10 Ways To Increase Email Sales
Email is such a powerful tool for sales and marketing, if you get it right. And you can 100% ‘get it right’.
I’m not saying it’s necessarily easy BUT the truth is that most people waaayyyy overthink it, and make it far more difficult than it needs to be.
In this post I’m going to lay out for you exactly how to write emails that will help to grow your business EVERY TIME you hit send. But before we get into it, I want to check you have the following in place:
You know exactly who your customer is because you’ve created an ideal customer avatar
You know that your website is set up in a way that optimises conversion
You know how to set up your analytics to track the effectiveness of your email campaigns
These 3 things are all critical to do before spending lots of time on email marketing (or any marketing for that matter). Don’t skip them or you’ll end up wasting your time and having to go back and do them anyway.
Assuming that’s sorted, let’s dive in. Below are the top 10 things you need to nail to start seeing incredible results from your email marketing efforts (plus a bonus pro tip). And the best bit? Every one of them is super simple and you can master them no matter how experienced you are.
Focus on adding value with every email
Write to one person in a conversational style
Personalise the to and from fields
Keep the design simple
Format for skim reading
Don’t be salesy
Include clear CTAs
Use great imagery
Don’t send too many
Optimise the time of sending
1. ADD VALUE (every time)
Numero uno on the list is to make sure that what you're sending your reader ADDS VALUE for THEM. You may have loads of cool things you want to tell them; what you’ve been up to, a new product you’ve created, yada yada but I’m sorry to say… they don’t really care about you and what you’re excited about.
They care about themselves and how you can help them. Make sure you’re framing your content in a way that is all about them. Talk to them like you really know them, you understand their challenges and give them something that adds value for them. This builds trust, which results in higher open rates and increased interest in what you have to offer.
As your list grows, you can use segmentation to take this to the next level, by targeting your content based on what you know about your audience members.
2. WRITE LIKE A CONVERSATION
Forget fancy language and write like you’re talking to one person and one person only. We don’t want our inboxes to be filled with businesses talking ‘at’ us. We want correspondence from real humans. Email is about building genuine connections and people respond to people.
Don’t worry about being perfect, focus more on connecting with that one person on a real, human level. Read your emails out loud and see if they sound like a conversation you would have. If not, tweak them until they do.
3. PERSONALISE THE TO AND FROM FIELDS
Following along the same lines, be sure to personalise both the to and from options in your email. To do this, make sure you collect people’s first names when they sign up to your list and start every email with ‘Hi [first name]’. It’s another unique advantage of email marketing and it makes it feel less like an ad.
You also have the ability to choose who to send the email from, and by this I mean how it will show up in their inbox. For service based businesses I suggest either putting your name only or ‘[first name] from [business name]’. If you’re a brand, use the latter. If you just put the business name here, your reader will think they’re about to be spoken to by a business which, as we’ve already covered, isn’t something any of us are keen on.
4. KEEP THE DESIGN SIMPLE
People tend to lose hours over trying to perfect the branding design on their email. Remember, it’s an email not a landing page. Yes, it’s a piece of marketing material but really it’s the content that matters.
Designs that are too slick can make emails look like they’re salesy and take away that human connection. Personally, I don’t visually brand my emails at all, other than:
Using a font that fits my brand
Using my brand colours (but only if I need a CTA button or to highlight some text)
Putting a photo at the bottom (as I think it’s nice to see who’s talking to you)
Having my website / social links at the bottom
I don’t have headers or graphics. I did once upon a time, but when I switched to a more simple, plain email format my engagement rates went up. So, save yourself some time and skip it from the start.
5.FORMAT FOR SKIM READING
This means short, easy to absorb paragraphs, bullet points, lists, important things in bold, etc. We’re all busy and if you open an email that’s one massive paragraph of text the likelihood is that you’ll close it again before your eyeballs start to melt!
Everyone skim reads these days, so make your content easy to digest in this format. That way you can still communicate with your reader effectively, regardless of how busy they are.
6.AVOID BEING ‘SALESY’
As this article is all about increasing your sales from email marketing it may sound contradictory to say that you should watch your sales talk in emails, but hear me out. What I mean by this is to make sure you don’t come across as ‘salesy’. It’s a well known fact that none of us like to be sold to, but we all like to buy things - it may sound the same but the two are actually very different.
Focus on leading your reader to BUY, which is an action they take, rather than you SELLING - an action taken by you. If you’re talking to your reader effectively about their pain point and a way you can help them solve it then anything you’re hoping to sell should sell itself.
7. INCLUDE A CLEAR CALL TO ACTION (CTA)
That being said, if you want your reader to take action (like buy something) then make it super clear and easy to do. If they have to hunt for the CTA they will give up. Place your CTA in more than one place and make sure it’s easily identifiable as a CTA, i.e. by making it a button or highlighting it in a different colour. Also, make sure the language you use is clear and simple - VIEW THE MENU & BOOK will work far better than DELICIOUS TREATS THIS WAY. The 1st is a call to action, the 2nd isn’t.
Some actions you may want to use a CTA for:
To visit your blog and read more on a subject
To download a resource you’ve created
To view a new product
To make a sale directly
You need to get the balance right between making your CTAs obvious / accessible and plastering them all over the email, which will push you back into icky, salesy territory.
8. USE Great IMAGERY
Images help people imagine themselves having the thing. They also break up the text and give your readers another medium to consume, which helps to keep them engaged for longer. Where appropriate, use images BUT… and this is a big but… make sure they are formatted well and reflect your brand.
Poor quality images give a subconscious message of poor quality overall - something none of us want to convey. However, with high quality images, make sure you downsize them so that they don’t make the email load time super slow or, worse, make your emails bounce.
9. DON’T SEND TOO MANY EMAILS
Nobody wants to be friends with Spammy McSpamison. How many emails is too many depends on your audience and what you’re sending them. The more frequently you send emails, the more unique and valuable they need to be.
Sending something similar multiple times will result in people unsubscribing. If you want to send multiple emails on the same subject, or about the same offering, brainstorm how to come at it from different angles, all of which need to have the reader’s needs in mind.
10. OPTIMISE YOUR SEND TIME FOR MAXIMUM SALES
What is the ideal setting your reader needs to be in to be in prime buying mode? When are they experiencing the problem you solve the most? When I used to sell meal kits for weekend feasting, I’d email on Sunday nights - when people are feeling blue about Monday coming around and wanting to book something to look forward to next weekend.
You want to avoid emailing them at a time that makes them think ‘I might go for that but I’ll think about it later when I have time’. Do they have kids? If so, when will they be child-free to properly read your email and make a decision? Do they need to check with their partner? If so, don’t email in the middle of the work day, when they aren’t together.
This will be trial and error to begin with, but start with some basic logic and track the results across a few different emails to see what day / time combination works best for your audience.
BONUS: PRO TIP - RESEND TO NON-OPENERS 24HRS LATER
I started re-sending emails to non-openers (people that didn’t open it the 1st time) and increased my average open rate by 12%. 12% is huge! I highly recommend you do the same.
Most email platforms make this easy - with some (Klaviyo) it’s as easy as clicking one button but even with other platforms (Mailchimp) you can set up an audience segment based on the criteria that they haven’t opened any email you’ve sent in the last 24 hours (or whatever time frame works for you).
There’s lots of talk over whether or not to change the subject line when doing this, but the stats show it doesn’t really make a difference, so I don’t bother. It’s likely being picked up by people who a. accidentally deleted it, b. deleted it on purpose as it was a clear out moment but now have time to read it or c. haven’t even noticed the 1st one came in.
HOW TO TRACK WHAT’S WORKING
It’s important to test different things out within each of the 11 areas above and track the results. In particular, track open rates, link clicks and purchases. Make a note of what seems to be working and go all in on those tactics.
Hopefully, you can tell by this point that everything that will work for you and your business is personal to you and your business. It all comes down to who you’re talking to and the business you’re building.
So, as with anything in business, the only data you should be concerned about is your own result today vs your own result yesterday. Searching the internet for ‘open rates by industry’, etc really isn’t going to do you much good. Focus on making your own number go up over time and you’ll be on to a winner for sure.
As ever, if you want more hands-on support in launching and growing your business reach out to me about 1:1 coaching. There’s really nothing you can’t do with the right support.
Hi, I’m Thea. I help ambitious entrepreneurs grow multiple 6-7 figure businesses.
If you want a crystal clear action plan to achieve your goals with full accountability and support, let’s talk.
You deserve to have the business and life of your dreams.