B2B buyers receive hundreds of sales emails daily. The buyers open only a small percentage of these sales emails, and even fewer of them are read. A minimal amount of emails is either opened or replied or forwarded to the concerned person. Or else it is also marked as spam by the buyers.
Despite the challenges, Email marketing remains a powerful and personal method to connect with your ideal buyer. It can be tailored and personalized as per the buyer’s interest to make the communication more relevant.
As per SmartInsigts.com, email marketing is the most effective digital marketing technique and top-ranked channel, beating Social media, affiliate marketing, and SEO.
So, email marketing becomes an essential channel to connect with potential buyers for digital marketers. That’s why building a proper email strategy is the most crucial part of any email marketing activity.
You expect a response as soon as you hit the “Sent” button. Practically, this doesn’t happen. More often, you fail to get a response from potential customers. You have experienced that most of the readers delete the email without even reading or also tend to mark it as spam.
Have you tried to find the reasons behind this? Emails can be one of the reasons for the failure of your marketing campaigns. But the problem is that- most of the sales executives don’t know how to write sales emails correctly.
Emails are a medium to build a connect, establish a rapport, and present solutions to tackle the challenges faced by your client. If the email is not able to do the same, then it is a waste of time and effort for your team.
A few reasons, what might be wrong in the email:
Email doesn’t have a structure or flow. Here, the sales executive jumps from one topic to another without a logical flow
Vague subject and lack of context for your potential buyer
Many times, in the opening sentences, the salesperson straight away talks about what the company does. Why would your buyer be interested to know all about this?
Email is too salesy and lacking a personalized touch
Inappropriate call-to-action in between of the email body ruins your email
The content in email is salesperson-centric and not customer-centric
In the end, email without an appropriate call-to-action and having a random closure
Length of the email is too long and does not have a proper flow
If your email has an attachment, it triggers the company’s spam filters
The results of unmindful emails can be devastating. As a sales representative, you need to learn the ways to master emailing for better prospecting. It is necessary to find out ways to improve email reply rates by testing and trying out different email marketing techniques to gain your customer’s attention & confidence. In this article, you’ll discover how to write the sales emails to achieve sales goals.
1. Personalize-
Mass emails are now an old part of outbound marketing. Customize your email with customer’s name, company name, designation, citing a relevant happening, addressing a specific problem
Mass email vs. personalized email
Mass Email-
It is the same email sent to an extensive subscriber list yielding a low conversion rate. It is not customized and contains no personalization. These emails are sent to an unfiltered audience that may or may not be interested in your offer.
- Personalized Email- Personalization means a lot for email marketing. It enables the sales executive to send more relevant emails based on the buyer’s interests and information. Personalized emails are better at generating qualified leads and offer a better ROI compared to bulk emails. It improves click-through rates and conversions.
With personalized email usage, you can build a connection, establish a rapport, and offer a tailored solution to your ideal buyer for the problems he is facing. For example- from writing emails with personalized subject lines to behavior-based trigger emails like license reactivation email, sales offer introductory emails, requests for a conference call, demo request, etc.
Example for personalized email:
Hello David,
I tend to reach out, as I came across ACME Corp’s website and noticed that your digital marketing team is publishing fresh, new content now. Generating fresh leads through the website is a challenging task, if not done in the right way.
I’ve been working with many software products companies to help them generate more leads from the web content using our marketing automation platform.
Let me know if we could connect at 3 or 3.30 pm on Wednesday or Thursday to speak more.
Regards, James Lee
2. Research-
It is the next critical step to follow while drafting an email to your potential buyer. As a foundation of the email, you need to dive deep into your research to understand the industry and the potential contacts. It helps you to understand the customer’s current landscape & issues. With thorough research, you can get a sense of the challenges that the potential customer is facing. Your email needs to bring a valuable solution to tackle the problem.
For example:
If your potential customer is looking to bring in the automation in sales teams to improve efficiency and effectivity.
Now automate your mundane Sales task. Drive your sales team performance and productivity with an AI-based automation tool.”
3. Email Structure-
Before drafting an email, visualize your email structure. Prepare a rough draft of your email structure, which could be a basic structure of your email. Be clear with what you want to convey to your customers.
Sales email Structure Format:
Here are two types of email formats listed:
Cold email format:
- The subject line - mention both the companies – the potential company and your company, who you are. Giving clarity is essential when your lead is completely cold
- Paragraph 1- warm up your lead. Show why you think you would be a good match
- Paragraph 2- details on who you are, the offer your brand, the value your product offers to the customer. Then throw a reliable supporting statistical data to make your product value clear
- Paragraph 3- ask gently open-ended questions about what exactly your lead looking for
- The sign-off – Show the positive attitude in the last paragraph, asking for a call to action from your potential lead
Sales Letter of Introduction
Even a necessary connection request can have a stuffy subject line conveying your main idea without being dry and cold.
- Paragraph 1- Give a combination of the enthusiastic praise and let your lead know who you are
- Paragraph 2- Give a general overview of what you are offering and the value your product holds to resolve the current issues faced by your leads. It recommended introducing yourself and company than doing a sales email
- Paragraph 3-Directing asking for the call or meeting; this will add a potential topic of conversation with your buyer
- The signature needs to be direct and straightforward, with no need for extra details clogging up the sales email structure
Sales email structure Example:
“Hi Lisa,
Thank you for emailing us!
I am James, working as Business Development Manager at Clodura, an AI-powered sales engagement platform for B2B Sales. We help companies to automate the__ir daily mundane sales activity.
As you mentioned the concern that you’re sending your business proposals into a black hole, it struck a note with me. This issue is faced by your sales and marketing team.
Now at Clodura, I help B2B companies to solve the problem, by giving them insight into who engages with us for LeadGen.
I think I can help you prioritize the ideal customer list with more engagement. Can we talk about it on Wednesday at 3 pm EST?
Regards,
James Lee”
4. Unique subject line-
A good or bad subject line can make or stop a prospect from opening a sales email. It can make or break a deal. It should be creative and exciting enough to prompt the prospect to open the email and read more. It is recommended to use a unique subject line to get your customers to open the email.
Words to Avoid
It is recommended to be direct, be humble, avoid bragging, and boasting. Avoid words and phrases like the ones below listed:
- Anything to do with money. Spam filters will catch these kinds of words- Earn, free, bonus, profits, price, credit, or anything with a dollar sign
- Marketing: - Email marketing is one of the most successful marketing channels used frequently. But that doesn’t mean as a salesperson you need to remind this to your potential lead
- Stop over-emphasizing words: - Avoid using words like - Exclusive, Surprisingly, or such synonyms. Only if you have a ‘special offer’ for a select group of potential buyers, then use any of the synonyms to convey your buyers about it, avoid using these
- Superlatives: - Avoid using words like FANTASTIC, INCREDIBLE, and AMAZING. It is recommended to let your product and the offer do the work. If your product and offering match to your ideal buyer’s requirements, it is undoubtedly getting a response to the email
Proven sales email subject lines by sales executives
To increase the email reply ratios, here are proven sales cold email subject lines used daily
- "[Introduction] [your name/company] <-_> [_customer name/company]"
- "Idea for [an issue the prospect is concerned about]"
- “Trying to connect.”
Here, are three examples of great opening lines to use in your sales emails:
- The context builder: I wanted to reach out, as I came across your website and noticed that your digital marketing team is publishing much fresh, new content now. We’ve been working with many B2B companies to help generate particularly more leads from the content with our marketing software automation tools.
- The trust builder: My name is James, working as Business Development M__anager at Clodura. Clodura is offering lead generation platform for B2B Sales. We help companies to automate the daily mundane sales activity.
- The referral request: Thank you for emailing us!
This email is with reference to your concern raised in the message you have dropped on our contact us form.
As you have mentioned the concern that you’re sending your business proposals into a black hole, it struck a note with me. We, at Clodura, help B2B companies to solve the problem, by giving them insight into who engages with us for LeadGen.
I think I can help you prioritize the ideal customer list with more engagement. Can we talk about it at 3 pm EST on Wednesday?
5. Straight to the point-
Get straight to the point. Note that your prospects have a short time, so it is recommended to keep your message short and to the point.
6. Embed Call-To-Action-
While creating an email, insert CTA to get more response. Your action should be clearly defined in the email. It should prompt the ideal customer to take some action.
It would great if you ask confirmation of the meeting or call. Below are examples for reference:
“Would you be able to talk at 2 p.m. on Wednesday? Let me know what works best.”
Or
“Can we meet at your office on Tuesday in the second half to discuss more on how our product can help you to move ahead.
Note- Your pitch shouldn’t be a monologue. It should include open-ended questions so that your potential buyer speaks up about his problems and ask more about how to get that resolved. It is suggested to start your pitch with a quick snippet about what you do to provoke your ideal buyers’ interest. If your customer is interested, he/she indicates accordingly.
7. Finally, concentrate on benefits:
It is one of the fundamental principles of selling your product or service. Talk about how your product benefits the customer or enhance his productivity and optimize resources, time, and effort.
To market your product or service, email is a fast, flexible, and cost-effective method. Email is the channel to reach out to your new customers and helps in retaining your existing customers too. In addition to the above points, emails are now personalized messages targeted to connect with your ideal buyers. Following the above simple steps, will undoubtedly improve email response rates, while working on email marketing campaigns.
After having been working on your email strategy, still, your emails are not getting responded to. Then learn how do you ensure your sales emails not only get noticed and opened but also read and acted upon.
There are other reasons for the failure of email marketing campaigns. You need to identify your email marketing problems and know the tricks to fix them.
Post email sending, you must do the email campaign analysis. This data is acquired from various email marketing tools and platforms. Here are a few more reasons listed, which might lead to email marketing campaigns which failed to get the expected results:
- Spam: - Unsolicited commercial email or ‘spam’ irritates consumers. If your messages aren’t targeted to the right customer, the recipient may delete your email or mark it as spam. Ensure that you are emailing to the ideal buyer, it is recommended to update and maintain your database
- Low open email ratio: - Low number of ideal buyers opens your emails delivered
- Low click ratio: - Low number of click ratios within the open emails
- Low Delivery Rate: – Low delivery rates as you might not have the correct emails of the customers
If your sales pitch is simple and to the point in email marketing campaigns, then the results generated are vast. Just keep in mind that your emails shouldn’t be very complicated.
How to update and maintain your email database?
Firstly, you should have the correct emails or contact details for your potential buyers. Before you begin with any marketing campaign, keep your database fresh and accurate. The impact of bad data can be multi-fold and choke up your email marketing engine with high unsubscribes, spam complaints, and bounces, leading to a lousy sender domain reputation.
How is it possible to keep the contact database fresh or up-to-date? Well, Clodura offers a unified platform where you can obtain the contact details of quality leads in just a single click. Don’t push your luck guessing email addresses and contact details.
A sales executive can launch customized email campaigns. You can manage email campaigns and have a look at the reports. Get the complete view of email opens, email clicks, forwards, replies, etc.
You can not only bypass the spam folder with intelligent & personalized email sequences but also track conferences happening around the world and connect with their attendees seamlessly. Moreover, the sales team can track events and get to know more about the attendees. And check out what they are tweeting about the event.
Clodura is an AI-based platform which allows you to append and enrich your CRM and marketing automation platform data in just one click. With more than 200 million contacts, 15 million companies, and over 100,000 active sales triggers, you can update your CRM or contact list seamlessly. If you are looking for sales enablement and sales automation tools to elevate your lead generation game, then contact us.
