Paul Castain's Blog

How A Decision Maker Will Read Your Email (If You’re Lucky Enough For Them To Open It)

Posted December 19, 2017

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When you send and receive an AVERAGE of 121 emails each day (according to Radicati Group) you’re forced to make quick decisions. You know, like “Is this worth my time?”

And since the human race is now inundated with information (34 gigabytes daily which is the equivalent of reading War and Peace every 5 days), they have no choice but to;

SCAN Their EMAILS FOR SOMETHING THAT GRABS Their ATTENTION QUICKLY

The scanning of the email begins with seeing who the email is from and the question “Do I know this person”. Reason #1000 why we want to be keeping in touch regularly so there’s some sort of name recognition.

Next up, the subject line! Since 77% of sales emails are never even opened, you might want to consider making your subject lines more about THEM and LESS about you and your company!

Reference something you discovered about their company, their competitor, their industry etc.

People Have Names . . .

When appropriate, use their name in the subject line. Why? Because using someone’s name gets their attention and when you have someone dealing with north of 100 emails per day, that’s a REALLY good thing!

Use intrigue.

Use a startling statement.

The Magic Of The Preview Text

The next thing they look at is the Preview Text (Aka “Pre-Header Text”). The preview text is the the text you see in your inbox before opening the email. My suggestion would be to have the first 40-100 characters (depending on the recipient’s email platform) intrigue the reader to want to read more.

IF your email gets opened, they are going to look quickly to see how lengthy the email is. Why? Because in the words of the immortal internet lady “Aint nobody got time for that”.

The next part is tricky because they are either going to start reading and see if in the first 2-3 sentences this email is worth their time or;

When they are checking the length of the email they are going to see if something jumps out and grabs their attention.

Let’s address both!

The problem with the first 2-3 sentences of a typical sales email is;

The sales rep typically leads with something about their company.

Example: “We offer widgets that are blah, blah, blah”

At this point of the conversation, they don’t give a sh*t about you so;

Lead with something about THEM!

Example: “I noticed that you have a new product launching in January”.

The other ways emails crash and burn in the first few sentences are by saying dopey sh*t like “My name is Paul Castain and I’m with blah, blah, blah.” Do you have any idea what a waste of time that sentence is? I’d like to assume that most grownups have already looked to see who the email is from and it will be reinforced when you conclude the email.

And then there’s all the stupid marketing speak stuff like “full service” “one source” “the leading widget company” etc.

The next part is absolutely critical.

Your email MUST contain “Speed Bumps”

“Speed bumps” are visual things you put in your email, to get the recipient to slow down or stop;

When they’re giving it the old “at a glance” scan!

Examples of “speed bumps”;

Use of bold, underscore and italics

Use of headlines, subheads etc

Bullet points (no more than 3 please)

Visual anomalies. This is when you put something in the email that visually is out of the ordinary. I do this with my call to action when I write “Click HERE” The all caps next to upper and lower case gets attention. Further, I could make the word “HERE” 2 point sizes larger to stand out even more.

You can also leverage the “speed bump” tactic by cuing up your call to action by using the phrase “Here’s what I’d like for you to do . . .”

More speed bumps . . . 

Use of a startling statement in bold.

Use of a creative visual

Embedding a video

And of course, there’s the “PS”.

So there you have it;

Several ideas for you to consider to get your email;

Open, Read and Responded To!

And speaking of which . . .

If you like this email tip and would like access to my file with over 20 Sales Email Templates;

Come join us This Thursday (December 21st) at 11:30 am EST  for 20 Sales Emails That Get Opened, Read and Responded To.

Here are just a few of the emails we’ll discuss;

  • The 2 emails that generate a sick amount of appointments for me each week.
  • The one email (with 12 different variations) that reduces doubt, skepticism and objections.
  • The email that demonstrates your expertise.
  • The “Little Big Horn” email.
  • The “Pattern Interrupt” email
  • 2 emails you MUST send to your LinkedIn network.
  • The “Social Clue” email.
  • The “Disappearing Prospect” email.
  • An intro email (with 30 different variations).
  • The “Reverse Call To Action” email

When?

Thursday, December 21st, at 11:30 am EST.

IMPORTANT

Can’t make it that day?

Sign up anyway and I’ll send you the webinar replay and all the goodies listed below. View it at a more convenient time.

Here’s what you’ll get;

(1) 90 minute webinar with over 50 ideas. 

  • Worksheets
  • Webinar Replay
  • My personal sales email folder with 20 templates!

How much?

$99

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(631) 455-2455
Paul Castain, Founder & CEO
paul@yoursalesplaybook.com

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