I disagree with the letter's approach even though the author says it works based on his experience.

The best template for getting a raise is something like this:

To Boss/CEO, I will be resigning my position at the company to take advantage of a new opportunity. Regards,

After that email is sent, you'll then know if the managers will woo you with a salary increase to keep you, or laugh and tell you not to let the door hit your ass on the way out.

If you're a superstar, you can leave and make more money. The superstar programmers at DEC left and jumped shipped to Google Inc. The superstar engineers at Lockheed & Boeing got lucrative offers from SpaceX. You'll also get bigger raises than a measly 5% raise. More like 20% to 100%

Now, if you're not at all interested in actually switching jobs, your options for leverage are severely handicapped. Even in that case, I recommend a different approach than the author's suggested text:

If you can't leave the job, you have to explain your value in concrete terms and why it's not being properly compensated.

Option 1: An example of leveling up the salary to your actual duties that management has overlooked: "Since the end 2014, I've been tasked to manage the Linux server reliability team in addition to delivering new web apps functionality..." You then ask to talk about market rate compensation for management work.

Option 2: An example of leveling up to new tasks and asking for the increased compensation to go with it: "I've been doing web app here for 2 years but I've noticed many inefficiencies with the Linux reliability team. I feel I'm the right person to take additional responsibility and make the team effective but I'd like to talk about compensation..." -- Basically you're being proactive about fast-tracking a promotion to a more valuable role within the company.

The 3rd option outlined by the author is the worst situation to be in: Doing what exactly you've been doing while simultaneously asking for a ~5% raise to "match market surveys" is a position of weakness. The boss responds, "ok, thanks for bringing your concerns to our attention, we'll get back to you" ... and then they don't bother giving you a raise. You'll be secretly branded as a fool if you don't resign.

Lastly, some stylistic choices on author's wordcrafting I disagree with:

"I have no desire to work anywhere else, but lately I have been getting lots of recruiters and people I know at other companies reaching out to me to see if I'd be interested in making a move. I tell them I am not interested of course, "

This text is an example of "trying too hard". You don't need to write any of that "social proof" stuff at all. If your managers are intelligent, they will infer this without you explicitly mentioning it. It's like you ask a girl out on a date by prefacing, "I've been approached by lots of girls and I've been fighting them off but I really like you so will you go to the prom with me?"

And this:

"Now that I have been married for a couple years, I am starting to make plans for a family, "

Do not put personal reasons into business correspondence. It looks weak. Yes, you have a family, or a mother with cancer treatments, or a daughter that needs a college education fund. The problem is that _everyone_ has personal goals that require employment salary so mentioning it just triggers a "yeah so what?" reaction. I suggest for folks to watch[1] the Jack Lemmon & Kevin Spacey's "But my daughter" / "Fuck you" scene 100 times to rid themselves of the idea to put personal touches into business discussions about raises.

[1] https://youtu.be/55wIwwmrHxk?t=3m54s