Email Marketing Tips to Support Outsourced Sales
One of the top reasons businesses consider an outsourced sales solutions is to generate more top of funnel leads and sales qualified leads for their senior sales reps. An outsourced sales company will typically have expertise in multiple lead generation tactics to make generating both types of sales leads more effective and efficient. And one of these areas will be email marketing.
As part of Gabriel Sales outsourced sales campaigns we write multiple types of sales and marketing emails to generate new leads and to develop buyers not ready to buy. Subsequently, we look at a lot of research, and analyze a lot of our own data. So here are some of our best practices you can expect when you run an outsourced sales campaign that you can also apply as best practices to your own email marketing lead generation and lead development efforts.
Don’t expect a miracle
Emails are a great way to introduce your solution and the problems you solve for a buyer. They are a great way to make buyers aware you exist. They are a great way to start a digital dialogue with the buyer. They are a great way to move a buyer deeper into the sales funnel. And they are a great way to kick off an outsourced sales lead generation campaign to build a short list of early stage buyers for buyer development reps to call. But buyers rarely buy or immediately schedule an appointment after getting one email from you so don’t expect a miracle.
Know what your specific sales or marketing goal is for each email
In this era of content marketing and access to digital education, email is being used for multiple purposes, so it is important to set a goal for each email. If it’s an initial email lead generation campaign you may just want to introduce a problem you help solve to identify buyers that need that problem solved. You may have a new solution you want to introduce.
If it is buyer you have been developing for awhile that has opened multiple emails or that has engaged with your content in the past, you may want to ask for an appointment or to engage in deeper stage content to move them deeper into the funnel.
Know what your goal is for every email, and don’t try to do too much at one time in a single email.
Avoid long subject lines and lead with the point of the email
Buyers use smartphones over 60% of the time to check out emails. In general, we put too much copy in the subject line and often bury the point of the email at the end of the subject line. Our research shows that shorter subject lines are opened more often, especially when the point of the email comes first.
Keep your email copy short
Once again – over 60% of buyers check email on mobile phones. Keep this top of mind when you write your copy. Your emails should be easy to read, and broken into paragraphs. No more than three short paragraphs are ideal. You can also use bullets to catch your buyer’s attention. .
Test subject lines – especially for top of funnel email campaigns
When we run outsourced sales lead generation campaigns we run a series of three emails to the same list as a best practice. And we often use the same educational content offer for that 3 part campaign. This allows us to do a comprehensive A/B subject line split test as part of that first effort. We will often test as many as 3 to 4 subject lines in the first email. This allows the subsequent email blasts to drill down on the topics most likely to engage the buyer.
Don’t overuse your company name
Just like sales calls, you don’t want to simply talk about how awesome you are. You want to stay customer centric. Keep your focus on the customer, their pain points and needs. It is important to mention your name but only use it once or twice. Starting every other sentence with your company name turns your communication into an advertisement, not a helpful and professional email.
Lead with an educational offer
Always focus on giving your buyer something of value. Lead with an educational offer. Emails are the preferred way buyers wish to learn about new solutions, so attach a link to a blog article, white paper or video. When buyers get a link with an interesting asset they are more like to save it.
Include case studies
If you are going to talk about yourself and your solution use a case study to do this. This allows a customer to understand how your solution has helped solve problems for buyers like them, and helps them start to imagine and consider how your solution can help them solve a similar problem.
Personalize with recipient’s name and company
With the adoption of marketing automation tools, data merge fields are now the norm. It’s simply rude not to personalize. Use the prospect’s first name in the email. Include the company name if appropriate, however, only do this if you have a clean list!. By doing so, your email stands out.
Set a goal for each specific email
In this era of content marketing and access to digital education, email is being used for multiple purposes, so be sure you have a goal for each email. Is it for nurturing, is it for generating a new lead or is it for developing a lead. You should then message the copy of the email to the right audience and make the right education offer using the following content framework below.
End with a clear call to action (CTA)
Your email should always have a clear call to action. When we run an outsourced sales campaign, it should be as specific as possible and require the least amount of effort from your prospect. For example, have a link to clearly send them to the educational content, give them a day/time for a 10 minute call to discuss the value you can provide for their business. If you have a calendar app, such as Calendly, use that to let prospects set up their own meeting.
How Outsourced Sales Can Help?
Gabriel Sales helps companies build modern sales and marketing operations with a new approach for companies that want to outsourced sales. To learn more about we can help you with email marketing to generate new leads check out our top of funnel lead generation campaign services page.
