In nearly every marketing blog post the first piece of advice I give–whether you’re selecting swag or deciding whether to attend a particular trade show–is to understand your audience. Writing a great sales email is no different.
Before you decide what you’ll write, you have to know who you’re writing to. Once you know who they are and what they need, you can use this advice to fill in the rest.
12 Tips for Writing Amazing Sales Emails
There are a few things you should be doing in all of your sales emails. Please note that while a lot of this advice could apply to all marketing communications, these tips are targeted for emails designed to get people to buy directly or nurture the relationship in order to get the recipient to buy down the line. Sure, there is some overlap in good communications of any kind, but these tips are not for internal business emails. In those cases, direct getting to the point is best.
But for your sales emails…
1. Know why you’re writing
Don’t waste anyone’s time with fluff. Know the goal behind your business email. Not only will it give direction to your content but it will shape your call to action, which we’ll cover in a bit.
2. Understand short sale vs. long sale
Is your product or service a short sale or a long sales funnel? If it’s a long sales funnel, you’ll want to concentrate your sales emails on building the relationship and nurturing it. You want to get people to know, like, and trust you so that they will be enticed into buying from you.
On the other hand, if you have a short sales funnel, where people make decisions about purchasing from you quickly, your nurturing emails may be more focused on additional future sales, like showcasing upgrades and additions they can purchase.
3. Tell a story
People will stick around longer (aka read until the end) if you capture their attention through story. If an email is recognizable as a hard sell, it’s likely the reader will turn off and X out. On the other hand, if you captivate them with story, they’ll want to know what happens and they’ll keep reading.
4. Be clear about the ask
What you write will depend largely on your goal but you don’t want your audience to read your entire email (well, you do but…), get to the end, and then realize you wanted something completely different of them than what they thought. For instance, let’s say you spend the entire email telling a story about this conference you’ve been working really hard on. By the third paragraph, your reader is fairly certain you’re going to try to sell them a ticket to the conference. Instead, they get to the end and you hock your book on a completely different topic that you never mentioned.
Huh?
Your story, your goal, your ask/call to action all have to be interwoven so they make sense and lead into one another. Always end every email with a clear call to action. But make sure that you ask for the same thing along the way for people who are ready to make a buying decision earlier on and don’t want to read to the end.
5. Make it easy to skim
Visually, you need short, choppy lines. If you do, your reader can skim through quickly and get the gist even if they don’t read word for word. This is really important when you have a long message. If you write big chunky paragraphs, the average person upon opening will X out of it and “save it for another time.”
Trust me, there won’t ever be another time.
6. Spend at least half of your time on the subject line
This is so very important. I could write a whole blog post about this topic alone. You must give people a reason to open it. Think about the subject line as the movie trailer to your email content. Recipients are going to make a decision about opening it based on your subject line and the sender’s name. Since the sender’s name is somewhat locked in (at least from a business perspective) get creative with your subject line. See what resonates with your audience through A/B testing.
7. Personalize your emails
One of the most effective emails for return business I’ve seen was one that included a personalized chart showing how much had been saved by that individual shopper that year and other ways they could save that they’re not currently using. This was paired with a nice discount coupon to drive more purchases now (with their newly-acquired knowledge).
This was likely an easy data pull but it felt incredibly targeted (it was!) as it was not a generic statement they could’ve sent to everyone. It proved value by showing how much they’ve saved, urged them to continue saving money by showing additional ways that is possible, and rode the momentum behind this new knowledge by also giving an incentive to act now with the discount.
8. Keep it brief
Aside from telling the story and drawing them in, keep the messaging as brief as possible. Keep the style conversational but get to the point quickly just like this paragraph.
9. Use active voice
At the risk of this becoming an English class–I promise I’m not telling you how to write–but there is one thing that’s important to know or your audience will turn off.
You must use active voice.
Active voice uses action verbs, not passive ones whenever possible. The subject performs the action.
example:
Customers crave our biscuits.
In this example the customers crave, there is an active “craving” going on. Almost makes you wonder what’s so delicious about those biscuits, right?
But with
Passive voice the subject receives the action.
example:
passive: Our biscuits are craved by customers.
It’s almost impossible to completely avoid passive voice but just remember to ask yourself if you can say it in a more direct way with a subject and a strong action verb.
Also, since we’re talking about it, while your dog may need a bone or your child may need poster board for a project tomorrow, no one “is needing” and an inanimate object doesn’t ever have needs.
Please don’t write anything remotely resembling this sentence: “If your car is needing cleaned…”
Instead, go for something like “Dirty car? We never turn away a challenge…even end-of-the-school-year dirty.”
See? Punchier. More memorable.
10. Know what your audience wants and needs and give it to them
Speaking of needs, knowing what your audience needs, or wants, can help you appeal to them on a very visceral level and that’s one where they make emotional decisions on purchases. People rarely buy with their logical sides. Focus your content around what’s in it for them based on what you know they want and you’ll win big every time.
11. Write in a conversational tone
Today’s trend is to write in a conversational tone including lots of white space.
Do you know what I mean?
With short sentences. And punchy lines.
Even if they make your high school English teacher cry herself to sleep wondering where she failed you.
If you find it difficult to write this way, imagine telling someone in person exactly what you want to tell your email audience and record it. Transcribe it as an email. Keep paragraphs no more than four lines. And every so often, give a sentence its own line…
like this.
By itself. Out in the open. Because it speeds the reader along (I mentioned this earlier but I want to make sure you’re paying attention). And we’ve already established how you’ve broken your former teacher’s heart so why stop now?
and finally…
12. Psychology
Writing and sales require at least a basic understanding of psychology. There are some things that affect the majority of people. These things usually spawn action:
- fear of missing out
- velvet rope
- reason
- Benjamin Frankin effect
Fear of missing out is just as it sounds. People are driven to do something because they don’t want to miss out. You create an idea of scarcity, which spurs action. Pointing out that you sold out last year and likely will again, will entice some people to buy on the spot.
Establishing a velvet rope is what night clubs do when they show you where the VIP section is (behind the velvet ropes) in plain sight. Guests can see how luxurious it is but can’t get there unless they pay. If the place was out of sight, fewer people would feel the desire to buy their way in.
Robert Cialdini, in his research from the 70s, discovered that people are often willing to do something for you if you give them a reason why, even if that reason isn’t much more substantive than “because I need to.” You can use this approach in your sales copy as well by giving them a reason to do something. “You should do X, because of Y.”
The Benjamin Franklin effect shows that if someone does you a favor, they are more inclined to continue doing you a favor or doing what you ask. The law of cognitive dissonance means that people generally like to believe something is one way and act accordingly. For instance, if someone does a favor for you, they want to believe you are worthy of that favor and so they will continue to act positively toward you in the future. It is uncomfortable for the human brain to believe you are an awful person while they are performing the favor.
Additionally, most people find it difficult to turn down a request for a favor. Ask and you have an easy in.
That’s a good start for writing amazing emails that convert. Again, you’ll want to make sure you know who your audience is and what’s important to them as that will flavor the content and how you approach your messaging.
What did we leave off?
At ThinkQuik, we know a lot about promotional marketing. Try us. Our team is looking forward to becoming a partner in your success.
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