Emails are an incredibly effective selling tool. They’re affordable, scalable, and personalizable – they form the backbone of every good marketing strategy. Email can spread your brand message, promote special offers or events, and boost those all-important sales for your store.
But nailing the formula for an effective sales email can be tricky. Hitting all the right notes and getting your customer to engage can be hard.
To help you out, we’ve highlighted everything you need to know about creating a good sales email that will turn your audience into paying customers.
Ditch generic sender emails
This goes for any type of business email, but it’s especially important for sales emails. Rather than your audience getting an email from ‘Support Team’ at hello@business.com, personalize your email and send it from a real person with a real name.
It’s as simple as that – but it’s amazing how many businesses get this wrong.
The “From” field is one of the most important in any email. It is often the first thing recipients see, and if it comes from your company name or a department, it’s not going to get a lot of attention. If your reader sees an email from a do-not-reply email address, the chances are they won’t even open it.
Instead, write from you, including a real name and non-generic email address. You could go even further and include your signature or a photo at the end. This is an easy way to form a personal connection with your recipients, which in turn will boost open rates so you can get your sales message seen.
Personalize your copy
Personalization is essential when it comes to any kind of sales copy, and this is especially true in email marketing. The more personal you can make your emails, the better. Just as sending your emails from a real person will help you connect with your audience, so too will personalizing them help you form a valuable bond with your readers.
An easy way to do this is by simply addressing recipients by their name. This immediately grabs them and makes them feel as though you’re addressing them specifically, not just a mass of faceless consumers.
Always address your readers directly, and steer clear of a stuffy, overly-formal style full of hyped-up sales jargon. While your tone of voice might vary depending on your business, it’s still worth adopting a friendly, fairly informal style. This will let your customers know that you see them as a real person, not just another sales target.
Use a powerful subject line
Your subject line is the first thing your reader will see when they receive your email, so it’s important to spend time fine-tuning it. Your subject line needs to tempt your audience to open your email, convincing them that you’re worth their time. Suggest something great inside without saying what it actually is, using clickbait-worthy language that will draw your customers in.
And while we’ve touched on the importance of personalization in the email itself, but it works just as well for your subject line too. Including your recipient’s name in it (“Hey Mike! We’ve got this special offer just for you!”) is also a great way to quickly grab their attention.
If you’re struggling to hit that subject line sweet spot, Moosend’s email subject line tester is ideal for perfecting your formula. It even provides you with useful suggestions on how to make it better, boosting those open rates considerably.
Use the fear of missing out
The fear of missing out (FOMO) is exactly what it sounds like. No-one likes missing out on a great deal or special offer, and savvy marketers know to exploit this to increase sales. Urgency too is a powerful persuasion tactic, and combined with FOMO is great for boosting your sales. For example, you could highlight:
- A new product with only 50 in stock
- A special offer that expires in 24 hours
- A discount available to the first 100 customers
Nudge recipients to respond, and ensure they have to react immediately to take advantage of the offer. You could also add in a countdown timer too to really ramp up the sense of urgency.
Always test your results
One of the most important things you need to do when you’re crafting your sales email marketing strategy is to test it. It’s no good putting time and effort into creating a campaign without knowing if it’s actually going to work.
To that end, you should always split test your emails before sending them. Chop and change different aspects of your campaign. Experiment with varied subject lines, alternative CTAs, different images, even the time of day you send your email. Even the smallest of changes can have a huge impact on your email efficacy.
Record all of your results and find out what works best. Once you’ve isolated a winning formula, use the results to inform the rest of your strategy. The more you test, the more data you’ll have to fine-tune your next email campaign.
Following the above tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful sales email campaign. Personalize your communications and split test your emails, and you’ll see your sales soar in no time.
Patrick Foster is an ecommerce specialist who writes under Ecommerce Tips, an industry-leading blog that delivers useful and actionable tips on everything from marketing to business. To give your ecommerce store the boost it deserves, check out his latest posts on Twitter @myecommercetips.
