Despite the popularity of social media and the growing number of instant messaging apps, email has maintained a steady presence in our online communication. According to Statista, in 2020, the number of email users eclipsed 4 billion people worldwide and this number is expected to grow to more than 4.5 billion by 2025. Email is also a very important component of successful content marketing strategies. In fact, data from Hubspot shows that 53% of marketers say email has been the most effective channel for early-stage lead generation. However, in order to increase open rates and better engage your target audience, your emails need to be well-crafted with specific criteria in mind to make them more appealing to the recipients.
In this article, we will share with you some possible reasons why your sales emails may not be working as effectively as you hoped and what you can do to fix them.
Your Subject Line is Not Both Clear and Appealing
If you have been wondering exactly how big of a role the subject of your email plays in the open rates of your emails, the answer is that it is one of the most important aspects of a sales email. A study done by Convince and Convert showed that 35% of email recipients open an email on the basis of the subject line alone. However, a great subject line needs to maintain a delicate balance of being simply informative and overly flashy. By being overly flashy you run the risk of the email not living up to the hype of the subject line. Therefore, instead of trying to come up with a clickbait subject line, try letting the readers know how they could benefit from opening your email.
From this standpoint, the simpler the better may be the right way to go. If you have been able to achieve outstanding results for past clients, let prospective customers know in the subject line that you are able to lower their costs, increase their efficiency, and any other benefits. Remember, only 9% of sales emails are opened. Therefore, you need to be able to grab the person’s attention right away.
Too Many Empty Words
When a prospect opens your email, they need to understand exactly why they have received this message and what they need to do if they want to act on this email. Remember, the vast majority of emails, 84%, are being skimmed. Therefore, you need to structure the email so that the most important information is easy to find. Consider the following structure for your email: a quick introduction about why the email was sent and then offer some clear value. Finish off with a call to action which could be something like signing up for a demo, a Zoom meeting, or even a phone conversation. Even though your email may not contain something revolutionary, be sure to be straightforward and provide real value.
Emphasizing One-Way Communication
A lot of sales emails are written in a way that merely provides the prospect with information instead of trying to engage them in a dialogue. A good way to fix this would be to offer the recipient an easy way of reaching out to you. If you have sent some emails to your prospects and have not heard back from them, consider sending them a follow-up email containing some potential options for continuing the dialogue. These options could include things like setting up a call, receiving another follow-up email next week, and also whether or not the reader is interested, which will let you know whether or not this particular lead is viable. This way all the recipient needs to do is select the option that best fits them.
Overthinking the Wording
When you are sending out emails to prospective customers, especially if it’s very big ones you are trying to get, it can be easy to get bogged down deliberating every single word. The result is an email that sounds stodgy and awkward. You need to remember that writing an email is not an exercise in creative writing, but rather a friendly chat between two colleagues or acquaintances. Therefore, the next time you write an email, reread it and ask yourself whether or not it would sound strange if you said it to someone in face-to-face interaction. If you wouldn’t say something to someone during a physical meeting, then you should not include it in the email.
Remember, the goal of the email is to make a genuine connection with the recipient. So don’t try to be overly professional, or use sales jargon or catchphrases that you would never say in real life.
Lack of Personalisation
One of the biggest mistakes a lot of sales professionals make is that they do not spend enough time researching the person they are corresponding with. Even small details about a person’s personal or professional life could make a big impact on their interaction with your email. A lot of the information you need can be found through a simple Google search. Think about questions like where are the prospects from? What sort of companies do they work for? What do they post about on public social
This post was originally posted by u/colin_stevens in /r/salestechniques on reddit. You can see the original thread here.
Why Your Sales Emails Aren’t Working and How to Fix Them
