Writing a sales email is difficult and time-consuming.
Pretty much everybody knows that, even ex-first lady Michelle Obama.
But only salespeople and marketers know the pain of discovering that, on average, a mere 18% of recipients bother opening your emails, and an even smaller 2.6% click on your CTAs.
It's definitely a depressing statistic that makes you question the value of sending another sales pitch email.
Should you just quit and focus your efforts elsewhere?
No, not yet.
There's a way to achieve better results, and, luckily for you, we're here to share it with you.
So grab our hand tightly and get ready to learn how to write better sales emails faster.
It's going to be a five-part journey made up of:
Let's take it from the top.
This first part is straightforward.
A sales email is any type of email that companies use to:
Sales emails can range anywhere from a no-frills, plain text message to a fancy HTML email. It's up to the sender to pick a format that'll resonate well with their audience.
Here are two examples of these extremes:
1. An ultra-simple plain text email2. And a fancy HTML sales email:
But regardless of what they look like, sales emails form part of a company's broader email marketing strategy, which includes various other types of email communication (i.e., automated onboarding messages and customer nurturing).
And one more thing:
A sales email is not a spam email. Well, unless you're doing it wrong and sending out spam emails by accident.
This table breaks down the differences:
|
Sales email |
Spam email |
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Personalized |
Sent out in bulk |
|
Sent to a relevant person |
Sent out randomly |
|
Upfront about the email's intentions |
Uses shady tactics to trick the user into replying |
|
Includes the sender's details (i.e., name, email address, and physical address) |
Vague about the sender's details |
|
Gives users an opt-out link and respects their decisions |
In serious denial about privacy concerns |
Alright, that's enough sales email 101.
Now let's have some fun learning how to write a killer sales email.
This principle is at the core of all good marketing.
But it's, unfortunately, one that many people forget when they start thinking of their audience as a large, faceless, and nameless group of thousands.
Sound familiar?
Well, don't beat yourself up. We've all been there. We're only human.
So rather than pout, accept this piece of wisdom from Fairfax M. Cone, the father of modern advertising:
“Good advertising is written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions, it rarely moves anyone.”
Now make this your mantra and make sure that you know everything and more about your audience and their pain points before you even consider contacting them.
Pro tip: create buyer personas for each of your customer segments to make it easy to visualize the type of people you're emailing.
Everything starts from the subject line.
And for most emails, that's also where everything abruptly ends.
Think of it as an audition, where you have one shot to impress someone as unforgiving as Simon Cowell.
This is the reaction you're looking for:
How do you evoke it?
By keeping things short, enticing, and relevant. And definitely not trying to write super clever and catchy email subject lines for sales.
These can backfire and make you sound like a used car salesman.
For some inspo, we've included six of the best sales email subject lines we've encountered to date:
Sales emails aren't all about sales.
Well, at least at the beginning.
They're more about providing value to your audience and convincing them you're an authority in your field.
You can do this by sharing your latest content and giving them some helpful tips and tricks on how to get ahead of their competition.
Like this:
If we were to send out a cold sales email today, we'd probably drop a link to one of these two articles to really get our prospects heads spinning:
Do you have similar content to share?
We bet you do, so make the most of it.
Have you noticed that all the best sales email examples do it?
It's not just by coincidence.
They're on to something.
You absolutely need to hold your recipient's hand and guide them toward the action you want them to take.
Don't assume anything. And don't expect them to read your mind. It won't work.
Instead, simplify their lives by finishing your email with a single strong CTA that's straightforward and reasonable.
We've had great success with these three in our email sales funnel:
1. The 1, 2, 3 email hack, so replying is as easy as typing one number
2. Are you free for a 15-minute call on [date and time]?
3. All I need is 15 minutes on the phone at any time that suits you [hyperlink to a calendar software] — can I count you in?
Sending sales emails doesn't end with clicking the “send” button.
That's more or less the 80-meter mark in your 100m dash.
You still need to finish strong.
So avoid the temptation to slow down, send out a survey from time to time, and then head over to the analytics tabs of your mailer software.
Look for:
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Key metrics |
Why it matters |
|
Deliverability |
|
|
Open rate |
|
|
Click-through rate |
|
|
Response rate |
|
|
Qualitative research |
|
Remember our table on the differences between a sales email and a spam email?
Good. Now think back to what was the very first word in the sales email column.
Personalization.
It's there for a reason.
And that's because personalization is the biggest thing differentiating your cold sales email from random spam mail.
Check these stats out:
So to make a long story short, personalize your emails and write to your prospects as if they were old friends.
Extra tip: Test how your “from” name is showing up in the emails you send.
It's pivotal because you won't be able to convince your reader you've sent them a personalized email if it's coming from “Ringy Customer Service”.
We've already mentioned the six best email subject lines for sales.
And we've also already told you to stay away from catchy email subject lines for sales.
So why, for the love of Pete, are we telling you to get creative with them?
Because it's a-okay to have fun on the job. You don't want to bore yourself (or your contacts) to death by sending out the same six subject lines for the rest of your life.
You're free to do whatever you like with one caveat:
Don't transform creative and funny into annoying and spammy.
The line is thin, so we'll help out a bit more by equipping you with a list of words to avoid:
Print it, save it, write it down.
Did you know that you have a maximum of seven seconds to make an impression and catch someone's attention?
That's more or less one or two sentences.
Did we catch yours with this statistic?
Hopefully. If not, we're sorry for the bad example, but you get the idea.
Now apply it to your emails.
Oh, and by the way, the first two sentences of a sales email are also crucial because many inbox clients display a portion of these as preview text under the subject line.
Another reason not to slip up and send out something like this:
There are quite a few conflicting views on how to best sign off in a sales email.
Some people back simple signatures, some swear by flashy signatures with many links and embedded videos, and others go for something in between.
In our opinion, there's no correct answer.
The important thing is you avoid messing up your email with a sloppy finish or something that isn't suited for your target audience.
Aside from that, you're all cleared to include whatever you like.
Sales is a balancing act between being proactive and being helpful.
You need to reach out often because 80% of sales need at least five follow-ups before a customer says, “yes, I'm in!”
But you need to do it without coming across as pushy as this girl:
How do you do it?
By building a tried-and-tested contact sequence that gives customers enough time to think and relax between each touchpoint.
And by providing them with a teaser amount of advice or knowledge at each interaction.
Try this:
Sound like a lot of work?
Then the next tip is for you.
Hiring a marketing automation robot is literally the smartest thing you can do.
It'll:
You can't go wrong.
Where to next?
It's time to whip out the good ole templates.
You're prepared to read through them and pick up on all the tips and tricks you've just learned about.
Feel free to copy and paste these straight into your own private collection, but remember to always edit and personalize them to the intended recipient.
Hi [prospect's first name],
[Your name] here, and I'm the [your position] at [your company].
We work with companies like [impressive client name] to help them [your unique benefit in one or two sentences].
Without making any major assumptions, I believe we could help you with [the pain point you remove]. Am I right?
If so, I'd love to show you how we can transform your issue into [two key points].
All I need is 15 minutes of your time to show you a customized demo — does next [two time slots] work for you?
Thanks for the opportunity.
All the best,
[Your first name and signature]
Hey [prospect's first name],
I work with businesses like yours in the [relevant industry] space, and I specialize in helping them [your unique benefit in one or two sentences].
By the way, my name is [your name] here, and I'm the [your position] at [your company].
You probably know us because I saw that some of your colleagues dropped by our website over the last couple of days. But rather than sit here quietly waiting for you to contact us, I decided to be proactive and research you guys.
Firstly, congrats — you're doing a fantastic job.
Secondly, I genuinely think we can help you transform [the pain point you remove] into [the opportunity you create].
If that sounds good, then book some time directly onto my calendar [hyperlink to a calendar software].
Looking forward to catching up.
All the best,
[Your first name and signature]
Hi [prospect's first name],
I noticed you and I are both involved with [your area of common ground], and that you just [prospect action that triggered your email, i.e., wrote a post about sales emails].
You blew my mind away.
It was so refreshing to hear we share similar ideas about:
Would you be open to catching up on [two time slots] and discussing this topic further with a fellow [shared profession]?
I'd love to add my latest experience to the table and explore opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration.
All the best,
[Your first name and signature]
Hi there again [prospect's first name],
Hate pushy salespeople? You and me both.
So don't take this follow-up message the wrong way. I'm only writing because I noticed in my CRM system that I hadn't heard back from you since [date], and I'd hate to think we didn't connect because I gave up too early.
To keep my interruption as brief as possible, just reply with the number (1,2,3) that applies to you:
Thanks again,
[Your first name and signature]
P.S. I thought I'd share this piece of thought-leadership [hyperlink to a cornerstone article] on [insert the main topic] as a more concrete way of saying thanks for your time. Enjoy!
Hey [prospect's first name],
I was doing my usual sweep through our CRM system when I noticed that [X number] of users from [prospect's company] are now using the free version of [your tool].
First things first, welcome! It's great to have you join our [X number] of customers.
Next up, as a little thank you for signing up, we'd love to spend a little bit of time getting to know you and sharing some best practices on how to succeed with [your tool].
Interested?
Then pick a time on my calendar [hyperlink to a calendar software], and I'll get that intro call set up.
In the meantime, keep enjoying your free trial!
All the best,
[Your first name and signature]
And now onto:
Yes, you got us. This is a trick question.
If you've been paying attention, you can answer this one in your sleep.
However, if Google has cheekily linked you straight to this FAQ, then here's a quick summary of the five steps:
Definitely jump back to the relevant section for the juicy details.
By closing your message with a clear CTA that asks your recipient to take one simple, reasonable action.
Something like:
Does next Tuesday at 1PM or next Thursday at 4PM work for a quick 15-minute call?
Once that's out of the way, finish your sales pitch email with a professional (and error-free) signature that makes it easy to find more info about you.
You need to follow up at least five times with a prospect without being perceived as pushy.
This balancing act is what makes writing a follow up sales email so challenging.
We suggest you use a data-driven approach and marketing automation to find the perfect time interval between emails for your database.
It's also a good idea to include at least a few touchpoints that are solely dedicated to sharing valuable pointers with your contacts.
Selling, selling, selling, selling, selling is sure to tip you over to being pushy.
We're not sure which one is the best.
There are too many templates floating about the internet, and we don't have two free years to find them all.
But in the name of simplicity, we've scoured our brains, our inboxes, and the internet to pull five excellent examples together for you.
Click here to read through them!
That depends on whether you're looking for standalone email marketing software or an integrated CRM that takes care of everything sales and marketing-related.
We won't leave you hanging in either case because we'll go ahead and preemptively share our top five picks for both categories.
The winners in the field of standalone email software are:
The five appointed integrated CRM solutions are:
Good news: you've reached the end of today's journey, and you're finally knowledgeable enough to stick it to Michelle Obama and show the world that sales emails can be easy.
Alright, maybe we got a tad carried away there. Sorry, Michelle, you're a fab lady, and we love you.
Before you leave this post for bigger and better things, do us the favor of taking a last look at this quick recap:
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How to write a sales email |
Six pro tips |
|
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If you need some more help, or you'd simply like to see how an integrated CRM can revolutionize your business processes, then get in touch with our friendly colleagues.
They're waiting to show you why Ringy is the perfect mix of affordable and powerful.
Now get emailing!
