The 9-Word Email That Unlocks the Goldmine Inside Your Business

Many Years Ago…

Frustrated, I kept punching the refresh button on my computer. Refresh…refresh…refresh.

I guess I thought if I hit that button enough times, the number of sales we had made for our upcoming sports training camp would magically change.

…it didn’t. The same number kept showing: 87.

This was a bad number.

In the sports training camp business, the first 100 registrations cover your costs.

87 was barely enough to break even, and we had worked for the better part of a year to get those clients in the door.

I fought back tears. I didn’t get it. What was happening?

Why were our sales numbers so low?

These numbers were way below what we were used to. We had a great brand with tons of referrals. Plus, we did a fair bit of online and offline advertising, including direct mail.

I called my business partner. “Hey. No new registrations this week.”

“Yikes,” she said. Then: “We’re running out of time.”

I did what every other business owner would do, which is hit the internet research.

It didn’t take long to pinpoint our first problem. Since the previous season, EIGHT additional new competitors had opened up camps in our area.

EIGHT!

(Our sports camp was part of a small niche. Eight new competitors is a LOT).

Next I hopped on the phone. I needed to know what our clients were doing.

“Hey Coach Brian, just wondering where the athletes from your team are going for their summer training this year?’

(Not subtle, but you get the idea).

Twelve calls later, I had the answer.

I called my business partner back. “We’ve got our ‘hypers’ coming back, but some families are trying a new camp this year.”

(This happens with live events. The clients get ‘shiny object syndrome’ and want to try the new thing down the street).

She was quiet for a moment and said, “It’s not really this year I’m worried about. We can handle a dip. But what if all these competitors stick around? Nobody will be able to

make a profit.”

The worst part was I knew these new camps wouldn’t be as good as ours.

But did our customers know that?

I had to find a solution.

I went into my marketing library and pulled out my favourite book by Jay Abraham.

Right off the bat (literally page 1), Abraham was talking about the value of a customer.

He said:

“The company does not exist that fully maximizes the potential in its customer base. Your best prospects are your existing customers. You need to keep in touch with your customers – they all want to feel special and that you take an interest in them.”

Boom!

Abraham handed me, on a silver platter, the solution.

It was clear: I needed to stop chasing new customers and direct time and money into my current clients.

I needed to re-activate my existing clients.

The truth was that I was guilty of not keeping in touch with my clients as often as I should.

Yes, I would send them a monthly special promotion and yearly camp launch. But that was about it.

I knew I was on the right track. I sat down and wrote an email that I was sure would work.

Basically, it was a “We miss you, here’s 10% off customer appreciation” type email.

You know the one: you tell your clients how much you value them, then you explain all the new cool stuff you are doing, and then you pitch them your offer.

I waited eagerly for the email to go out. The next day, I checked our email and…nothing.

Zero. Zip. Zilch.

(Actually, we got one response - and wasn’t even a sale. It was client asking for a tax receipt.)

I was so deflated. I knew we had some raving fans on our list, but you’d never know it.

Why am I so bad at this?

That’s when I stumbled onto the nine-word email.

As luck would have it, that wee I happened to get an email from a fitness website I had surfed.

It said, “Hey Lisa, it’s [name] here from [company x].

You applied a while back, but we never got to connect. Are you still looking to make a change with your body?”

My first thought was, “Well, yes, I do.”

Much to my surprise, I actually replied!

This got me thinking about why my “discount” email didn’t work. It didn’t work because it was so obviously a commercial, run-of-the-mill email. It got lose in a sea of sameness.

I decided I had nothing to lose. Here’s the email I sent out:

“Hey Heidi, does your daughter still want to try out for the A team this year?”

Drum roll please...

I got 14 replies and out of those, 4 sales for our camp. Whoop!

You can imagine how excited I was. I went on to develop a whole batch of email campaigns on the back of this 9-Word opener. We were able to get 121 registrations that year instead of 87.

A fortune? No…but it helped our tiny company stay afloat.

More importantly, this win brought me into a new era of email marketing, something I went on to use to launch a new company specializing in teaching mental toughness this is still successful today.

How the 9-Word Email Works

The 9-Word email works because it does something most emails never do: it treats your client like a person, not a “lead.”

The format has only two parts.

The subject line is just their first name.

Not “We Miss You, Sarah!” Not an emoji.

Just: Sarah. That's it.

It looks like an email from an actual human being who knows her, because that's exactly what it’s supposed to do.

The body is one short question, roughly nine words long, and nothing else.

No logo. No signature block. No button. No offer. Just a single, genuine-sounding question that follows the following format:

“Are you still [interested in / working on / looking for] ___?”

That's the whole email.

The reason it works is human psychology.

An open question creates an unfinished thought in the reader's mind.

Most people have a hard time leaving a direct question unanswered, even one from a business they haven't thought about in months or years.

And, because it reads like a personal note rather than a campaign, it doesn’t trigger friction or sales resistance in your reader.

9-Word Email Examples

The most important thing is to make sure you do not send a generic email.

“Are you still interested in our services?” will fail because it’s a pitch. The question needs to be much more customized, so the client feels known.

Some quick examples:

Private psychology practices. The relationship here is deeply personal, so the tone should feel like a quiet, caring follow-up.

Subject: Sarah

Body: Are you still working through what we talked about?

Multi-disciplinary physiotherapy and massage clinics. These clients usually stopped because the acute problem resolved. However, the client needs maintenance.

Subject: Mike

Body: Is your shoulder still bothering you at all?

Corporate wellness providers. The contact here is an HR decision-maker, not an individual patient, so the question should speak to an ongoing organizational need rather than a personal one.

Subject: Jennifer

Body: Still looking to bring wellness back to your team?

Professional speakers, keynote presenters, and boutique seminar companies. These lists are event planners and HR contacts who booked once but did not come back

Subject: David

Body: Still planning a keynote for next year's event?

Performance sports training camps. Here you're usually emailing a parent so you want to refer to the upcoming season:

Subject: Lisa

Body: Is Jake getting ready for next season?

Teen sports performance academies and testing labs. Same seasonal logic, but the question can lean into the specific service — speed, strength, recovery — that brought them in originally.

Subject: Amanda

Body: Still working on Ethan's speed and agility?

Integrative teen healing and holistic wellness centers. This audience is parents navigating something emotionally sensitive, so the tone needs to be gentle and open.

Subject: Tom

Body: Still working on getting your gut fully healed?

Neurodiversity and executive function coaching practices. This audience intrinsically struggles with follow-through, so the question should feel supportive rather than like one more thing they've dropped.

Subject: Michelle

Body: Still looking for support staying on track?

Career transition and outplacement coaching firms. Once someone lands a role, the relationship goes fully dormant — but the next transition is often just a matter of time.

Subject: Rachel

Body: Thinking about your next career move?

HR consulting and executive search firms. The contact here is a corporate decision-maker whose need resurfaces long after the original placement closed.

Subject: James

Body: Still looking to fill that senior IT role?

Fractional CMOs. These are clients who got absorbed back into day-to-day operations but need more help:

Subject: Alex

Body: Still looking for help scaling your marketing?

Where the 9-Word Email Fits

The 9-word email works best as the opener, not the only touch.

If someone doesn't reply within a few days, you can send a second, slightly warmer email — one that gives one clear, low-friction next step — is where you can reintroduce the offer.

What makes the 9-Word email work is resisting the urge to explain yourself in that first message.

The moment you add a logo, a reason, or an offer, it stops reading like a personal message and starts reading like a sales campaign — and you destroy the entire psychology behind the email.

Try this 9-Word email structure and let me know how it goes.

Want some help? If you want to re-activate your client list, get more out of your marketing, or fix some revenue leaks, book a discovery call with us. It’s a complimentary 20-minute call that will add immediate revenue to your business at no extra cost. I promise.

Your friend,
Lisa B.