Revive a dormant list with one line: "Are you still looking for [the thing they asked about]?"
The email started with an estate agent in Georgetown who sent one line to a few hundred neglected leads from the previous six months: "Are you still looking for a house in Georgetown?" Dean Jackson says it brought dozens of replies and a client who bought that weekend.
He also reports a UK motorcycle jeans maker making more than $9,000 in sales in under a week with it, and a client whose click-through rose from 5% to over 30% when it switched from designed emails to a short personal one (Dean Jackson, 9 June 2026). Every figure is Jackson's own, with no list sizes or reply counts.
Any business with old leads, lapsed enquiries or past customers: services, agencies, local businesses, B2B.
The question is personal, short and easy to answer, so it reads like a note from a person, not a campaign. It is Dean Jackson's format, and he cites The Inquiry Handling Service's finding that only 15% of eventual buyers buy within 90 days and just over half within 18 months, long after most follow-up stops (Dean Jackson, 9 June 2026). Old leads already know you, so replies cost a fraction of cold outreach.
Self-reported. Dean Jackson's own account of the method (9 June 2026). It is widely used by agencies and Alex Hormozi recommends it for reviving old leads in $100M Leads.
Cost to test. Free, and an afternoon to send.
Kill it if a send to your 200 warmest old leads produces no calls.
It needs a lawful basis for writing to old leads, which differs by country. Sending from a marketing platform with tracking and templates strips the effect. Expect blunt "no" replies, and remove those people from the list.
Trigger Outreach, The Review Engine, Ad to WhatsApp
A 30-minute call first. If it fits, two calls in one week and a written growth plan you keep.