Sales Emails are Dead

A big fat disclaimer: I’m an email marketer. Emails are my bread and jam (I’m on a diet avoiding BUTTER).

Read it again.

I said loud and clear, SALES EMAILS ARE DEAD!

Never said, emails are dead.

There’s a nuance between emails and sales emails. If you want to learn the difference between emails, that rains and emails that get replies, “Please take me off your list!”

Read till the end.

Slapping 10% discount

or…

Last chance to snag a whooping 20% off

or…

Cart is closing soon.

Don’t cut the mustard anymore.

People loathe getting these kinds of emails. Plus, you’re just hurting your brand by messing up its reputation.

A mini human psychology lesson for you.

To make you better understand the point.

What does sales mean to you?

Exchange of money?

WRONG!

Sales is an exchange of trust and value.

People ONLY buy because they had a pressing problem that needed to be solved aka value. And they buy from people whom they like and trust.

And you can’t build trust off the emails like here’s your 10% discount or cart is closing soon.

People scoff at such emails.

Rather, be brutally honest.

Tell personal (relatable) stories.

Emails that are extremely valuable.

Emails that solve some real problem.

Do you know what’s the secret formula for writing converting emails.

There’s no such secret.

But there are three principles if you follow will lead to 5–6 figure emails.

Principle 1: Solve a real problem

Principle 2: Be brutally honest

Principle 3: Provide extreme value

I’m not making up this stuff in the thin air.

I’ve a concrete logic and evidence why these principles work. But first, let me ask you a question: why do people buy from you?

Think for a while.

Ok, let me make this question even simpler to understand for you.

Why do you order stuff from Amazon without thinking twice as opposed to ordering from a random website?

Because you trust Amazon.

See?

You got your answer. Trust is the KEY factor behind any sale.

And trust is the backbone of those 3 principles. People trust you more if you’re honest, people trust you when you solve their problem, and by providing value, you establish yourself as an authority which is implied trust.

And when you send those SALESY emails which neither solve any problem nor provide any value. You lose trust and brand reputation.

Honestly, such emails are dead.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t send sales emails.

You should.

As email marketing is still the most profitable marketing channel.

But refrain from using pressure sales tactics or dishonesty.

People love when you’re being honest with them.

If you’ve read the book, Shoe Dog, the story of Phil Knight & Nike (highly recommend if you haven’t).

Phil describes an incident.

During one of the Olympic trials (really, the initial days of Nike when they weren’t as famous. They were a pretty small company). He set up a booth of Nike to introduce a new design of shoes. And there were booths of other premium (and highly famous) brands like Adidas & Puma. But Nike ended up selling all their stock.

Despite having extremely BAD quality which they were upfront about and told the customers.

But customers still bought from them and said, “We trust Nike.“

Point being, even if you’re upfront about your weaknesses, your email list would appreciate and buy from you.

When everybody is trying to take a piece of the pie with tricks, deceit, and dishonesty.

You’d stand out and would earn their trust.

If you keep those 3 principles in mind.

With that being said, I’ve coined a new concept…

TTT sales equation.

Come again?

It ain’t an alien concept or a chemical disaster.

It’s a simple concept that I’ve been discussing above.

Let me break down the equation for you.

Traffic + Trust = Transaction

To make a sale aka transaction, you need two key elements: traffic and trust.

Imho, anyone can create a product and make it available for sale — that isn’t the hard part.

The hard part is convincing a potential buyer to trade their cash for it.

We often buy from people whom we like and trust.

But here’s a catch.

You don’t build such a relationship at the snap of your fingers — people are careful about who they trust.

And to earn their trust.

You have to remember two things:

a) spending more time together

But how do you spend more time together?

Sending more emails.

b) take a pledge, you’d never forget those three principles

That’s it.

Make your marketing honest and you’d open the floodgates of customers.

Cheers,

Have a great day!