Dont Be Boring: 4 Keys to Writing Effective Sales EmailsLast week I was cleaning up some old files when I ran across an email account used during my first years in the call center for storing copies of client sales emails I sent. I was glad I had saved these emails, believing that I could use them for educational purposes in the future, and boy, was I right. Some of them made me cringe and think: What was I thinking? Some of these are awful.Weve talked about voicemail messages in the past and identified points to include and not to include. But what about the emails we send to our clients?In addition to a compelling subject line, what are some things you should include and how should the email be structured to make your emails more effective at initiating a conversation?Lets dissect the following email I found in my archive. Its so generic that I see email messages with a similar format land in my inbox today:Hi Bob,Hope this e-mail finds you having a great day.Following up in reference to you getting on our website, insert your website here and downloading insert your reference document from us. Wanted to touch base to see what led you to the website as well as to see if I could be of any additional help.Would love to get in contact with you via phone or e-mail. Please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience.For a LIMITED TIME special Economic Stimulus Pricing Contact me for further details.Look forward to hearing from you.Have a great day!Like I said, its very generic-and not very engaging. But the format is prolific, probably because its quick and easy to create.Lets do a review and discover where it falls short.The PleasantriesHope this e-mail finds you having a great day.In this first line, my plan was to initiate the conversation with some type of pleasantries by referring to the great day I hoped he was having. This was a great plan, unless Bob was not having a great day. He could have been having a wonderful day. He also could have had an accident that morning and had to get a ride to work from a coworker. Or maybe Bobs doctor had called him with some bad news regarding a medical test.If Bob is not having a good day, my message wont match his state of mind, and my email will likely be passed over at best and deleted at worst before he gets to the good stuff.How are you doing and Hope youre having a good day are such lackluster openers that most of us respond with equally lackluster and automatic answers, like fine or good. Opening lines like these really dont engage your prospect. What you really want is to get their attention immediately and build rapport, just like you would do in a voicemail message. If I were rewriting this email, I would drop this line and open with a relevant fact of some type.The Reason for the Email No. 1Following up in reference to you getting on our website, insert your website here and downloading insert your reference document from us.This line refers to the prospect visiting our website and downloading a document. At the time, I thought it was a good move because it established a common reference point. In retrospect, Im not convinced of its effectiveness.My prospect knew that he was on my site. He knew that he downloaded my white paper, and he knew that in order to download the white paper, he had to supply his contact information. This line says: Im watching you. Ive got nothing better to do than to sit by my laptop and wait for prospects to get on my site like a spider in her lair waiting for her next meal to wander into her web.In retrospect, I would leave off all of the extra words and simply confirm the download by stating, Yesterday, you downloaded the document name of document and then explain why that is significant. Sounds like a fact to me. Maybe this fact should have been my opening line.The Reason for the Email No. 2Wanted to touch base to see what led you to the website as well as to see if I could be of any additional help.This line tells them the purpose for the email. Im just following up to make sure that you found everything and see if I could be of any further assistance. Is that the real reason for my email-to make sure that they found everything that they were looking for or to see if I could be of any assistance?As sales people, when we make these types of calls or send out follow-up emails, we arent acting in a customer support role. We arent calling to discover if they found everything that they needed. We already know the response well get: Yep, found everything I needed. Nope, dont need any further help. And while knowledge of what prompted them to visit our site is helpful, a self serving statement like, Wanted to see what brought you to our site shouldnt be in the email unless you are conducting a marketing survey or a website review.This is a sales letter. When we make these calls or send these emails, we