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Why blindly copying email templates NEVER works!

January 26, 2021 By Heather Leave a Comment

I was checking my inbox when I landed on an email template that really made me cringe. 😨

The email in question was ripping off an email template I wrote at least 8 years ago. šŸ™„ They even stole my subject line, “quick question.”Ā 

Once upon a time, this template worked really well for my client’s specific needs. It generated over a million dollars in sales revenue. However, it wasn’t made for everyone to blindly steal and copy. šŸ˜’Ā  🤔

Why IĀ HATE publishing my email templates

I’ve been a B2B copywriter for more than a decade.Ā I’ve written more than 10,000 sales emails that made over a billion dollars in revenue for many major B2B SaaS companies.

I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me to send them my “best email templates” over the years. After many requests from Predictable Revenue‘s Aaron Ross and Hubspot, I decided to publish some of the older templates my clients were no longer using.

The content was extremely popular, and my blog post was Hubpsot’s most popular sales blog post for a very long time.

However, the end result was me getting spammed with my very own email templates. šŸ™„ šŸ™„ šŸ™„ šŸ™„Ā 

That Hubspot blog post happened more than 5 years ago, and I’m still getting these lazy copycats sending me a butchered version of my own email template.

Watch this quick video I made that explains why you shouldn’t blindly copy anyone’s email template:

**HINT: It has NOTHING to do with the ethics of plagiarism, but rather the fact this is highly ineffective. An email template is only effective when it’s personalized to your business’ unique value proposition and the audience that you’re selling to.Ā 

The Queen of Cold Email is Back…but even better and more Bada$$!

I’ve been on cold email hiatus for a little bit.Ā I’ve been focusing on investing in SaaS companies and my own pursuits as a serial software entrepreneur (along with rapping and fashion designing šŸ§žā€ā™€ļø ).Ā 

But I’m happy to say I’m BACK, ready to give you invaluable advice to improve your sales prospecting emails, and optimize your outbound sales and demand generation efforts! 🐊  šŸ”„

Except this time I’m going to be doing a lot more video content, engaging on social media, and doing some interactive livestreams to answer your sales and copywriting questions.

I’ll also be sharing tips to help you become betterĀ at negotiating, and how to be more persuasive in general.

Want to make sure you never miss out on my free advice šŸ’“ šŸ’¶ and get invites to private workshops and training sessions? šŸ˜ŽĀ 

…If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for the SalesFolk newsletter (just enter your email in the corner), and follow:

  • The SalesFolk YouTube
  • My personal Twitter (@HeatherReyhan)
  • My business TikTok (also @HeatherReyhan)Ā 

Get your free invite to my next Cold Email Mini-Workshop…

I’m actually hosting a private Livestream event via Zoom on Wednesday, February 3rd 2021 at 2:30pm EST (GMT -5).

fix your email templates

I’ll be critiquing some crummy cold emails and also giving much more ā€œgentleā€ free feedback on your cold emails.

You can register for the event with this link, and you’ll be sent a calendar invite and the information to join this complimentary event. I’m limiting the event to 100 participants, so sign up soon before spots run out!

In order to get free feedback, submit your email templates here by Monday, February 1st at 5 pm EST.Ā 

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Filed Under: Hall of Shame Tagged With: cold email template, sales email feedback

ClearSlide’s Latest Sales Email Is Murky. Here’s How to Fix It

March 14, 2018 By Heather Leave a Comment

Even companies with established reputations and Fortune 500 clients have to learn the craft of sending a good cold email—and be wary of the bad ones.

Sales engagement platform ClearSlide obviously didn’t get that memo, if its latest message is anything to go by:
ClearSlide

I’m a big fan of ClearSlide’s sales automation tools, which is what makes this email so disappointing. Its generic nature leaves a terrible first impression on readers and damages the sender’s reputation in the process. The message is also filled with phrases that mean nothing and offer no value to me. And while many wouldn’t read past the subject line, I delve into the specifics here because, start to finish, this is a great example of how unappealing and forgettable a message can become in such a vague email.

Let’s take a deeper look:

1. The subject line is forgettable.

The subject ā€œClearSlide and your goalsā€ fails to use basic tactics for subject lines, which is to appeal to people’s wants, needs, or fears about their business. ā€œYour goalsā€ could apply to my business, but it could just as easily go to a software developer or a coffee bean wholesaler. Such a lack of focus makes the subject line far from enticing, and any prospect, regardless of their profession, will likely glaze over this. ClearSlide has plenty of different features that they could easily turn into exciting benefits that would make their subject line pop.

2. The opening line is cryptic.

The opener makes me wonder whether ClearSlide is being intentionally cryptic or if the sender is just plain lazy. ā€œStay professionally top of mindā€ isn’t even a cliche; it’s a bunch of words flung together that collectively have no meaning.Ā And ā€œhelp you in being responsible for all key business initiativesā€ is also vague and confusing. Key initiatives mean different things to different roles.Ā Mine will not be the same as the coffee bean seller, and it’s a huge turnoff when the email doesn’t make that distinction.

3. The sender didn’t research me or my business.

As far as the rest of this email goes, there’s nothing in here that tells me the problems ClearSlide solves or what benefits the service could give—to me or anyone else getting the message. The email tries, by explaining that ClearSlide helped other companies ā€œengage with the right content at the right time.ā€ That said, the message fails to tell us what the result of that engagement was, which makes the entire sentence pretty pointless. And how does the sender even know if I even care about content? They don’t, and it’s clear they took no time to research me or my company before sending this email.

4. The call to action wants me to do extra work.

This would be a perfectly fine CTA had the sender left out the second sentence. When you aren’t 100 percent sure who the correct person for your pitch is, go back and do more research. Asking me to supply the person feels like extra work. It’s especially discourteous when the email is so vague it’s impossible for the recipient to know who the right person would be.

5. Bonus: The included GIF is distracting and borderline unprofessional.

The animated GIF (you can only see a still here) included in this email is a huge no-no for cold email. It’s distracting, and it immediately indicates a mass-marketing email. I may have taken the time to read through and dissect this email, but that’s part of what we do at SalesFolk. Most recipients would take on look at the GIF and delete the entire message without so much as a second glance.

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Filed Under: Hall of Shame Tagged With: bad cold emails, ClearSlide, how to turn features into benefits, subject lines

Quick Fixes That Will Get This Prospecting Email More Responses

March 13, 2018 By Heather Leave a Comment

Recently I asked some folks on LinkedIn to share their sales prospecting emails with me so that I could do some live feedback and edits.

For this particular email, I chose to just do feedback rather than edits, since I didn’t have enough context toĀ do more serious revisions.

Take a look at my feedback to see how the sender can improve their sales prospecting email and targeting in order to get more positive responses from qualified leads.

Do you have questions about this email or other sales prospecting emails? Just ask in the comments, and I’ll try to respond directly or in my next video.

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Filed Under: Persuasive Writing, Sales Prospecting

4 Common Pieces of Advice You Should Be Avoiding in Your Sales Emails

February 28, 2018 By Heather Leave a Comment

BadĀ sales emails can happen to anyone. That’s why it’s so important to stay vigilant when it comes to taking advice from the internet. There are lots and lots of tips out there that, despite being completely ineffective, are fast becoming gospel in the sales world.

The best way to avoid making mistakes that could ruin your email outreach is to know the difference between an actual best practice and a misleading tip

With that in mind, here are four popular tips that are actually bad for your sales emails, and what you can do instead.

Do you have any questions about other sales advice you’ve heard? Just ask in the comments, and I’ll try to respond directly or answer in my next video.

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Filed Under: Outbound Sales Tagged With: bad cold emails, bad sales advice, cold email

The Success of Your Sales Email Depends on How Well You Know Your Ideal Buyer

February 21, 2018 By Heather Leave a Comment

How do you know if a prospective customer will care about the sales email you send them?Ā It helps if you’ve sketched out who your ideal buyer is before ever drafting that email.

These days, you need a crystal-clear idea of your ideal buyer and the ways your business can actually help them or add value to their lives.

But the old stereotypes of Marketing Mary or Procurement Pete are outdated and frequently inappropriate. Instead, anyone in sales or marketing needs to learn how to craft a buyer persona—that is, a detailed description of your ideal customer and why they’re qualified to buy from your company.

In this video, I explain why buyer personas are so important and how to create one to build up a strong prospecting list.

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Filed Under: Outbound Sales, Persuasive Writing, Sales Prospecting

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Recent Posts

  • Why blindly copying email templates NEVER works!
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  • Avoid Sending Email Disasters Like These 5 Poorly Targeted Sales Messages
  • ClearSlide’s Latest Sales Email Is Murky. Here’s How to Fix It
  • Quick Fixes That Will Get This Prospecting Email More Responses

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