Your sales prospecting emails are falling on deaf ears. Here’s how to write your way to success.

One of the most soul-destroying tasks a marketer can suffer is to sit at their desk sending out prospecting emails all day long. But what’s worse is that we all know the uncomfortable truth. When the slog is over, the vast majority of those who receive your emails won’t even read them. They’ll either end up in the spam folder, they won’t get opened, or the potential buyer will just hit the “Delete” button before you get a chance for your message to be read.

Luckily, you can solve this. In this blog post, we share some of our wisdom and show you how to use language to your advantage to craft beautifully-designed, killer copy and get the conversion rates you deserve.

Mind your language

You don’t have to be the next Shakespeare to use the power of words to your advantage when crafting a sales prospecting email. Often, all it takes to push someone over from ice cold prospect into a fast-warming lead is to be a bit more active in your language choices.

Choose to use the active voice, which emphasizes the person you’re targeting – rather than the passive, which prioritizes the action. So instead of saying “This app could change your life”, considering saying “Your life is about to change.” This makes the reader feel special because it makes them feel like they’re the center of attention!

Another way to do this is to start sentences – especially your subject lines – with active verbs. Say “Join us today” over “Membership now open”, or “Win top prizes” instead of “Prize draw is here”. Injecting a bit of oomph into your tone subtly motivates people into action and makes you stand out in the deluge of daily marketing we all now receive.

A short subject

We get it, you’ve got a lot to say. When working on lead generation, it can be tempting to jam as much of the good stuff into your subject line as possible.

But evidence shows that this might not be such a good idea, and the statistics don’t lie. Inbound marketing platform HubSpot recently found that 40% of emails are opened on mobile phones, which means that any subject line over 50 characters is going to get cut off.

You don’t have to re-invent the wheel when it comes to your subject line, but where possible it pays to be a little different and to make yourself stand out. For example, marketing automation provider Adestra found that emails which had the word “newsletter” in the subject line saw an 18.7% drop in opening rates. If you say something slightly different and avoid sounding like everybody else, you might just get the engagement you deserve.

What’s in it for me?

Sure, we humans are nice – but we’re also quite self-centered.

When we have a hundred unread emails in our inboxes, the ones we choose to spend our precious time reading are always going to be those which will definitely give us a tangible benefit. It’s got to be crystal clear what’s in it for the reader.

Think about it. If one email begins with “Read our blog on lead generation” while another starts off with “Here’s our secret method for tripling your sales”, there’s no contest.

The majority of buyers would ditch the first one there and then but would carry on reading the second, simply because it’s much clearer what the benefit would be. Appealing to people’s innate sense of selfishness is a surefire way to warm up leads and help you improve your sales process.

Create some scarcity

Across the last few decades, top advertising gurus have agreed that a surefire way to get a prospect’s attention – and ultimately, their cash – is to use your writing to create a sense of urgency and imply that time is running out to take advantage of an offer or product.

Have you considered prefixing your subject line with a phrase or opening sentence like “Don’t miss out”, “Offer ending soon” or “About to close”? This can be a great way to gain some momentum as your campaign comes to a close, or pick up some extra conversions mid-way through by running a time-limited offer.

Among other things, people are motivated by a fear of missing out. As a marketer, don’t miss out on the chance to turn that to your advantage!

Names matter

It’s tempting to send out mass emails to prospects and chuck all the email addresses into the BCC box because it’s quick and easy. But this is one of the worst things an email marketer can do, simply because everyone knows what you’re up to.

If you have the resources, it might be worth finding some software with a mail merge-style function allowing you to send out multiple personalized emails at once. If you do, don’t forget to practice a few times before sending. The worst thing a prospect can receive is a mixed-up, broken email with a blank space where their name should be, or even worse, be addressed by the wrong name!

If not, you may just have to insert names by hand and send one-by-one. It’s hard graft, but that personal touch may well be worth it in the long run.

Are you looking for quality leads or need some assistance growing your sales pipeline? Get in touch with MarketJoy today and speak to the team about how we can help.