Get more responses to your emails
It’s your typical morning. You go through the emails flooding your inbox and wonder how you’ll get through all of them! You delete most of them without even opening them. And what if your solicitation emails suffered the same fate?
Of all the marketing tools available, email is still your best bet to attract potential clients. Here are a few tips and tricks to boost your email response rate.
Purpose of exercise
Your role as an advisor is to establish trust and build a relationship between you and your potential clients. Your goal is to initiate a discussion with them. Reaching out to potential clients by email is meant to establish that first contact, and not to sell products and services.
To establish that successful first contact, your email has to stand out.
But how?
It will take email recipients about 3 seconds to decide whether or not to open your email. So think “content over quantity”. Take your time and draft a catchy email.
Play with the subject
A compelling subject line makes all the difference. It’ll have a major impact on the total number of emails your potential clients actually open.
Put yourself in their shoes. Pique their curiosity. You should avoid coming off as someone trying to sell a product or service, but rather, show interest in them as people. Otherwise, your email will end up being ignored or go straight to the spam folder.
You should also keep in mind that recipients may read your email from their cell phones. Be creative. Keep your message under 50 characters and use plain language.
And what about Message Preview?
Message Preview is rarely mentioned, but requires some skill. The short text is displayed in the reading pane (below or next to the subject line) before you open the email
Just like the subject line, Message Preview is key to your choosing to either open or delete an email. A clear, concise and catchy message will pique the clients’ interest and curiosity.
Compelling content
Introduce yourself briefly. Write one idea per paragraph. Space out your text.
And more importantly, get to the point. Again, use short sentences and plain language. The more specific your questions are, the quicker you’ll get feedback. As potential clients are reading your email, they are already formulating a response. Your email will less likely be forgotten.
Writing tips
- Don’t overcapitalize and use punctuation wisely (overuse of exclamation marks will make you appear overly enthusiastic)
- Check for spelling mistakes
- Make sure your tone is professional, but dynamic
- Be bold
- Use a subject that will touch prospective clients
- Tug at their heartstrings
- Stimulate emotion to foster proximity
Did a client recommend your services? Use this recommendation to your advantage. You’ll be even more credible:
- Address them by their first name. They will be more attentive because they will feel implicated.
- Present solutions that are likely to meet their needs.
Value added
Add more value to your email by including personalized information.
- Give advice to help prospective clients carry out a project.
- Speak to them about the things to consider before taking out insurance.
- Opt for a solution-oriented rather than a project-specific approach.
- Discuss their plans, challenges and goals and offer solutions tailored to their specific needs.
Conclusion
Make your expectations clear. What better way to end your email than with a call to action? (e.g.: Contact me!) It’s a great way to get a response.
End your email with a “Thank you for following up” or "I look forward to discussing this matter with you” which also fosters dialogue.
In a nutshell, email is still a highly effective communication tool to develop your business. The effort that you’ll put into fine-tuning your approach will certainly pay off. All you need to do is test it out. You’ll see. Trying it is adopting it!
