How to write a good sales email (Part 1 of 2)
If you think ‘How to write a good sales email’ should start with something related to an email, most experts disagree.
You need to start with the Why.
Way before you type the first word of your sales email, you need to know why you’re writing the email.
Sounds stupid, right?
I mean, why would anyone write a sales email for any reason other than to sell something?
While the ultimate objective may be to sell something and serve a customer profitably, a sales email doesn’t always aim to sell.
As a matter of fact, not many emails actually sell. Sales emails often make selling easier.
If someone is hearing about your product or brand for the first time, chances are very high they won’t buy based on one single email. You’ll need to tweak your email even if it’s extremely well written.
So in that case, your sales email should aim to only introduce the problem you solve, rather than push the solution you’re selling.
We break down the entire process of how to write a great sales email. As mentioned, we’ll start with the Why.
1. Set your goal
Why are you writing the sales emails? AKA, What action do you want your recipients want to take? Sign up, free trial, download, purchase, meeting?
Without that, you won’t ever get results.
Be clear about what you want in your ask.
Example:
Meghan works with a small software company that was launched recently. Their brand is mostly unknown. Bert is a VP at mid-size company that, according to Meghan, will find Meghan’s product useful.
Meghan writes to Bert.
Since Bert has never heard of Meghan’s company, it won’t make sense for Meghan to ‘sell’ something right away. She knows she needs to keep her ask small and build trust.
So instead of asking Bert to buy something, she makes sure she shares a link to brief case study.
Her immediate goal is to make Bert download the case study. Sales can wait.
Here’s some of the most common sales email goals:
2. Identify your target audience
Not as easy as you think. Here’s why.
Example
A couple, David and Linda are in their early 30’s. They have two kids: Pat (6), and Zoe (4). David just got a tidy bonus, so they are thinking of buying a new fridge this summer. Who is the buyer here?
David is the buyer here in the sense that he’s going to finance the purchase. But will he decide which brand and model to buy? Chances are he will not.
Linda is on a career break right now and currently a homemaker. She knows best what features and size she needs in the fridge. She has been speaking to neighbours and friends, and has narrowed down to two brands and five models. Most likely, she will be the decision-maker.
Not so fast. Wait.
David and Linda may be buyers and decision-makers, but they are not the only users. The two kids Pat and Zoe will use the fridge a lot. Especially because it’s summer-time, remember?
So the salesperson needs to appeal to the David as far as pricing goes, satisfy Linda’s questions regarding functionalities, and in the process meet Pat and Zoe’s needs as well.
Here’s a summary of what you need to know about your customers:
3. Research your market
What exactly does it mean?
Let’s take a hypothetical example to understand why it’s not that easy.
Example
Freja has just joined a packaging company and is looking for leads. She is looking at the current list of existing client and sees a number of pharma companies.
So she logs on to a lead-gen platform that her company uses and starts searching for pharma companies that are similar in size to the existing clients of her company.
She could go very wrong.
Some pharma companies may only be pharma marketing companies, which means they don’t have to worry much about packaging and logistics.
At its core, knowing your market is about knowing your product, your competitors, and your product.
When you’re researching your audience, you want to:
- Define clearly the problem you solve
- Analyze the approach your competitors take to solve similar problems
- Identify sectors your competitor isn’t serving or isn’t serving well
- Size up your target market’s paying capacity, and, importantly,
- Whether and how you’ll be able to reach/serve them
4. Improve email data quality
In a world where information flows more freely than ever, it’s not difficult to get hold of someone’s email address.
What’s difficult is, of course, getting someone’s correct email address.
So while you may have a large number of email addresses with you, many of them are likely to be invalid or undeliverable.
And that’s exactly why you want to clean your email list. That means you should keep only the valid, deliverable email addresses on your email list.
This process is called email verification and is super easy to carry out. At QuickEmailVerification you can sign up for free and have your email list cleaned up.
Here are the principal reasons why you should have your email addresses verified on a regular basis.
5. Ace your Subject Line
Easier said than done.
Considering dozens, perhaps hundreds, of emails hit your mailbox every day, it’s not easy to stand out and get noticed.
Subject lines are the make-or-break points: If your Subject Line has the right hook, your recipient will open the email. And you’ll have overcome the first challenge.
That hook could be something that:
- Arouses curiosity (“I wonder what that means?”)
- Makes the recipient smile (“Hey, these folks are funny!”)
- Wants them to dig further (“Whoa! 32% sales reps call only once? I’ve got to read on to be sure my teams don’t quit so fast.”)
- Stirs them to make sense of your controversial statement (“You say selling is dead? You better have a good explanation, mate!”)
- Haves them nod their head in agreement (“Yeah! You people seem to know me well.”)
- Builds some trust (“IBM and Aramco your clients? You guys must be good — let me check …”)
The next part
Ok, the first of the two-part article here was about everything that goes outside of an actual email that you see.
We’ll now move to the 2nd part where we talk about actually writing the email and framing it right.
Basically, talk about stuff that goes inside the email.
PS: Perhaps you’d like to learn a bit about why small businesses should take up email marketing? You can read it here.
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