TEMPLATEFOR MARKETING LEADERSFOR GROWTH LEADERS

The weekly competitive intelligence briefing.

The Friday-afternoon email template that turns competitor noise into a five-minute exec read. Pricing moves, positioning shifts, landing page diffs, recommended responses. Five minutes to read, always.

◆ TL;DR

▸Under 400 words. Always. The moment it's longer, exec readership drops to zero.
▸Five bullets maximum. Signal beats volume — hard.
▸Every bullet ends with a recommended action. Otherwise it's noise.
▸Send same day, same time, every week. Pick a slot and never move it.

01The subject line

What makes execs open.

The subject line is the most important 10 words of the week. Format: week number + top signal. Execs scan subject lines in 2 seconds — if yours sounds like a newsletter, it won't open.

▸Template: 'CI · W{week} · {top signal}'
▸Example: 'CI · W18 · Competitor X dropped Starter tier by 40%'
▸Never use: 'Weekly update', 'Intelligence briefing', or anything generic.

02The opening

One line. One signal.

Open with the single most important finding of the week. One sentence. If the exec stops reading after that sentence, they should still know the most important thing you detected.

▸One sentence. Never two.
▸Top signal only. Everything else goes below the fold.
▸No preamble ('Hope you had a great week'). Start with the substance.

03The body

Three to five bullets.

Each bullet follows the same structure: what happened, source link, recommended action. Three to five bullets total. Anything more and execs start skipping — and once they skip once, they stop reading.

▸Structure per bullet: what · source · recommended action.
▸Three to five bullets max. Six is too many.
▸Include losers and non-events only if relevant (i.e., 'competitor has stopped shipping weekly — signal').

Example: 'Competitor X silently removed the Starter tier from their pricing page Tuesday (source). Recommended action: consider repricing our Launch tier to capture the downmarket gap — modeling attached.'

04The closing

The one question.

End every briefing with one specific question for the exec team. This forces a response — even if the response is just an emoji reaction. Over 12 weeks, the questions you ask shape the CI program's priorities.

▸One specific, answerable question.
▸Example: 'Should we ship a response to the pricing move this week, or wait and see?'
▸Avoid: 'Thoughts?' — too open-ended, nobody answers.

05The footer

The meta.

A compact footer showing signal count, response rate, and the next briefing date. This is what turns the briefing from a one-off email into a program with momentum.

▸Signals tracked this week / total.
▸Response rate on last briefing (as a pulse on engagement).
▸Next briefing date + time.

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What makes execs open.

The subject line is the most important 10 words of the week. Format: week number + top signal. Execs scan subject lines in 2 seconds — if yours sounds like a newsletter, it won't open.

▸Template: 'CI · W{week} · {top signal}'

▸Example: 'CI · W18 · Competitor X dropped Starter tier by 40%'

▸Never use: 'Weekly update', 'Intelligence briefing', or anything generic.

One line. One signal.

Open with the single most important finding of the week. One sentence. If the exec stops reading after that sentence, they should still know the most important thing you detected.

▸One sentence. Never two.

▸Top signal only. Everything else goes below the fold.

▸No preamble ('Hope you had a great week'). Start with the substance.

Three to five bullets.

▸Structure per bullet: what · source · recommended action.

▸Three to five bullets max. Six is too many.

▸Include losers and non-events only if relevant (i.e., 'competitor has stopped shipping weekly — signal').

The one question.

▸One specific, answerable question.

▸Example: 'Should we ship a response to the pricing move this week, or wait and see?'

▸Avoid: 'Thoughts?' — too open-ended, nobody answers.