The one email phrase that will really cost you

This one email phrase is the most used, and least effective, closing to any email.

I am in the middle of a business development push for my company and was chatting with a colleague of mine Aaron Krall about the effectiveness of my outbound email campaigns. Aaron is an expert at helping Software as a Service (Saas) based companies convert trial users to paying customers.

When he reviewed the emails I was sending, he shared that I was making one of the most common email mistakes.

I finished most of my emails with:

"Let me know if you have any questions"

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and its close cousin:

"Feel free to reach out if I can help in any way".

Aaron said "This is probably the most used, and least effective, closing to any email. The problem with this phrase is that it doesn't ask your user to do something specific. It's too open ended."

If you want your user to take a specific action, you need to make it very clear what that action is.

For example:

If you send out an email explaining a specific feature of your software, the call to action should be directly related to that feature.

If you send an email in the hopes of receiving some feedback, don't hesitate to ask for that feedback, and be direct!

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Aaron went on: "When I help SaaS companies turn their lists of trial users into paid users, the first thing I do is identify the pain the customer has and how the software can solve that pain."

Changing the overall focus of your email from highlighting "features" to discussing "solutions" is the first step.

Instead of ending with "Let me know if you have any questions", try replacing it with:

"I noticed you haven't logged in in a while, would you mind sending me a quick message why?"

"I'd like to learn more about your goals for this year and how I can help you achieve them. Click below to schedule a quick 15 minute chat with me."

"Click here to setup this feature in your account now!"

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"I'm curious, what is the main reason you haven't signed up for a paid account yet?"

In each of these cases, the call to action is clear, direct and easy for the user to understand.

You'll be surprised to see how much higher your engagement and response rate is once you ask your users to take a specific, clear action.

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