Getting the top reply rate
We’ll start with our current sequence which is sent to prospects when they sign up for a demo of our software (see for yourself by signing up here ;)) It’s a simple 3-email sequence, but it’s outperformed all our previous sequences, successfully engaging with 57% of our prospects.
Sequence #1. 89% Open Rate, 57% Reply Rate
Email #1 [Option A]
Subj: Your demo request of Reply…
Hello {FirstName},
Thank you for your interest in Reply. I’ll be happy to jump on a call to give you an in-depth review of our platform. Please let me know what time works and I’ll send you a calendar invite. Meanwhile, could you please help me understand your situation better by answering these questions so I can tailor the call accordingly:
1) How are you currently doing your email outreach and what are the challenges that you’re looking to address?
2) How are you currently acquiring your prospects’ emails?
3) Are you looking for a single account or multiple users?
4) How many contacts are you looking to reach out to per month?
Best,
First of all we use a simple opener, quickly confirming the reason for the email. The subject line and the opening lines of the email tell the prospect straight away why you’re emailing them and reassures them this isn’t a cold email or worse, spam.
We follow this up with a simple request. Rather than being self-serving though, we’re asking them to help us help them. The four questions give us an opportunity to offer a tailored service, targeted to their specific requirements.
Email #1 [Option B]
Subj: Reply Trial – Important note before you get started
Hello {FirstName},
Thank you for signing up!
My name is Meshelle and I’m your contact at Reply. I thought I’d drop you a quick note to introduce myself. I’m excited to help you get started. Most likely you’re looking for a way to automate and scale your emails (and follow-ups) but keep it personal, right?
If so, I would love to share a set of best practices we’ve developed based on our customers’ experiences, as well as our own, that can increase your open/reply rates by up to 30%.
If you have 15 minutes for a quick call, I look forward to better understanding your needs and how we can help you grow your business.
Much success,
Alternatively, you can use the first email to establish a strong customer relationship. Our rep introduces themselves and offers to act as a guide, helping with best practices that can increase their open rates and grow their business.
Email #2
Subj: Re: Your demo request of Reply…
{FirstName},
As requested, are you still interested in automating your email outreach with Reply? With Reply you can spend more time doing customer facing tasks and let Reply generate those interested leads for you.
Best,
All our follow-ups are sent as replies to the previous email, so they can easily see the original email without having to go searching. Our priority is to draw their attention to that first email. We accomplish that here with a simple two-part reminder. First of all, we remind them they were interested in our service, and ask if that’s still the case. Secondly, we remind them of why they were interested in the first place and spell out the key benefits.
Email #3
Subj: Re: Your demo request of Reply
{FirstName},
I understand that things can get busy so wanted to discuss how our customers are freeing up their day by leveraging Reply and closing more business. Ask me how.
Look forward to hearing from you,
Best,
Empathy is important. Our customers are busy people, and it’s important to show we understand that. We finish the sequence with a final reminder of the benefits (freeing up their day) and a clear CTA (‘Ask me how’).
Emails with benefits
Our second sequence is designed to showcase the benefits of using our service, over four emails.
Sequence #2. 78% Open Rate, 20%+ Reply Rate
Email #1
Subj: Reply trial – important note before you start
Hi {FirstName},
Thanks for signing up. I thought I’d drop a quick note to make sure you have a good understanding of what Reply is about and how it can make your life easier. Most likely you’re looking for a way to automate your emails (and follow-ups), but keep it personal, correct?
If so, I just wanted to let you know we have developed a set of best practices based on our customers’ experiences as well as our own, with proven examples of how applying them can increase your open/reply rates by up to 30%.
If you’re interested in learning how Reply can get you more booked meetings, I’d be happy to talk.
Thanks!
The subject line uses urgency to persuade the recipient to open up. The first paragraph opens a dialogue, while the second paragraph spells out the benefit simply and clearly: increasing their open/reply rates by up to 30%. There’s also the reassurance this is for real, based on proven examples.
Email #2
Subj: Reply trial – What can we do for you?
Hi {FirstName},
I see you had a chance to get started with your Reply trial.
In case you have any questions, I’d like to share with you our best practices on:
– Finding contacts
– Campaign setup
– Email templates
– Integrations
P.S. Did you know Reply has a new Marketplace that allows you to get more leads based on your targeted search criteria?
Rather than going for the hard sell, the subject line for the second email is an offer of assistance. This time though, we highlight some of the specific areas we can help with. If our prospect is having problems with any of these, then replying to the email is a no-brainer. Finally, we use our P.S. (one of the most read parts of any email) to highlight yet another benefit, one we know would appeal to our typical customer.
Email #3
Subj: Re: Reply – Optimizing your email campaigns
Hey {FirstName},
At Reply, we’ve noticed that our customers who sit through a personalized demo based on their objectives usually get around 30% better results, because they know how to optimize their campaigns by using all the features to send highly personalized emails that maximize reply rates.
Would you be interested in such a walk-through?
The third email repeats the benefit initially highlighted in the first email. This time we approach it from a different angle. We’ve seen other customers achieve 30% better results, and we’d like to help our new customers achieve this too. In effect, we’re telling them that if others have already benefited, why should they be the one to miss out?
Email #4
Subj: Re: Reply – Improving open/reply rates
Hi {FirstName},
Awesome, so you’re on your way now and starting to get replies from your prospects (well at least I hope so). If, however, you’re not getting the results you want, it’s usually for one of the following reasons:
1) Your email database isn’t the greatest, i.e. inaccurate emails
2) Your content is not answering the fundamental question for your customer “WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?”
3) You haven’t A/B tested your messaging to see what content and subject lines get the most opens and replies
Not to worry, these are all things that can be quickly resolved as long as we address them early. Let me know if you’d like to have a chat.
Finally, for the last email we try another approach. We start by listing some of the common problems our customers face, then reassure them these are all things we can help them quickly solve, as long as they act now. Not only do we know the problems they face, but we also have the solution.
The webinar sequences
When a prospect signs up for one of our webinars, that’s just the first step. Those sign-ups need to be carefully nurtured, to take them from casual viewer to happy customer. As many people who sign up for a webinar may still end up not attending, it’s important to not rely solely on the strength of your webinar to motivate your customer.
Sequence #3. Open Rate 91%, Reply Rate 21%
Email #1
Subj: Your webinar signup – how to book more meetings
Hello {FirstName},
Thank you for signing up for the webinar Reply.io held last week. We appreciate your interest and I’ll be happy to have an in-depth review of our platform with you and discuss how it can help you book more sales meetings, automate your processes and close more business.
Please let me know if you’d like to have a call to discuss how Reply can help you grow your business.
Looking forward to your reply!
The subject line spells out why they’re receiving this email, so they know it’s not spam (as in Sequence #1). We let them know we’re grateful for their sign-up and spell out the benefits of booking a call (as in Sequence #2). We use both general benefits (growing the business) and specific benefits (booking more sales meetings and automating processes).
Email #2
Subj: Re: Your webinar signup – how to book more meeting
Hi {FirstName},
As requested, are you interested in learning how Reply can help you put your email outreach on autopilot? With Reply you can spend more time doing customer facing things and let Reply generate those interested leads for you.
Best,
The job of the second email in this sequence is to remind them of why they signed up for the webinar; to spend more time on customer related tasks and less time on finding leads.
Email #3
Subj: Re: Your webinar signup – how to book more meeting
Hi {FirstName},
I understand things can get busy, so I wanted to discuss how our customers are freeing up their day by leveraging Reply and closing more business. Please respond with one letter from the options below:
A: I am interested in further discussing Reply for automating my email outreach
B: I am interested in Reply, but don’t have time to discuss it now. Let’s move it to 2 weeks later.
C: I am not interested in Reply at this time.
Looking forward to your reply!
Our final attempt is all about making it as easy as possible for the prospect to respond. All it takes is one single letter in the reply. We also include an ‘out’, so if they’re not interested at the moment they can just select the last option. Having a response that they’re not currently interested is better for us than no response at all.
If you’re looking for another option, here’s a different sequence we used for webinar registrations. While it didn’t have as high an open rate, the sequence had a better reply rate and succeeded at getting conversations started with our prospects.