 Networking Email Samples

If you’re not the writing type, you might have trouble writing a good networking email even after all these steps and tips. 

To help you out, we’ve put together three networking email samples that you can customize according to your specific needs:

#1. Networking Email Sample to Someone You Know

#2. Networking Email Sample to a Stranger

#3. Networking Email Sample for College Students 

Networking Email - What NOT To Do

Now you know everything you need about how to send networking emails. But what about what not to do? 

Here are the three most important things to avoid when sending a networking email:

Key Takeaways 

And that’s a wrap! Next time you send a networking email, you can rest assured that you’ll get a reply. 

Before you go, here’s what we covered in this article: 

• Networking emails help nurture existing relationships, create new ones, and catch up with people you already know but haven’t talked to in a while.
• The steps to writing a killer networking email include doing your research, mentioning what you have in common and how you can help the receiver, mentioning how you can help, writing an attention-grabbing email subject line, and keeping your email brief. 
• The three most beneficial tips to writing a good networking email include personalizing your email, keeping your follow-up email brief, and not making any assumptions about why the receiver didn’t reply to your email.
• If you want your networking email not to fail, make sure not to send a one-fits-all or super-long networking email, as well as not to give the receiver “homework.”