May 13, 2020

Send and Sell: How to Craft a Seamless Sales Email Sequence

Reading time about 9 min

Guest post by Jana Rumberger, Content Manager at Selz.

Getting the results you want when you’re emailing leads can sometimes feel impossible. How do you get people to open your emails? What do you need to do to get them to click and convert?

Whether you’re a professional salesperson or just writing your first sales emails, the right sales email sequence is essential. 

A great email sequence can set the stage for valuable calls and meetings. Emails can build strong relationships and customer trust, as well as bringing more revenue to your business.

In this guide you’ll learn how to write a sales email sequence that will help you build your sales funnel and get results.

The secret to sales emails that sell

Getting sales isn’t easy. There is a lot of multitasking and time management.

There’s just one secret to great sales emails: Start with what your customer wants.

You know the hardest part of your day. How much do you know about the hardest part of your target audience’s day?

Sales emails need to be adapted to your target audience. So do some research. 

You need to know who your contact is so that you can understand their problems and offer your product as a solution. Keep in mind, B2B and B2C are different. 

B2B versus B2C

B2B is more transactional. Your sales email needs to provide value to both your contact and the company they work for

For B2C, the offer is for the recipient.

If your email list is too big to do research on each individual, do some industry-specific research.  This little bit of homework about what that contact is doing and why will help you segment your lists to get your messaging right.

With Brevo, you can use dynamic segmentation to segment your lists.  This handy automation makes targeting future emails easier and faster.

❗ Remember: Brevo only accepts email list that are 100% opt-in. Make sure all the contacts on your list have been acquired through opt-in list-building techniques.

Don’t use a sales email template

There’s nothing worse than a sales email templates that doesn’t really say anything. Templates are easy and polite, but at the end of the day, it feels like a template, which means most people check out before they get your message. 

Instead, start a collection of emails you like. Read these before you begin writing to get inspired.

Another suggestion? Voice type your sales email

If you’re a great salesperson, chances are you’re better at connecting with a person over a quick conversation than writing long emails or reports. 

Voice typing your first draft is a great way to get out your best pitch.  Those ideas that are easy to forget when you’re worrying about writing a perfect sentence or avoiding spelling errors. 

It’s easy to voice type with most word processing tools. In Google Docs, go to Tools > Voice Typing. When the microphone turns red, you’re recording!

A few more important things to consider as you write your sales email sequence:

1. Email subject line

Start your sales email with an intriguing subject line. You’ll probably rewrite it, but your subject should inspire, not summarize, the message in your email.

As you write your subject line and preview text, think about how your email will appear in the inbox. It’s not just the subject line, but the way the subject line, preheader, and the first line of your email work together to form a first impression.

As a Brevo user, you can use the mobile preview feature to test how the email looks on mobile and on different email clients.

2. Email Structure

Many sales people approach email structure like a high school english paper. It makes sense to fall back on habit, but you’ll want to rethink this if you want sales emails that sell.

Sales email structure should include only two things:

  1. How you can give your customer what they want
  2. Why they should believe you

If you have a little extra room, the rest of your email should anticipate and erase any objections.

Some people write better. when they say more and edit down, others like to get it all down at once and refine. 

A great sales email is as short as possible. Be ruthless in your editing — nobody has the time to read long and complicated emails.

3. Make a connection 

You want to make a connection with your sales email.

Here are some ideas to make that connection:

  • Share something interesting and personal
  • Tell a story
  • Link to content that’s going to be helpful for your audience
  • Offer a freebie or other incentive

4. Call to action: One email, one goal

Always include one simple call to action. The best CTA will make complex requests simple. You want to do the work for your lead so they don’t have to. 

As you write your CTA, think about where you want your reader to click and why they would click. Then, make sure you create a great experience after clicking. 

For example, if you want to schedule a meeting, include a link that makes it simple to schedule a time to meet. If you want them to sign up for a trial, send them to a simple landing page that doesn’t have a lot of extra information. You want the experience to feel easy and seamless.

Also important – include a deadline for your CTA and let the recipient know what will happen afer that deadline, then stick to it. 

Sales emails for emailing leads

You’ve gotten it before. Someone signs up for your list, you send your first email, and then get an outraged email in return.

Leads forget they’ve signed up all the time, and when you’re emailing leads you need to find a way to:

  1. Remind them why they signed up 
  2. Get them excited again

As you write your first email to a warm lead, make your subject line about the one thing you want your lead to get from your email.

If you want your leads to sign up for a trial, focus on a specific problem that leads can solve during their trial. 

For example, say your lead responded to a lead magnet about Google Ads for their ecommerce site. In your first sales email, send them instructions for how to update their Google Ads from your dashboard. This immediately gives them personalized information that they can use.

How to write a great sales follow up email

Timing is everything for a great sales follow up email. You’ll want to use email marketing automation to make sure you’re reaching out to your leads at the right time.

If your leads are opening emails more than once, or clicking links and attachments, that’s a sign it’s time to follow up.

As you write your follow up emails, think about where your sales emails fit in your buyer journey.

What other emails are they getting from your company right now? How did this lead get to you and where do you want them to go next? 

If you’re send out a mass email, spend more time personalizing your follow up email than you did on the first big send. Then, show your lead that you’ve done a little more research so you have something to offer that they want.

Here are a few things you can offer in a follow up sales email:

  • Shares links to videos and other interactive content
  • Encourage them to follow you on social media
  • Share helpful articles, advice, or books to help them solve a problem
  • Provide an introduction to someone that could help them out
  • Offer feedback on a new product or service

Putting it all together

A sales email sequence is just that – a sequence. Each sales email in your sequence should come together to form something greater than your individual emails can be on their own. 

Each email should offer something more useful and targeted until your lead is ready for a conversation.

To start, you’ll want 3-5 emails that run over 1-4 weeks. Then track your results and adjust based on what works best for your audience.

Sales Email 1

The lead opted-in to your list and now you want to nurture their interest in your brand and grow awareness in your product/service.

What’s really important here is getting some information about this lead. That way, you can start to segment and personalize your next emails.

Sales Email 2

In this email, you’ll want to focus on a problem that many leads have, and show how your product can solve the problem.

Sales Email 3

Dig into the lead’s pain points even further.

Approach the problem from another angle and offer something extra.

This email should absolutely include a deadline, and what will happen next if they don’t respond.

Sales Email 4

This is the final email in your sequence. It should be gentle but honest, and include one more offer to get a conversation started. This email should also help your lead understand what communication they can expect from you in the future.

You’ve written your sales sequence! Be sure to test it to make sure everything looks and sounds good on multiple devices. Then, get ready for conversions.

To learn more, take a look at this case study on using Brevo email sequencing for lead generation!

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