There’s no doubt that email campaigns are still one of the best ways to make a splash with potential sales targets.
In fact, consider the following statistics from PitchFunnel:
- Around the world 3.8 billion people are using social media, in comparison, there are four billion people utilizing email.
- Each day 127 business emails are sent and received on average per email user. This has increased from 122 in 2015, which shows that email growth is still trending upwards.
- 82% of business professionals will check their emails outside of the standard office hours.
Email isn’t going away anytime soon, and in this piece, we’ll be putting our hints and tips on how to put together a highly effective sales email.
Before Preparing Your Email
Before we proceed further, there are a couple of things you must do before composing and sending your email that will generate a greater buzz around your brand.
#1: Utilise Social to Warm Up Your Prospects
The hard fact of the matter is, unfortunately, the average response of a cold email is just 1%.
But by warming up your prospects and building upon existing relationships and creating new ones too, you’ll have a much better chance of making an impact with your prospects.
This is because, once a prospect has been exposed to your brand, they are far more likely to respond positively when they come across your name again.
These days, constructing relationships is much easier when you’re able to utilize social media.
That’s not to say that a generic comment on a Facebook post or simply following them on Twitter is going to do the trick – it’s about giving value to your prospects.
You start out quite simply, in a few different ways:
- Sharing free resources and tools.
- Interacting with prospect posts.
- Sharing links to blog posts, videos and infographics.
- Interacting in industry-related groups.
The more things you’re able to do for your prospects before sending out that email, the more likely you are to gain traction as a trusted brand.
#2: Plan Follow-Up Activity Beforehand
The reality of pretty much any endeavor in life is that you may not succeed at your first attempt.
The same is the case for your initial email, in which your prospects may not respond to your first contact. This could be down to a lack of interest, sure, but assuming you’ve done your audience and demographic research correctly – it could be down to someone forgetting or because they’re simply taking the time to research your offering on their own.
This is precisely why email follow-ups are so important, and research shows that even a single follow-up email is capable of doubling response rates.
However, an impactful follow-up doesn’t just happen by accident, it requires a careful approach – just like the first.
All this means that you need to be planning your follow-up emails even before you’ve sent out the first to ensure a consistent theme throughout.
#3: Automate, But Beware
Doing things manually can be a pain, and sending out emails and following up with your prospects can be time-consuming when automation is taken out of the equation.
Thankfully, these days there’s plenty of automation software out there:
- Pre-Scheduled Social Posts – This is especially helpful when some of your prospects may live in different parts of the world and you’re looking to get something in front of them at a time when they’re most likely to see it.
- Scheduling All Emails at the Same Time – Most modern sales tools, such as MailChimp, will allow you to schedule your emails to be sent whenever you need them to. However, be sure that the messaging on each email is clear and you don’t mix up the order that the emails need to be sent out.
- Templating – It’s possible to find an effective template and then reuse it across all of your email communications. However, it’s crucial that these are checked and double-checked, if there’s even one mistake in the templated portion of the email, then this is going to be duplicated across all of your emails.
Writing Your Email
Now that your prospects are suitably warmed, it’s time to plan and write your emails.
#1: Crafting Your Subject Line
The subject line is the very first thing that a prospect will see in their inbox, so this is arguably the most important aspect of your entire email.
According to Convince and Convert, 33% of email recipients decide whether to open an email solely based on the subject line. What’s more, a personalized email subject line is 22% more likely to be opened as per Marketing Dive.
Although not necessarily the be-all and end-all of your campaign, it does mean that your subject line will have a considerable bearing on how your campaign plays out.
Behind every good subject line, you should try to:
- Grab attention.
- Develop curiosity.
- Provide a glimpse of the benefits of opening the email.
Remember, although you are ultimately trying to sell a product, the hard sell approach will never convince your prospects, instead write as though you’re talking to a friend.
#2: Personalised Intros
These days, emails are often sent automatically, as we’ve already mentioned. This means that consumers are more becoming aware of automation software and pre-designed templates.
If someone suspects that your email has been sent to them using software and a standard template, they may be under the impression that you’ve put less effort into your attempts to communicate with them. This makes them far less likely to get in touch with you.
This shows just how important it is to put in that bit of extra effort to make the first few lines of your email a uniquely personalized experience.
According to Brain Dean, emails with personalized messages within the body increase response rates by 32.7%.
Rather than opening your email with a standard, generic greeting, try creating something that pertains to that person’s situation.
You can test this out in a couple of different ways:
- Bringing up a common interest.
- Briefly referencing how your product or solution can help them to solve their problems.
- Referencing something that person has recently been involved with, i.e., a great piece of content, a charity drive, or a promotion.
Of course, personalization at scale is a tough ask, but it’s also a fantastic way to help you stand on the shoulders of the competitors that aren’t doing this.
#3: Align the Email Body with the Goals & Desires of the Prospect
If you’re selling a product or service that isn’t likely to solve a professional pain point for your prospect, then you’re going to have a much harder time convincing anyone to buy from you.
This means you can’t just send out a generic email with your fingers crossed. Rather, you need to ensure that your communication falls in line with your prospect’s business goals.
Now more than ever, empathetic selling is the way forward, which means prospects expect you to understand their needs and requirements before you even make contact with them.
With this being the case, it means your email must align with these consumer expectations, by selling them a solution to a problem rather than the product or service itself.
There are a few different ways to do this:
- Perhaps you’ve created an innovative sales tool, in this case, you could let prospects know how your product can help them extend their reach to attract more customers to scale growth.
- If you’re a marketing company, you might want to delve into some light competitor research to let your prospect know how your services could help them steal a march on the competition.
- If your product is very niche, then you might want to target a smaller group of prospects and talk about a very specific problem that might be impacting their industry.
By taking the time to understand your prospects and how they might be facing difficulties in their industry, you can come across as a company that truly cares about its customers.
#4: In Summary
Even some of the best emails will fall flat if you make the mistake of not telling your audience what you’d like them to do.
Something like, “give us a call if you’re interested”, won’t cut the mustard here. Instead, you must be crystal clear on what you want and need.
Clear calls-to-action make your email messaging super succinct, which means there can be no ambiguity on what you’re asking of the reader.
For example:
- Create buttons that lead your audience to a ‘book a demo’ page.
- Link to a calendar page where the prospect can schedule a call with you at their own convenience.
- Provide them with links and resources to help them further their research.
#5: Keep it Short & Sweet
It’s thought that the average human attention span is around 8 seconds, according to a study conducted by tech giants Microsoft.
What’s more, our tolerance for focusing on something appears to be shrinking too since a similar study in 2000 reported that the average attention span was 12 seconds.
Marketing your products and services has become much harder because of this, which means a careful approach is required when you’re putting your email together to ensure your message can be conveyed in the shortest possible way.
As a general rule of thumb, your outreach emails should adhere to the following:
- Minimal scrolling required on a mobile screen.
- Less than eight seconds to read in full.
- CTA’s are clear from the moment the email is opened.
- Stick to between 50 – 150 words in length.
Takeaways
When putting together your email, adhere to these key pointers:
- Ensure that every email you create has a catchy subject line that has been crafted specifically to grab the attention of your audience.
- Remember that personalisation, particularly in the body of your emails can increase response rates by 32.7%.
- Be sure to connect with your audience by selling a solution to a problem rather than the product or service itself.
- Ensure that your audience is crystal clear on what you need them to do to take any interest to the next step.
- Humans aren’t naturally wired to focus on something for more than a few seconds – eight to be exact. So, keep your emails short and to the point.
