Delete. Delete. Delete. Hmmmm … read … delete. Delete. Delete.

If that’s how you go through your inbox, you’re not alone. So how do you use email outreach as a sales jump-start instead of a trash-filler? These four tips will get the conversation started.

TIP 1: Write the right subject lines

Subject lines are your first chance to make a good impression. The advice has always been to keep them short—around 50 characters was the go-to figure.

However, a new study done by Marketing Sherpa analyzing 9,313,885 emails from 3,000 senders found that there isn’t much of a difference in the read rates between 10 characters and 90 characters. In fact, the highest average rate was at 70 characters, significantly longer than conventional wisdom dictates. But since some browsers will cut off your subject line if it’s too long, and (according to a US Consumer Device Preference Report by MovableInk), 66% of emails are opened on mobile devices (which slashes your wiggle room even more), short is still sweet (think: 35 characters at most).

It’s also wise to keep your subject lines straightforward, clear, and relevant. This isn’t the place to get cutesy or mysterious. Instead, try words that focus on the benefits of your product or service, like “easy,” “fast,” “best” and “simple.”

And if you can, personalize your subject line. Using the name of the recipient can boost your open rate by almost 30%.

TIP 2: Answer the question: “So what?” (AKA: “What’s in it for me?”)

You may be selling the Most Amazing Thing in the Universe—but if it doesn’t solve your customer’s problem, they just won’t care.

When crafting your sales email, imagine you’re the recipient asking “So what? What does this Amazing Thing do for me?” Make your potential customer the hero of the story. Ask yourself what his problems are. Begin by showing you understand those challenges, and only then move into how your Most Amazing Thing can solve them.

TIP 3: Close with a clear next step

So you got your potential customer to open your email with your subject line. You kept them reading by explaining the “So what?” Now don’t botch it with your closer.

The Call to Action (CTA) is what you want people to do at the end of your email. Visit a website? Download something? Call with questions? Arrange a demo? Watch a video? Wherever you’re driving them or whatever action you want them to take, make it clear and easy to execute.

TIP 4: Judge your results with a critical eye

If you’re just sending emails into the ether and keeping your fingers crossed, you won’t be able to hone your message, craft more effective CTAs, or see what works and what bombs. There are a variety of ways to track the effectiveness of your email, and I recommend you do all of them.

To start, you’ll want to pay attention to your open rates, which show you how many people actually opened your email. This is a good indicator of the effectiveness of your subject line.

If you shared a link to an overview deck or other content in your email, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your view rate–which will tell you the frequency with which your content has been viewed. If this is low, perhaps you need to hone the message that points to your CTA, or frame the content in a different way.

Lastly, look at your engagement analytics to see how your customers interacted with your shared content, which is a glimpse into the success of the message within your content. If they leave quickly, you may need to look at how you can improve the lead-in of your shared collateral. Engagement analytics will also allow you to follow up on emails with content that’s uniquely tailored for each customer.

With ClearSlide for Outlook and ClearSlide for Gmail, you can track open rates, view rates and engagement analytics, and even send trackable content directly from your email client. You’ll know when your email has been forwarded up through a customer’s organization (and see who else is involved in purchasing decisions). You can also create email templates that are easy to load, personalize and send with a few key strokes, saving you time for more tailored follow ups on the leads that are most engaged.

Best of all, ClearSlide for Salesforce saves you time by auto-logging all of your outreach directly back to leads, contacts, accounts and opportunities in Salesforce. And the engagement analytics are included on your leads and contacts so you can build reports, dashboards and sales campaigns from within your CRM.

With the right preparation and analytics, you can create engaging emails and continue to fine-tune your approach—making the next email you send irresistible for your customer to read.
By: Patrick Cassady, VP Sales