Only 23% of emails ever get opened. The rest go unread, deleted, unsubscribed, marked as spam, or even blocked by security software.
That's already a pretty low bar and disheartening in the world of email marketing. So how are you going to convince anyone to act on your email, let alone open it?
There is a wide range of email strategies you can use to create an effective sales email. Keep on reading to learn how to write a sales email that actually converts.
Determine Your Target Audience
The first step to writing effective sales emails is coming up with leads, and the first step developing email leads is defining your audience.
Your target audience (TA) is the group of people that your product or service appeals to. Generally, these people have other qualities in common as a result.
You define your audience using these qualities, often called demographic and psychographic factors. Demographics are traits such as age, gender, location, and income bracket. Psychographic factors include interests, hobbies, and lifestyle preferences.
Find Prospects That Align with Your TA
Now that you know what kind of people generally desire your product or service, these are the people you should be reaching out to.
It's easy to be swindled by lists of prospects, but these will do nothing for you unless these leads align with your TA. This is because these people don't have an interest in your product.
Limiting your efforts to prospects that fall within your TA will result in less wasted time and money on your end, as well as higher success rates.
Determine Your Email's Purpose
The purpose of a marketing email is to sell, isn't it? Actually, it's not.
The purpose of your emails can vary widely, from finding leads, informing about a giveaway, obtaining survey results, following up, or any other number of goals.
No matter what the goal is, it should be relevant to your target audience's needs or interests. In fact, 57% of people will think of an email as spam if it's not relevant to them - even if it's from someone they know.
Defining your email's goal in advance will keep your email focused and the topic clear to the reader. It'll also help with the following steps in creating the email itself.
Have a Strong Subject Line
Now that you're ready to write your sales email, you should start by crafting a strong subject line. A strong subject line gains the attention and interest of the viewer.
Strong subject lines are short, accurately depict what the email is about, feel relevant to the reader, and offer a sense of personalization. A great way to personalize a subject line is to use the reader's first name or the name of the person who referred them.
Have a Strong Opening Line
Congrats! They've opened your email.
Now you want to make sure you keep their interest in the opening line.
Don't use the first sentence to introduce yourself. Instead use an attention-grabbing fact or question.
Keep Emails Short and Sweet
Overall, leads are statistically more likely to read your email all the way through if it's short. A good rule of thumb is to keep the content under 125 words.
It's your chance to make them want to know more, not to talk their ear off.
Focus on Benefits in Sales Emails
Since you're keeping it short, you don't have a lot of time to get your message across.
You'll want to focus on how you'll better their life in some way to build desire. Tell them what they want or need to know, because they don't care about who you are yet.
Use a Call to Action In Your Messages
One of the most important tips for how to write a sales email is to end with a call to action.
A call to action (CTA) is where you explicitly ask or tell the reader to do something. This can be anything from responding to the email, giving you a call, visiting your website, reading your blog, and so on. This ensures that the reader understands how to follow up.
It's important that you only include one CTA per email so the reader doesn't get confused.
Include an Email Signature
After your CTA, sign the sales email off with a professional signature.
This signals to the reader that the email isn't spam. A signature can include your name, company name, website address, and phone number.
Email Templates
There are a variety of templates available that can help you write your best sales emails or you can use one of the email template builders to craft a perfect marketing email template. They implement strategies and formats that have proven effective and are especially great for beginners.
Read on here to discover effective email templates, one of which is bound to work for your products and goals.
Know When to Send Your Emails
Once you know who you're sending to and have your email crafted, it's finally time to send it out. You might not realize it, but the time you send an email is important too. This is because people receive hundreds of emails, and you don't want yours to get buried.
Generally, weekdays are better than weekends for sending sales emails because people check their email more often during this time.
You can use what you know of your TA to pick a perfect time to schedule sending. Consider factors like time zones and personal schedules.
You can also use email tracking software to track when people usually open your emails and start sending it then.
Follow Up Emails
About 80% of sales email conversions require as many as 5 follow-up emails.
Through follow-up emails, you can further establish trust and desire. Sometimes a follow-up is required because the original email got lost, forgotten, or was sent at a bad time.
Learn How to Write a Sales Email
Now that you know how to write a sales email, you've completed the first step to becoming a successful email marketer and boosting ROI.
When writing your sales emails, remember to target the right prospects; determine your email's purpose; write strong subject and opening lines; keep it short; focus on the benefits; include a call to action and signature; practice with templates; send at the right times and continue to follow-up.
If you found this helpful, check out our marketing blog for other email marketing tips and sales tricks. To learn more about content marketing and email marketing, visit the Digital Marketing section of the Bootstrap Business Blog.
