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How To Dramatically Increase Your Email Response6 Min Read

How to Dramatically Increase Your Email Response6 min read

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Is it possible to use personalized emails that get a great response, and ultimately, new clients, from those in your network?

I’m not talking about mass direct emails, but sending individual emails to people in one’s network, LinkedIn connections, past clients, etc. for the purpose of generating enough interest to get a conversation with that person.

For a full year, I conducted a Marketing Action Group program to teach and support participants to use direct, personalized emails to get new business.

In this article, I want to share the results with you from that progrdam and also best practices for emails that get the most response.

Many of the participants had impressive results and ultimately attracted enough clients to fill their practices. Of course, some were less successful.

What are the three factors that made the biggest difference between those who had great results and those who didn’t?

1. Quality of the contacts and relationships
This factor may have been the most significant factor of all. If you are contacting people you have more of a relationship with you are much more likely to get a positive response.

One of the most successful participants was a career coach who worked with doctors and who previously had been a practicing doctor herself. She contacted past colleagues by email and phone and was successful in doubling her practice in about three months.

The fact that she was highly intelligent and had excellent writing and conversational skills obviously also made a difference.

Another participant, a leadership consultant, also had great success despite her own reluctance with and resistance to the process. But her very authentic and personal writing style earned her a very favorable response. By the end of the course, her practice was full.

So, a good network with quality contacts, plus being a good communicator was the biggest predictor of success. Interestingly, these often go hand-in-hand.

2. The style of the emails sent
Based on a lot of research and my own personal experience, I developed a number of email templates that were proven to obtain a relatively high response from recipients.

When people used those templates and customized them for their recipients, they generally achieved an excellent response.

Upon starting this program, I thought templates would be the easy part. They weren’t. Many people insisted on using their own templates based on nothing more than guesswork. And most of them were completely ineffective.

Those emails didn’t communicate effectively and failed to break through. After all, we all get dozens of emails every day and it’s harder and harder to get attention.

It turns out simple is better.

Let me give you those email templates right now:

The email template that works the best
The most effective emails are personal, relevant, simple, and short, with a clear call to action.

Subject line
Subject lines that were not hypey or salesey, but articulated a clear benefit, worked the best:

“David, some management ideas that may interest you”

“John, a question about your current compensation plan”

“Sarah, a new productivity process I’ve been testing”

Nothing over-the-top. No best, greatest, or amazing. All of those alert the recipient that they are about to be slimed.

Opening paragraph
Find a way to authentically acknowledge or praise your recipient. Remember, these emails are sent individually, not as a mass mailing, so personalization makes all the difference. Of course, the closer the relationship, the better. Always start with “Dear Name” or Hi Name.”

“I remember in college how you were always the one to ace the science exams! It’s no surprise to me that you’re now the manager of research at Breakthrough Life Sciences. Congratulations for making your dream real.”

How could someone resist an opening like that? Sincere praise works wonders. But fake praise is a complete turnoff.

Reason for email and mention of outcomes
The second paragraph (or section) talks about what you are up to and mentions outcomes. This should correspond to the first paragraph in the email. Then, suggest a reason for getting together or having a conversation.

“These days I’m up to some exciting things. Recently worked with a client who is getting more productivity from his high-level teams than ever before.

“I thought about you and would love to share some ideas related to team productivity that you might find useful.”

There’s no direct sales pitch here, just the request to have a conversation about how to increase team productivity. I always like the offer of “sharing some ideas.” It’s beneficial but not pushy.

Suggest a Time for a Meeting or next step
I don’t know about you, but it irritates me when someone connects and then puts the ball in my court to set up a time to meet. You can save an email and some aggravation if you suggest some appointment times yourself.

“I have time open all next week after 12 noon, except on Thursday. Let me know what might work for a short conversation.”

But you don’t want to be too assumptive, which I see in some emails: “I’ve put a time on my calendar for 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the 12th to meet regarding my proposal.”

That’s it. This simple template was the most effective in getting responses from prospective clients. Longer, more complex emails were always less effective. And ones that were vague, manipulative, or not relevant to the recipient usually got no response at all.

Now let me continue with the third and final success factor for successful email marketing:

3. Persistence and consistency in sending emails
I asked participants to make a simple promise: Send out a minimum of one email each weekday to prospective clients.

Many stuck to that plan, and because they were composing, fine-tuning, and testing emails consistently, their results improved over time.

But many struggled to send out emails consistently or would avoid it altogether. After all, it can be discouraging to send emails day after day that don’t get much of a response.

Those who persisted and studied what others were doing, gradually started getting better results, and buoyed by that success went on to get more responses, meetings, and new clients.

The first of these three success factors depend on your current network and depth of the relationship. If you don’t know a lot of people, this process will be much more challenging.

The second success factor is the one you have the most control over – sending emails based on a proven template and style.

The third success factor depends greatly on the first two. You’re more likely to persist if you have a good network and are sending good emails. But I also noticed an improved response from anyone who stuck with the process, determined to get results.

Conclusion
This email approach can be very effective if you have a good network and professional services that may be of real value to those you contact.

I recommend that you start by compiling a list of everyone you know in your business network (including past clients), then use this template, customize your own emails, and start to send them out. Remember, send them one at a time, not massively to your list.

The worst that can happen is nothing, but that’s what’s happening already if you’re not currently connecting with these prospects.

Email Marketing Course is now available
I have compiled and organized all the materials from the live course and added them to the More Clients Club. The course includes many email samples, phone scripts, resources, and more. This course, valued at $149, is free to all members of the Club. Club membership is $9 per month.

Learn about the Club at this link.

Cheers, Robert

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