SALES
4 Quick Tips For Prospecting Emails That DON’T Get Deleted
From someone who receives a ton of them.
If your job title even hints at decision-making influence, then you probably get a lot of prospecting emails.
Mine does, and I do.
Let’s be frank: many of them are bad. Not just ineffective, but roll-my-eyes bad. Did-a-human-write-this bad.
But there are lessons to be gleaned. They’ve helped me to see a few common traits patterns in poor prospecting emails, and eradicate those traits from my own.
So, if you’d like your prospecting emails to be heeded instead of deleted, then step away from the Send button and read on.
TL;DR: You can solve an incredible number of email problems by writing like a human talking to another human.
1. Personalization is worth the effort
Nothing technically prevents you from sending generic blurbs to every prospect in bulk.
I’m a marketer, too. I understand that it’s sort of a numbers game. But realize that generic copy wastes leads that you’ve collected at a cost.
Here’s the underlying problem: impersonal emails pitch a unique fit without demonstrating any unique knowledge. On the receiving end, I can only assume the sender‘s knowledge of me is limited to my title.
Besides playing to my vanity (hey, I’ll own it!), personalization makes it easier for me to believe you grasp what I do and what I care about.
There’s no need for a psychological profile and lengthy narrative. It’ll often suffice to lead with a reference to something they/their team/their firm did. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a minimal effort that pays for itself ten times over.
2. It’s not about you
Speaking of personalization, it’s critical to phrase benefits, value propositions, and the like in terms of how the prospect will be better off. This is Email Copywriting 101, yet we easily forget it in the rush to get that campaign out.
Does that mean it always has to come down to ROI in cold, hard dollars?
Sometimes, yes, and that’s a good starting point if in doubt.
But there are other motivators. Freedom from stress and worry; appreciation from others; satisfaction in work well done; the list goes on.
3. Specificity and brevity win out
It’s nice that you’re an award-winning firm leveraging best-of-breed strategies for innovative delivery across verticals.
Really, congrats. But that doesn’t mean you should say so. And if you just can’t help it, then please ditch the hollow jargon.
Even though that sort of language is ubiquitous, it fails on two fronts.
First, on the charitable assumption it’s even remotely true, it’s still too vague to understand. I’m pretty sure you’re saying do excellent work, but I haven’t the slightest idea what or how.
Second, that drivel is a strong cue to tune out the rest — or simply delete it. Remember, you’re typically getting a cursory glance in the inbox, not a letter-by-letter inspection.
If it doesn’t establish common ground or succinctly describe how the reader will benefit, then it generally doesn’t belong. Your/your product’s accomplishments are probably relevant, but listing all of them — especially in bombastic business-speak — is not effective
4. Don’t be cute
Lastly, funny openings can be effective, but they’re deceptively hard to pull off.
Written humor is tough to pull off in the first place. What’s more, your audience is hurried, is probably not in a playful mood, and is quite possibly from a region/culture where your own humor may fall flat.
Better to avoid awkward misunderstandings, and get straight to the point in a friendly fashion.
There’s no “secret code” to writing effective B2B prospecting email. But the next-best thing is this simple mindset:
You’re a human. Your recipient is a human. Write as such.
Relatability goes farther than anything toward avoiding reflexive deletes, prompting curiosity, and making the next step (whatever it may be) feel natural and reasonable.
