Even given a promising, qualified prospect list, sales is a numbers game. You have to reach enough people to hit a percentage who need or want your product, right now--or are ripe to persuasion that they need it. But no matter how hefty your prospect list, your communications has to 1) catch their interest, 2) persuade them to see what you have to say, and then 3) move them into action.

Not new information. But it does establish a context for talking about NEW ways to accomplish those things. To focus the conversation, let's talk today about email: how to get your emails opened, how to get them read, and how to get a better rate of converting readers to active purchasers.

You've probably seen some of the arresting statistics

 on video marketing. Four-fifths of traffic on social media now is video-viewing traffic. Facebook reports some 8 billion video views a day, day-in and day-out. Video marketing budgets are doubling each year. That sort of thing. The statistics on including a marketing video in your email are mind-blowing. For example, HubSpot reports

 that a video in an email has been found to lead to a 200-300% increase in click-through rates. You may not create a marketing video solely to drive your email sales (although many such videos are only 10 seconds long), but once you have a video that you are proud to use to promote your brand, the places to use it are protean: Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, email, your website, Instagram... By the way, statistics show that for the greatest effect, you should use the word "video" in the subject line.

Speaking of LinkedIn, you can use its Sales Navigator (for a fee) to perform a filtered search for sales prospects by type of company, marketing or position, geographical area, and a host of other variables. Then, you can add that to your email list. Or, even more easily, you can put the list right on LinkedIn's own InMail. With some 600-million members worldwide, LinkedIn is the world's largest professional-business group. By the way, a huge feature of LinkedIn is "groups." The average member of LinkedIn belongs to seven such groups. If you start your own group and manage it--say, to establish your organization as a knowledge leader in your industry--LinkedIn lets you send them an exclusive email every week with updates. That could mean new products, new services, awards won by the company or product, or information on how and why to use a product.

Your best bet is not to try to sell on email. Not directly. The "waste" or "toss out" rate is too great. People aren't on their email to read advertisements--and we all know it. People go to email for entertainment, education, and interaction. And all three can be part of your email. Selling your company and your brand can be educational and even entertaining; writing that kind of copy is a talent, of course. Interaction means posing questions and making offers. If you have a LinkedIn page for your organization (and you really should), then LinkedIn lets you create a "button" to add to every email. Readers who click on the button are taken directly to your LinkedIn page. 

Just a few of the newer ways to get recipients to open, read, and act upon your emails. 

 At Real-Time Outsource

 we talk about ways to make your traditional sales better and get new high-potential approaches online. Give us a call 

Let us know where you see sales going. And what you think could help your sales reps become more productive.