An outbound mechanic for agencies

Just lost a client? Email their competitor.

It's called the magic email. Started on a bus in 2016. Won us 10+ clients since, including some of our biggest. Here's exactly what it is, why it works, and when not to bother with it.

Read the story ↓ Get in touch

Built for

Agencies who already win work

Best used when

You've just lost a pitch or a client

Effort vs. scale

10 right emails > 1,000 wrong ones

01 / The story

It started on a bus.

YEAR 2016

SECTOR Vitamins & Supplements

% OF REVENUE ~40%

NOTICE 30 days

MOOD Rubbish

EMAILED 1 person

REPLIES 1, a month later

PITCHED No

RESULT 8-year client

I was on the bus home from work. My phone rang. It was our biggest client, a vitamins & supplements brand, around 40% of our revenue at the time. They were serving notice.

Yes, 30 days. I was an idiot.

I got home upset. Opened my laptop. Found the CMO of their direct competitor. Wrote him an email. Honest, slightly long: we'd been working with the client for years, they were taking stuff in-house, we'd got ideas, would he be open to a chat.

I couldn't think of anything to put in the subject line. So I just wrote the client's name.

A month went by. I'd forgotten about it. Then he replied: "Sorry for the delay, would be interested in an informal meeting." I went in. They appointed me at lunch. I never pitched.

They stayed with us for 8 years.

Ten years on, that subject line is still doing the work. I've forwarded that original email to 71 people. Everyone who's used it has had a response. Some have won clients off the back of it. We've won 10+ ourselves, including some of the biggest we've ever had.

02 / The email

The whole unlock is the subject line.

ToCEO@theircompetitor.com

Fromyou@youragency.com

Subject[Lost Client] - In Confidence

Hi [Name],

We've been working with [the competitor you just lost] for the last few years on [the thing you actually did]. We helped them [specific result, in numbers if you've got them].

They're [restructuring / taking it in-house / acquired / etc], so we've got ideas, IP and a team that knows your space well, and we'd much rather put that to work than waste it.

Realise it's a cold approach. But you're in the same market and we know it well. Even worth a 15-minute chat. At worst you get a bit of intel on a competitor.

Cheers,
[You]

Subject line = competitor name. That's it.

Nobody is opening "Quick question" or "Thoughts?" The only reason this email got read is because the CMO saw a familiar competitor's name in his inbox and thought, what the hell is this?

That's the whole unlock. Curiosity. A bit of intrigue. The sense that someone in their market knows something they don't. Once they're in, the rest of the email just has to be honest, specific, and short enough to read.

Variants that work: [Competitor] · [Competitor] - In Confidence · [Competitor] / [Their Industry]. The "in confidence" version makes them open it twice as fast.

The reply rate isn't about the email. It's about the subject line. Ten years of doing this, condensed

03 / The rules

Six things that make it work. Or not.

/ 01

Send it to the CEO. Not the marketing manager.

If you go in via the marketing team, you're a supplier. If you go in via the CEO, you're a partner, even if they forward it down the line. You've already got buy-in by the time their team replies. Don't email CMOs either; they're too in the weeds and likely to gatekeep.

/ 02

Talk results. Not channels.

CEOs don't care that you do PPC, SEO, or paid social. They care about revenue, growth, market share. "We helped X grow by Y%" beats "We're a full-service performance agency" every single time.

/ 03

Send 5, not 500.

We tried scaling this. Sent 350 templated emails to a list of beauty brands. Got 2 responses. The mechanic dies the moment it stops feeling personal. Every email needs to be re-written for the specific company, the specific moment.

/ 04

The niche-er the sector, the better it works.

In lockdown we lost a menopause-clothing client. Emailed 10 of their direct competitors. Got 8 replies, 6 meetings, 3 clients. The narrower the space, the more they care what their rivals are doing.

/ 05

You need a story. Not just an offer.

This doesn't work without a real reason to send it. A pitch you've just lost. A client who's just left. A competitor that just won someone you should have. If you've got nothing to point at, the email has nothing to do.

/ 06

It puts you in control. Use that.

When someone replies, you set the terms. You're not pitching for a brief. You're showing them something about their market they didn't see. That changes the dynamic of every conversation that follows. Including pricing.

04 / The receipts

It's worked enough times to bet on.

Not every email lands. Not every reply turns into a client. But the ones that have shaped the agency over the last decade have mostly come from this. Not from inbound, not from referrals, not from cold lists.

2016

Vitamins & supplements client → Direct competitor

Lost our biggest client on a 30-day notice. Emailed the CMO of their direct competitor. Subject line: the lost client's name.

8-year client.
Never pitched.

2020

Menopause-wear brand → Niche competitors

Lost a niche client in lockdown. Emailed 10 direct competitors in the same space.

8 replies, 6 meetings,
3 clients won.

2022

Company-formation client → UK rivals

Lost a UK company-formation client. Reached out to three direct rivals in the same space. Same template, same subject-line trick.

2 wins, multiple meetings,
repeat work.

2025

Healthcare research platform → Direct competitor

Lost a £10k retainer in November. Emailed the CEO of a direct competitor. Subject: [Lost Client] - In Confidence. He forwarded to his CMO.

Won February 2025.
Working with their team now.

05 / What it isn't

Important, because the space is full of nonsense.

This isn't

Mass cold email (we tried 350, got 2 responses)
An always-on demand channel
A way to fill a quiet pipeline from scratch
Generic outbound dressed up
A 'system' you can hand to an SDR

This is

One tactic, used five to ten times a year
Triggered by a real event in your business
Written by you, every time, from scratch
Aimed at the top of the org, not the middle
Best used alongside a working sales process

06 / Why dopamine

Most of us are bad at sales.

Not because we can't be. Because we're scared of it. Or bored of it. Or worn out from too many months where nothing replies to anything. Inertia wins. The pipeline doesn't get built. The hours don't get put in.

This breaks that. When you send five of these and a CEO actually writes back, it's a real hit. A proper one. The first thing in months that's made you want to send another one.

That's what this is for. Not pipeline. Not "sales motion." It's the thing that gets you off the floor and back into doing the work, because the win is fresh, the reply is real, and the next email actually feels worth writing.

Hence the name.

It's not a silver bullet.
But every now and then, it feels like one.

Ten years on, still the best line for it

07 / Who it's for

Agencies who already win work, and want to win more of the deals they should be in.

✓
You've got a working sales process Inbound, referrals, network. Something already keeps the lights on.
✓
You just lost a pitch, a client, or watched a rival poach one You can name the company. You can name the moment. That's the whole prompt.
✓
You hate generic outbound Because most of it is bad, and it makes your agency look bad too.
✓
You'd rather have ten right conversations than a thousand wrong ones If "spray and pray" makes you wince, you're in the right place.

08 / Work with me

Three ways in.

Pick whichever fits where you are. The first one's free, because the work is already done.

/ 01

Read the page

Free

You've already done it. Everything you need to run this yourself is on this page. Take the subject line, write the emails, send them. No catch.

For freeloaders, skeptics, and the merely curious. Honestly, fine by us.

/ 02

I'll set it up

£1,500

A focused one-off engagement off the back of a specific moment. I find the right competitors, build the list, write the emails for your situation. You send them, take the meetings, keep the wins.

For agencies sat on a recent loss who want it executed properly, fast

/ 03

I'll stay involved

Let's chat. Won't cost loads.

A retained engagement across multiple triggers as they come up. Lost pitches, lost clients, market moves. We build this into a repeatable layer that sits on top of how you already win work.

For agencies who want this layered into how they win work, not used once and forgotten

09 / About

Simon Douglass

Simon Douglass · Founder, Curated Digital

I'm Simon.

I've been in digital since 2003. Ex-Googler. Started Curated Digital not long after, and have been running it ever since, through the good years (23 people, big retainers) and the leaner ones (six of us now, more interesting work, fewer headaches).

This page isn't part of Curated. It's something I've been doing on the side for the better part of a decade.

I've also got ADHD. Diagnosed late. And I hate structure. Process, repetition, the "send 50 templated emails a day forever" grind. None of it takes. I'm hopeless at the methodical doing that most agency growth depends on.

But on the day we lose a client, I can sit down for two hours and write five really good emails to people who should already be talking to us. And that, weirdly, has worked enough times over ten years to bet on.

So this isn't a system. There are no pillars, no automations. It's one tactic. It's worked. I've forwarded the original email to 71 agency owners over the years, and most of them have won work off the back of it.

Hence this page.

Tell me about a client you just lost.

Get in touch. Tell me who you've just lost, what they were worth, and where it leaves you. I'll come back with some honest thoughts on what I'd do if I were sat where you are. Could be the magic email. Could be something else entirely. Either way: no call, no deck, no follow-up if it isn't useful. No strings.

Cheers. Got it.

I'll come back to you within 24 hours, usually sooner. Honest read on what I'd do, no follow-up unless you want one.

Reply within 24 hours

No follow-up unless you ask for one