I want to drive a stake through the heart of this myth; you can’t just do sales emails. You can’t send them off, sad and alone, like a cowboy about to make his last stand against the cattle thieves.
I've specifically managed marketing for a lot of big businesses. I have 17 years in the industry, and I also look after several small business clients, so yeah, I've seen it all.
And that is: how sales emails work over time.
Most businesses treat sales emails like events. They launch, they push, they disappear. Then they wait and they feel really weird about emailing again.
This should be a natural conversation. An almost natural flow between you and your list.
You'll know exactly who your hot customers are. You should know who the frequent openers are, and the people that never open at all.
So, if you're just pushing out sales emails without that?
That's not a system. That's blind panic.
I recommend a rhythm that works for you. So it happens in the background, gracefully and consistently.
And you can do this as a small business owner. In fact, you have to because you have to be so ruthless with your time.
So, let's break this down.
Sales emails convert when they sit inside a steady drumbeat of:
When people know who you are, how you help, and what to expect, selling feels calm and even natural.
It's the next step. It's welcome.
As businesses, people sign up to be sold to. If you're not getting sales, or if you're only pushing out panicky sales emails once a quarter, you've got a problem because you're not giving them the framework to know and trust you.
So, sales emails don't create demand. I want to really emphasize this. Write this down for yourself.
Sales emails do not create demand. They catch it.
And that's why I generally pair my emails with at least one other method. Such as banners, pop-ups, ads, whatsapp groups or online groups. But that's a conversation for another day.
Right now, in your email ecosystem, your job is to create the demand which the sales emails then catch.
When sales feel hard, it's because you're usually asking those emails to do everyone else's job.
The truth is, a working email system has four distinct layers:
1. The Welcome This is where people land when they first join your world. They need to know who you are, what to expect, and why they should stick around.
2. The Experience This is your regular content. Your newsletters. Your value emails. This is where you build trust and keep people engaged with your world.
3. The Sales These are your promotional emails. But they only work because layers 1 and 2 have already done their job.
4. The Retention This keeps people coming back. It acknowledges their journey with you and makes them feel seen.
Each layer does one job. And the sales layer works because all the other layers are working.
It keeps people in your world and it keeps people coming back for more.
There's also the slight problem of something most people skip: making sure that what you're selling is aligned to who you're selling to.
First issue: you've got the right audience and the right offer. Then what the emails do is connect the two.
They make sure that you have the right answer for the right question at the right time.
So, this is gold.
And if I'm building an email system today, the one thing I wouldn't do is start with your sales copy.
I'd start with your customer.
We pick them up where they hang out, bring them into your world, then make the offer. Speaking from experience (and looking at the latest numbers) warm traffic converts 10x better than cold. So your conversion starts long before the sale - in fact, it’s happening long before they even hand over their email address. You need to match their language, their problems and convince them your service will solve it.
Which is the end result (because we all want to get paid).
In fact, I will repeat from someone else I heard this week: success is actually the trailing indicator. It’s the last bit of the puzzle.
You'll know when you see your emails open. You'll know when people are on board. You'll know when you start getting responses and replies to your emails.
That's what happens when you finally have structure in place and you’ve nailed your audience’s problem.
You stop asking yourself, “oh god, what am I writing this week?” Because you already know.
You'll have the content in place. You already know what the next step is. You've already on-boarded them. Now you get to have fun with your tribe - the customers who want to be with you, in the business you have built.
Sign up for my weekly emails for useful tips and tricks.
Take care and enjoy yourself.