6.1 tweaks that you could (and should) use to improve your sales emails

3 min read

An optimized, creative and “human” (we’ll get to that later) email campaign generates 18x more conversions than a simple, standard one. How can you fine-tune yours to get the most out of it? From a sales point of view, as technology advances we have more possibilities regarding measuring customer retention and loyalty-building strategies. Sales emails still have the potential to improve your open rate and the quality of your follow-ups.

Are you happy with your overall email response rate? Or do you think it could be better? This article will teach you how to plan and create sales emails, optimizing every interaction to its full potential.

Think of each time you check your personal email for a moment. What do you do when you see one of those boring company emails with a dull subject? Straight to spam? Delete it? Don’t even bother opening it?

Solid copywriting is the key to sales success and small details really make the difference.

#1 Personalize your emails

We don’t just mean including the recipient’s name. Sure, this worked well back in the day, but we’re all digital natives now. You need to find a way to stand out from the multiple communications your leads and prospects receive every day and make them feel that this email is aimed directly towards them.

Tell them how you can make their work less tiresome, spark some interest (do your research and get an idea of their consumer habits and behaviors), present them with a solution to their problems and keep them wanting to find out more. A personalized email will grab their attention and double your open rate. Remember that each client and each sector is unique.

Unfortunately, 3many companies think that this takes time out of their daily work. However, a monthly meeting between sales and marketing to think up copy for these emails is a genuine investment of time.

#2 Make it easy to read: see, open, read, reply

  • An effective call to action: Call to actions work best when you also offer some type of reward. For example, “Click here for 30 days free” vs. “Click here to find out more.” You’re interrupting the rhythm of the user; they’ve already opened the email. Saying, “…to find out more” only creates a larger barrier between them and the final product.
  • Days/times with higher open rates: We’re more receptive to emails around 11am on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. It makes sense that after the weekend we want to stay up to date with our inbox.
  • Urgency: Incite interest with some sort of time-related alert for example, “limited” or “available until tomorrow/today.” Recipients will be receptive to the threat of losing something deemed valuable.
  • Short and sweet: A short and concise email is key. We recommend that you don’t exceed 150 words or 5 lines.

#3 Create a subject with expectations

The email subject is where it all starts and has a huge effect on whether your email is opened, read and clicked by your leads. It has to be brief, direct and catchy. Add an element of mystery or offer some sort of benefit related to the body of the message. For example, “10 tricks to increase your email open rate.”

It’s also useful to include a sense of urgency here (as we mentioned previously), and based on the sector or audience you could also try to include a bit of humor. Be careful though, this one can be dangerous and you risk losing credibility but if you see it viable depending on the context, go for it!

#4 A human sender

I think we can all agree on a resounding no when it comes to receiving emails from addresses such as: noreply@companyname.com. Your recipients will be put off opening an email like this, since they probably don’t have the slightest idea who they’re receiving the mail from (I mean, would you open it?). So make sure you’re sending emails from an address with a name. It’s also important to stick to the same name in your email marketing to show that behind the message is a human and a professional.

#5 It’s all in the design

The human brain processes image 60,000 times faster than text. That’s why it’s important to focus on the visual to grab your leads’ attention. Remember that, if you include a Call to Action that you want to direct the client to, visual elements must guide them there.

#6 Allow the relationship to build itself, don’t force it

One of the main reasons why people unsubscribe from emails is because they receive too many. Be patient when maturing your contacts within the sales funnel and avoid mass emailing.

Following this example, you can’t complicate the unsubscribing process; it’s only going to annoy your clients more and although it might seem strange, there are some advantages to making it easy for them to unsubscribe. For example, by asking them why they decided to do so is your opportunity to optimize your email marketing campaign with the information they provide.  Otherwise, they have to unsubscribe from the email provider and all new mail they receive from you will go straight to their “Junk” box, affecting your sender score.

So, what do you think?

(P.S. #6.1 Always finish with a question)

Yes, this last trick is a simple but effective one that’ll leave you with more responses.