Are you wondering how to write an effective email that generates sales? If so, this guide could be for you!
If your job mainly involves writing sales emails, you could be asking yourself what can you right to write an effective email that generates sales and ultimately get the reader’s attention. First and foremost, you need to have interesting sales email subject lines—this is your way of getting the reader’s attention the first time.
Your email subject line is critical. This is where the email recipient decides if it’s worthy to open or not. So, as much as possible, never take this aspect for granted since a strong subject line is among the key components when you write an effective email that generates sales.
So, without much further ado, here are the top tips on how to write an effective email that generates sales:
1. Be personal with your subject lines.
The subject line is where the pros stand out from the average email marketer. This is the part of writing winning sales emails that few, if not many, sales reps tend to forget to do.
If you send an email subject line with the wrong name or have that extra spacing or brackets on the form field, you give the impression that you don’t care. It would look like you are using an email automation tool that has gone wrong.
When you write your subject line, write as if you are making these sales emails for an acquaintance or mutual connection to make it an effective email that generates sales. If your sales email subject line rings like it will be a fancy newsletter-style message packed with marketing jargon for a product or service and buy buttons, it’s likely to get archived as your prospect skims their inbox.Â
Your sales email will also likely land in Gmail’s promotions tab or, worse—the spam folder, lowering the open rates of your email.
Here are some of the best approaches for sales professionals to keep in mind when making messages to your prospects or target audience.
2. Catchy slogans are now overrated on sales emails.
I know that this can be hard to swallow, but most of the time, these seemingly catchy slogans are being too robotic as time passes by. It’s like things are just all about PR stuff with no human emotion involved.
Many people think a sales email should look and sound like this. But if you want your emails actually to be opened and taken seriously, you’ve got to know your audience.
Most importantly, remember to write like a real human opening line of communication to have an effective email that generates sales.
3. Capitalizing the first word and using lowercase for the rest of the text.
You don’t have to capitalize each word of your subject line. It’ll only make it feel and look like a marketing broadcast sent to half a million people, which isn’t exactly the best first impression with a sales email that’s supposed to be somewhat personal.
Data shows that using a lowercase format remarkably increases sales email open rates—partly because of the typical email communication behaviour, which generally wouldn’t include capitalization for each word.
4. Asking a question in the subject line can work.
Asking a question for the subject line is another interesting way to write the sales email subject lines. However, make sure that you are not baiting your email recipient into opening your email.
Make sure that you are asking the right question without the intention of just baiting and adding a value proposition to the customer. This can help dramatically in increasing the open rates of your sales emails.
Learning how to ask the right questions will help you improve over time, helping you sell more. Also, avoid using multiple punctuation marks, as you will likely end up in the promotion tab of Gmail.
5. How a strong opening line should be.
When creating the opening line of an effective email that generates sales, the first thing you should ask yourself is how would you address your recipient—should you use Mr or Mrs? Or use an informal one, such as Hey, Hi, Dear or Hello?
To know the right way to address your recipient, look back at your customer data or profile to understand your customer better. If you are currently working with a team, it’s best to ask their opinion if you’re going in the right direction.
While using Dear in the opening line may have a healthy dose of doubt, others may not feel the same way. So, know your prospects better, and you will not go wrong in addressing them.
6. Connect the start of your sales email to the subject line
So, you have crafted the best sales email subject line—but have you done well in the opening lines? As you might already know, there’s nothing worse than getting a sales email with an interesting subject line but immediately frustrated within the first few opening lines.
It’s best to remember that a strong sales email opening line does the following three things:
- It quickly establishes the context of why you’re reaching out.
- It takes an appropriate step toward building trust and credibility.
- It offers a natural transition for your sales pitch.
With those things in mind, work on making one or two short sentences that accomplish these three things while staying relevant to the subject line that set up this initial sales email.
7. Go right to the point.
So, you already have a strong subject line and the perfect opening line. So, what’s next? It’s time to craft relevant content for the body of your sales email with a solid call to action.
As much as possible, avoid spammy words like ‘sale’, ‘free’, and specials, as these are too obvious and will likely get a low response rate or click through rates.
Also, when writing emails, it is essential to avoid using industry jargon. The purpose isn’t to show your industry knowledge but to help customers lessen their problems.
Show the readers how your product or service can help them overcome their challenges or solve their problems. As much as possible, avoid using technical words that the average prospect cannot understand.
So, what’s the primary goal of your sales email?
- Is it to encourage click-through and sales?
- Do you aim to get them to try your product?
Depending on your goal, the body and pitch of your sales email can differ significantly. With that in mind, you have to deliver a compelling pitch crafted to accomplish the goal of your sales email.
8. Craft a strong pitch in your sales emails.
With many B2B service or product offerings, the first step in your sales process is usually to get prospects on the phone and discuss their needs. This includes learning their challenges and assessing whether or not they are an excellent fit to be customers before going into particulars on which plan to choose.
This first step is critical in determining if the sales conversation will move forward. This is to help you stay focused on working only with solid leads and avoid wasting precious time on leads that’ll never convert.
With that goal in mind, your pitch in the initial sales email should have these things:
- Giving additional info about yourself.
- Clarifying the problem using only one simple sentence.
- Highlighting clear benefits that prospects can relate to.
9. Closing statement and call-to-action.
Every sales email should end with a straightforward call-to-action (CTA). This is to make it obvious the action you want your prospect to take right there.
If you haven’t, you’ve failed since that’s the purpose of writing winning sales emails. It’s your job to guide your potential customers through the step-by-step process of making it from your sales funnel to signing as a customer.
There are various sales email templates that you can use to close the conversation and end with a strong CTA. If you’ve done all right up to this point, then the CTA you close with determines whether the prospect responds to your email or not.
While it may seem that writing a great CTA is simple, it can actually be pretty complex. So, make sure to double-check if everything is appropriately set.
Crucial Mistakes to avoid with sales email CTAs to have an effective email that generates sales
The main reason you’re sending sales emails is that you want the prospects to take action. So, it’s only natural that you would like them to open your email and respond.
However, if your prospects are opening your emails but not taking further action, you likely have some issues with your CTA. It could be that you are making these common mistakes:
- No clear CTA.
- Excessive use of diverse CTAs.
- Unclear CTA.
- Asking for too much type of CTA.
With only a cold sales email, you have not earned a credit to ask for too much from your prospect. For instance, if your CTA asks the potential client to invest serious resources right away or ask for sensitive material, it’s too much to ask without establishing trust first.
So, naturally, your prospects will not do it. The best sales email CTAs are simple, straightforward, and have reasonable requests for a cold outreach request.
High-converting sales email CTA examples to have an effective email that generates sales.
Excellent sales email CTAs lessen friction and are focused on what they want to ask their prospects to do. Below are three examples of CTAs that you can apply in your own sales emails:
- Give specific dates and times when asking for a call or demo.
- Make complex requests simple.
In other words, end each sales email with a clear, direct call to action and leaves no room for ambiguity or misinterpretation to move the conversation to the next stage.
10. Your Email Signature
Your email signature is among the most essential yet underutilized parts of an email. It might be just an afterthought to most salespeople—rather than a tool to exploit and further sell to the prospects you’re sending emails with.
Most average email signatures contain your name, contact info, title, and logo. For example:
Blake Smith
General Manager, Hilton Hotels
Phone: 2222-222-2222
Email: blakesmith@hilton.hotels
Although there’s nothing wrong with it, you can make it a lot better to be it an effective email that generates sales and become more valuable by linking:
- Press features
- Case studies
- Webinar recordings
- YouTube videos
That way, you heighten prospects’ trust in your capability and legitimacy, but you are also encouraging them to give you a shot.