How to Email Perspective Clients
Building an email list is one thing, but sending an email to a perspective customer is totally different.
When you send an email to your email list that you have built from scratch, your reader will be more inclined to open your email because they’ve chosen to receive your email.
When you send an email to a perspective customer, they will be hesitant to open your email because they simply don’t know who you are and your perspective customer may already know that you have purchased an email list to obtained their details. This may even irritate your perspective customer.
Saying that, emailing perspective clients is a very cost-effective method in building new leads. This is especially the case if you are working in an industry where it is difficult to build an email list through the latest digital technologies that we have at our disposal.
So how do you email perspective clients in a way that can help you generate more leads?
In this blog post, I will explain five steps that you must take when you email perspective clients.
Segment Your List
When you purchase an email list, you need to segment your list into different categories. Thankfully, many database marketing companies, provide you with the option of choosing which fields you can put on your list, so you can segment it through applying different filters on your spreadsheet.
The reason why it is important to segment your list into different categories is because each of those categories will represent a different target audience.
Many companies fail to segment their list and just send out a generic email to their entire list. This is highly ineffective and to many perspective customers, this will come across as spam.
Once you are able to segment your list, then you can tailor the content of your email to suit the needs of each individual segment which makes it more appealing to them.
Create an Eye-Catching Subject Header
When a customers receives your email in their inbox, the first thing that they’ll see is your subject header. A good subject header should tell your reader what the content of the email is all about before they open it.
But an even better subject line generates curiosity and entices to them to find out more. This is why it is important to segment your email list. That way, you can find out about your target audience and get to know what would interest them in opening your email.
Once you know the needs of your target audience, you will be able to incorporate that in your subject header. For example, if you work in real estate and your target audience are middle class families with children under the age of three, then your subject line could be:
“Get to Know The Best Primary Schools in Romford”
The above subject header will appeal to young middle class families with children under the age of three because they want to move into a home that are near good schools.
Write Good Content (The Body of the Email) & Make it Personal
Once you are able to entice your reader in opening your email the body of your email should follow on from your subject header.
When writing the main body of your email, you need to keep in mind of how your reader would read your email. You have to remember that your perspective customer receives, on average a 100 emails in one day. So when they open your email, they want to know what your email is about right from the first sentence.
In order to achieve this, you have to put the most important information at top of your email (i.e. front load the content). Don’t allow your email to build up the important information towards the end of the email, people don’t have the time to read your email in full.
To give you an example, this is how we would write the opening paragraph for the subject header mentioned in the previous section:
“Dear Mr Alan
As a young family we know how important it is to raise your children in a tight knit community that is situated near the best schools. That is why we highly recommend the pleasant and historical town of Romford. Based in North London, Romford is recognised as one of 13 significant metropolitan areas in Greater London. The town offers…”
On deciding on whether the body of your email should be long or short, that really depends on both the nature of your business and your target audience. Also, make sure you keep your emails personal by addressing them by their name (if possible). A little personal touch can go long way.
Put in a Call-to-Action at the End
To make any email marketing campaign successful, you need to put in a ‘call to action’ towards the end of your email. For the above example, the ‘call to action’ would be asking the reader to get in contact for more information on the properties that the estate agent sells.
If you don’t put in a ‘call to action’ then your emails are just going to waste.
Give Something Away For Free
Should your customer decide to not take action when they receive your email, then you maybe able to give them something for free which might help them make their decision and also helps them to keep you in mind when they do decide to look at what you are offering in the future. Usually, when it comes perspective emailing, the free item is an ebook.
For the above case-scenario, an ebook containing all the information about schools in the area will be a great supporting material. The ebook will give the reader some more time to read up and research the area before they decide to get in contact with the estate agent.
Thanks for reading. What are your thoughts on this topic? Please leave your comments below.
