E-mail introductions: Why? How?

I had lunch with one of Spiracle’s partners the other day. After an hour of great food and better conversation, I asked if she would introduce me to an acquaintance of hers. She chewed on her bite of pizza and the thought of making the introduction. Her expression went from one of happiness (from the pizza) to a look of concern mixed with a tinge of fear. Her anxiety was understandable. She isn’t familiar with e-mail introductions and the person I wanted to meet isn’t a close friend of hers. After a few moments, she begrudgingly obliged, but only on the condition that I would provide some background on myself, Spiracle, and why the introduction may benefit the recipient. 

I didn’t want to force her to do something she wasn’t comfortable doing, but I also really wanted to meet this person who could impact my business. What’s the best practice in this situation? I’ll only address a couple major concerns here: the relationship that the person making the introducing has with the recipient and the best way to phrase the e-mail. The following is my opinion, but I’ve seen it used in real life and know that it can be effective.

If someone asks you to introduce them to someone via email, you’ll immediately think of the last time you saw or spoke to that person. This is where the fun starts. If they are just a random LinkedIn connection who you've never met, the introduction should not happen. And if you’d consider them an acquaintance (never met with them one on one) and it’s been more than 6 months since you’ve seen them, you should NOT feel obligated to make the introduction. But, if you’d consider them a friend and just haven’t seen them for awhile, I would suggest sending the e-mail. It’s a win-win. You’ll help the person requesting the introduction and be able to re-connect with a friend. The third scenario is with someone who you only know professionally. If you’ve met with them one on one before and struck up a good rapport, you should make the introduction. But, if you’ve only seen them in public and never met individually, they may see the introduction as an overstep and it would have an inverse result. I think you get my point. If you saw them in public and would be able to strike up a conversation (about something other than the weather) making an introduction via email shouldn’t be a daunting task, as long as you know how to do it. 

There are a few steps that have to be taken when formatting the e-mail. If you’re good friends with the recipient, you can make it short and sweet. Include a greeting, some background on both parties, and the reason for the introduction. But, if the recipient is an acquaintance, you’ll need to take the following measures. The first is to ask the person receiving the introduction if they’d be willing to be brought into the equation. While this is not always necessary, it is polite. Next, you need to make sure you put the recipient in the “To:” line and the person requesting the introduction being CC'ed. This is crucial. You want to make them feel like they’re the priority. 

When it comes to wording the body of the email, there are three major things that need to be included. First, you’ll want to start with addressing the recipient and include something about their background and/or current position. Something along the lines of, “Being that you’re the Director of Marketing for XYZ Company and content creation is one of your main duties, I’d like to introduce you to Davis, who works for Spiracle Media…” 

Next you’ll want to shine some light on the potential benefit of the introduction. Saying “I know video is a major part of your strategy, so I thought that this introduction would be beneficial because Spiracle specializes in creating videos that tell captivating, impactful stories. They are also an awesome team who are easy to work with.” This provides all parties with sufficient information and offers a direction for the subsequent conversation. That last thing you want is to make an introduction that leaves everyone confused and ends up being a waste of time. 

The third part of the introduction is offering a positive sentiment. Saying something like, “I hold both of you in high regard and hope this connection has a positive result.” Making it known that you went out of your way to make the connection will spur both parties to put effort into turning the introduction into a tangible business initiative.

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Thank you for reading.