What Is A Sales Email? How To Write One?

For $1 spent on email marketing, the ROI could get as high as $42.

Holy cow!

You ask yourself, why are you still not using email marketing to sell your product/service?

Then you realize you don’t know how to write sales emails. Bad news!

Worry no more. In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about writing sales emails.

We will discuss their types along with examples to understand every small detail.

You will also get email templates to write them with absolute ease.

Let’s dive in then.

What is a Sales email?

A sales email is a form of copy written to promote or sell a product or service to your potential customers.

Some sales emails are also written to existing customers.

You could thank them for buying from you. You could spread the word about fresh offers. You can also provide incentives to your loyal customers.

Before the internet came out mail order advertising was a huge thing. Agencies sent sales letters through the post.

After the internet became mainstream, sales letters are now sent through emails.

Emails are cost-effective and easy to work with. You can also track your results which makes it even more effective.

Both physical letter and email formats are pretty much the same.

The only significant difference is the Name and Address part.

In this article, all the examples I give will be in email format. Pretty much every sales letter you will write for your client will be an email.

Characteristics of a sales email:

• They follow a particular format.
• Written in informal language.
• Sell a specific product/service or a product line.
• Written for a particular target audience.

What is the purpose of a sales email?

Traditional advertising used to be expensive. For companies with small budgets, mail order advertising was the most affordable option.

In mail order advertising, the agencies would send a bunch of letters to potential customers along with a coupon.

The customers who wanted to buy the product would have to return the coupon with their name and address.

They also had to send the money along with the coupon to receive the product.

Another advantage was the reach.

A door-to-door salesman could not go to thousands of places at one time.

Even though a salesman was more effective, the reach was not high. They can only cover a few houses per day.

To avoid that problem, they sent sales letters to potential customers. It increased their reach and brought orders and inquiries in large volumes.

With the internet the mode of sending those sales letters changes. Emails replaced the physical letters.

E-commerce made it possible for customers to order from their homes.

Things to consider before writing a sales email:

To make your sales email more effective, here are some things you need to consider.

1. Know your audience:

Doing customer research is the first step. If you don’t know who you are writing for, your email will be vogue and less effective.

First, decide who is your target customer. Your customer can be a teenager, a mother, a husband, a teacher, an engineer, a mechanic, an athlete, or an accountant.

It could be anyone who can buy your product.

Be certain about who you are selling to.

Then find out their pain points and things they don’t like. Is your product solving that problem? Is the product effective?

2. Keep the tone personal and don’t forget the NAME:

Personalization is one of the most important parts of any email or letter.

You should not forget to address them by their name.

In traditional mail-order advertising they had to send letters in bulk. It was difficult to personalize the letters.

For convenience, they addressed the prospect with “Dear reader,” or “To whom it may concern,” etc.

Now, with email list tools, you could personalize your emails and refer to them with their first name.

When you see your name on a letter, you feel like it’s written for you.

Keep the tone of your letter informal and friendly.

Don’t be too pushy. They know you are selling something, but don’t make it obvious.

Chances are they need a solution, that’s why they took the time to read your letter in the first place. Keep that in mind.

3. Keep it strategic and maintain the flow:

In your email, one thing should make way for the next.

After you talk about their pain points, you can introduce your product. Then some social proof and then an offer.

Don’t ever start your email with “buy my product and give me your money.”

The customer will throw it into the trash without even thinking twice about it.

4. Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is important:

You are not the only brand selling your products in that niche market.

Even if you are the only brand, there will be competition in the future.

Every brand is competing for the customer’s attention.

To stand out from the crowd, you need to have something which is unique to your brand. They need an exclusive.

If you are one of the pioneer brands in the market, use your authority as your USP.

If you have some special features and your customers like them, you can use that to attract new customers.

If your sales are higher and your customer retention is more than the other brands, you can also use that as your USP.

People love “exclusives.” It makes your brand appear special.

How to write a sales email? (step-by-step guide)

To write a sales email without spending days on it, first, we need to take a look at the format of a sales email.

Format of a sales letter:

Sales Letter Format — 1 (In Print)

Sales Letter general format.

Sales Letter Format — 2 (In Print)

Sales letter format.

Sales Email Format

Sales Email Format.

Now let’s understand each part of a sales email with examples.

1. Write an eye-catching headline:

When you open your inbox, there are hundreds of emails piled up in your inbox.

You don’t even like to see them. No one likes an inbox full of useless emails asking for your money.

In that case, your headline (subject line) must make some sense and must be of value to your reader.

Else, your mail will end up where all the trash goes, the Bin.

If your headline is trash, your email is also perceived as trash. It may not be that way, but bad headlines give that perception.

No matter how valuable your offer is to your customer if they don’t open it in the first place, how will they find out?

Keep your headlines short. They can’t see entire headlines in their inbox. A short glimpse should be enough.

Example:

• How to get more clients for your business?
• How can you turn a $20 offer into a $200 offer?

2. Customer name and address:

You should include your name and address if you are sending a physical letter.

In email formats, you don’t need those details. In this case, the address would be the customer’s email address.

3. Greet Your Customers with their names:

As we have already discussed above, address customers with their names.

Example:

• Dear Mr. Thomas
• Dear Ms. Alice
• Dear Sam

4. The Introductory Paragraph

You need to arouse the reader’s interest in your first paragraph.

In traditional marketing terminology, it’s called “Hook.”

But that word kind of sounds as if you are fishing for their attention with cheap tricks.

Try to arouse genuine interest in your reader’s mind.

To earn readers’ interest ask them genuine questions about their problems.

Including some fresh facts about your industry is also a good practice. Example:

• Finding clients for your freelance business could be a tough job in the beginning. Even if you have skills, client acquisition is a whole new game. And it could get tough if you don’t know where to look for them.

5. Explanatory paragraph:

In this part of the letter, you can introduce your product or service as the solution to their problem.

You can also state why your product is better than your competitors (your USP).

State what benefits they can get from your product with bullet points.

Bullet points get attention and they are simple and easy to remember.

Example:

With our team of SEO experts:

• We can help your rank higher and drive organic traffic to your site.
• We have the most relevant and tested SEO tools to help you out.
• We can help you increase your domain authority to sustain that traffic.

Include offers or discounts if you have any.

To inspire urgency, you can also tell them about the limited availability of your offer. People tend to act fast when the deadline is near.

Example:

• We offer a 30% discount on all our plans to new customers.
• Because of excessive orders, we are closing this offer soon. Make sure you grab your product before the offer ends.

6. Add Social Proof:

Before we buy anything, we always look for customer reviews on that product/service.

If the reviews and testimonials are good and seem legit, we buy the product.

The same thing applies here too.

The customers don’t know you. In their eyes, you are some stranger asking them to buy something.

When they see testimonials of other customers, they start believing in your offer.

# 92% of the consumers read online reviews or testimonials before they make a buying decision.

That’s a huge percentage of customers. You should never skip your testimonials.

Example:

• “Finding good clients at the beginning of my freelance career was tough. Even after months of hard work and enough samples I wasn’t getting clients. After I took this course, I found out where I was making mistakes. Now I have a great client base and getting new offers from referrals. Sometimes this feels too good to be true.”- Alex Walker, Freelance Writer

7. CTA (call-to-action):

You have addressed the pain points of the customer. You’ve also introduced your product along with social proof.

Now you can introduce your call-to-action. That’s the whole point of writing those letters after all.

You could ask them to buy it, or encourage them to find out more by providing their contact details.

The CTA is anything and everything that keeps the ball rolling. Every CTA should take the prospect one step forward in your sales funnel.

Example:

• Buy now to get a 25% discount.
• Sign up now to get one month’s FREE trial.
• Enter your email to get more information.

8. Closing Salutation:

You can end your sales letter with something like “Sincerely,” or “With regards” to keep it personal.

Write your name (sender’s name) along with your position in the company.

Example:

With regards,

Alex Hill

Customer Service Manager

9. Add a Postscript (P.S.):

In traditional letter writing the main purpose of a postscript was to mention any corrections or facts omitted from the letter.

People still use it even if you can edit an email because it works.

Often times people tend to read only the beginning and the end of the letter.

Having a strong message at the end helps to strengthen your offer.

You can include any specific detail you want the reader to notice.

Highlight the major offer or benefit of your product. You could also add exclusives and incentives that will close the sale.

You can also use the P.S. to deliver a personal note to the reader.

The purpose of your P.S. is to tackle any objections or second thoughts your customers have.

There should not be any doubt that’s keeping your reader from buying your product/service.

It’s not mandatory to add a postscript to your letter, but it’s a good practice to add one.

Example:

• P.S. If you are a new customer, you are in luck. We are offering an extra 10% discount to first-time users.
• P.S. Spending days on research and writing an article and still not getting any traffic? I have been there and I found ways to come out of that situation. Let me help you out.

Sales Letter Example:

[General Format]

This is a sales letter to promote a client acquisition course for freelancers. Let’s see how it’s written.

How do people find so many clients when you’re struggling to close a single gig?

(Subject in Email)

[Customer’s name]

[Customer’s address]

Hey Alice,

Most freelancers quit freelancing when they struggle to find clients. Finding clients, in the beginning, could be hard, or I would say brutal. You don’t have a portfolio. You don’t have experience. And the worse, you don’t have clients to gain experience from.

No clients, no experience. No experience, no clients. That’s a deadly loophole.

Source: Tenor

I bet you’ve also seen people who are less skilled than you are but never run out of offers. How are they doing that? What’s the secret?

You may ask if it is that hard, how would I find clients and maintain a sustainable inflow of work?

What if I told you, that your current skillset is enough to make you a decent amount of money every month? You could also have a continuous inflow of new clients. Would you believe me?

The only thing you lack is the information to find and close clients. And I can help you get that.

I have been in this business for almost 7 years now and I was exactly at the place you are right now. Over the years I’ve deciphered the client acquisition code and now I’m gonna help you do that.

It’s completely fine if you are a little skeptical about it. It’s good to practice caution.

Here is what the course offers:

• What steps to take before you start looking for clients?
• Where to find clients?
• How to pitch them to get hired?
• How to set pricing for your service and how to make sure you get paid?
• How to keep those clients so that you have a steady cash flow every month?

After taking the course this is what one of my students has to say:

“If you are struggling with finding new freelance clients, this course can help you for sure. Your future self will be grateful you took it. I’m not kidding. I closed my first client one week after taking the course. The best part, the clients are not bargaining for pennies. The pay is gooooooood!”~ Charlotte Jones, Freelance Writer

Client acquisition is not rocket science and you can do it too. To book your course, go to the website(provide link).

If you are still having doubts, we can send you a FREE e-book /webinar containing a glimpse of the course. If you like it, you can buy the full course. Enter your email here (provide link) and we’ll send it to you.

If you order by the end of this month, you’ll get 30% off on your course and a portfolio template for FREE. Thanks for your valuable time.

With Regards,

James Davis

Founder

Copyphile

P.S. I know how it feels when you have skills and no one acknowledges them. Let’s not stay there forever. Take a small step and monetize your skills. It feels awesome when you do the things you love and that earns you money.

Now you know everything about writing a sales letter. Let’s take a look at the different types of sales letters you may have to write to your customers.

Types of Sales Letters:

1. Introductory Sales Letter

• Introduce a new customer to your product.
• Introduce a new product line to your existing customers.
• Keep it short.
• Offer a FREE trial or a discount to attract new customers.

Example:

[This is an email promoting the latest silicone rain covers for shoes.]

Subject — Keep your shoes dry and clean even in heavy rain and muddy roads.

Dear Ann,

Finally, after years of experimenting with materials, we’ve finally found it. Our latest shoe protectors(product name) will keep your shoes dry even if it’s pouring outside.

When you get back home, your shoes will be completely dry and clean as if it’s a nice summer day outside. The only thing you have to do is wear it above your shoes and forget about it.

Click on this link(provide link) to order your pair now. We are offering a 30% discount to all our customers on behalf of the new launch.

Feel free to contact us at support@company.com or call us at (phone number).

Thank you for your valuable time.

With regards,

Sam Harris

Position

Company

P.S. We’ve spent years designing and refining this product. We assure you, that our product will be worth every penny. That’s a promise.

2. Product Update Sales Letter

• Introduce a new product or product line to your existing customers.
• Make customers aware of some changes or updates in an existing product.
• Offer some incentives like discounts to encourage them to buy the updated version.
• Make them aware of the potential problems of using the older version.

Example:

A sales email promoting the updated version of a phone with new features.

Subject — 2 days battery life with a single charge.

Dear Ron,

You purchased (product name) last year. That was one of our bestsellers and we hope you had a good experience using our product. You’ll be glad to hear that we’ve launched the latest and more powerful version of our previous model.

We’ve enhanced the battery life so that you don’t have to worry about charging anymore. A single full charge will last for 2 days under normal use. We’ve also increased the memory and processor to give you a fast and lag-free experience.

One of our customers wrote:

“This is the ultimate machine, period. More battery life, more space, and the latest processor. They have delivered everything they have promised. If you liked the older version, you’ll love the new one.” — Steve Rover, Tech Enthusiast

Here is the best part. We’re offering a 50% discount if you’ll exchange your old version for the new one. Go to our website(link) to get yours. Hurry up, the sale will be over in a few days.

Have a good day.

With regards,

Mark Miller

Marketing Head

Company

P.S. The orders are rolling in like crazy. If you miss out on this one, you may have to wait for a while until the next sale.

3. Selling Incentives Sales Letter

• You can send them to existing customers or a special group like premium members.
• This could include a limited-time offer, a heavy discount, a sale, a coupon, etc.

Example:

A sales email for the premium members to notify them about an exclusive sale.

Subject — Exclusive Sale! Only for premium members.

Dear Brian,

Thanks for being a premium member. We appreciate your love and support. As you know, being a premium member comes with its own perks. Here is an exclusive for you.

On (date) our partner company (company name) is launching a new product. Before the general sale, we are offering an exclusive sale only for our premium members.

You’ll also get huge discounts if you buy through some of our partner banks.

Even if you opt not to claim any offers, the early mover discount is huge. You’ll definitely save a huge sum on your order.

Click the link to set a reminder for the sale. You can also visit our website(link) to set the reminder.

Hoping to see you on sale.

With regards,

Amelia Anderson

Position

Company

4. Thank You Sales Letter

• Letter sent to customers after they buy any of your products.
• You can also send these letters to appreciate their contributions.
• This type of letter should be informal and short.
• It’s not recommended to sell anything in this type of letter.
• You can provide incentives like a coupon or a gift card for the next time they buy from you.

Example:

Sub — Thank you for buying from us!

Dear Emmy,

Thank you so much for purchasing from our store. We’re glad we got a chance to be a part of your everyday life.

If you have any doubts about your product, feel free to contact us. You can reach us at support@comapany.com or you can give us a call at (contact number). Our customer service representatives will be glad to help you out.

For being a new customer, here is a bonus for you. You’ll receive a 20% discount the next time you buy from us. Use the code (discount code) to avail your reward.

Thanks again!

With regards,

Howard Carter

Position

Company

5. Festive Season or Holiday Celebrations Letter

• Give them best wishes for the holidays.
• Send gift cards offering discounts on your products or your partner brands.
• Spread awareness about the holiday price drops and holiday mega sales.

Example:

Subject — Festive SALE alert! Get up to 60% off on your favorite brands.

Dear Alice,

(Company Name) wishes you and your loved ones a happy (festival name). We know how important it is to stay connected with your friends and family. When it’s the festive season, a gift is always a great way to show some love to your loved ones.

In this festive season, we are offering huge discounts on your favorite brands. Get your loved ones the gift you always wished to give them.

To make it even more special, we’ll wrap your gifts for you with a personalized note. Just mention it and it will be done.

You can visit our website to get your gift with all the amazing discounts. Don’t be late, the offer ends soon.

Happy holidays!

With regards,

Olivia James

Position

Company

6. Invitation Sales Letter

• Invite them to a major SALE.
• Invite them to any events you are conducting.
• Invite them to join in your celebrations for crossing one of the major milestones.
• This type of initiative makes them feel included and important.
• Invitation letters also strengthen the community.

Example:

Sub — We invite you to our biggest SALE of the year.

Dear Harry,

The biggest SALE of the year has finally arrived. From (start date) to (end-date) we will be having huge discounts on all the brands. No matter what you choose, there will be a significant discount on everything.

We invite you to take part in this sale. We’ll make sure you have a pleasant experience. Hoping to see you there.

With regards,

Noah Harper

Position

Company

P.S. The event will only last three days and we are looking forward to a huge influx of customers. Don’t be late.

7. Sales Letters for Inactive Members (Lost Customer)

• You can send these letters to inactive members who were active customers once.
• You could also let them know about your new product line or new launches they may find relevant to their needs.

Example:

Sub — We have something fresh for you.

Dear Millie,

We haven’t heard you for a while. Hope you are doing fine. The past few launches have been a bit different from our normal collection. We hope that is the reason you haven’t purchased anything.

We are launching a new collection. We are happy to inform you that the latest collection has all your favorite features.

If you wish to buy from our fresh collection, you could visit our website(link) to take a look.

As a special gift, we are sending you a gift card that will get you up to a 35% discount on the new collection. Hope we’ll see you there.

Thank you for your valuable time.

With regards,

Eric Miller

Marketing Head

Company

P.S. We’ve always tried to add fresh products to our collection. Our last few launches may not be relatable to you. We understand that. The fresh collection is a great fit for you.

We’ve discussed some of the most used sales letter types you will have to write to your customers. We’ve also seen the formats with examples. Now you will not have any problems writing your sales letter.

Conclusion:

Whether you are a solopreneur, a small business owner, or a Unicorn, everyone needs to market and sell their product and services.

Emails are a great way to increase your reach and boost engagement. You can also measure their effectiveness and improve on them.

In fact, email marketing has a staggering ROI (Return on Investment). For every dollar spent on emails it bough in $42 worth of business.

I can’t find any reason for not including it in your marketing campaigns.

To run successful email marketing campaigns, you need to write sales letters that convert. If you can do that, I bet you’ll love the numbers when the orders start rolling in.

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