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Email writing: 5 things to do when writing a professional salesemail

The point of first contact may very well be your last

Today email is used as the standard medium for companies and individuals to touch base, communicate andhopefully conduct business with, but with the mountain of messages flooding our inboxes everyday, more often thannot emails are overlooked and deleted without a second thought, and chances are the same is happening to yoursales emails! How does one go about writing a professional sales email that captures the recipients attention andprompts further action? Read on to find out what you might be doing wrong, learn 5 things to improve your emailwriting and get the most out of your email marketing efforts!

Getting it right from the outset

As someone who deletes emails without much more than a glance at it (yes, we all do it), sometimes it's good to tryand access why we do this ourselves? What makes us overlook an email? Here are a few things that spring to mind:

an irrelevant subject line

lack of personalization

an email that is just too salesy

an email that is too long winded

a random email sent to someone that is just not interested in your product or service

I'm sure that there are a ton of other things that deter you from opening an email or simply deleting it and the irony ofit all is that we ourselves are guilty of these email offenses! The reason why your emails aren't getting opened oraren't receiving a desired response usually stems from the above. The good thing is that with a few minor

adjustments (and putting yourself in the recipients shoes) these offenses can be dealt with and you will be on yourway to writing professional sales emails!

Here I'm going to list 5 things that you need to make a habit of when writing a professional sales email. Let's get onwith it

1) Subject Line: OPEN ME, PLEASE!

The subject line is by far the most critical component of any email. It is the first point of contact a recipient has withyour email and as such is something that you need to be doing right! You need to keep the subject line relevant to theperson you are contacting and it has to be short and to the point. Check out this awesome infographic on 'The BestEmail Subject Line for Salespeople' from ContactMonkey that gives you some great tips on what you should andshouldn't be doing!

2) The right time to get personal

Being formal with contacts you are writing to for the first time and addressing them by their surname is the surefireway to ensure that you remain professional. Courtesy is key, add a simple 'Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms' before their family nameand you are ready to lay out the rest of the email!

3) Make them see the benefit immediately

When it comes to the introduction of your email it is important to make the recipient see the value in opening youremail right away! Your opening line should grab their attention, state exactly why it is that you are contacting themand what they stand to get out of reading more. Put yourself in your prospective clients shoes and ask yourself if byreading what you wrote you'd be willing to hear more.

4) Keep it short, but effective

No one likes reading emails that go on forever! It's important to remember whilst keeping your sales message short, itmust be as potent as possible. Use lots of power words that convey the benefits of what you are selling, avoid

superfluous tid bits about your company and your track record, if the recipient is really interested in what you areoffering they will make an effort to follow up with you.

5) The next step

If you have accomplished all of the above the last thing to do is to give the recipient a prompt to take further action!State that additional information will be provided if the recipient replies eg. a catalogue, case study, order details etc.that invites them to take the next step!

Takeaways

Getting your sales pitch right in word form does take some practice but if you need to remember anything then besure to:

Use a subject line that engages and that is relevant

Use formal language and address recipients with courtesy

Show the benefits of what you are offering from the get go

Keep it concise, yet powerful

Prompt further action

I sincerely hope that these tips help you on your way to writing professional sales emails and help increase your emailclick-through rates. If you need anymore help or tips with your online marketing efforts why not check out our othergreat posts here (also available in Chinese), follow us on Pinterest or contact one of our consultants to discuss howwe can help you by clicking on the button below!

Posted by Dewet Boshoff on Fri 17 Oct,2014

Dewet is originally from South Africa andhas been living in Asia for almost 10 years.He found his calling in China, becoming afluent Mandarin speaker whilst studyingBusiness & Chinese at ShenzhenUniversity, and was among the first cohort offoreign students to graduate with honoursthere. He is an inbound marketing scholarand social media enthusiast. Dewet delightsin using his language skills to promoteinbound in China and to educate the Weston Chinese social media. When Dewet isn'ton the job he enjoys outdoor activities,traveling to exotic locations and socialisingwith his friends-online and in the real world!

Topics: Email marketing • Business English • writing emails