Even though instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Discord are used around the world, email is still a very relevant channel. According to published reports, 73% of millennials prefer content from businesses to come from email, with 78% of marketers experiencing increased email engagement in 2020. 59% of respondents also said that email marketing affected their purchase decisions, with 80% of professionals stating that it positively affects customer retention.
To make the most of email marketing, you have to rethink how you write sales copy to get the response you want from your customers. Let’s take a look at some practical tips to do just that in 2021 and transform the way people see your sales emails going forward.
Table of Contents
1. Write your Subject Line Carefully & Professionally
The way you write your subject lines can make or break your sales emails. Based on statistical data, 35% of recipients open emails based on subject lines alone, with 16% of emails never making it to the inbox. This happens based on the way your subject line is written and whether it triggers automated email service algorithms for spam content.
Take a quick look at your spam folder and notice how subject lines are written – now avoid doing any of that. Your subject lines need to be professional, appealing, and trustworthy enough for people to click on the email itself. You can do this by writing your business’ name, the recipient’s first name, as well as your reason for contacting them.
2. Present your Sales Pitch in the Opening
Whether your recipients open emails on computers or smartphones, their email services will allow them to see the first few words in your sales email. Again, it’s vital that your writing is not overly sales-oriented to appeal to the recipients. Use the same tone of voice and writing style in the opening line as you did in the subject line. Follow it up with a proper greeting, your name, position in the company, and a detailed reason for contacting them.
If you are writing cold email content, you should also quickly address how you came to have their email address. Make sure to present your sales pitch in the first paragraph of the sales email to be as upfront and transparent as possible. This will ensure that you are not wasting the recipients’ time and appear more professional instead of burying your sales pitch in copy.
3. Don’t Write Long & Complicated Emails – KISS Instead
Since people are used to short-form content thanks to social media platforms, it’s best to take that into account. Don’t write overly long emails explaining your company’s history and the benefits of using your products/services. Write sales emails as short, effective pitches and follow that up with external links which users can click on for more details.
The so-called “Keep It Simple Stupid” writing methodology applies here, as you need to make your writing as legible and understandable as possible. If your products or services are complicated to explain in short, order research summary writing from a professional service to clean up your sales writing. Don’t assume that your recipients will all be familiar with your industry’s jargon or abbreviations – keep your writing as simple as you can.
4. Limit your Email Body Multimedia – Attach Links & PDFs
Speaking of smartphone email users, it’s also best not to indulge in attaching too many videos, animated elements, or videos in the email’s body. These elements can make loading emails far more difficult and straining on the users’ bandwidth than it needs to be.
Instead, you can attach multimedia content as links hosted on YouTube or other platforms, depending on the format. Likewise, you can use PDFs or eBooks for sales catalogs, comprehensive sales offer, and other creative and engaging content apart from the sales email itself. Try to make the emails as light and quick to load as possible to improve your engagement and conversion rates.
5. Cap Off with a Call to Action
Calls to action (CTA) are essential to ensure that your emails get a proper response. The role of CTA is simple – engage the reader and give them an action to follow up on. This action can be anything from “visit our website today for a special offer” or “let us know how we can help you”. You need to inform the reader of “what” they should do with the information they’ve just read about your sales offer.
Failing to add CTAs to your sales email will potentially lead to very poor response rates, not to mention your bottom line. Calls to action can be as personalized or creative as you want them to be, so brainstorm on how you can make them unique. Yet, when all else fails, you can rely on the tried and tested assortment of calls to action traditionally found in email marketing.
5. Format & Spellcheck your Sales Email Before Sending It
There’s nothing more damaging to your brand’s credibility than poor proofreading or formatting in sales emails. There are a plethora of tools that you can use to improve your emails’ readability and raise your odds at attracting new customers and clients.
Tools such as Grammarly and Readable should become standard parts of your content stack, in addition to using a dedicated email platform such as MailChimp. Don’t solely rely on mailing services such as Google Mail or Yahoo Mail to manage your email campaigns – they are sorely lacking in formatting functionality. Use online tools to refine the way you write sales emails, and you will get the responses your brand deserves.
Wrapping Up
Rethinking how you write sales emails going forward can be overwhelming. Once you get a handle on how to improve your email writing, your response rates will soar, and more people will be inclined to convert.
Start by analyzing how you wrote sales emails before and think of ways to improve that by comparing your writing to the tips we’ve covered. You will have a new way of engaging people via email marketing on your hands before you know it.
