Email is still the main source of revenue, despite what many social media and content marketing professionals and “influencers” would have you think. This is not to argue that content marketing and social media have no place in the contemporary business environment. This is just stating the obvious: emails are still the most effective way to close deals. Ignore me at your peril! Unfortunately for marketers, the monarch is more of a 21st-century royalty that no one pays attention to than the medieval royalty! like royalty. Stated differently, the vast majority of sales emails are discarded. Completely, icily, contemptuously disregarded. That is, unless you are a master at crafting a compelling sales email. Although this is a skill that is best developed through time and experience, there are still techniques you can use to make your sales email more effective.
95% Research, 5% All Other Information
Salespeople used to make sales by knowing all the appropriate people and, more importantly, by learning about them. These were the “good old days” when people drank whiskey, devoured steak, wore polyester, and had heart attacks at fifty percent. It’s similar to realizing why Michael Scott murdered himself as a salesman in The Office. It’s because he had complete knowledge of each and every one of his clients.
The idea remains the same, even though the channels may have changed: find out as much as you can about the person you are emailing.
Who do they represent? What do they actually do, though? Which issue needs to be resolved the most for them? Are you able to resolve that issue? Does anybody know them in your organization? How do they feel about the sector? By whom are they friends? What do they do when they have free time? Have they looked at your website? How did they proceed there?
This can have easily been a series of questions that required several hours to go through. There’s always a surplus of questions to ask and insights to gain from responding to them.
The good news is that social media, website visit trackers, shopping habit surveys, and specialist tools like Nutshell have made this easier than it has ever been.
There’s never a bad time to invest time on lead research.
Use Your Words Wispily
One of the most influential figures in marketing history and the father of advertising, David Ogilvy, famously remarked, “I don’t know the rules of grammar.” I believe that if you’re attempting to convince someone to buy something or do something, you should speak to them in their own language—that is, in the language they use on a daily basis. We make an effort to write colloquially.
Put differently, understand who your audience is and modify your wording accordingly. Avoid getting too comfortable or utilizing marketing jargon while speaking with a 30-year industry veteran who has been in the business longer than you have been alive.
It would also be beneficial for you to become acquainted with the types of standard email parts that are more effective than others. For instance, a recent extensive study conducted by the kind folks at Boomerang revealed that the best outcomes come from ending your email with a thank-you note to the recipient. Thus, why not put it to use?
Numerous insignificant details and research, such as those found on Boomerang’s website, have the power to significantly alter the response rates you observe.
Resolve an Issue
Making the sale is the only goal that many salespeople have in the back of their minds when they draft a sales email. Alternatively, as Alec Baldwin so brutally stated in Glengarry Glen Ross, “Always Be Closing!”
This isn’t the secret to sending out effective sales emails.
Solve an issue rather than try to close a deal.
That is the sales process for goods and services. They find a solution for someone’s issue and do it in a way that makes the person nearly willing to pay for it. According to copywriting expert Joseph Sugarman, if you do your job well, clients will feel bad if they choose not to buy now.
Of course, it’s challenging to convince someone that you are the solution to their issues and that your good or service would fix them. That’s the main focus of the entire sales email. This is also the point at which you will apply the first two pieces of advice: you will utilize research to pinpoint their issue and their track record of resolving it, and you will employ persuasive language to persuade them that you have the answer.
After you take this strategy, you will naturally cease utilizing cheesy phrases and colloquialisms that turn off potential customers.
The consumer of today is a knowledgeable one.
Handle them with respect.
