Email Tips and Tricks

It’s your favorite time of the month, the day you all lie awake in anticipation for. It’s Maestro’s news roundup and this week we are here to save you from the ire and dread that come with those nasty, pesky, cumbersome little things: emails.

We aren’t going to open them for you (the first sales prospect to respond is usually the one who closes the deal, so be opening and responding!) but we are going to show you some of the best articles across the mighty web that will help you bolster your email skills to get more opens, more responses, and more deals. Emails can be the difference between a bad year and your best, so pay attention and away we go.

LET’S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING—JULIE ANDREWS, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, BUT ALSO ME

The greeting, the salutation, the first line of your email…is not the very beginning. The most vital place to actually begin is your subject. If the prospect doesn’t open your email, nothing else matters, so having a killer subject is a must and you must take your time on it. A great question an article I came across this week asked, “Would [you] read that email?” or would you simply flag it as spam and move along?

For external communication, the subject line is our chance to draw or keep attention. Most people recommend keeping the subject short, five words or less if possible, and finding a way to communicate interest, need, or service. Read the article for all its best email tricks and tips because if no one opens your email, you are wasting your time.

THE SECOND START, THE FIRST LINE

In addition to a subject line, there is always a small preview for emails. You know the one, the thing you read to see if something is worth opening, the thing you read so you can get information without having to open and then click “mark as unread” to remember for later. And that is exactly why it’s so important. A first line is what draws you in to open the email to allow the rest of the email to drive action.

I came across an article about the seven most terrible, awful, downright unacceptable first lines that mentioned that the writer saw a DOUBLING in her response rate when she tossed all seven openings from her arsenal. No one cares about your name—it’s the first thing they saw when you sent an email. No one cares who you work for, or your title—they want to know what you can do for them. Learn how to write a good first sentence by learning what not to do.

THE MEAT OF THE SANDWICH (GET IT? LIKE THE MIDDLE PART….)

Sorry vegetarians, just imagine it’s fake, healthy, plant–based, bad-tasting meat. (Did I say bad tasting? Oops.) But the meat of your email, the bulk, the middle is what is going to get action from your prospects. Which is why remembering to have a call to action, among many other aspects, is vital to getting a response to your email. That’s the point, right?

So, what happens when you forget to include that? The prospect reads this wonderful email, they like your product, but they don’t know what to do or how to tell you their needs. Remembering the best practices to get RESPONSES is just as important as getting opens, so don’t forget to read up on all the various parts of your email that will help you get the responses to go close deals.

SO LONG, FAREWELL, AUF WIEDERSEHEN, GOOD NIGHT—STILL THE SOUND OF MUSIC, STILL ALSO ME

Your send-off, the way you close an email, the last thing whoever is reading the email will see. If they made it that far, great job! They read the whole email, the ending won’t matter, right? If they liked the rest of it, a closing won’t make or break a response, right? WRONG! You fail, no cookie for you. Salutations are extremely important, if google analytics are to be believed (they are, they are analytics). Since the pandemic, interest in openings AND closings have spiked significantly in emails, and for good reason.

Most sign-offs fit into one of five categories, and each one expresses something different. You don’t want to sound colloquial when you mean to be respectful, you don’t want to accidentally signal the end of a conversation when you want it to just be starting. The things to look at include who your prospect is, your purpose, and what you know about them. For me, I like to tell people to have a dandy day if it’s an internal email, but that doesn’t fly when trying to secure a major deal with the CEO of a large company. Be mindful of your closings, they are the last thing someone reading the email will remember about you.

At Maestro, we recommend that you close your email with a simple “thanks” or “thank you.” You’re not going to hook someone with your sign-off, but you could lose them. Some people have an inexplicable hatred for “best” or “regards,” but nobody hates a simple “thank you.” And you know us—we’ve got science to back us up.

Those are the parts of an email you need to remember. Those are the articles that have the information to get you more opens, more responses, and more closes. Don’t slack on emails (and don’t email on Slack), they make up a quarter of most people’s days for a reason. So, make your emails shine and make sure you make that part of the reader’s day dandy.

Finding your emails aren’t dandy? Check out our workshops, such as “Effective Emails,” to get more responses and better close rates. Why be an amateur when you can be a pro? Reach us a mastery@maestrogroup.co for more information.