E-mail is by now the most used channel of communication in the business world and we spend a fair amount of time reading and writing e-messages.
So this could be the most efficient way to get in touch with prospects, in the first place, right?
Well, before you rush into a binge email session, you should consider that the number of emails people receive these days is ever increasing. And the decision makers you are targeting are not the exception, on the contrary, they tend to have the largest inboxes.
That doesn’t mean e-mail is dead and you should no longer use it in your sales effort, it only means you need to consider a couple of things:
1. Write a personal e-mail, everyone feels good when they are called by their name. So “Hi, Mr. Prospect” will get you further than a standard line.
2. Remember to add a subject line and make it count. People tend to ignore messages from unknown senders, so a short but punchy subject line increases your message’s open rate. So instead of “Interactive video advertising” or “Interactive video provider”, these days I go for “Interactive video ads for higher monetization” or “Increase video ad performance with interactivity”. Think of what is unique in your value proposition and try to capture that somehow in the subject.
3. Keep it short and simple. I always thought that the shorter the first contacting e-mail, the bigger response rate and to me the magic formula is a message that is no longer than 150 words. Also, don’t complicate the message with super technical vocabulary and fancy words, they say that you should write the same way you talk. Read the e-mail out loud before you hit send and if doesn’t sound like something you would say, think of another one. Also, Word offers a readability test that will tell you what is the educational level of a person able to understand a specific text. Try to keep the wording simple, a 5th grader could be a good target.
4. Tailor your message. Let people know why your e-mail is important, why your offering can help them and why they should want to hear more from you. So adapt the benefits of your product or service to their business needs, based on what you know or learned about the targeted company. It is most likely the best way to get people interested. For example, you could let a potential buyer know how you helped other similar businesses grow and by how much. Know your product’s benefits and state them in such a way to make it appeal to your audience.
Try to incorporate these pieces of advice into your next cold e-mails, in the end, each of us reacts when the message we receive is personalized, relevant and easy to read.
Oh, and do check your spelling and used fonts. That’s important too.
Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash
