• How We Work
    • About
    • Our Processes
  • Customers
  • Content
    • Blog
    • Hall of Shame
    • Guides
  • Cold Email Academy
    • Become a “SalesFolk Certified” Copywriter
    • Cold Email Mastery Course
    • SalesFolk Premium Member Login
  • Jobs

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 to 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.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Email

Filed Under: Persuasive Writing, Sales Prospecting

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? 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But the old stereotypes of Marketing Mary or Procurement Pete are outdated and frequently inappropriate.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.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Email

Filed Under: Outbound Sales, Persuasive Writing, Sales Prospecting

How Mentioning Dreamforce Ruined the Rest of This Company’s Sales Email

February 6, 2018 By Heather Leave a Comment

Referencing events in sales emails can be hugely helpful for increasing the number of opens and replies you get, but it has to be done the right way to work. One thing not to do is spam an old email list of contacts collected at an event that happened months ago.

Our latest entry to the SalesFolk Cold Email Hall of Shame did just that, either forgetting or just not caring that Salesforce’s Dreamforce event happened last year, not last week.

In this video, I pick apart the many problems with this email, from its lousy call to action to its excessive jargon and complete lack of benefits. The lesson? A sales email is supposed to convince someone to hit the “reply” button. To that end, make your points in plain English, carry a conversational tone throughout, and don’t waste time talking about an event the rest of us have long forgotten.

Sales emails don’t have to win Pulitzer Prizes, but they definitely shouldn’t make your prospect angry, bored, confused, or displeased they read it.

Do you have any great examples of using events to kick off a conversation over email? If so, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Email

Filed Under: Persuasive Writing Tagged With: cold email, Dreamforce

Why Great Sales and Marketing Copy Is About Turning Features to Benefits

February 2, 2018 By Heather Leave a Comment

I see a lot of people confusing features with benefits, especially in the tech world. Unfortunately, this can ruin sales and marketing efforts, making even a great product’s messaging unclear and alienating to customers.

I made this short video explaining the difference between features and benefits, and why the distinction is so important. I also share a few tips on how to transform flat features into alluring benefits that will grab prospective customers’ attention and lead to more meaningful sales conversations.

Do you have any great examples of transforming features into benefits you’d like to share? If so, please mention them in the comments!

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Email

Filed Under: Persuasive Writing Tagged With: cold email, how to turn features into benefits

Why You Should Never Use Bullet Points In Your Sales Prospecting Emails

January 16, 2018 By Heather Leave a Comment

I recently did a critique of a bad cold email that had a lot of bullet points and jargon.

I shared that video on various channels such as LinkedIn, and ended up getting over 20,000 views on the video in less than 24 hours, along with dozens of positive comments and engaging questions from people just like you. (Thanks for that if you watched the video, liked it, or commented!)

critique of bad emails video on LinkedIn

The LinkedIn Comments That Inspired My Next Video:

There were many questions and comments related to my critique of the use of “bullet points” in this particular email (that wasn’t the ONLY thing they did wrong). A lot of people said they didn’t know they weren’t supposed to use bullet points or had questions as to why they shouldn’t do that, etc.

Since it seemed to be a popular topic that a lot of people needed extra help with, I decided to make this next video about “bullet points and numbered lists.”

What This Cold Email Tips Video Covers:

The video you’re about to watch contains the following information:

  1. An explanation as to why you should NEVER include bullet points or numbered lists in your “sales prospecting emails” (cold emails).
  2. Data and findings from a SalesFolk Labs research study that backs up this claim, and attempts to analyze why this is.
  3. Advice for what to do instead of using bullet points or numbered lists, which can help you increase your positive response rate by 3-4x (or maybe even more, depending what’s in your original template!).

Watch The Video Below For Yourself:

If You Found This Video Helpful, Please Let Me Know! (And Ask Questions In The Comments)

I hope you enjoy this video and found it helpful. I’m going to be making a whole lot more videos like these this year, so if you have any questions or requests for future topics you’d like to see me cover, please include them in the comments, and I’ll try my best to answer on an upcoming video. Thanks! 🙂

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Email

Filed Under: Outbound Sales, Persuasive Writing, Sales Prospecting

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »

Get Sales Email Tips

Subscribe to our newsletter and learn the secrets to writing magnetic emails that start genuine conversations.

Recent Posts

  • 3 Cold Email Mistakes That Ruin Sales Conversations
  • 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
  • 4 Common Pieces of Advice You Should Be Avoiding in Your Sales Emails

Categories

  • Benchmarking Sales Metrics
  • Email Deliverability
  • Hall of Shame
  • Interviews
  • Outbound Sales
  • Persuasive Writing
  • Sales Automation & Acceleration
  • Sales Prospecting
  • Uncategorized

Be a goat, not a sheep!

We always strive to create captivating copy that is unique, actionable and adds value to prospects’ lives.

Want help with your cold emails? Request a call:


Copyright Salesfolk 2017 | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.