How to write an irresistible sales email (without feeling uncomfortable)

For many entrepreneurs, selling online is the hardest part of the job, and writing a sales email is an embarrassing experience.

However, customers and sales are the foundation of any online business and, unfortunately, they don’t come on their own.

That’s why being effective at selling through bulk email is essential, but how can you write a sales email without feeling like you’re betraying your dignity?

Selling is a skill… and you can learn it without scaring off your prospects or feeling like a pushy salesperson.

In this article, find out how to write a killer sales email that helps your reader and gives them your best solution through an email marketing service.

I hope that, starting right now, you change your mindset and begin to enjoy the sales process.

· What is a sales email?

A sales email is a type of email communication whose main goal is to persuade the recipient to buy a product or service.

Unlike informational or PR emails, sales emails focus on generating a direct conversion.

They do this using marketing strategies and persuasive writing techniques.

The importance of sales emails in digital marketing:

In the world of digital marketing, sales emails play a crucial role in the sales funnel.

They are essential tools for generating leads, building customer loyalty and, ultimately, driving sales.

They also allow direct, personalized communication with your audience, which makes them extremely effective compared to other mass marketing channels.

Key features of an effective sales email:

Although we’ll cover this in more depth in the rest of the article, for now keep the following in mind:

• Attractive subject line: the subject line should be eye-catching and encourage the recipient to open the email.
• Persuasive content: the body of the email should present the benefits of the product or service clearly and convincingly.
• Clear call to action: a direct invitation to take a specific action, such as buying, subscribing or learning more.
• Personalization: emails personalized for the recipient tend to get higher response rates.

· How to write an email offering services or products

a) Write a compelling subject line

What’s the first thing your potential customer sees when they open their email inbox?

The subject line.

That’s why the subject line is decisive for increasing the open rate of your emails. If the subject line inspires, leaves a mark and stands out from the rest, your prospect will become interested, open your email and read it. So put real work into your subject line if you don’t want a poor one to ruin your sales.

How do you write a good email subject line?

Be yourself and be approachable, just as you would talk to a friend.

Use a subject line that highlights the benefits:

Our hosting is 50% more secure and faster.

Or a competitive subject line:

Dominate Google’s search results and leave page 2 to your competitors

Or a subject line that inspires:

Design your own website, even if you have no technical knowledge

b) Start your sales email with the benefits:

Your potential customer isn’t interested in you or in your products or services; all they care about is themselves, their needs and solving their problem.

If you want to dig deeper into how to win over your customers, I recommend this article:

4 smart tips to stop your web content from costing you sales.

So, how can you attract your prospects?

Show them the benefits they’ll get and how it will improve their life, instead of focusing on the features of your product or service.

Yet most of the sales emails we receive every day, instead of presenting the benefits to their potential customers, only talk about themselves and their products and forget about the users.

When you get a promotional email that just rattles on about the company and its products, how do you react? Are you interested, or do you hit the delete button?

c) Show what will happen if they don’t have your product or service

Show your reader the difference your product or service will make in their life, compared with life without it.

Show them why it will improve their life and how hard things will be without it.

Going back to the agricultural machinery company:

Without our irrigation machine:
your irrigation machine won’t last as long and costs 1.5 times more. You’ll spend more money. The work process will be more cumbersome and slower.

With our irrigation machine:
you’ll save 30% and your machine will last longer, you’ll be able to manage the entire irrigation process and speed up the work.

d) Present a summary of what they get

In your sales email, summarize the value your customer will get from the purchase. To do this, list the features of the product or service and combine them with the benefits and your customer’s pain points.

Features describe a product or service: its size, color, durability, etc., while benefits explain the improvement it will bring to your potential customer’s life.

The consultancy Mabeja Consulting includes the following summary of features and benefits on its website to explain the HR department management service it offers to companies:

· We set up and manage your HR department so you can focus on your business and stop wasting your valuable time: we select your staff, hire them and take care of managing payroll and employee leave.

· Increase your employees’ performance with our workplace climate studies and avoid unfavorable work situations.

· Enjoy a safer company thanks to our occupational risk prevention studies and avoid penalties.

· We analyze results to achieve continuous improvement for your company.

· Put your human resources department in expert hands and focus on growing your business.

e) Knock down their doubts

What objections might your reader have to buying your product or service?

As well as offering solutions to your potential customers, to be more persuasive you need to answer their “buts” and remove their doubts about buying.

Find out your customers’ objections and answer them honestly. If the obstacle is price, show them why your product or service costs what it does and why it’s worth buying. If the main doubt is a lack of trust, explain why you’re the right person and show them proof of your work.

Each industry can have different obstacles, and your priority is to know them so you can clear the doubts from your reader’s mind.

If you’re a consultant and want to reach organizations that think they don’t need your services because they’re just starting out, knock down this objection and show them that it’s actually the best time to lay the legal foundations of the organization and obtain tax benefits and grants.

f) Social proof

Once you’ve knocked down their doubts, do you think your readers are ready to buy your products or services?

Probably not yet.

For a customer to buy from you, they first have to trust you.

That’s why social proof and testimonials from previous customers are so important for your business.

If a user speaks well of you and your products, that’s proof of reliability for your reader.

When writing a sales email, you can include 2 or 3 customer reviews or a testimonial success story that backs up the great value of your product or service.

g) Offer/price

Don’t forget to include how much the product or service costs, the reason for that price and whether payment plans are available.

You can also offer a discount if they buy your product or service within x days.

h) Call to action

When writing your sales email, include a call to action, whether it’s buying the product or service, making a phone call or requesting more information by email.

i) Guarantee

Offer an extra guarantee, since a product or service bought online can still raise some suspicion.

If you offer a course, encourage people to try it for 1 month and, if they don’t like it, you can commit to giving them their money back.

If you offer a service, encourage the reader to call and request free information so they can make up their mind with no commitment at all.

The psychology behind an effective sales email:

Below we share some tips to help you better understand the psychology of sales.

These are some basics you can build on:

How to capture attention emotionally:

The key to capturing attention emotionally in a sales email is to understand your audience’s needs, desires and problems.

By establishing an emotional connection, the message becomes more resonant and memorable.

This can be achieved through:

• Empathy: show that you understand and care about your audience’s challenges or aspirations.
• Relatable stories: use narratives that reflect situations or emotions your audience can easily identify with.
• Emotional language: use words and phrases that evoke specific emotions, such as excitement, relief or security.
• Striking images: include images or graphics that complement and reinforce the emotional message.

Using persuasion and influence in your writing:

Persuasion in sales emails focuses on convincing the reader that taking a specific action will benefit them.

Some key techniques include:

• Cialdini’s principles: apply Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuasion, such as reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking and social proof.
• Clear benefits: instead of focusing on the features of the product or service, highlight the tangible benefits it will bring to the customer’s life.
• Effective calls to action: every email should have a clear call to action that guides the reader toward the next desired step.
• Social proof: include testimonials, case studies or mentions of satisfied customers to increase credibility and influence.

Common mistakes in sales emails and how to avoid them

In short, I think you should be careful with the following:

Examples of what not to do:

Making mistakes in sales emails can significantly reduce their effectiveness.

Some of the most common mistakes include:

• Generic or misleading subject lines: using subject lines that are unclear or don’t reflect the content can lead to emails being ignored or marked as spam.
• Too much content: an email overloaded with information can be overwhelming and lead to a low response rate.
• Lack of personalization: treating all recipients the same way, without considering their specific interests or needs.
• Too much focus on the sale: focusing exclusively on making the sale without providing value or building a connection with the reader.
• Not including a clear call to action: leaving the reader without clear direction on what to do next.

Tips for staying professional and effective:

To make sure your sales emails are both professional and effective, consider the following tips:

• Personalize the message: use the information you have about your recipients to personalize each email.
• Keep a balance of content: make sure your email has enough information to be persuasive, without being overwhelming.
• Clear and concise language: use simple, direct language and avoid jargon or complicated terms.
• Offer real value: include useful information or insights that may interest your audience, beyond simply promoting a product or service.
• Testing and review: before sending an email, check it for grammar or formatting errors and make sure every link works correctly.

· Set aside your fear of selling and have fun

As you can see, writing an effective sales email is a skill you can learn.

When selling by email, you have the advantage of being able to analyze everything beforehand.

In fact, if you know the essential copywriting steps, you can start getting the results you were looking for.

Write each section little by little, without feeling overwhelmed, so that you offer a coherent and engaging structure.

Edit your text as many times as you need until it sounds perfect.

And don’t forget that your sales email will help your reader. You have the solution to their problem and you’re offering it in your email, so don’t feel uncomfortable or intimidated.

If you want to go deeper into email sales techniques and online selling, I recommend watching this video on competitor analysis (something essential in sales):

At Mailrelay, we hope that from now on you’ll put the fear of selling out of your mind and have fun writing your promotional emails!

I look forward to your comments…

Once your email has been sent, it’s normal to run into some pushback: in overcoming 15 objections to selling by email you’ll find concrete answers, and if you want to strengthen the foundations of your copy, here’s what copywriting is.