Inbox Input Tips for Using Email as Sales Tool

By Sean Norris

First Impressions: How to Write Better Subject Lines

If you've ever returned from vacation only to spend the first six hours of the workday cleaning out your inbox, you already know what we're about to tell you: People send a lot of emails. A study by technology market research firm The Radicati Group found that the average corporate user sent and received 120 emails a day in 2014, and that number is expected to keep on rising. For salespeople, that makes subject lines more important than ever. Write an ineffective one, and it won't matter what's inside your email—the recipient will likely just mark your message for deletion, if it makes it to their inbox at all. Avoid the problem and boost your open rates with these tips for better subject lines.

1. Keep it short. Inboxes can only display so many characters in the subject line field, and with so many people accessing email on smaller smartphone or tablet screens, that number is oftentimes even lower. So keep your subject lines short and to the point. Marketing firm Constant Contact recommends a maximum of 40 characters, or five to eight words.

2. Avoid spam terms. Words like "free," "now" and "offer" are practically guaranteed to be flagged as spam, so avoid them and other overly salesy words. Email marketing service provider MailChimp noted that even words like "help," percent off" and "reminder," which may not be flagged as spam, should be avoided.

3. Prioritize important words. Related to tip No. 1, but worthy of its own bullet point: Since the amount of visible subject line varies depending on the device a recipient is using to view email, keep the most important words at the start to ensure they don't get cut off.

4. Spell check. Typos can make you look unprofessional—or worse, like a spam bot. Before you hit send, double-check your subject line to make sure everything is spelled correctly.

Email: Everybody's doing it. And they're doing it a lot. A study by McKinsey Global Institute and International Data Corp. found that the average worker spends 28 percent of his or her workweek reading and answering emails. That makes email seem like an obvious choice for sales—if it's everyone's preferred method of communication, it should be your top way of reaching prospects, right?

Maybe so, but only if you do it right. We asked Tom Sather, senior director of research for New York-based Return Path, an email marketing and intelligence firm, for advice on using email as a sales tool. Here's what he had to say.

Print+Promo (P+P): What are some ways salespeople can use email to either boost or gain sales?
Tom Sather (TS): Building and maintaining extended email campaigns to nurture prospects by regularly providing valuable information about their marketplace, their challenges and the trends that affect their performance is probably the most effective way for salespeople to boost their productivity. It demonstrates expertise and reminds your contacts that you have a solution to important problems, ensuring that when they're ready to act, they know to reach out to you. It can also shorten sales cycles, especially by giving your prospects an easy way to pass your information to their colleagues as they build an internal case to move forward with your proposal.

P+P: How does using email for sales compare to using it  for marketing?
TS: They're extremely similar, with one key exception: personalization. Email for sales can and should be increasingly customized for individual prospects as you learn more about what they need, how they approach their challenges and where they are in the sales cycle. Email marketing is an extraordinarily powerful tool to connect with large audiences and deliver information to bring them into your sales pipeline. When suspects become prospects, your messages should be different-no longer about the value you offer the marketplace, but about the value you can offer them.

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Sean Norris Author's page Sean Norris is editor-in-chief for Promo Marketing. Reach him at snorris@napco.com.

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