The great thing about email is the ability to contact anyone about absolutely anything.
You can use it to grow your network, find clients, get advice or a mentor, show your gratitude or find a business partner.
But the problem is that busy or important people are, well, busy.
How are you supposed to email them and get a reply?
According to MailChimp, the business and finance industry, for example, has only a 21.56% open rate for email campaigns. For consulting, it has a 0.79% soft bounce rate. Soft bounces occur for a number of different reasons, but predominantly when someone’s inbox is full, the message was too large or their server has gone down.
You can spend ages worrying about how to phrase an email to an MD or Social Media Influencer etc… and end up wasting your day.
Here are 4 ways to improve your ability to get a response from that important person:
Make Them Short
Like content, short emails make great reading. If you are trying to contact someone who is low on time, you shouldn’t send them an excessive amount of text. They will either switch off half-way through or, send you a yes/no answer or most likely, say to themselves ‘I do not have the time to read or answer this’. Why should they bother to spend time reading someone from someone they don’t know? It will just be ignored.
Simpletivity suggests an email body between 50-125 words is best. But, make sure it’s not too short. If it is only a sentence or two they will wonder why this could not have been mentioned on a phone call or a social media message.
Show the Purpose
If there is not a clear purpose in your email, get ready to be ignored. First, you need to work on your subject line. Like the body of the text, don’t write too much and also keep it relevant to the email. Shockingly, some people still send emails with no subject line! When we get emails like this they go straight in the bin.
In the email body, you need to get the purpose across quickly. Do it in the first few sentences and think about placing your question at the beginning and above the other text. By communicating a clear purpose for the email, you are doing the work for them and it makes it easy for them to respond to you.
Regarding your purpose, do not be one of those annoying people who ask for stuff for free. If you wouldn’t ask in person, why do it over email? This goes for anything from requesting a website audit or a design consultation. It is rude and it will ruin your first impression. The recipient will see your name again in the future and either ignore you forever or make a decision to send you to the junk folder without even blinking.
Timing is Everything
When you send an email can have a massive effect on it being opened and replied to.
Coschedule, who was influenced by 14 email studies, states that the best time to send is Tuesday to Thursday. In rank order it goes Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday. Regarding specific times, they note that 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm and 8 pm were the best times. Though sending emails in the late-morning were overall the most favoured time,
50% of people begin the day by emailing in bed as Campaign Monitor states.
Follow Up
Following up to a previous email is an important step that people forget. They either take the lack of a response as a no or are too scared to connect again. But, persistence pays off and the person may just have not got back to you yet. Leave it a few days to contact them. Anywhere between 3-7 days is a good rule, which depends on how busy you think they are.
Don’t Only Use Only Email
Is email the best choice for connecting with this person? Our emails are filled with spam, short, long and random emails. If it’s a short one or two-liner, could you put it in a text or phone call? Phone calls can be a great way to get an urgent response if you are short on time. But, it can also be seen as pushy to the wrong person. However, if you are already in contact and working together on an important project there is no point waiting around.
The Takeaway…
Busy or ‘important’ people are just people. Sometimes, you can get caught up in worrying about how to craft the perfect message, but in reality, the recipient is just like you. They have lives at work and home, and simply want to get to the point with email communication.
Why not make life easier for them (and you), by sending shorter emails of value at the right time? Also, never forget to follow-up.
If you are still stuck, we offer quick Get Help sessions that can really set you back on the path to real success with Email Marketing. Just email our team at [email protected]
