Editor’s Note: This article was submitted by our partner, ScoutingZone, in an ongoing series of best practices for college recruiting.

1. Have a game plan of who you are emailing.
2. Create a template that you can use for each email, so you aren’t recreating them each time.
3. Let them know why you’re interested in their school and their program.
4. Be authentic and keep it personalized.
5. It should be written by the player, not the parent.

What should you include in your email?

• Graduation year
• Name
• Club team
• Personalized ScoutingZone link
  • Your ScoutingZone profile is your soccer “resume” and is very important to include in all emails you send to college coaches. This also allows you to see which colleges are viewing your profile. 
• Tournament game schedule
  • Make it easy for the coaches to find you and flag your matches.

Follow up after events

• Check your Scout Analysis and follow up with schools who may have flagged your match, viewed your profile or favorited you.
• Email who you had written prior to the event to follow up, reaffirming your interest. 
• Maybe you added a new highlight video to your ScoutingZone profile that you’d like them to see.
• Let them know where you are playing next.

Key things to remember: Be persistent. Emailing them once is not enough, and just because they haven’t responded, doesn’t mean it’s a “no.” Continue to email them a second, third and fourth time from the original email thread. That shows them you are persistent and that they may not have responded yet. Your Scout Analysis can be a direct reflection of your email communication.