In business, it can often be the case that many of the people you want to interact with most – prospective clients and business partners, for instance – are inundated with email. The ubiquity of inexpensive email automation platforms has ensured that every pertinent email in their inbox can be accompanied by scores of irrelevant ones. Despite this, the persuasive business email remains one of the most effective tools for business development. That’s why it’s worth taking the time to understand and utilize these best practices for email performance. Then, try out one of the provided email templates to get started on your own email strategy.
Persuasive Emails Use a Personalized Approach
Emails sent to people with whom you have no prior relationship are called cold emails, but customizing each one can increase the odds that your email is warmly received. Before typing a single word, consider researching the prospect and their company. Consider checking out their website, related industry news outlets, and social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. This can equip you to write an email that shows your effort to understand their specific context and strengthens the relevance of your message. Your effort can demonstrate your professionalism and respect for their time.
Here’s how this might look in practice:
Try to imagine you own a packaging supplies company targeting small manufacturers of consumer goods.
- Without personalization, your email would likely focus on the breadth of packaging you offer and some assurances about service, e.g., “You can count on us for everything from corrugated to blister packaging, with no minimum order size.”
- With personalization, your email can instantly feel more relevant: “Hi Kendra, great quote in that article on how e-bikes are taking over the Boston commuting scene! I see that you don’t yet ship your product – is protective packaging a problem you’re trying to solve?”
Establishing right off the bat that your email is intended uniquely for the recipient is the crux of a well-crafted persuasive email, and personalization can be utilized in all emails, not just cold approaches. When writing a convincing email to follow a presentation, for example, drawing upon specific information that the prospect shared during the presentation and citing data that applies particularly to their market segment can increase the potency of your message.
“The average time spent reading an email is nine seconds. Reducing an email from 125 words to 25–50 will increase reply rates about 65%.” – Will Allred, COO and co-founder of Lavender
Create Your Own Email Templates With Persuasive Frameworks
All this thoughtful crafting to write a convincing email can require time and effort, but you can speed your process by following repeatable frameworks. AIDA and PSB are two common structures that can be adapted to create persuasive email templates.
- The AIDA marketing model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is a good way to initiate a conversation. Try to begin with a subject line that sparks curiosity and encourages the recipient to read the email. Next, try to generate interest by addressing a pain point or discussing a relevant industry trend. To pique desire, consider offering a potential tip, some insight, or a data point that showcases your potential as a helpful resource. Consider concluding the email with a call to action (CTA) appropriate for the next step (e.g., a conversation).
- The PSB (Problem-Solution-Benefit) framework is particularly effective for follow-up emails. Begin by trying to reiterate the challenges or pain points that were discussed during the conversation, meeting, or presentation. This can help remind the recipient of the context. Then, try to outline the proposed solution, taking care to provide specific details about how your product, service, or idea addresses the identified problems. Finally, try to highlight the key benefits the recipient would gain by adopting your solution. Consider focusing on how it solves their problems, improves their situation, or meets their needs.
Either of these frameworks can be used to create multiple sample email variations to use as templates in your outreach. You can create different versions for building a relationship, following up on a presentation, seeking a referral, reaching the right decision-maker, and more.
Here’s a sample email template that uses the PSB framework to follow up after a presentation:
[Subject]: Our Discussion/Recommendation
Hi [Name],
Thank you for the great discussion Tuesday.
The project challenges you described are typical of a rapidly expanding team. We understand your biggest concerns are uneven collaboration, missed deadlines, and slow onboards.
The right project management solution can transform a chaotic environment.
Based on our discussion, we would recommend a trial of our Project Job product. Project Job emphasizes project planning and task management. This streamlines workflow to build repeatable processes.
On our next call, let’s walk through how [similar company] and [similar company] implemented Project Job and what ramp-up time looked like for them. It’s helpful to see how an implementation works in practice in order to explore how we can reduce the strain on your team and improve on-time performance.
Are you available next Tuesday after 2 pm for 30 minutes?
Thanks again,
[Your name]
Note that the above email template references current customers similar to the prospect’s company. Incorporating social proof is a proven technique to establish credibility, a prerequisite to persuasion. Word choice is another strategy you can embed into your persuasive email example template. Words like “because,” “proven,” and “you” tend to punch above their weight for their ability to persuade.
Make It Short. Then Make It Shorter.
Even the most compelling value propositions may not survive a long, dense email. So, especially when writing cold emails to forge an introduction, try to limit length. Most experts advise using fewer than 125 words, but there's compelling data that supports reducing that word count even further. According to Will Allred, COO and co-founder of Lavender, an AI-powered sales email coach, “The average time spent reading an email is nine seconds. Reducing an email from 125 words to 25–50 will increase reply rates about 65%.”
Writing concise emails can require a sharp editing pencil. Allred notes that brevity alone isn’t enough. “Most emails are written at or beyond a 10th grade reading level,” he says. “An email written for a 5th grader will get 67% more replies.” Think about it: Your prospect is skimming hundreds of emails, ignoring all but the most important ones. Using a direct, clear style may not insult your prospect’s intelligence, but it can respect their time. Allred offers a series of three concrete tips to strengthen clarity:
- Use common words / in short sentences / that relate to one idea.
Allred also suggests banishing commas. “Cold emails are about one idea. Each sentence should relate only to that one idea. Introduce a comma and you’ve likely added a second idea.”
Getting the knack of writing emails this brief and simple can take practice. Here is a sample email from the imaginary packaging supplier that uses 50 words to initiate a dialogue:
[Subject]: Sustainability Targets
Hello [Name],
Great blog on the ways [company name] is reducing carbon footprint in the new facility.
Packaging is another opportunity to signal a commitment to sustainability.
There might be some easy wins to reduce weight and waste in your lineup.
Is that something you’ve been thinking about?
[Your name]
Notice the use of white space in the example above. Most emails can be opened and read on a mobile device, where even short emails can look like big, dense blocks of text. “Emails are eight times more likely to be opened on a mobile phone, yet three times more likely to be written on a desktop," Allred says. "Break up your email into short paragraphs with one or two sentences each.” Try to preview all of your email templates on your mobile device to ensure that the email body is quickly scannable.
Persuasive Emails Include a Call to Action
OK, your email is concise, simple, and relevant. But does it inspire action? Your ask should be succinct and clear. Rather than ambiguous phrases, such as “get in touch,” try to opt for more direct language, like “schedule a call.” Since the objective of your email is to propel the conversation forward, consider suggesting only a single concrete action.
Cold emails can be the toughest to get responses to – we've all become conditioned to spot promotional messages from a mile away. Allred suggests a helpful reframe to overcome the “pattern checking” that characterizes scanning through email. “We encourage people to include a call to conversation, instead of a call to action,” he says. “You’re in their inbox, which is about their own priorities. Inviting a conversation shows your outreach is very intentional, centered on something they care about, and worth the time to read it.”
The Bottom Line
Trying to boost your powers of persuasion? Email can be a great place to begin honing your skills. Remember: Persuasive business emails can start with respect for your audience’s time. By personalizing your approach and communicating with a concise and clear framework, you can increase the impact of your correspondence.
A version of this article was originally published on November 20, 2013.
Photo: Getty Images
