14 rules to improve your sales email response rates
Matt Heinz
- The subject line’s job isn’t to sell, it’s to get the email opened.
- The subject line’s objective is to not get the email deleted when it’s read quickly by your prospect while walking between meetings.
- The subject line is your one-story elevator pitch. What will you say to get the prospect, when the elevator door opens, to say back to you “interesting, walk with me and tell me more…”
- The colder your relationship with the prospect, the shorter your email should be.
- If you’re 100% cold, assume your prospect will delete your email vs scroll beyond a single screen on mobile.
- They won’t trust your attachments yet so don’t send them.
- Don’t make the prospect do work (that includes asking them to “direct you to the right person”)
- Say “you” more often vs “we” and “I”, especially at the beginning of a sentence.
- Read your copy out loud before you send it. If it sounds awkward, it is awkward. Change it.
- Avoid or limit HTML usage. It’ll just increase the likelihood you end up in a spam filter. Focus on the message.
- Leave a voicemail first (voicemails followed by emails from the same source in the prospect’s inbox get the email opened at a 35% higher rate).
- Avoid bulky paragraphs. Make your copy easy to read. White space is your friend.
- Don’t ask questions the prospect already knows the answer to.
- Does what you’re saying, what you’re sharing, make you interuptive or irresistible?
