Sales email tips, tricks, and essentials

In the business world, how you convey your message is equally important to what you convey. It’s all about how you play with the communication channels that you use every day for embracing opportunities.

If the communication channels are used tactfully, they can turn into a magnet attracting great profits.

Here, we are going to focus on one of the most effective communication channels – “SALES EMAILS”.

You may be wondering why only sales emails’?

What about the other communication channels like calls and text messages that you use to connect with your prospects?

Well, we haven’t forgotten them. We’ve covered those two crucial channels of communication in the blog –

“Communication channels to strengthen your outreach (Voice & Text)” 

You can explore it to get some tactics and scripts for bolstering your approach while using these communication channels.

Here, let’s give undivided attention to “SALES EMAILS” for ensuring success while using the channel.

After all, this is one of the communication channels that has garnered a lot of attention. Around 124.5 business emails and 111.1 billion consumer emails were sent and received each day in 2018.

Email is nearly 40x more effective than either Facebook or Twitter for acquiring new customers. – Salesmate

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Here is the conglomeration of the points you’ll get to read in this blog. Directly jump to your favorite segment.

1. Essentials to consider while drafting sales emails

2. How to write the perfect sales email?

3. Effective sales email tips

4. Best sales email templates

The ultimate guide to sales emails

Yes, sales email is one of the most powerful and quickest communication channels.

But sadly, it hasn’t been used in the right way. Did you know that 51% of recipients delete emails within the first few seconds of opening it?

Wait, there is more

• Only 23.9% of sales emails are opened.
• Sixty-nine percent of mobile users delete emails that aren’t optimized for mobile.
• On average, 51.1% of readers spend less than 2 seconds looking at your email.
• 57% of email recipients consider a message to be spam.

I am sure these statistics must have answered ‘the question’ that generally hovers over your mind –

‘Why aren’t prospects responding to my emails?’

Step into your prospect’s shoes and think

‘Would you give your precious time to an email that’s too long and poorly written?’

Keep aside the inner content, would you open a blog in the first place if the subject line isn’t appealing?

I don’t know about you, but several people won’t.

47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line. Besides, 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line. – Invesp

Your prospects might even be one of them.

Therefore, every part of your email needs attention, or it will just end up in the prospect’s junk folder.

To stop that from happening, you must focus on strengthening this effective channel of communication.

But how?

Well, in this blog, we will cover all the vital points to strengthen your sales emails for boosting your response rate.

Essentials to consider while drafting sales emails

Forget that you are a sales professional for a while. I know it’s difficult, there are sales targets to achieve. But trust me, this will help in winning more customers and take you closer to your sales targets.

Keep your sales thoughts aside and think from your prospect’s point of view.

Visualize how will they view your email. What will motivate them to open and read the email? This will help in determining where exactly you need to focus your efforts.

“The golden rule for every business is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place” – Orison Swett Marden

Here are certain things that you need to be careful about while writing sales emails:

1. Don’t email “angry”

Writing an email when you are infuriated is a big no-no.

Don’t pour your already seething anger in an email. You will end up typing things that may have a serious repercussion.

You might lose a lucrative deal. Prospects don’t take time in switching to other vendors if they have an unpleasant experience.

“If you don’t take care of your customers, then your competition will. Don’t give them that opportunity” – Shep Hyken

Take a deep breath; calm yourself before typing an email. Or maybe choose another day for sending that email. Whenever emotions come into play, it’s better to take a little time rather than making things more complicated. Send the email when you are in the right frame of mind.

2. Keep it short

Do you know how you can save more hours for selling? By eliminating unnecessary things like – “writing lengthy sales emails.”

What’s the point in writing long tales that prospects won’t even read? No one is interested in wasting their valuable time in wading through those convoluted sentences.

Therefore –

• Be precise.
• Only include the necessary points.
• Limit the number of words you use in the email.

A study by Boomerang found that sales emails between 50 to 125 words get better response rate.

Try not to exceed five or six sentences while writing sales emails. A site like five.sentenc.es can help you in it.

However, ensure you don’t confuse the prospect while sending a short email. Be concise yet clear with your message.

3. Personalize your sales emails

Finding ways to make your prospects respond to your sales emails?

Well, personalization is one of the most powerful ways to increase your response rate.

Personalized emails increased CTR by 14% and Conversion by 10%. – Maligen

Businesses prefer to work with a sales rep who understands their unique situations, challenges, concerns, and priorities.

Sales reps are expected to convert this knowledge into personalized customer interaction.

While almost every business does send bulk emails, personalized sales emails give an assurance that you are genuinely interested in helping the prospect.

So, put in efforts to garner information for tailoring your content to their needs.

Use social networks to find out relevant information for sending a personalized email.

Here is an example of a personalized email.

4.  Give attention to email formatting and attachments

While writing sales emails, we often give utmost attention to the message but ignore the formatting of the email.

Make sure equal attention is given to the formatting and structuring as well.

Here is how you can do it:

• Keep the email in sentence case.
• Avoid patterned mail background as it becomes difficult to read.
• Don’t use fancy fonts and colors.
• Use standard fonts and stick to black color.
• Ensure you zip or compress large files or folders before attaching them to your sales emails.
• Resize graphics of width above 600 pixels before attaching them to your sales emails.
• Use PDF where possible as you are not sure if the prospect has the same software that can open the attachments.

5. Play with numbers

Numbers have great power; they can capture the attention of the recipient and boost the response rate. Including statistics and figures improves readability and makes your messages easily consumable.

Write numbers instead of numerals in your subject line to catch the recipient’s eye (like 22 instead of twenty-two).

Use statistics in your email content to establish trust and build credibility.

For instance, you can introduce your company as –

“We are the leading eCommerce marketplace, with over 20 million products across 60+ categories.”

How to write the perfect sales email?

For effective sales communication, perfect sales emails are essential. As only when your sales emails are interesting, prospects will read and respond to them. Or else your sales emails might just get stuck in the purgatory of trash folder.

Here is how you can write a perfect sales email:

1. Include a catchy subject line

Most people judge an email through its subject line. It has a great impact on the open rate.

“When you’re sending emails, you live and die by your subject line. Making it personal or funny can increase your open rate ten times or more. At the very least, try to pitch some value rather than pointless bragging. ‘Work Faster’ is better than ‘Version 10.4 now available!” – John Wall

So, focus on writing an impactful subject line that gets maximum clicks.

The email subject lines need to be short and catchy.

• Sales emails with three words have the highest engagement rate.

Choose the right words.

• Subject lines with ‘soon’ have the highest engagement rates(21.8%) versus those referring ‘now.’
• Lines that use the word ‘free’ have significantly lower engagement rates (13.1% versus 17.2 for lines without ‘free’)
• Using ‘daily’ or ‘weekly’ in subject lines boost open rates whereas ‘monthly’ hurts them.

Subject lines with words like –

• ‘whitepaper’, ‘journal’, ‘forecast’ and ‘training’ are the worst performers.
• “you” got clicked 5% less than those without.
• “quick” got clicked 17% less than those without.
• “tomorrow” got clicked 10% more than those without.
• Sales emails with “meeting” in the subject lines opened 7% less than those without.

Add emojis in the subject line. (but ensure you use the right one).

• Adding emojis in email subject lines leads to a 56% higher open rate compared to text-based subject lines.

Below are examples of different subject lines that various companies have used —

Fear of missing out

• JetBlue — “You’re missing out on points.”
• Jersey Mike’s Subs — “Mary, Earn double points today only.”
• Guess — “Tonight only – A denim lover’s dream.”

Curiosity

• Manicube — “*Don’t Open This Email*”
• Thrillist — “What They Eat In Prison”
• Chubbies — “Hologram Shorts?!”

Funny subject lines

• Groupon — “Deals That Make Us Proud (Unlike Our Nephew, Steve)”
• OpenTable — “Licking your phone never tasted so good.”
• Gozengo — “NEW! Vacation on Mars”

Pain points

• HP — “Stop wasting money on ink.”
• Sephora — “Your beauty issue resolved.”
• Guess — “Wanted: Cute and affordable fashion.”

Personal

• UrbanDaddy — “You’ve changed.”
• Bonnie Fahy — “Mary, do you remember me?”
• Jon Morrow — “Quick Favour?”

2.  Strong opening line

“Hi ___, I hope you’re doing well?”

How often do you receive an email starting with this opening line?

Isn’t it exasperating to read the same sentence in almost every email?

Oh, wait! Let me rephrase the question for you.

How often do you send an email starting with that opening sentence?

Your prospects don’t feel any different when they see the same opening sentence in multiple emails.

The opening sentence impacts the impression of what is to come. It determines if the potential prospect will be interested in learning about what you have to offer.

The opening sentence shouldn’t be like a piece of a different puzzle. It should blend seamlessly with the rest of the content in your sales email.

Craft a meaningful sentence that grabs the prospect’s attention and causes them to read further.

Here are some examples of opening sentences that can be used:

• “Congratulations on [recent accomplishment] …”
• “I read about your company’s [event] in [publication]…”
• “I recently read your whitepaper on [title] and found it quite insightful….”
• “I recently helped a company like yours save [__hours] and boost revenue by [__%]
• “Did you know [some interesting facts about the market or their competitors…]?”
• “[mutual connection] mention your expertise in [subject]…

3. Helpful body copy

You managed to impress a prospect with a compelling subject line and opening sentence. However, that’s not the end of the road. You need to have an interesting email body to support them.

Think about it like this:

Due to an enticing trailer, you decide to watch a movie. The beginning seems promising. But then, after 20-30 minutes, nothing is really happening on the screen. Boredom strikes and you leave without watching the full movie.

This is exactly how your prospects react when the body of the sales email isn’t compelling.

Therefore, invest time and effort in crafting a copy that would be read till the end and stimulate a response.

Ensure the body of your sales email doesn’t come across as a billboard advertisement boasting about your product. It should be engaging and focused on the prospect’s problem.

Create a prospect-centric introduction

• “Hi [prospect name], [mutual connection] mentioned that you are facing trouble in [their ongoing problem]”

Check out this article for a complete guide on writing a perfect sales introduction email.

Create a sense of urgency

• “If you don’t address the problem right now, you might [ consequences of not addressing the problem].”

Propose the value of your product/service.

• “Our solution can aid you in [capabilities of your product]. It had helped [past customer’s company name] in saving [___$]”

4. Add CTAs

Your sales emails are incomplete without a call-to-action (CTA). It’s difficult to get a response to a sales email when you haven’t been clear with your motive.

There is only a 21% chance that you’ll get a response to your second email if the first goes unanswered.’ – Mailshake

Call-to-actions instruct the prospect of what they need to do next. It gives them a direction.

So, don’t hit send without adding a relevant call-to-action to your sales email.

Here are a few CTA examples:

• “Let’s schedule a free demo on Wednesday at 4 PM. Please confirm your availability.”
• “I hope you will be interested in seeing a free study of how your website stacks up against your top three competitors?”
• “Are you available next week at 5 PM for a quick 10 minutes call to explore the product?”
• “Register ASAP and grab this exclusive deal.”
• “If I may steal you away for a 15-minute phone call at 5 pm PST, tomorrow!”
• “You can book a 20 mins slot at your convenience from my calendar link.”
• “Please don’t hesitate to call us [number] for getting more information about the product.”

5. Email signature

A poorly designed email signature is synonymous to writing your details on a scrap of paper and handing it to your prospect.

Think about the impression it would make on the prospect.

Email signature holds yours and the company’s identity. So, it is important to get your email signature right.

A good email signature can help in making your company more recognizable among your prospects and customers. Provided it has all the requisite elements.

Below are a few tips for creating a professional email signature:

• Name, designation and company’s name
• Contact information
• Company website
• Photo(optional)
• Legal requirements (Few countries have certain legal requirements that all business communication must meet)
• Use the design hierarchy.
• Add visual interest by using 1 or 2 colors.
• Make sure the colors are simple and consistent.
• Use space divider.
• Ensure your design is mobile-friendly.
• Add clickable icons linking to your social media profiles.
• Take the help of professional email signature generators available.

Effective sales emails tips

Don’t take a deep sigh once you draft an email. There is a lot you need to do for ensuring email success.

Here are a few tips for strengthening your sales emails outreach:

1.  Proofread your sales emails

Do you look at your sales email from a critical angle before sending them to your prospects?

When it comes to sending out a sales email, proofreading is pivotal.

Isn’t it better that you notice your mistakes before the prospect does?

Besides, there are chances you might miss out on something important that you wanted to convey.

Therefore, take a little time to go through your sales email again.

Here are the things you need to keep in mind while proofreading your sales emails:

• Make sure that the contact’s name is right.
• Check your tone of the email.
• Watch out for wordiness.
• Check for clarity.
• Ensure you spelled everything correctly.
• You can use tools like Grammarly for avoiding basic grammatical errors.
• Ensure all your facts and figures are correct.
• Check the links you have added; ensure they go to the right places.
• Check date and time before sending a meeting request.
• Make sure you have attached all the vital documents that you have mentioned in the email.

2.  Pick the right day and time to email

Timing is crucial in sales. Your open rate could plummet if the email goes at the wrong time.

Prospects aren’t waiting to receive your emails. Moreover, you might even disturb them by sending the email at an odd time.

A case study conducted by Danwood Group found that it takes an average of sixty-four seconds to recover from an email interruption (regardless of the email’s importance) and return to work at the same work rate as before the interruption. – SaneBox

Therefore, it is necessary to choose the right day and time to send sales emails to your prospects.

As per various studies conducted by Coschedule below are the best days and times to send sales emails.

NOTE: 6:00 pm – This is the end of a workday. So, people read emails while commuting.

3. Use email automation 

We all know that effective sales emails can be of great help in nurturing leads and driving revenue. However, manually handling this profitable channel can get cumbersome at times.

But why manage it manually when you have an option to automate your emails?

By putting your emails on autopilot, you can increase your productivity and add more time to your day.

For instance, instead of manually sending ‘welcome’, ‘thank you’ or ‘onboarding’ emails, it’s better to create templates and automate them using workflows. Just set the right triggers and actions to send out these emails automatically.

74.4% of people expect to receive a welcome email right after hitting the subscribe button. Thankfully, you can send such emails in real-time with email automation.

Besides you can even automate your emails for sending birthday and anniversary greetings to your prospects.

Such emails help in maintaining a healthy relationship with the prospects.

Birthday emails result in a 30% lift in opens and a 60% lift in clicks.

4. Schedule your emails  

Sales emails that are sent at the right time get the highest response rate.

As the saying goes, “strike the iron when it is hot.”

However, with a long to-do list, sometimes it becomes difficult to meet the ideal time for sending emails.

For instance, you commit the prospect to send certain details at 4 PM. Suddenly you are asked to attend an important meeting, and you are not able to send the requested information. Later, you completely forget about sending that email.

Such a situation will create a negative impression on the prospect.

Sometimes it becomes difficult to connect with prospects from different countries. You must match their time zone to email them.

Instances like these can be avoided with email scheduling.

You can schedule your emails at the perfect time and increase your chances of getting noticed by the prospect.

5. Email sequences

Getting a response from potential prospects is a challenging task. You need to follow-up and give them a strong reason to respond.

44% of salespeople give up after sending one follow-up email.

Email sequences is a smart way that minimizes your manual effort for follow-up.

You can create sequences that will send out emails at predefined intervals to your prospects.

Email sequences are the best way of nudging your prospects to get replies from them. However, getting them to reply will require the creation of strategic sequences.

Remember, your end goal is to move your prospects inside your sales funnel towards making them a paying customers.

If you set email sequences at various time intervals and use engaging email content, the prospect is bound to respond.

You can experiment with different sequences to find out the one that yields the desired result (prospect response).

6.  Track your email campaigns

What happens to your sales emails after you hit send?

Well, you can find that out by tracking your sales emails.

It is essential to measure the effectiveness of your outbound sales emails to improve your performance.

But how to do it? Well, there are many email tracking tools available in the market that can help.

By tracking your sales emails, you can know whether the prospects are reading or ignoring your emails.

Find what’s working and where do you need to put in extra effort.

Best email templates

Well, instead of drafting the same email repeatedly, it’s better to create and use email templates.

This will save you time and aid in maintaining consistency.

Here are a few examples that will help in creating the best sales email templates.

Email template for prospecting

Email template for reaching the right person

Email template to send after a call

Email template to send after a meeting

Are you prepared to use sales emails effectively?

Sales is dependent on how you communicate the value of your product. If you succeed, you can ensure a smooth flow of revenue. For which you need full control over your sales communication channels.

We hope we’ve eased your work by stating essential tips and scripts for strengthening sales communication channels in both the parts –

Communication channels that you must strengthen for effective outreach (Calls and Texts)

and 

Communication channels that you must strengthen for effective outreach (Sales Emails)

You could find the best ways to use calls, text messages, and sales emails in these two blogs.

To make your sales journey hassle-free and smoother, you can explore a reliable tool like Salesmate CRM. This advanced tool help in managing all your communication channels from one place.

You can easily track your emails and even automate them. It also gives you the flexibility to use templates for quickly sending sales emails. These templates can be even analyzed inside this intuitive CRM.

This CRM isn’t confined to email. You can even make calls and send texts from Salesmate CRM; which is why Salesmate is an all-in-one sales solution.