Writing a mail to a prospect is nothing less than giving them a tour of your office or showroom. Let me tell you how.
Let’s consider Apple’s outlet. Whenever customers walk in, they constantly get engaged by either a customer service person or interactive bots asking them questions like, “what would you like to see?”, “have you seen this?”, “ would you like to give feedback?”. Each of these moments of engagement are called ‘touch-points’ and are later monitored to understand how customers behave. Apple manages to effectively leverage its customer behavior data into its marketing strategies.
Similar to the touchpoints in customer experience, there are touchpoints in a mail as well. By understanding some basic human behavior traits you can easily write a mail which will give your prospect an experience of your product or service rather than just information.
Touchpoint 1
The first and the most important touchpoint is the Subject line of your mail. When a person sees an unread mail, it builds up some curiosity, but if your subject line appears like just another promotion mails then it might get trashed immediately.
The trick is to write a simple and short subject line which will not make your mail look like spam mail.
Touchpoint 2
Once you get their attention and they open your mail, the first line of your mail becomes the second touchpoint. Here, the words should be written to build up some more curiosity.
For example, if you’re selling a software solution to a certain business, you can start with a question addressing one of the major problems that they might be facing. It has to be a problem that you are solving with your software.
“Are you facing trouble in enhancing your customer satisfaction?”
Touchpoint 3
After asking the question, now it’s time to explain what your product is. The first paragraph is the third touchpoint. While describing your product or service, make sure to present it as a solution. Mention the significance of the problem and how your solution is built by considering every parameter of that problem. Mention what makes you unique.
It is important to keep your sentences simple and to the point.
Touchpoint 4
Mostly after reading the first part, the reader gets the idea of what is it all about. Most of the people scroll down to the bottom of the mail after reading the first para. They check the source of the mail which out fourth touchpoint.
If you’re writing to a CTO, they will expect the sender to be a subject matter expert with an appropriate designation. It is important to mention the name and designation properly at the bottom.
Touchpoint 5
After assuring the credibility of the mail, the reader may scroll up and read the remaining paras. So, make sure to include all the necessary information in the second paragraph. It’s easy to read if you break that information into bullet points. Use numbers and valid statistics whenever possible.
Touchpoint 6
It is possible that the reader may not scroll up and read all the remaining content but rather find any other source of information. They might google you or try to find what city you’re based in. It’s always a great practice to provide links to your sources.
Considering the previous example of the company selling software solutions, A link to your website will do the trick. You can also mention a link to a specific page of your website that you want them to visit.
Touchpoint 7
Finally, after all this, the most important ritual is to add a call to action. Make sure to write a call to action that clearly states what you expect from them, whether you want to set a call or you want to get an appointment.
“We can share some details over a short call and a demo presentation, how does your calendar look this week?”
Conclusion –
It is important to treat your mails as a piece of content than just a bunch of information packed in over formal words. The intention should be to give your prospect a taste of the experience that they will be having if the deal moves forward. With these touchpoints noted, your emails will never go unnoticed.