Email drip campaigns can seem daunting and ineffective but, done right, they are actually very effective.  Marketing Guru Neil Patel found that automating your drip campaigns helps dramatically with the success of this marketing strategy.  To begin, you may want to have a plan for why you are emailing your prospective customers. Then you can create a library of sales email templates to choose from and begin your drip campaign.

There are numerous reasons for you to reach out to prospective customers that will help you make a connection, even when cold emailing.  In order to help you with finding some legitimate reasons to reach out, we’ve gathered a list of 18 types of sales email templates you can use, broken down by four specific categories.

Types of Sales Email Templates

Outreach:

1. General Outreach

If you don’t actually have a reason to contact someone, you can simply send an email stating “I think this product will be of interest to you.”  Forbes suggests that even as successful as social media has become, reaching out with an effective email is still a very high performing means of conversation with your prospective customers. So, by all means, reach out even if you don’t have a perfect excuse.

2. Point You to the Right Person

A good excuse to get in touch with just about anyone in an organization is to ask your recipient to point you in the right direction. Ask your recipient, “can you let me know who I should contact?” may get your foot in the door very easily.

3. Mutual Connection

Finding a mutual connection between you and your prospect can warm up your lead considerably.  This can be done by doing a little bit of research and brainstorming people you know that they will as well or looking at your prospect’s LinkedIn connections to see if you know anyone in common, especially existing customers. Plan your email around this knowledge to say, “Did you know that {mutal connection} is a fan of our product?”

4. Social Outreach

Using upcoming blog posts or new social media launches as an opportunity to get in touch with prospects can be very effective as well. Sending an email showing the social media post that links to your blog, for instance, can be a great way to share valuable information and possibly gain new likes or follows.  

An email template for this category might look like this:

Hi, [name]!

I wanted to let you know that our blog post on [subject] was published this week and I think you’ll find it interesting. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’d like to leave a comment on the post!

Regards,

[Your name and title]

Follow up:

5. Unanswered Phone Calls and Voicemails

Following up with your prospects is always a good excuse to reach out and an opportunity for another touchpoint. Previously unanswered phone calls or unreturned voicemails are one such opportunity. Form an email that states “This is a follow up to the email I left earlier today with the information I mentioned.”

6. Inactive or Unresponsive Contacts

Emailing contacts that haven’t been in touch lately is a good opportunity to say, “I haven’t heard from you in a while!” and let them know what’s new so they have an interest in re-engaging.

7. Request a Meeting

Following up on correspondence in which you had received a reply is a good time to request a meeting.  Include a statement such as “It was great hearing from you and I’d like to provide you with further information if you can take a meeting or a phone call.”

8. Scheduling Product Demo

A product demo is an excellent excuse to follow up with your prospects.  However, calling it a “consultation” or similar will make it seem less sales-y and more like a free service you are offering. Your email can be focused around a statement such as, “I’d be happy to offer a consultation on the product we chatted about earlier if you’d like.”

9. After a Phone Conversation or Meeting

Following up just to let your prospect know how much you appreciate them taking your call or your meeting is another touchpoint and an opportunity to add any other information and another call-to-action.  “Thank you so much for meeting with me! Here is a link to our whitepaper on {the subject discussed} to give you more information about it.”

10. After Events

Any time you collect a lead at a trade show, conference, networking event, etc., it’s a good idea to follow up to say, “it was great to meet you at the {event}!” and find out if they would be interested in any other information.

Sales email templates in this category might be something like this:

Hey, [name]!

It was really good to talk to you earlier today and learning more about you and your organization.

I now have a better understanding of your frustrations with [pain point].  Thank you for explaining it to me. 

As I had mentioned, here is a link [link] to more information about how we would be able to help you. 

Feel free to let me know if you any further questions at this point and when you would like to chat again. 

Let me know if you have any questions and I’d be more than happy to chat again or follow up with an email. If you don’t have any immediate questions, I’ll look forward to talking again on [date and time].

Best Regards,

[your name and title]

Nurturing:

11. Product Demo

A product Demo is also a good suggestion in the nurturing phase of lead generation.  Here, you may be able to go ahead and call it a “demo” instead of a “consultation” since they are now closer to being sold on your product. 

12. Free Trial 

If you’ve had plenty of conversations with your prospect, but have yet to make the sale, this is a good opportunity to offer a free trial or to highlight the free trial you already advertised. 

13. Competition Comparison 

Once you are at the point that you are nurturing your prospects, letting them know how your product stacks up to the competition is a terrific way to get them to understand your product a little bit better. Let them know, “While the {competitor product} will give you [one feature], our product offers [three features, including the one, mentioned previously].”

14. Cost-Benefit Analysis

Finally, let your prospects know exactly how they will benefit from your product financially.  Give them the data that will get them to want to purchase.

Nurturing sales email templates can be something similar to:

Hello, [name],

I wanted to give you this opportunity to try [product] for free for [duration] so that you can have a full access to it and understand how it will benefit you personally.  

Visit [website] and sign up as soon as you have the opportunity so you can get started using these awesome features. 

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.  If not, I’ll be in touch with you when you’ve had some time to work with it.

Best Regards,

[your name and title]

Referrals/Reviews:

15. Ask for Reviews

Now that you have a satisfied customer, asking them for a referral or a recommendation is a good idea.  You can simply ask them about their experience to get them thinking about it and then giving them a link where they can share their review if they would like to.

16. Ask for an Introduction 

You can also take this opportunity to ask your satisfied customers for an introduction to someone else that may be interested in the product as well.  Let them know that they will receive a benefit, such as a discount or free SWAG, for their introduction as well.

17. Reach out to Influencers.

Social media influencers are an excellent way to get solid referrals.  Do some research and find some influencers that are followed largely by your ideal demographic and find out if they’ll be willing to use your product.

18. Leverage Your Professional Network

Of course, reaching out to your professional network is always a great way to get recommendations.  These are people that already know and love you and your product and are more likely willing to give a sterling recommendation.

Send an email such as the following to ask for a review or referral:

Hi [customer],

Thank you again for choosing [your business]. I wanted to ask you personally for information about your experience.

On a scale of 1 (terrible) to 10 (extremely awesome), how was your experience? 

We are continually looking to improve and feedback from customers like you is what helps us most.  

Would you be willing to provide feedback at this link [link]?  It will only take a few minutes. 

Thanks for your loyalty,

[your name and title]

Conclusion

Entrepreneur.com found that customers still prefer email over social media to receive brand messages. Creating effective correspondence via email is worth it and will be much easier with sales email templates to draw from. Creating a whole library of them using this list of sales email types will benefit you greatly in the long run. 

Tools like Agile CRM can help you keep and maintain your library of templates, your customer contact information, any pertinent information such as mutual connections, and more and allow you to automate your sales and marketing processes.  An all-in-one solution such as allows you to create and access the information from anywhere, allowing you to focus on growth.

Creating your sales email templates using the categories above is a great way to get started on your email marketing strategy and implementing effective drip campaigns.