Tips to Improve Your Email Response Times from Prospects

1. Be Aware of Their Schedule

This might seem obvious, but don’t send emails to people when they are out of the office or on vacation. Getting a response on a Friday afternoon is much more unlikely than getting one on a Wednesday morning. Be respectful of your prospects personal time, and don’t expect people to rearrange their schedule to respond to you.

2. Your Subject Line is Everything

If your emails aren’t getting opened, they won’t get responded to. A clear and specific subject line is the most important factor when it comes to getting your email opened. Be clear and concise with the offering or the ask in your email. Authentic personalization in a subject line can also go a long way toward getting an email opened. Everyone wants to feel special, and being on the receiving end of an obvious mail merge outbound email campaign has the opposite effect.

3. Offer to Solve a Problem

If you’re providing a solution to a problem or a pain point for a prospect, make it clear in the subject line. If it’s time sensitive, all the better. For example; “Are You Prepared for New OSHA Regulations?” is substantially more compelling than, “Let Us Help You With Your HR Needs.”

4. Provide Value

If you can provide information that a prospect can use to better do their job, you can get their attention. By offering to provide prospects with new data, outlooks, and insights, you can earn their interest and boost your reply rate. This has the added benefit of positioning you as a knowledgeable expert and can help with building trust.

5. Be Direct

Long winded introductions can turn prospects off instead of establish your credibility. Get to the point as quickly as possible.

6. R-E-S-P-E-C-T your Prospects

Never underestimate the value of politeness. Being respectful of someone’s time will raise their opinion of you, and requires no additional effort. People are more inclined to respond to a gracious email rather than one that comes across as curt or abrupt.

You will have to adjust your outreach strategy to fit your industry and ideal customer profile, but the fundamental rules of B2B email are always relevant. You have valuable information to offer, so state it quickly, professionally, and politely, and people are far more likely to respond.