Aug 31, 2020
Email is critical to sales and marketing. We all know it, so if we want to win with email, we must create emails that not only get opened but also deliver on the objective of the email.
Podcast Transcript
8 Key Elements to a Winning Sales & Marketing Email
All sales and marketing emails have an objective.
We wouldn’t send them if they didn’t.
In most cases, the objective is to get the recipient to take action. We’re asking the recipient to download a document, to read an article or to give us 15 minutes of their time.
Every sales and marketing email worth anything has the objective of getting the recipient to act.
Unfortunately, the sales emails we send out aren’t very good at getting to the objective.
To improve your ability to meet your goals and create emails
your
customers and prospects will open and respond to, they must rank
high on the following eight traits.
SUBJECT LINE
The subject line of your emails must be compelling and intriguing.
It must capture the attention of the reader immediately. There is
no room here for messing up or cutting corners. The subject line
has to get your readers attention or everything else in the email
is lost. Make sure the subject line is about 9-14 words or 40-50
characters and is intriguing. Make your subject line feel like a
riddle, that when clicked, the riddle will be answered.
INTRIGUE
This is the most important part of the email. It must be
intriguing. The reader must want to keep reading or engage because
the email breaks their expected thought patterns about email. If
your email(s) looks, feels, or appears to be just like everyone
else’s they won’t break through. Be sure to craft emails that
intrigue the recipient and gets them wondering, that surprises them
and gets them wanting more.
THE OFFER
Every sales and marketing email must have an offer, no matter how
small or inconspicuous. We’re trying to get the reader to take
action, and the offer is what we’re giving them to take action.
Therefore the offer must be of value. It must be worth something.
Take a look at your emails today. When you ask for 15 minutes of your prospects time, what are you offering for that time?
Is it worth it?
If you’re talking to an executive who makes 500k a year, that fifteen minutes is worth 50 dollars to them. Is what you’re asking worth 50 dollars? To put it another way. Would they pay you 50 dollars for what your offering? The answer is usually no.
When looking at your offer make sure it’s a good solid offer that meets the needs of your prospect or buyer. Even more important, ensure that you have an offer.
THE ASK
What are you asking the reader to do? Is it reasonable? Is it easy
to execute? Is the ask clear and concise? Can the recipient do it
now, with little hassle or effort? Are you making it easy for the
reader to execute your ask or have you created hurdles or
unnecessary process?
The key with the ask is to make sure you have one; it’s reasonable, and it’s easy to execute.
Be clear what it is you’re asking the reader to do and why.
The ask should be why you wrote the email in the first place, don’t mess this part up.
OVERALL VALUE
The overall value of the email can be summed up in a simple
equation.
The value of your offer minus the ask (offer – ask = Value 0r O-A=V)
The greater the difference between what your email is offering and what you’re asking for, the greater probability the reader takes action and executes the action.
This equation represents the most valuable part of the mail.
Unfortunately, most emails fall flat here.
Little effort is focused on the overall value of the email, and therefore too many are ignored, resulting in low conversion rates. This is usually because the offer is less valuable to the prospect or buyer than the ask. When this happens the equation is upside down.
If you want your prospects and customers to take action, make sure the overall value of your email is high.
It’s a simple equation: O-A=V
LENGTH
Too long and you’ll lose the reader. Too short, your message is
lost or not well articulated. The key is to create an email that is
the perfect length. According to Boomerang data, emails that are
between 50 and 120 words get opened the most. With that said, I
don’t think there is a hard and steady rule to word length. What’s
most important is that the email is the right length based on the
complexity of the ask and the offer.
The best way to make sure your email isn’t too long is to have someone else read it. The key, the reader doesn’t get bored or want to “stop” reading. Don’t make your emails too long. Get to the point quickly.
RELEVANCE
How relevant is the email to the recipient. Make sure you’re
sending the right email to the right person. Make sure the message
and format are appropriate for the recipient. Don’t be sending an
email to the CIO or head of IT that lacks data, and technical
specifications. Don’t send an email to the CFO or CEO that doesn’t
address business issues and money. It’s important to make sure your
email is targeted to the recipient and relevant to their needs and
responsibilities.
READABILITY
How easy is your email to read? Is it grammatically correct? Is
the
sentence structure clean? Does it flow well? What it is the
tone?
At the end of the day, emails are communication. Therefore, it’s critical to make sure you’re communicating in a way that connects with the reader. Make sure the email is written in a way that the tone is light, humorous, or engaging. It needs to connect with the reader. Don’t let run on sentences or poor grammar undermine a great email.
Make your emails conversational and engaging; people want to feel there is a person on the other side of the screen.
Being successful with emails is hard, it takes work, but it’s not impossible. Like most things, emails have a success formula and by adhering to the above you drastically increase your chances of creating emails that your prospects and buyers respond to.
Imagine, emails that our prospects and buyers engage with that has a nice ring to it.
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