Over 100 billion business emails are sent daily. That means that if everyone on the planet had one email address, each person would still receive over 14 business related emails a day! That might be a reason to avoid hitting the send button, but email is still a very powerful sales tool when used correctly.
Email marketing has an average ROI of $43 on each dollar spent. No other digital marketing channel has that high of a return on investment. However, we learned from our Green Industry Benchmark Report that only ¼ of green industry businesses use email as a sales tool. If you belong to the ¾ that aren’t reaching prospects’ inbox yet, here are 10 tips to help you send killer field service sales emails:
Segment
Know your audience. If you’re sending an up-sell or a cross-sell email to existing customers, you need to be certain that your email list is updated.
The money is in the list, but it has to be used properly.
You should have different objectives when sending your emails. Keep in mind that you are going to have people that you have already sent emails to on your mailing list. They should be treated differently than cold-emails.
Write subject lines you would want to read
According to Who is Hosting This , 35% of email recipients choose whether or not to open an email based on the subject alone. Write a subject line that you would want to read. Send the email to yourself, would you open the mail based on your subject line?
Keep it short and sweet
Again, follow the rule, would you read this email? If the reader opens your email and immediately sees that you wrote a novel, it is going to be deleted real quick. Get to the point, the content of your body should be a reflection of your subject line. Let the reader know what their next steps should be.
Make the important info stand out
When writing your sales emails, give it the “blink test”. Can you pick out the important info right off the bat? Can you clearly see next steps? Use bolding for important sentences to make them stick out.
If you’re sending an email about your 20% off for your next mowing service promotion that you are running, make it easy for your recipients to see that.
Personalize when possible
If you have the capability, personalize your sales emails. Even using a first name instead of a formal salutation can make your email feel like it is from a living, breathing human instead of a robot.
If you’re using an email service, send emails from your personal address. Don’t use a general business email, like info@hindsitesoftware.com, instead use your personal email like taylort@hindsitesoftware.com. It's another great way to personalize emails and help with your open rate.
Use a formal, but personal tone
Find the happy medium between the way you speak around your grandma and how you speak when trash talking on your fantasy football message boards. You are selling your field service business, you want to appear professional.
Re-read it at least twice
This is like the online version of “measure twice, cut once”. But in this case, if you send out an email to a bunch of contacts and screw up, you look like an idiot to a whole lot of people and could potentially lose business. Take the time and read through the emails you’re sending. Spell check won’t catch everything all the time!
1 or 2 Pictures
Don’t use too many images. You never want your email to rely on images only. Up to 30% of users won’t ever click “enable images” when they receive an email. Use one or two relevant images, but make sure the rest of the content is carrying the most important info.
Ask for incremental information
Depending on who you are sending an email to, you are going to be asking different kinds of questions. If you’re sending a cold-email out, don’t overstep your boundaries. Start with a small ask, like clicking on a link for an offer on your website.
Timing is important
This is a little tricky, because it really comes down to your recipients. So if you have data from your previous batch of emails, look at what times and days of the week work best for you. Check the open rates of your emails. When did you see the best performance?
BusinessEmailLists.com say the best times to send an email is around 10am or 1pm.
There is science and art to sending great sales emails. Take the time to build a list and write quality emails that you would want to read and they can really pay off!
If you want to learn more about the types of emails you should be sending for your service business, download our free eBook below!
