Technology Sales: 5 Tips to Increase Your Email Delivery and Open Rates

Email should be an intrinsic part of your technology sales process. Unfortunately, the thoughts that stick in people’s minds are the headlines that they’ve seen over the last year proclaiming the death of email marketing.

Disregard those headlines—there is no better sales tool than a well-targeted email message campaign. It should run alongside personal contact. These two tools together enable you to inform and educate your prospects during their decision-making process. The B2B technology sales cycle is complex. Using email provides you with many advantages, from helping you to gather information about your prospects to having a means to intervene at the points in the process where you know a sale has a history of dropping off.

We all receive much more email than we did in the past, and the amount that we receive can be overwhelming. Therefore, your biggest hurdle is actually getting someone to open and then read your email. Here are some immediately actionable tips that will make your email campaigns more effective:

#1 Get Your Email Delivered

When your prospects sign up, make sure you use a double opt-in—ask them to reconfirm their subscription and to whitelist your email address. Don’t get caught by spam filters—an upcoming post will cover what to avoid to minimize getting caught by spam filters.

#2 Segment Your Email List

You should always segment your email list at sign up and review it again as you receive new information about your prospects. Segment your list into prospect/client interests, which allows you to tailor your emails to each segment.

#3 Tell Your Prospects Who the Email is From

Always issue emails from your company domain. People hover over the from field to make sure it is a domain they recognize. This is part of the decision-making process they go through prior to opening an email.

Ideally, the email address should also contain your name or the name of someone they talk to on a regular basis.

#4 Tell Your Prospects Why They Need to Open the Email

The subject line and the first line of text—up to 85 characters in total—appear as a snippet in email applications such as Google Mail or Outlook. This is your opportunity to tell your prospects why they need to open the email. Be very clear and direct—sell them the benefits.

#5 Content Really Is King

Using email for sales is a different ballgame to using it for marketing purposes. Your emails are not a one shot deal with the intent of getting your prospects to click-through. You are endeavouring to build a relationship with the prospect by delivering solid information and education that builds the foundation of your being a virtual CIO and trusted advisor. Each message should, therefore, be packed full of useful information that the prospect needs and can use.

Remember, the goal is that by the end of your emails the prospects or even existing clients have a positive view of your company and feel that you have helped them out, and are therefore more likely to open the next email. This also means that when you do send out a purely sales-oriented pitch that they are more likely to open and read it. Emails are as much a technology sales tool as they are a marketing one.

Maximize the effectiveness of all your email communications, and technology sales as a whole, by implementing the above tips.

Feel free to share any other tips and tricks that you have found success within the Comment section below.

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