Learning how to write a top-notch sales email is no easy task. Recipients receive an average of 120 new emails every day, but only reply to about 25% of them.
This statistic may discourage some senders, but that's only for those who see things as half-empty: 25% of emails get a response, meaning yours could be one of them if you learn how to write an effective sales email.
Sure, 3 out of 4 emails will go unopened, but at the same time, 1 out of 4 emails will be more likely to be read.
Luckily, you've come to the right place.
Learn how to write a winning sales email. You'll learn the key characteristics of a great sales email and get some examples of real-life sales emails.
Ready to get more opens, clicks, and responses? Start writing.
The 3 E's of writing the perfect email
Before we dive into how to write sales emails that convert and get clicks, let's review some essential principles for emails: The 3 E's for writing the perfect email are suggested by Jimmy Kim, email marketing expert, founder of Sendlane, and instructor at Foundr.
1. Excite
Write a compelling subject line and first line of copy to grab your customer's interest.
2. Educate
What's the story? How will your audience benefit? Inform them.
If you are writing a product promotion email, include the following:
- What it does
- How to use
- Why is it useful for readers?
3. Educate
End your email with a strong CTA to get your subscribers to click, but make sure it's clear and easy to understand.
Please note the following:
- Donât put more than a CTA in your email.
- Enter the same link multiple times in the body of the email.
Don't skip: How to Build an Email List from Scratch
How to write a successful sales email
First, letâs look at how to put email into the 25% pot and take it out of the 75% pot.
The best way to think about this is like how we choose books to read.
You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, right? Let's be realistic, we all do it!
Itâs the same with emails: without an eye-catching subject line, no one will ever read your email, no matter what itâs about. You need content that piques their interest and, most importantly, encourages them to double-click.
After the cover, you might look at the author and title. Then you might read the synopsis on the back cover of the book, or open it to the first page to see how it reads. You might lift the book and skip to the last page, look at the page number, and estimate how long it will take you to finish reading it.
If you're an avid reader, you might open Goodreads or Amazon to check the ratings and reviews. You might see if you've read that author's work before. Is the book on a prestigious list? Is it worth your time and effort?
Sounds like a lot of work, right?
While email recipients may not devote the same amount of time and enthusiasm to their inboxes, the principle still applies: They look at a few key factors and make surprisingly quick decisions about whether to open, ignore, or trash an email.
Here's how to increase your chances of getting an open:
Subject, pre-header text, sender, date
For every email in their inbox, recipients will only see four pieces of information before opening it:
- subject
- Preheader Text
- sender
- date
That's it, you're done! You have this much space to work with. Here's how to optimize each element:
subject
A subject line is like a book title: it should be intriguing enough to grab attention, but not give away everything.
You'll find mixed data on whether to use capital letters, emojis đ, or exclamation points, but what's more important is brevity and content.
- Brief: Emails with long subject lines tend to have lower open rates, so keep it short and sweet. The Hobbit For example, the title is The tale of the Hobbit, the Dwarves, and the Ring of Power.
- content: Give your recipient a reason to open your email instead of the dozens of other unopened messages they receive. To make your message stand out, include a compelling offer and a sense of urgency.
Below are some examples of great sales email subject lines:
subject: Note taker, time to have fun
from: Notable
reMarkable speaks directly to its audience (note-takers) with a not-so-subtle offer: if you like taking notes, you'll probably want to open it and see what this is all about. pamper is about.
Preheader Text
Preheader text is the short string that appears next to the subject line. Desktop clients can often display up to 100 characters, but mobile apps display much less. We recommend keeping it as short as possible.
In this example, Mountain Project does a great job building their subject line with preheader text: Not sure what onX Backcountry is? Yep, it helps you find mountain peaks.
sender
Twilio SendGridâs Global Messaging Engagement Report found that the âperceived sender is the most influential factorâ when consumers decide whether to open an email â more important than the subject line, offer, content, or time of day.
Choose a sender name that resonates with your readers. If you're a freelancer or consultant, potential buyers are likely to recognize your personal name more than your company name.
A great sales email example that really puts this into practice comes from Moosejaw.
In addition to sending emails from my company name (Moosejaw), I often send emails from Mike. People connect more easily with people than brands, so sometimes it's more effective to use your name as the sender instead of your company name.
date
Send your email when your recipients are most likely to open it. The goal is to have it appear at the top of your recipient's inbox when they open their email account, not at the bottom.
Recipients will start by picking out and opening only the most important emails, then they'll probably get bored (or run out of time) and start deleting or ignoring them (even if you've nailed other elements like subject lines, preheader text, sender, etc.).
Learn more about your audience. Find out what time they usually check (and open) your emails. If youâre not using a free email tool (recommended), at least keep a log of the times they check their emails.
Intro, offer, and call to action
So, you've succeeded in keeping your important emails open, but the battle isn't over yet.
Opening is like a book buyer taking a book off the shelf: they haven't started reading it yet and are still considering it.
Your goal isnât just to get people to open your email. Itâs to get them to open, read, click, andâŚ
Method is as follows.
- Introduction
- Offers
- Call to action
Introduction
Personalize your email and tell them right away why it's important to them. Don't start with:
“Hello, my name is Jesse James and I am the founder of CoolNewTech, a startup helping content marketers better manage their content. I'd love to talk to you about how our product can help you…”
The recipient already sees the sender's name, and your name (and a lot of other information) appears in the signature.
âI saw you get your second year. [company name]Congratulations! I know you're probably very busy, but I think I can help. It will only take a few minutes of your time, but our product will save you hours of work (every week). Send me an email to find out how I can help you. you in particular⌔
Offers
Make a compelling offer. A 10% discount is usually not worth the recipient's time. Best product everRecipients are inundated with these types of promises every day, so your offer needs to stand out.
First, if you want your discount to grab attention, you need to be bold. Twilio SendGrid says that offers at least You need 40% off to get a click – any discount lower than that will likely be ignored or perceived as less legitimate.
Check out this sales email example from Quicken to see how you can entice your audience with a last chance (sense of urgency) deep discount (40% off) offer.
Call to action
Tell your readers what to do in your email – don't leave them guessing. Calls to action will be different for every email, but make them strong, compelling, and can't be missed.
- buy now
- Call us now
- Schedule a meeting
- Subscribe to our newsletter
- account registration
- Send us an email
- Conduct research
Make the main points of your email clear.
Include only one CTA in your sales emails. Do not ask customers to sign up for your email newsletter. and Call them. Don't ask them to register for your event. and Please purchase a new product.
Ask your recipient to do just one thing. Focus all your creativity, copy, and email design on getting them to do just that one thing.
Do whatever you can to make your CTA stand out as the highlight of your email: bold, underline, center, change the color, etc. Even if a recipient opens your email, clicks through, and reads the whole thing, it's all for nothing if they don't take the one action you want them to take.
See how Airbnb does it in this sales email example.
They sent a concise, easy-to-understand message and added a colorful button encouraging recipients to “Book Now.”
Continue learning: Learn how to use email split testing like a scientist
Improve every aspect of your sales funnel
Congratulations! You now know how to write a bad sales email. But sales emails are only part of the funnel. Here are some things you need to improve:
- Facebook Ads
- YouTube Ads
- E-commerce strategy
- Content Marketing
- Copywriting
- Instagram Marketing
Luckily for you, we've created a catalog of FREE exclusive classes that will teach you everything you need to know. Enroll in a class now and apply the lessons within to improve your sales funnel for good.
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This article was updated with assistance from Graeme Whiles.
