3 Ways to Write Engaging Emails that Sell

The modern consumers can best be described as a “fickle,” thanks to the rise of e-commerce.

A significant number of customers still patronize the traditional brick and mortar stores, but the majority has been swept off by the e-commerce wave.

Online marketers are in constant search for efficient and effective marketing strategies that convert readers into potential customers.

One such approach is e-mail marketing.

Why Is Email Marketing Important?

A study by Chen examining the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty in interactive e-service settings established the importance of emails in such interactions. Georgieva shared similar sentiments in their comprehensive eBook on introduction to email marketing by citing evidence showing that finance and shopping had above average webmail views (49% & 48%) compared to other industries. The evidence illustrates the penetrating force associated with email campaigns.

Companies consider emails to be among the most powerful marketing channels. Therefore, the size of your email list demonstrates how far your reach and thought leadership stretch. Email marketing campaigns should be used as a holistic approach to educating contacts about the company or brand. This way, you are able to build and enhance business relationships with previous and current customers, encourage customer loyalty, acquire new customers, and encourage the sharing of company advertisements.

You cannot afford to be in the lower bracket of the competition. Email marketing is a dominant form of communication, and a recent survey showed that over 70% of people preferred a business to contact them via email.

However, there is a hurdle for email marketers to navigate. Statistics show that an average customer gets at least 100 emails daily, opens only 23% of them, and clicks through a measly 25. Very few emails are getting the level of engagement sought after, making the prospect of a phone call or even a deal unlikely. Therefore, to crush it in sales, you need top-notch emailing skills and knowledge.

This is of paramount importance to avoid falling into the trap of committing either of the two email marketers common mistakes that can cost you a lot of money:

1. Giving away too much content without achieving the sales selling objective.
2. Doing too much selling without giving away sufficient content.

Here are 3 ways you can go about developing an engaging email that can sell you and your brand:

1. Make the Email Short or Easy to Read

You should master the dos and don’ts of email content.

Make sure to come in useful in the email by avoiding content that wastes people’s time such as talking about your client list. An effective sales email has 5 major components: subject line; opening line; body copy; closing copy; and signature.

The sections are what you need to make your email concise, a weapon every salesperson needs to make sure anyone reads their emails. Most prospects targeted by your email are busy and have no time for novel-long email describing your product. Keep the email short and sweet.

You should be driven by the understanding that it is possible to make a deal and close a sale in one single email.

In instances where a long email cannot be avoided, formatting is the key to effective delivery. Make use of distinct, headline sections, bold important information, and use bullet lists.

The objective is to make the email scannable and enable the reader to get the information they need with ease.

The image below shows the same pizzeria promotional emails. What is your response to seeing and reading each?

It is uncalled for to hit your audience with a giant block of text that is unreadable. As a salesperson, you depend on prospects actually reading the emails you send out to have any chance of eliciting a positive response.

2. Sell Using Your Signature

Having unnecessary information about the company on the email can be boring for prospects.

Such a signature has no benefits to the sender or recipients of the email. No credibility; nothing interesting; and nothing being sold.

To sell using your signature you need to pitch your other product or service offerings. Strive to capture the readers’ interest by including links to recent company webinar, relevant press articles, case studies, or anything else that adds credibility to the email.

Where possible, add YouTube link to a video that displays a thumbnail. Researchers from MIT have established that photos containing people are the most memorable. Similarly, psychologists found out colored photos to be more memorable than those in black and whiter.  Thumbnail of a speech video in the email signature potentially triggers interest to watch the whole video, which in turn leads to the positive feedback that can translate to sales. Therefore, you can exploit this feature to get the company’s marketing to existing and potential customers.

A signature must sell both the sender and the company. It should increase the amount of engagement from the readers of the email. Little effort is needed to come up with such a signature. You should keep updating it with content that is already available.

3. Get the Emails Opened

A typical buyer’s inbox is congested with uninteresting and boring emails.

How can you prevent your emails from being drowned in the noisy inboxes that Google tabs have made even worse? Email designing skills are critical here and seduction is the weapon of choice!

Use the email subject line to pique the interest of the readers. It should be short and concise and devoid of “spammy” words. The subject line should promise readers something good. Specific knowledge of what will be learned or how you can make people happier, more informed, or succeed in business motivates them to read more about it. Power words that are emotional or bizarre and numbers can be used to generate curiosity by attracting the wandering eyes of the readers.

Get out of the box by not adhering to standards such as an optimal subject line. There are no average readers. The trick is to build a personal relationship with the readers who would become accustomed to your emails and anticipate them because they recognize the name of the sender. Engage the readers through personal touch, avoiding automated greetings, asking questions, and addressing them in the second person.

Lindsay Kolowich argues that it is inherent to talk about the benefits of the product or service rather than its features in the email. As an email marketer, you may understand the value of your email, but the recipient or customer has no idea of such value. It is up to you to explain to them.

Now Make Your Emails Engaging

The past few years have witnessed a revolution in email marketing.

The exponential increase in the number of consumers with preferences for online shopping presents prospects for marketers to deploy similar platforms to target this growing market.

Most emails are uninteresting and boring, which gives you as a salesperson an opportunity. Each of the three tips discussed herein can increase the prospects of your email being opened, read, and clicked. Take the initiative to stand out from the competition.