5 Easy Ways to Make Your Sales Emails More Effective

Do you struggle to write effective sales and marketing emails?

That’s not good. Your writing can make or break a deal, so it’s important to make your sales emails as persuasive as possible.

And you don’t have to be a professional copywriter to know how to write a great sales email. Here are five easy tips you should implement to make your email campaigns more successful right now.

1) Humanize the language.

It's 2016 and you're dealing with real people. A salutation like "Dear <Name>" in an email creates a sense of formality and a personal distance in the communication.

You want to create the perception that there’s a human being behind your email that the reader can engage and build relationships with. Of course, how casual or formal you can be depends on your industry and to whom you’re addressing the email. Personally, I prefer to go with "Hi <Name>". The same is applicable to "Thank you."; a more conversational and personal tone would be "I really appreciate you…"

2) Be deliberate.

State the purpose of your email right in the beginning. For example, if you work at an events organizing company, your value proposition could be something like: "We offer holistic packages that make your event easy to manage and enjoyable for your guests."

You might be thinking, "So what? My reader already knows that."

But what if they don’t? Never assume a level of knowledge for your prospect. If you’re restating your value proposition in your fifth email, then the above may not really add value to the reader, your relationship, or their commitment to take action. But determine what your purpose for each email is, then make it clear from the start.

3) Prioritize based on your prospect’s objectives.

Know your audience. What is it that your reader wants to know? What do they care about? What do they expect from you? Prospects are more emotionally impacted by the benefits they receive from your product or service rather than its features. For example, if you are selling mobile phone plans, saying "We make connecting with your loved ones easier" will be more convincing than "Our network provides the best 4G facilities."

This may not be true of your audience -- maybe you’re selling a highly complex product to a very technical buyer, who does care about these more granular details. The key is to understand your reader’s priorities and present your information in the order they’re likely to care the most about.

4) Repeat the “sell.”

Readers tend to remember and respond to only what's at the end of an email if they’ve read through to the end. While this might mean doubling up on your call-to-action at the beginning (remember, you want to be deliberate) and end of the email, this is still a good practice. Emails with the extra "sell" at the end will get a better conversion, as your prospects won’t have to waste time rereading your email to figure out exactly what you wanted. You can always check what works best for you with sales or marketing automation -- test a few variations and see which ones garners the most responses.

5) Direct further inquiry.

Pretty much every email ends with a polite offer to make further contact. Given the importance of further contact to your overall objective of closing deals, you can and should be more directive around this opportunity.

Include a section at the end of the email saying something like…

Call or Email Us Now

Most people have further questions once they have read through the information that I've provided above. So, please connect with me by replying to this email or call me at 1-XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Hopefully these tips will be useful in furthering your thinking around developing email templates for your campaigns as you iterate to test what works best for your team. For more tips on persuasion strategies that increase engagement and conversion on sales emails, check out the on-demand webinar Leveraging Persuasion: Online Communication That Sells.