Avoid these 10 sinful mistakes in sales emails to get more customers

People receive a lot of emails on a daily basis, but only 23.9% of them get answered.  

You might be making some sales email mistakes if you’re not experiencing wanted results from your campaigns.In this article, we’ll explain why you might be lowering your conversion rate by choosing the wrong recipients, talking about yourself, making a confusing CTA, forgetting to proofread, and more. 

Let’s get started. 

1. Not segmenting your email lists 

Segmenting your email list is essential. Not only do you need to understand your audience, their needs and wants, but you also need to know the different buyer personas that encapsulate your audience.  

Segmenting your audience will help you create and send customized emails that address specific customer profiles.  

You can segment your audience based on: 

• Industry  
• Demographic 
• Location 
• Interests 
• Position in the sales pipeline 
• And more 

It can take time to segment a huge email list, but it will pay off in the end. With a segmented list, you can easily make your email campaigns as precise and personalized as possible.  

2. Choosing the wrong recipients 

If you’re not sending your emails to the right people, you’re on the wrong path. Before you start sending emails, you need to know whom to email. You need to research the decision-makers in companies and personalize the email to their needs and wants.  

That is the best way to increase your chances of making a sale. Make sure to use merge tags and address the recipient correctly, with no typos. You can find the opinion-makers through LinkedIn and networking.  

3. Not focusing on the subject line 

Research shows that 47% of email recipients decide to open emails based on the subject lines alone. That means that your subject line has to be catchy and inviting. 

People receive a lot of emails on a daily basis, especially if they are business owners. Luckily, there are a few tips on increasing your click rate. 

You can do the following:  

• Include the recipient’s first name – nothing grabs attention like seeing your name front and center 
• Include the word FREE – who likes paying full price for anything?  
• Create a sense of urgency – include a time limit on your offer in order to create FOMO  
• Use emojis  
• Make the subject line witty or funny – subject line is your first impression. Make it worth clicking!

4. Making the email about yourself 

It may sound counterintuitive to say that you shouldn’t talk about your company in your emails. However, the best course of action is to focus on your potential customer instead of your own business.  

You may have a great product or service that can help people, but you shouldn’t talk about it without mentioning the benefits they bring to your clients. Make sure to talk about the value it will bring to your clients, instead of the features and product characteristics.  

For example, if you’re selling skincare products, instead of listing the ingredients, talk about how they help smooth fine lines, reduce redness, and such.  

Make sure to address your customers’ wants and needs, instead of talking about how much sweat and tears went into the launch of your product.

5. Not including a CTA 

The main purpose of your email is to sell, meaning your call to action needs to be evident and your next steps should be easy to follow.  

Your clients shouldn’t go on a scavenger hunt in order to find the link and if your email is not clearly written, it will most likely end up in the trash.  

Make sure to include your CTA more than once in the email. Remember that your CTA could be anything from your pricing, a case study, and more. You can even have multiple calls to action, one encouraging people to visit your site and one encouraging them to buy. Just remember not to go overboard.  

6. Not proofread 

Make sure there are no grammatical or spelling mistakes, and that your email is easy to read. A misspelled email makes your brand seem frivolous.  

You can use software like Grammarly, or Hemingway App to help you detect typos and write in a more natural way. This still isn’t a reason for you not to proofread the email before sending it.  

There are a few things that should never be misspelled:  

• The name of the recipient 
• Your name and contact information 
• Your CTA 

Remember, you’re trying not to come across as a spammer, and sending a clear email with no mistakes is a sure way to convince your clients you’re one of the good ones.  

7. Not understanding the prospect’s intent 

While you’re writing the sales email, you need to make sure that people want to read it. The best way to ensure this is to personalize them.  

We already discussed the importance of email segmenting. Once you have your lists, you can customize the content to maximize your conversion rate.  

Freelancers are interested in different benefits and features compared to sales managers in big companies. Make sure to understand what each of your buyer personas is interested in and write about those points.  

For example, freelancers will have smaller budgets so when you’re writing to them focus on that, instead of the features that help teams streamline their work and communicate and collaborate better.  

8. Including too much information 

Your emails shouldn’t be too long, because they won’t get read. It’s important to choose the right amount of information to put in your email.  

Going overboard with your product/service information will leave your recipients confused and unsure of what the next steps should be.  

A good trick to avoid this is to write everything about your product or service that you find important. Then highlight the most important sentences and work backward to delete anything that isn’t essential.  

9. Not highlighting the benefits 

Writing about your company and all the features of your product or service won’t increase your conversion rate. Because clients don’t care about your service as much as they care about the benefits it will bring them.  

Source: UserOnboard

For your clients, the most important thing is understanding how they can speed up a part of their business, sell more, onboard quicker, and more.  

Old school agencies follow the rule – Don’t sell products, sell a lifestyle! 

If you can paint a clear picture for your clients on how much their lives will be easier and how many opportunities will open up for them once they buy from you.  

Make sure to present your products and services as an investment. Because you don’t want to seem too pushy, but more like a friend with a great offer.  

10. Asking for too much

Don’t include more than 2 different calls to action in your emails. One could be for the indecisive buyers to find out more about your product or service on a specific landing page and the other could take them directly to the buying process.  

Don’t expect your customers to spend a lot of time reading your blogs, signing up for a trial, a free ebook, and an online course.  

The less you expect from your audience, the better.  

Key takeaways 

Now that you understand what needs to be done before sending sales emails and what you should focus on while crafting them, you can easily write a great email for your potential clients.  

Start by segmenting your email list. From there choose the right recipients and focus on your subject line. It’s important that the right people are receiving your email and that they click on them.  

Don’t talk too much about yourself in the email, focus on the receiver. Create a clear CTA and take time to proofread.  

Make sure to keep the email short, informative, and clear. Highlight the benefits of your offer and don’t ask too much from your prospect.