By Dennis Ford, CEO, LSN
A excellent piece of email tracking software and a great target list are both essentially worthless if the email itself is created hastily or without careful thought. It essentially boils down to two elements: a subject line and the body, but these must be carefully curated to ensure an effective mailing.
The subject is the first thing your recipients see, and it often dictates whether your message is opened and read. In fact, some studies report that 90 percent of the time the subject alone determines whether a recipient will read your message. The importance of how you phrase the subject cannot be overestimated.
In general, it is best to make the subject long enough to explain the purpose of the email, but also short enough for the reader to grasp the purpose quickly—as long as it is stated in a simple and straightforward manner. Also remember that different investors have different degrees of scientific sophistication. You cannot approach a private equity investor specialized in oncology the same angle as one would approach a philanthropically-minded family office. The subject and message must be thoughtfully tailored.
Email campaigns conducted to set up meetings for a road trip receive the highest open and response rates when they tell the potential investor exactly what they need. An email that quickly explains the purpose of your communication and cuts through the “noise” often results in a higher open rate. So the first thing to do is begin the subject with the purpose of your message: “Meeting Request.”
Next, give the prospect you are contacting a little context—tell him or her who you are. One option is to use the name of the firm: “Meeting Request—Manager of XYZ inc.” Another option is to use a manager’s name to make the email have more of a personal touch: “Meeting Request—John Smith, Manager of XYZ Inc.” You can adjust the style and format to your liking, but always be experimenting to find a subject that gets the highest response rate.
Note the use of dashes in the subject lines above. Spacing characters such as these can help potential investors quickly scan the email header and decide if they want to read it. A subject heading that is easy to scan means that your email will get considered. If your subject heading contains a lot of info without allowing for prospects to easily digest its meaning, they usually hit the delete button. So after stating the purpose of your email, use a spacing character for ease of reading.
The next step is to complete the heading with the final details of the marketing trip, which is the location and date. An option is to keep it broad: “Meeting Request—Manager of XYZ Inc., California Trip, July 7-12.” Or you could mention the cities: “Meeting Request—Manager of XYZ Inc., Trip to LA and SF Bay area, July 7–12.”
In some cases, you may want to keep the location purposely broad—even if you don’t have the flexibility to visit other cities. The reason is simple: the wider the area, the higher the response rate. The point is, you want to establish relationships with as many prospects as possible, so target as broad an area as is reasonably possible.
Email campaigns for marketing trips usually benefit from multiple attempts to reach prospects. It is important that subsequent attempts be reflected in the subject heading. In many cases, your original email message never reached its target, was deleted before it was reviewed, or simply got lost in cyberspace. With the large amount of email communication received by prospects, you can assume that about half of the recipients never saw your original email or didn’t recognize who it was from. So it is usually best practice to attempt a second email campaign to your target audience after removing those who responded to your original email.
In many cases, a second email attempt can have a higher response rate than the original email. The primary reason for this rests in the wording of the subject. At the very start of the subject line, include the words “2nd Attempt.” Follow this with the original email heading. For example, “2nd Attempt—Meeting Request—Manager of XYZ Inc., California Trip, July 7-12.” By making recipients aware that you have tried to reach them previously, they are more likely to review your email.
Finally, as you approach the date of your marketing trip, you may have meeting slots open and prospective investors you have not heard from. A different email technique can be applied here. The format of this type of email usually is shorter than your original one. The purpose of the truncated format is to express a sense of informality: on the eve of the trip, you are dashing off an invitation for a last-minute meeting. The informality of the email, along with the quickly approaching date, usually results in higher response rates from prospects who are moved to respond, since you are going to be in their area soon.
The subject is key to using this technique effectively. Instead of the more formal “Meeting Request,” it should take the form of a short note to a colleague asking for the meeting. For example, “Possible Meeting Next Week in LA?” Note that you want to be more specific with the location in this type of email. You can also use this type of email during the trip as well to fill in any remaining slots. Simply change “Next Week” to “This Week.” The informal style and short time frame usually results in shaking a few leads free.
After constructing a compelling subject that gets prospects’ attention, you need to write a message that holds their interest and results in action. The trick is to adequately explain your purpose for contacting them without making the message too long. For our purposes here we are going to deal with general email marketing campaigns and not touch on specific correspondence to prospects with whom you are already communicating.
To construct an email message that results in a dialogue with a prospect, it is best to divide the message into short, concise paragraphs. Ideally, you want the body of the email to display directly on the screen when your recipient opens it. At most, the recipient should have to scroll down once if he or she is using a compressed reading pane. Aim for two to four paragraphs, each comprising two to four sentences that explain who, what, when, where, and how. Remember that these points should be tailored differently depending on the investor category, as scientific literacy is variable among different investor categories.
The first paragraph is your introduction. It should explain why you are reaching out and offer your prospect a reason to continue reading. If you want to schedule a meeting, you may want to introduce your firm, and say what you do and why you are reaching out: “I hope this email finds you well. I am a partner at XYZ Inc. I will be traveling to London next week and I wanted to see if a meeting makes sense.” If you have never met before, sometimes it helps to say that you don’t believe the recipient has been introduced to your firm or has worked with your firm in the past.
The few short paragraphs following the introduction should explain your purpose in a bit more detail. The ultimate goal is to get your prospect to act, so the body of the email is simply a tool used to create communication. Many fundraisers fail in this respect. They think they need to put all their cards on the table and include a lot of details. Or they believe that prospective investors only want laboratory research or trial data. As a result, their communiqués are long and wordy, or read like an annual audit statement, which only encourages the prospect to click the “delete” button.
Remember, your prospects are human and thus the common metrics of marketing apply: You have only a few seconds, assuming that your prospects have decided to read your email, to capture their interest, convey your purpose, and get them to act. You need to be concise.
Overall, if you get to the point, state it clearly, and back it up with key data points, your email will have a better chance of cutting through the clutter and noise, grabbing the prospects’ attention, and getting them to act.
You may wonder how to craft a message to prospects you have spoken with in the past, but are not actively communicating with. If it has been six months or more since you last spoke, it is probably a good idea to refresh their memory on your firm’s product. Never assume that a prospect knows or remembers exactly what you do. Every day since your last meeting, your prospects have been speaking with countless other firms. When in doubt, always err on the side of re-explaining and re-introducing your firm and putting a potential investor in context with what you are doing today.
The tone of these emails should also be more conversational than an email blast. The point is to engage your contact in a more informal manner, as if to pick up on your last conversation. To use the road-show example, you could first begin by stating the topic of the email and why you are reaching out: “I am going to be back in San Francisco next week. When we last met nine months ago, you stated your firm was not yet ready for an offering like ours. I wanted to circle back to meet and give you an update on my firm.”
Before distributing an email to prospects, many marketers often feel compelled to include an attachment—sometimes many. There is the common misunderstanding that more is better. However, for an introductory email, it is usually best to limit the number of attachments—perhaps a one- or two-page firm overview, or the most recent commentary on your firm. Remember your goal and avoid the temptation to overwhelm them with data. Email campaigns are meant to wet a prospect’s appetite, not answer every possible question they might have.
By following these principles, it is far more likely that your campaign will have the desired results, and get you more meetings in a shorter timeframe. Stay focused, be confident, and be tenacious!
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