Master the Craft of Sending Emails that Convert

Best Practices

1. Find the best person to contact - You won’t get far if the people you email don’t have the authority to act on it.
2. Know who you’re emailing - Do a little bit of digging to find out what sort of language your recipient is likely to respond to best. Pay extra attention to how busy they tend to be, and consequently, how much time they’re likely to have to respond to your email.
3. Reach out to your recipients before you email them - You want to be in a position where they recognize your name when they receive your message.
4. Use templates (that don’t sound like templates) - You’re busy; it’s fine to use templates – just choose templates that sound as natural as possible. Ideally, write your own. If you use an existing template, make sure to inject some of your own personality into it.
5. Keep it brief - Great outreach emails are short and succinct. Only include information that is absolutely necessary for the recipient to know.
6. Be natural - Write like yourself. Just because you’re writing a sales email doesn’t mean you need to fall into the trap of sounding like a sales robot.
7. Be honest - Compliment your recipient, but only if it’s genuine. People that receive a lot of email pitches will be able to see through the fakery (and they won’t appreciate it).
8. Keep it about the recipient - the people you’re emailing don’t care about your company’s achievements; they only care about what you do can help them.
9. Include a call-to-action - Wrap up your emails by telling your prospect exactly what you’d like to happen next.
10. Always proofread - Small mistakes can make a big difference in how a recipient perceives you. Always double check for names, spelling, and grammar.
11. Don’t include attachments - They can make emails bounce, and are unlikely to be opened anyway.
12. Don’t ignore bounced emails - Double check that the email address is correct, find someone else to contact, or try again later, instead.
13. Always follow up - It takes an average of five follow ups to close a sale. Enough said.
14. Don’t buy email lists - they’re a waste of time. Make your own.

Outreach Gone Wrong

1. Research your recipient - You should at an absolute minimum know their name, the name of their company, and what their company does. Use this information to personalize all emails (again, this is the minimum amount of personalization you should aim for).
2.  Don’t blabber - State how you can help your recipient, but do it quickly. Save the detail for proposals.
3.  Stay relevant - Ask yourself whether all the information in your emails is something your recipient will actually care about. Be honest with yourself. If the answer’s no, get rid of it.
4. Keep it simple - Don’t mess around with fancy fonts and layouts – it’s a dead giveaway that your emails are templated.

Outreach Gone Right

1. Establish common ground with the recipient - and do it quickly. It’s a great ice-breaker and encourages your prospect to trust you.
2. Leverage the law of reciprocation - Highlight how you’ve already done your prospect a favor and they should feel compelled to return it.
3. If you really want to work with someone, go above and beyond - Craft an email that is completely personalized to them and shows why you would work together so well.
4. Personalize by stating how your product can help your recipient - Great personalization goes way beyond names. Don’t explain how your product or service helps businesses generally – explain how it helps solve each prospect’s unique pain points.

How To Boost Open Rates

Write subject lines that:

1. Create curiosity
2. Are personalized
3. Are between six and ten words

Time your emails carefully - weekends have been shown to result in higher open and response rates, as have early mornings (between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.) and evenings (around 8 p.m.). That said, conflicting studies exist, so take the time to work out what gets the best results for you.

How To Boost Replies

1. Personalize - If your recipient thinks you’ve gone out of your way to contact them, they’re more likely to feel obligated to reply.
2. Make replying feel effortless - Your call-to-action should be a direct question that’s easy to answer.
3. Incentivize replies - Ensure your prospects know what’s in it for them if they get back to you.

Use power words such as:

1. You
2. Free
3. Because
4. Instantly
5. New

Include images - but a maximum of one per email. Use them to illustrate a point or provide evidence of a claim.

Anatomy of a Great Outreach Email

1. Address recipients by name
2. Highlight a pain point that you know troubles the recipient (and that you can help solve)
3. State the reason for your email
4. Provide evidence you’re able to help your recipient
5. Wrap up with a clear CTA

Full Article: Email Outreach Playbook on MailShake