The secret to writing sales emails that get responses

The Secret to Writing Sales Emails That Get Responses

Starting a sales email campaign takes time and patience. Unfortunately, that time and patience will go unrewarded if consumers don’t respond. The good news is, you’re not alone if you’re not getting the responses you want. Many sales teams have a difficult time securing significant feedback from consumers. Even when they do, it’s a long journey from a singular response to a conversion.

Let’s Up Your Sales Email Game

If you want to improve your outreach, there are a few tips for creating sales emails that get responses. Implement these tips into your next sales email campaign and you’ll find readers are more willing to answer you – then it’s up to you to turn passing interest into a conversion.

Do Your Research

First up, refer to or create your Buyer Persona – a generalized idea of the audience you’re trying to get in contact with. When you craft your email with that person in mind, it will have a greater appeal when sent out to a similarly-minded audience.

Now you need to gather your list of prospects who fit into the same demographic as that buyer persona. A few things to consider are:

  • Job title
  • Location
  • Interest
  • Device Usage
  • Age

Once you’ve compiled your list with your buyer persona in mind, you’re ready to start crafting.

The Secret to Writing Sales Emails That Get Responses

A Powerful Subject Line + Introduction

When it comes to creating a strong sales email, focus on your subject line. The subject line does all the heavy lifting – it’ll determine whether consumers read what you’ve written, or just delete the message. Here are some points to consider when writing a strong sales email subject line:

  • Keep it short, but specific. You want to catch their attention and convey your message immediately.
  • Don’t let business jargon overwhelm your message – that makes your email very skippable.
  • Try to avoid purple prose – language so excessive it distracts from your message.
  • Don’t fall into industry stereotypes. The more similar your email is to other senders, the easier it is to skip.
  • Feel free to use emojis or other symbols to make your subject line more interesting but don’t overwhelm the message of the subject. You’re aiming to catch your prospects’ attention!

Once you have a subject line, then you need to create a powerful introduction. A strong subject only gets your prospects through the door. Once you have their attention, you’ve got to hold it. Present valuable information in an engaging way and they’ll want to hear what you have to say.

Bonus Tip: Want some ready-made subject lines to do the work for you? Check out these 29 Email Subject Lines for Sales + the Secret to Getting Opened.

Learn What Comprises Personal

It’s difficult to connect with your prospect if you’re only talking about yourself. If you start an email with “I” or “we” you make the conversation about yourself. If you’re trying to get potential consumers to open your emails, craft your language around them.

Use “you” to talk about their goals and how your products or services could make their lives easier. This personal touch will let you serve as a guide instead of another salesperson.

Don’t Be Too Formal

When crafting a sales email campaign, you’re not speaking to your industry peers so you need to be mindful of formality and jargon. The tone should be casual and personal, almost as though you’re chatting to a mutual friend of a friend.

If you’re used to writing punchy sales pitches, your email might need to go through multiple drafts to nail the tone. But if you want to write sales emails that get responses, the ‘chatty’ tone is one you’ll have to master!

The Secret to Writing Sales Emails That Get Responses

Keep It Brief

Your prospects are busy people! And to make things that little bit trickier, we all seem to have shorter attention spans than we used to. Your content needs to be short to keep consumers from moving on to the thousands of other chunks of content they have access to online.

When first getting in touch with a prospect, you don’t want to overwhelm them with information. Instead, you want to make them feel comfortable. Those first sales emails are meant to generate interest, not give your prospect an extensive understanding of what you’re selling – that can come later.

A good tip for practicing precise writing is to write long drafts covering everything you think you need to say, then cutting these drafts to exclude any information you no longer need. You’ll find you can get rid of most of it and still retain the key message.

End with a Compelling CTA

At the end of your email, you need to make your prospects feel compelled to take action. Usually, this is the part where you try to get them to reply. Sales emails that get responses always end in a good call to action, or CTA.

The good news is, it doesn’t need to be long. As outlined in The 3 Critical Components of a Perfect Sales Follow-Up Email your CTA can be as simple as:

“Are you free for a quick (15 minute) meeting in the next few weeks? I know you’re busy, so a quick ‘yes’ reply is fine and I’ll send over some availability, along with details of [PROMOTION].”

If you want replies, make it light work. When you read your email back, you should be honest with yourself about whether you would reply if you were in your prospects’ situation.

Your Email Tips

Keep these tips in mind and you’ll start drawing in the responses you missed in the past. What do you do to create sales emails that get responses? Let us know @TextExpander and in our group on Facebook.