The Ultimate Guide to Sales Follow-Up Emails
In today’s digital world, when social media, mobile apps, and company websites are the top priorities of every marketer, email marketing seems irrelevant, right? Actually, it is not! Email marketing is still a very powerful advertising tool marketers have in their sleeves.
Data from a 2017 study from Radicati shows that there are over 3.7 billion people who use email globally and that number continues to rise steadily. So, regardless of the industry or the size, every business can still take advantage of the power of emails because they are still one of the most popular forms of communication worldwide.
However, there is a huge problem and that is: sticking out in this busy crowd. Data shows that there are over 269 billion emails that are sent and received each day which can create a real challenge when it comes to open rates.
Like with any other marketing strategy, sales follow-ups can be effective only as long as your target audience engages with it. So, if no one is opening yours, your marketing efforts will be in vain.
Luckily, there is also some good news: there are a few simple techniques that can help you improve your open rate and increase your email marketing campaign’s potential for driving sales and revenue.
Write a Captivating Subject Line
The real trick about open rates lays in having a captivating and engaging subject line. It shouldn’t be a surprise since the subject line is the first thing that a user sees about your email. They don’t even have to open it to read the subject line. And, like with any kind of written content, it is all about choosing the right title to increase your chances for your content to be read.
Data from Convince and Convert shows that 35% of email users open the emails they receive based on the subject lines. Obviously, this means that if you succeed to create captivating and engaging subject lines for your campaign, your open rates increase by 35%.
Moreover, there is one more trick you should know and that is the fact that you should use more than one or two words in the subject line of an email. Data from Hubspot shows that longer subject lines increase the chances for the email to get opened by the user. What does a longer subject line mean? It means a subject line that has at least five words. However, make sure that the five words you choose create an eye-catchy and captivating subject line.
Be Consistent With Your Sales Follow-up Emails
So, you have just started your email campaign and already send hundreds of them but see no results. Naturally, you may start thinking that you have done something wrong with your content or strategy. Yet, it isn’t quite yet the moment to panic because data from Inside Sales shows that 50% of sales start to happen after the 5th follow-up email sent to your target audience.
As with any type of content publishing, consistency is the key to results. And, this is also the case for your email campaign. Most marketers tend to give up after sending just one or two emails without seeing any results or reply. However, it is advisable to be consistent with your sales follow-ups in order to see results.
Personalize Your Emails
In today’s marketing landscape, personalization seems to be the king when it comes to attracting and engaging customers. And, there is a very simple explanation for why personalization does wonder. In today’s busy marketplace, consumers are bombarded with hundreds of ads and even emails from all businesses. So, naturally, they have become tired of being just a recipient that businesses only want profit from.
Martha Bell, marketing specialist at GrabMyEssay explains “ Today’s inboxes are cluttered with emails from businesses trying to sell us something, meaning that recipients are more likely to avoid any email that looks promotional. So, for successful sales follow-ups, that will increase conversions and build trustful relationships, businesses need to write content that truly engages the readers with a bit of humor and friendliness.”
The email marketing company Aweber wanted to test how personalization works in increasing open rates. So, it has conducted several tests with both emails that included subject lines and those that did not include the first names of the recipients. Naturally, those that included the first name of the recipient received a 4.97% higher open rate.
So, if you want to increase your chances for your emails to be read by your audience, make sure you know who you address to. After all, you want to engage a person, not a robot, so give the recipient the attention they deserve.
Be Friendly and Provide Relevant Content
While an engaging subject line is essential to increase the open rates, the body of your email is also crucial to truly attract the readers. And, there is no better way to say this but to encourage you to make sure you write emails in a way that will make the reader feel that they are reading something from one of their friends. When you write like you are writing for someone you personally know, it is more likely for the reader to feel important and to engage with your business.
However, it is also essential to make sure that your emails are well written, relevant to the reader engaging. One good trick would be to start your email with a verb that will play the role of an action word. Only one word can have the power to energize the reader and capture their interest leading to inspiring them to action.
Also, you must ensure that your emails are providing relevant information in a captivating and engaging way. For comprehensive and engaging content for your sales follow-ups, you can use tools such as Grammarly, WritingJudge, and HemingwayApp.
Moreover, keep in mind that a good sales follow-up email isn’t long and gets to the point pretty quickly before the reader starts to get bored.
Use Call-to-Action Words
As with any other type of marketing strategy, you must never forget about your goals. What do you want to achieve with your sales follow-ups? Well, as long as you have your goals clearly defined, make sure you write emails that direct the readers towards what you want to achieve.
Any sales email is absolutely useless without a clear call-to-action word or sentence that will make the reader take the next step you want them to in their buyer’s journey. Keep in mind that effective call-to-actions are short and direct.
Keep Track of Your Results
All type of marketing efforts needs to be monitored and analyzed no matter if you are running a social media or an email marketing campaign. Why? Because depending on the results you learn how to improve your strategy.
When it comes to a sales follow-ups strategy, even if you don’t get replies, you can still use tracking and analytics software to determine which emails drove the highest reply rates, how many emails were necessary to get the desired results, and what open rate did your messages had.
Conclusion
To conclude, effective sales follow-up emails are those that contain a captivating subject line, relevant and engaging content, and get to the point pretty quickly before losing the attention of the reader. Also, it is highly important to constantly measure your results and improve the response rate to your follow-ups.
Diana Nadim is a writer and editor who has a Master’s degree in Marketing. She combines her passion for writing with her interest in research and creates thought-provoking content in various fields. Diana also runs her own 3to5Marketing blog. What inspires her the most in her writing is traveling and meeting new people. Follow her on Twitter.
