According to ICD, we’re spending an average of 13 hours emailing each week. For sales and marketing, the number skyrockets: email is now the most common method to communicate internally and with your prospects.
For sales, a good email can get you a response, but a great email can get you the meeting and ultimately the sale. When email takes up most of your day, how do you get it right?
In LearnCore’s recent infographic with YesWare, we reviewed the who, the what, and the when for creating the best sales emails based on data from over half a million sent emails.
WHO
To maximize your chance of getting a reply, think about your target goal. Sending an email to three or more recipients increases the chance of getting a reply — in fact, emails sent to one person while copying another had a reply rate 12% higher than emails sent directly to two people.
WHAT
Before you even get a reply, you have to first get the open. Including “call” in your subject line, as in “Time for a call?”, resulted in 62% open rates, while a similar request, “Time on your calendar?”, only received 33%. Savvy marketers already know the importance of A/B testing email subject lines, but sales can and should be performing similar tests to find the best wording to connect with prospects.
WHEN
Somewhat controversial, somewhat genius: the data shows that email open and reply rates are highest on the weekends. An email’s prime time is when send volumes are the lowest—weekends, early mornings, and evenings. Should you start blasting your prospects regularly on Saturday night? Probably not, but for time sensitive requests like getting that contract review on your prospect’s calendar for Monday, you might want to try an “off” time.
HOW
Too often we think of selling as an individual sport, but you can sell more by working with your team. When you get a question or response via email that you are unsure of, you ask your colleague the best way to respond. You should involve your full team’s expertise and experience regularly. Some people may have better responses than you; its great to learn from them and see what they write that is different.
Remember, just like pitching or hopping on a call, writing emails is a skill that can be improved with practice!