Over the years, the quality of email marketing has been consistently rising to keep up with the...
When it comes to sales emails, it’s one thing for a recipient to open them but another thing entirely to react to it. This could be clicking through to your website, calling a number, downloading an eBook, reading your blogs, replying to your email and more.
So, can you create emails that guarantee responses? Well, lucky for you, we’ve put together the perfect post that points out tips on not only getting your emails noticed, but also getting solid, regular responses from them too.
- Short But Punchy Subject Line
- Personal Opening Line
- Killer Body Copy
- Actionable Closing Copy
- Informative Signature
- When Should You Send a Sales Email?
- Follow Up Strategies
Short But Punchy Subject Line
One of the first things the recipient will notice when an email lands in their inbox is the subject line. So, you’ve got to keep it short, punchy and make sure there’s enough value in there that makes them want to click and open it up.
A key thing to remember is to avoid sounding like a pushy salesman - nobody likes that. You want to make sure that the audience you’re reaching out to are interested in what you want to say,
Think of the emails that you see and probably ignore around Black Friday. This is one of the busiest times of the year where retailers carry out flash, limited time sales in order to drive in revenue. Some of the deals are amazing and deserve to be shouted about, but the majority of them will be simply ignored and deleted.
In these emails, it won’t be uncommon to have seen words like “final” or “discount” included in the subject line (usually in capitals too). Although these are very prompting words, a lot of other businesses will try this tactic and if you’re not differentiating yourself from the competition, you’re not going to get noticed.
Instead of generic spammy words like that, we recommend you try out subject lines like:
- “David, quick question for you…”
- Question about (goal that recipient has recently set).
- "Have you considered (thought/recommendation)?"
These are more personal and less pushy, which will entice the reader to open up your email.
Personal Opening Line
First things first, this is not the time to start introducing yourself. This is often the approach that a lot of emails take and we feel that it’s the completely wrong way to go about it. It’s cliche, dated and overused. Again, like pushy subject lines, it’s not going to get you noticed and the reader will have made their first impressions within a matter of seconds.
We encourage you to open the email by addressing the reader and their interests. You’re primarily making it personal to them, so they’ll be more inclined to read on further and keep interest.
Why not start with:
- “I noticed you…”
- “Congratulations on…”?
Killer Body Copy
This is where you have to present the audience and your prospects with the most value. You’ve already gripped them with your subject line and enticed them with your opening lines to read on. Now you have to dive right in and relate to them more than ever.
Boring copy is a crime. There’s no excuse for it.
One step towards making your content killer is to avoid generic value stats. These are the kind of the stats that are not only irrelevant but also don’t add any value to the point you’re trying to make. Unrealistic statistics and promises will only lead the reader to believe that what you’re approaching them with is too good to be true and they’ll take the journey no further.
We recommend that you pose questions to the reader that are aligned with their end goals, such as:
- How, if at all, would you to like to further improve your current strategies?
- What’re your ideas?
- Is this a priority for you right now?
This will get them thinking, hopefully generate some questions and lead to them responding to the email and getting in touch to find out more.
Actionable Closing Copy
After you’ve added total value in the body, the reader is going to want more and may well want to act on what you’ve said. So, you now need to give them a clear option of how they can go about doing so.
Try ending your emails with one of these questions:
- What does your calendar look like to talk?
- Do you have any questions I can clear up?
- Let me know what makes sense as a next step, if any?
These can prompt your audience into giving you a response.
Informative Signature
Your signature is just a sign off. It’s not a source for more information so it literally should offer no more than your name and contact details. Keep it short, with either black and white colouring or a scheme that matches the company’s branding. Include a link to an online profile, like Twitter or LinkedIn.
Tip: It is not acceptable, nor funny to use a cheesy line in your signature. Not cool, man.
When Should You Send a Sales Email?
According to a study carried out by HubSpot, Tuesday is the best day of the week to send an email, with 20 percent higher opens than average.
Following this are Monday and Wednesday, with 18 percent higher email opens. They also found that the highest email opens on a weekday fall between 10am and 12pm, with the peak occurring at 11am.
But, that's only one study. Other studies and people might say otherwise. So, the moral of the story is that it depends on your audience. The average email open rates and supposedly popular days are just there for reference.
Follow Up Strategies
So, you’ve now sent your email off and it should be in good stead to go down well with the recipients.
But, you’re not out of the woods and guaranteed responses yet.
Eighty percent of sales require five follow-ups. There’s a three-step process for what to do after you’ve sent the initial sales email to follow up and maximise your chances of closing a sale.
These steps are:
- Measure engagement.
- Track trigger events.
- Find ways to consistently add value to them until they’re ready.
Find Out More About Sales Enablement
To get the most out of your sales emails, there's another practice you should think about. Sales enablement is one that can help your business move quickly in the right direction. From lead scoring, sales automation and marketing alignment, there are a lot of different ways that sales enablement can have a positive effect on your business.
If you’re not entirely sure what it is, don’t worry. We’ve got your back.
Download our free comprehensive guide below to find out everything you need to know and how it can help your company achieve results like never before.