Chapter #3
Writing Body Copy
Congrats! If your reader has made it to the body of your email, your half way home! From here, you just need to continue on the conversation you’ve started…
Overview
The Body Of Your Email
The best way to think your body text is like this: subject lines and opening lines will get your email opened and the prospect engaged, the body text and CTA is where you deliver your offering and get them to take the next step towards furthering the conversation.
In Chapter 1 we gave you some great templates that you can use for the body text of your email. Here are some tips that will further help you to perfect your email:
Write like a Human
Don’t try to write like the perfect sales robot (think of auto responders, that’s a no no!). When you’re writing to your prospect, be genuine, talk like you would to them if you were approaching them at a social gathering.
If your email consists of phrases or other stuff you wouldn’t say in a normal conversation, don’t use it!
Examples of what not to use:
- Overuse of bold
- Cheesy phrases
- Overdoing exclamation points!!
- Overemphasizing urgency factors
know how your audience talks
You know your target market, right?
If so, you should know how they talk, and like to be talked to… It doesn’t have to be rocket science.
Example: If you’re targeting owners of residential construction companies, you should be less formal, maybe if you’re really pushing the limits you can drop a curse word in there, make them laugh somehow. Compare that to targeting CEO’s of law firms, you need to be much more formal.
Be Personal
A big part of hooking the reader and getting them to the next line is connecting with them on a personal level. This plays largely into the last point (know how your audience talks), but also use personal tags within your email. You are now speaking directly to them, and not just a huge list of prospects.
As we’ve already talked about, there is a thin line between being personal and being creepy. Don’t use their name 5 times throughout your email, don’t tell them you know their revenue is xx, etc… use some common sense here.
Keep them curious
You’ve already grabbed their attention, now you need to get them excited and engaged. You want to keep them guessing a little bit of what’s to come next… You can use tactics like asking questions, painting a picture of what your solution provides, etc…
The key here is to not give them all the ingredients to your secret sauce, otherwise they have enough information to make a decision at that point.
An email is never going to sell your product and/or service as well as you do… so give them enough information to gain their interest, and work on nurturing the sale from there.
Build Trust
Keep in mind, this is a cold email and the prospect doesn’t know you or your company from Joe Schmoe down the street.
If you’ve had successful clients in the same area, don’t be afraid to mention them.
We like to build credibility throughout our email and put client testimonials after our footer.
Don’t confuse this with gloating though. You aren’t trying to brag here, just prove that you can deliver on what you promise, and it is worth the prospects time to continue the conversation.
Don't Waste Their Time
If there is only one thing you learn from this chapter, let this be it: Do not under any circumstances waste the prospects time with fluff or meaningless text.
You might not think you are wasting their time, but often there are sentences or words in your email that are not needed (still happens to me all the time!). After you’ve written your message, go back and read it looking for words or sentences that don’t add any value.
This brings a twofold advantage: It shows that you respect your prospects time, and it also leaves them a bit anxious to continue reading / learn more.
The Call to action
The call to action is often the most overlooked part of any email… this makes sense as it is the last part of your email; but don’t be too quick to rush through it!
How do you really measure the success of your cold email campaign?
You can look at metrics such as open rates, click through rates, bounce rates, etc… but these are only KPI’s that should help you achieve your overall goal, which is generating leads.
If no one is completing your desired action, does it really matter how many people who opened your email?
Getting your prospects to complete your desired call to action is the most important metric in your cold email… you do this by closing with a strong & compelling call to action.
Let’s look at some basic guidelines to make sure your call to action is a success:
Some basic guidelines
- Only use 1 call to action. This may seem like common sense, but you’ll often see people asking for more than 1 thing… Don’t ask for 10 minutes of their time & the best time to reach out. Don’t ask for them to sign up on your calendar and send more information. Don’t give them multiple links to follow in which they can schedule a demo. Just give them 1 thing to do, this keeps it easy for them.
- Be clear in what you’re asking. Again, this seems like common sense… but often people try to get fancy with their jargon, and it may come across the wrong way.
- If you’re asking for their time, name a specific date and time (range).
- If asking a question, make it open-ended, and hard to not respond.
- Reiterate your value proposition that you talked about earlier in the email.
- Don’t be afraid to use humor.
- Tell them your solution, ask them for time to demonstrate it.
Some examples
- Would you have time for a quick phone call Monday afternoon?
- I have a plethora of more information on how this will help you, should I send it your way?
- I’d love to give you a 1-on-1 personalized demo, does next Tuesday morning work for you?
- Are you looking for more sales ready leads?
- Are you interested in a risk free trial of xyz?
- We have a few clients in your industry, should I send some case studies over?
- We actually have a few clients in your area, would you be interested in hearing directly from them how our software has helped their business?
- If xyz sounds like something you could take advantage of, check out our website here.(link site)
- If you’re interested, I could send over information for a free 14 day trial. Should I send it to this email?
Keep in mind...
The easier your call to action is to complete, the more conversations you’ll be starting with your prospects…
If you’re asking them for a large commitment, say a half hour of their time for a conference call, it is much less likely that they will respond positively to this in comparison to sending them over more information.
This prospect doesn’t know you or your company, therefore you must build the relationship slowly. Let’s not go in for the kill right away; let’s butter them up, nurture them through a sales cycle by simply starting a conversation with them first.