by Will Rotondi
Email automation can be a great tool for you to get your message out to as many companies in the B2B market as you want. The only problem: everyone else is doing that, too. It’s why some of your ideal prospects could end up with 200+ emails in their inboxes a day, as you and your competitors duke it out to see who has the most attention-grabbing message.
While most people recognize when your emails are automated (that good ol’ unsubscribe option at the bottom tends to tip ’em off), there are ways that you can craft your messaging to get as personal and relevant to your prospects as you can in order to get them to open and respond to you.
- Avoid using their name in the subject line. It reduces the risk should your coding malfunction.
Oops.
- Avoid sales-y language, including “sale,” “free,” “win,” as well as heavy use of punctuation (especially those exclamation marks!).
- Keep your subject line brief. Try six words or less when at all possible.
- Your focus should be on your prospect. Make it a habit to include “you” and “your” in your subject line where appropriate.
- Email at a respectful rate. The more consistent you are in sending email, the greater chance you have of getting a message spotted and opened.
- Not all emails will go to a prospect’s inbox the first time. Be persistent about reaching out multiple times so that you increase your chances of landing in theirs.
- Email at different times on different days. If you tried Tuesday at 10 AM this week, try your next one on a Wednesday at 1 PM. That makes you appear less automated and more human.
- Keep your messaging brief. Two paragraphs, or 6 sentences, should be enough to get your information across and maintain your reader’s attention.
- Continue to email your prospects even if they don’t open your messages every time. Just because they didn’t catch what you had to say this week doesn’t mean they won’t next week. Try until they tell you definitively whether they’re interested or not.
