Chances are, your prospects’ email inboxes are being bombarded by a seemingly endless wave of new messages, making it hard for you to earn their attention. It takes a well-crafted email to catch and hold a prospect’s attention, and the message must be compelling enough to elicit a response. To craft a potent business to business sales email be sure to use the following structure and guidelines for your email:
 

(1) Subject Lines

Your subject line is undoubtedly one of the most important elements in getting your prospect to open your email. Your subject line should ultimately be something that interests or entices your prospect enough to want to open your email. Try incorporating a few of these tips:

•Target a pain point. Addressing a pain point that resonates with the email recipient can be golden. You don’t need to lay it all out, but simply give a quick snapshot, such as Evernote’s “Stop wasting time on mindless work”.

• The more quantitative the better. If you can save your prospect time, money, or provide another measurable benefit, why not include it in the subject line to snag their attention. A good example of this is Duolingo’s “Learn a language with only 5 minutes per day”.

• Speak in a client voice. Incorporate phrasing and terminology from their own website or that is common to their industry. Refine your language even further by matching it to your prospects’ position level or specific department. Vidyard’s email subject line for their video performance tracking software is a great example that speaks in the client’s voice and addresses a target’s pain point: “Busted! You’re not measuring video performance.”

• Mention a trigger event. Whether it was a referral from someone else, a networking event where you got their business card, or some new activity at your prospect’s company, mentioning the trigger event is an easy way to help your message resonate with your prospect and generate enough interest to get your email opened.

• Long or short? While brevity is revered by most people trying to tackle hundreds of emails on a daily basis, experiment to find out what works best for you and what works within your industry.
 

(2) Your Offering and Its Value

After a line to introduce yourself and outline why you are reaching out to the prospect, it is important to introduce what you are offering and the value it holds as quickly as possible. By positioning your offering’s message and its value near the top of the message, you will increase the chance of capturing your prospect’s attention. If the benefits of your product or service are meaningful enough and resonate with your prospects, you are far more likely to earn a response.
 

(3) About Your Organization

If your prospect is engaged by your value proposition, it’s a good idea to add reassurance and build credibility by including a brief overview of your organization. It can be helpful to include how long you have been in business, your experience, where you are located, your main functions, how many clients you have worked with, and/or a few examples of notable clients. When your prospect has a better understanding of who you are, they may feel more comfortable in reaching out to you to learn more.
 

(4) Call to Action (CTA) or Next Steps

At the end of your email, it’s important to include a clear call to action and express what you believe the next step should be. Don’t be afraid to be specific. If your prospect is interested, they will be more inclined to reach out to you. Alternatively, if you are clear on how you would like to proceed, such as suggesting to follow up in a week, you’ll provide the opportunity for the prospect to email you back and opt out if they choose. Otherwise you can follow up as promised and reference your initial email. Even if your email wasn’t answered, following through on your promise can be a great way to help build credibility. Once you’re comfortable with crafting powerful emails, adjust and tweak your messaging to learn what works best for your target audience.

Finally, remember that unsent emails are never opened. You need to do the work and get those emails sent. Be sure to set aside time in your week to crafting emails and doing outbound sales. With CRM tools like Hubspot and Salesforce you can create templates that just need a little personalization.

Need more support to move your sales and marketing forward? Contact us at VA Partners and we can discuss what part-time sales and marketing support might look like for your growing business.