Does this happen to you? You send sales emails to your prospects, and they don’t open them.
The truth is if a potential customer doesn’t open your email, the deal is over before it even begins. Neither will they read your value proposal to learn how your company can benefit them, nor will they give you a chance to buy your product.
Therefore, a sale begins with a great email, and crafting a compelling and actionable sales email that invites a click becomes essential.
This article will cover what sales emails are, how they’re different from marketing emails, steps for writing perfect sales emails, and content samples and design templates to improve your response rates.
What Are Sales Emails?
Sales emails are emails that companies send to their prospective customers to introduce and sell their products and services. These emails attract new customers and strengthen relations with existing ones.
Sales vs. Marketing Emails: The Difference
A sales email is an email that you send to someone that hasn’t heard from you before, and they’re not subscribed to your email marketing list either. Whereas a marketing email is a message you send to an audience that has already opted in to get information from you.
Also, with sales emails, you’re aiming to make a sale, but for marketing emails, your goals may be to improve brand awareness, build positive PR, etc.
5 Easy Steps to Write Sales Emails That Boost Revenue
Let’s go over 5 easy steps to help you craft an intriguing and personalized sales email that will entice each recipient to open, read and respond to it.
1. Pick a ‘from’ line
An email ‘from’ line indicates who’s sending the email. It’s the first thing your leads see in their inboxes.
Hence, it should be written in a way that encourages your lead to trust you and open your email. It should be brief, concise, and relevant to the email itself. Although it seems a simple step and the line should be up to 7 words, it’s necessary because prospects who don’t recognize who the email is from might simply mark it spam or, worse, delete it.
For example, you can write ‘Sam from Wonks & Co.’ This is a good example as it’s to the point and appropriate for most situations. It features the name of who’s sending the email and their company’s name.
2. Personalize your subject lines
Craft a sales email subject line that’s short and enticing. Remember, the aim is to pique your readers’ interest and not sound like a used-car salesperson. And don’t forget to personalize it because the subject line and the ‘from’ line work together to give a solid first impression, so make it count.
Here are a few sales email subject lines you can personalize according to your scenario:
- Jerry said we should chat!
- Struggling with (common business interest/problem)?
- Thoughts about (title of your blog post)?
- It was a pleasure seeing you at (event’s name).
- Can I make your life 30% easier?
3. Craft a compelling body copy
The body copy consists of 2 things, an opener that sparks interest and a customer-focused pitch where you attempt to build desire for your product or service.
Write a persuasive opener
The opener paragraph is basically your sales email introduction and shouldn’t be more than 3 sentences. Its goal is to keep the reader interested enough to read your pitch in the next paragraph.
You can mention something about your prospective lead in the introduction's first sentence and then introduce yourself, your company, and the reason for reaching out. It should be relevant, so they can quickly understand that this email is specifically for them.
Deliver your pitch
Then comes the time to deliver your pitch. This is where you talk about your recipient's problem or pain point and present your product or service as a solution. Your pitch should include 3 to 4 sentences to retain your audience’s attention and help them absorb the information.
Some companies even do name-dropping here to build credibility with prospective customers. For instance, mentioning that your company has worked with certain reputable clients gives recipients enough reason to reply.
4. Wrap up with a strong CTA
A strong close to your sales email ensures that your prospects clearly know the next step. Here you can ask them to respond to your email or schedule a time on your calendar to speak with you.
So, adding a clear Call-To-Action (CTA) button in your email saves your prospects from worrying about what to do next.
5. Add an email signature
Don’t be vague here because a sales email signature shouldn’t be a distraction for your prospects. Instead, stick to these simple guidelines to make your email signature sound professional.
- Keep it short and straightforward.
- Stay on-brand.
- Include your name and phone number for contact purposes.
- Include links to your social media profiles, like LinkedIn or Facebook, so that recipients can connect with you on other platforms.
- Don’t use images and quotes.
Top 6 Sales Email Tips That Work
Now that you’ve understood the process of crafting the perfect sales email let’s go over some strategic tips you can follow to increase the chances that potential customers open, read and reply positively to your sales emails.
1. Decide the sales emails’ purpose
Before putting in all the effort to craft an email, decide on what you’re trying to accomplish with your sales emails. This might be booking a demo with a hot lead or simply getting an expression of interest from a cold lead.
Determining the aim helps you strategically create a personalized email to get the potential lead interested and entice them to follow your CTA.
You can consider answering the following questions during your brainstorming session:
- Who are you trying to reach?
- What interactions have they had with your business in the past?
- What action do you want them to take?
- What product you’re trying to sell?
- Is it a good solution for their problem?
- What will be the outcome of this sales email?
2. Research your target audience
After understanding the purpose of reaching out to your lead, it’s time to gather information on them so you can speak to them directly. You can research your prospect on LinkedIn, other social media profiles, and their personal and company websites.
During your research, you can look for contact information, job responsibilities and title, hobbies, interests and awards, company details, and potential pain points.
This information helps to personalize your email. Personalization is critical for the success of your sales emails because if it strikes the right chord with your lead, they’ll be more inclined to follow the instructions in your CTA.
3. Test your subject lines
It’s essential to test your subject lines so you can understand and constantly improve your sales email strategy. A/B testing your subject lines can significantly increase your open, click-through, and conversion rates.
When you know what’s best working for your business, you can really up your overall sales email game.
4. Utilize a sales email template
There are several benefits of using a sales email template. For example, it helps you highlight the various sections of your sales email to ensure you hit your key points. The templates also include fields that you can fill in to personalize your emails.
Additionally, they speed up the designing process of your sales emails without compromising on personalization.
Unlayer offers a variety of sales email templates that you can customize as per your business needs. These templates have a responsive format and allow you to personalize your emails by inserting merge tags.
Sales Email Templates That Convert
5. Send your email to the right person
You might be wondering, who’s the right person to send a sales email to? The right person is the one who’d find your offer valuable and also has the power to buy your solution. For example, if you are trying to sell marketing software, it’ll be wise to reach out to the head of marketing.
Reaching out to someone higher on the corporate ladder sometimes pays off because this way, you can ask for a referral down to the right person. This approach is beneficial when sales representatives are unsure who the decision-maker is or if they want to earn credibility from the higher-up’s referral.
6. Keep an eye on your results and improve
Always track the results of your emails to understand what is turning out to be fruitful for your business and what to modify to increase your sales email success.
You can consider tracking metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and reply rate to help test different subject lines, pitches, and CTAs, enabling you to inch closer to success.
Pro tip
Track each individual email so you can follow up if the lead hasn’t responded within a few days.
What’s the Right Time to Send a Sales Email?
According to recent marketing statistics, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days of the week to send emails. And there are key transition times during the day that tend to work best.
- 8 am is a great way to grab the attention of those who check their email first thing in the morning.
- 1 pm when there’s lunch break going on.
- 4 pm is when people are trying to get through the last hour of the workday, and they’re more likely to be active online.
- 6 pm is when people are commuting back from work.
Although there isn’t a hard and fast rule for sending sales emails during these time slots, they can work as a solid foundation for you to build on.
How Many Sales Emails Should You Send?
According to statistics, 5 sales emails is the ideal number. However, some sales representatives never give up and continue to follow up until the prospect specifically tells them to stop emailing.
So, the ideal number can vary according to your product or service. It all comes down to crafting the perfect follow up email sequence and testing your strategy to see what works best to close more deals.
5 Sales Email Content Samples and Design Templates To Copy
There are several ways to reach out to your customers. And if you’re still denying the tremendous potential of sales emails, you’re leaving the money on the table.
Below are 5 content and design examples of sales emails for various scenarios to strike the right chord with your prospects. You can tweak them for your industry, product, and prospect.
Get their permission
Content sample
Hi Oliver,
I’m reaching out because I have various ideas for how you can bring in more customers and eventually close more deals every month.
Would it be okay with you for me to reach out next week to discuss those ideas?
Best Regards,
Michael Smith
Sales Executive
(Company’s name)
(Phone number)
Michael@xxxxxxx.com
Why it works
Getting permission is always respectful because it builds trust and, if done rightfully, can leave your prospect in suspense about what you have to offer.
And that is the case in the above email, as it doesn’t jump straight into the product the salesperson is trying to pitch in. It piques the prospect’s interest, suggests future value, and ends with an easy ask to which the prospects can respond with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
Design Template
Offer a solution
Content sample
Hey Elijah,
Hope you’re having a great time this week.
I had the opportunity to look at (your website) and thought it would be great for us to connect. I’ve worked with over 40 organizations that share the same (issue) as yours and have ensured they successfully deploy the sales automation process to grow their revenues exponentially.
Will you be up for a 15 minutes quick call this week?
Regards,
Michael Smith
Why it works
Offering a solution helps attract your customers' attention by mentioning how you can help them. Mentioning the relevant problem and making a simple offer cuts right to the chase.
Design Template
Entice their curiosity
Content sample
John, I had the chance to browse through your website, and it seems your company can significantly benefit from using (your product name).
To use the product swiftly, it’s crucial that you know how to implement it, and that is why I’d love to offer you a free demo to walk you through its features and functions.
It’s simple. Just follow the link and request your free demo:
calendly.com/productdemo
Have a nice day!
Why it works
The above email clearly indicates that its purpose is educational. Using a product requires demos, and offering it to your recipients piques their interest in using your product.
Design Template
Follow up with your potential customer
Content sample
Hey James,
I see that you opened my last email but didn’t reply for some reason.
It’s totally fine. I know that you’re busy.
However, (your product name) can greatly help you with (issue).
If you still want to give it a try, you’d be able to:
- Automate and personalize your emails.
- Save your precious time for up to 5 hours a week.
- Allow your customers to close more deals every week.
These are just a few of the benefits you can experience with our product. So, click on the link below and schedule a demo when it works best for you.
calendly.com/productdemo
Best regards,
Michael Smith
Why it works
Sometimes people open your email but fail to reply promptly. This might leave you contemplating whether your lead forgot to respond or they are ignoring you on purpose. To clear the fog, you can spark the conversation once again by highlighting your product’s benefits.
Design Template
Send one last email
Content sample
Hey Robert,
We follow the practice of closing our files of prospects who don’t respond over a certain time. I know you’re super busy and don’t seem interested in using our product. Just let me know, and I’ll close your file.
Or if you’re interested, book a demo on the below link, and see how our product can help you:
calendly.com/productdemo
Cheers,
Michael Smith
Why it works
This is your last resort when you’ve exhausted all the options to engage your prospects, and they still don’t seem interested. This is where you offer them one last chance to engage with your product. If it doesn’t work, it’s time for you to remove them from your contact list.
Design Template
Conclusion
Sales emails are an excellent way to connect with prospects and get them excited about your product. The most effective sales emails are personalized to the potential buyer’s interests, attributes, and pain points. And the more they are tailored to their needs, the likelier it is for you to get a response.
So, before writing your emails, do some quick research, get into the shoes of your prospects, and think about what they want.
