3 Seemingly Trivial Mistakes That Hamper Your Sales Email Conversion Rate

3 Seemingly Trivial Mistakes That Hamper Your Sales Email Conversion Rate



Talking to a lot of customers over the past year has made, one thing clear - nearly all businesses out there - small, medium, or large have had to make a drastic change in their conventional sales approaches due to the covid outbreak. 
 
 The adoption of inside sales has gained momentum and businesses have started utilising technologies and applications on a dime. Businesses state that their email engagement rate went up to 48% higher during the pandemic. Now, as emails hold the power in turning your leads into premium customers, care must be taken to ensure that you avoid these three insignificant mistakes that might decline your sales email deliverability. They are,
  • Lacking a catchy headline
  • Information stuffing
  • No proper call-to-action.

Lacking a catchy headline



47% of the recipients open your emails solely based on your subject line. The first 60 characters of your headline line determine your open rate. So it is important to draft a compelling headline that draws your audience's eyeballs and intrigues them to open the email. The words "free", "limited time offer", "alert" have been overexploited which has lowered the chances of clicking your emails. Moreover, using these buzz words has a greater chance of your emails getting marked as spam. Here is a list of words when used in the subject line can land youremail in a spam folder:
  • Exclusive deal
  • Only today
  • Free 100%
  • Apply now
  • Limited time offer
  • Grab the deal
  • Reminder
  • Alert
  • Now or Never
  • Offer expires today
  • Once in a lifetime
  • Get it now
  • Free Membership
  • Guaranteed Return on Investment
  • Congratulations! You won
  • 100% cashback... are some of the blacklisted headlines that are filtered by the email providers before sending it to your customer's inbox.
 Leveraging the headline formula will help you  come up with catchy subject lines for your emails. However, you need to try a lot of variations to spot that sweet one. Here is the formula:



Without using a headline formula: Alert - Don't miss this chance to have a free call to discuss your requirements with our CRM experts
 
Using a headline formula: Schedule a call in less than a minute to discuss your requirements with our CRM experts

Information stuffing:













Opening your email is just crossing a chasm. Now convincing your audience for a sales pitch or enticing them to do your desired action is the beginning part of your acquisition journey. This particularly resides in the content. 
 
As there is a lot of emphasis on delivering value and contextual content, salespeople tend to stuff abundant information in their emails. An optimal email should be crisp, concise, to the point, and not exceed more than 4-5 lines. 
 
To frame the body of the email, consider greeting the recipient first, followed by an acknowledgement. Then, directly state the purpose of the email. And finally, direct them on what to do after reading the email.  
 
Information stuffed email body: 

Hello Sid!
 
Hope you are doing well! Thanks for showing  interest in evaluating XYZ CRM solution for your business. XYZ CRM is used by more than 60,000+ users around the globe. ABC, DEF, use our CRM for seamless integration and increased productivity. We are featured in major publications rewarding XYZ CRM as the best CRM solution for the year. We strive to deliver a remarkable experience to you. So, we would like to invite you to schedule a quick call to discuss your requirements with our CRM experts and see how we can help you further.
 
Without stuffing information:

Hello Sid!
 
Hope you are doing well! Thanks for showing interest in evaluating XYZ CRM solution for your business. We are here to assist you! Quickly schedule a call to discuss your requirements with our CRM expert and see if XYZ CRM fits your business.

No proper call to action



Adding a call to action button instead of a text hyperlink can increase your click-through rate by 2 folds. A prominent call to action button with its bold color automatically captures your audience's attention to click or at least to check what it is. 
 
However, an email's goal is to direct your audience to schedule a call or upgrade the product for which you must get them to click the call to action. Text hyperlinks may go unnoticed but a call to action button stands out. 
 
Text hyperlinked CTA - Schedule/Book your call 

Call to action button -    

Let's now group the above three simple strategies to see how effective it is in increasing your email performance.

Without using the three simple strategies: 


Using the three simple strategies:


Making these small changes in the subject, body, and CTA yields  incredible results. For a salesperson, time is money. Automating the email process with email marketing tools such as Zoho Campaigns helps you understand the user's requirements so you can draft an email that is more meaningful and relevant to potential prospects. 

    • Sticky Posts

    • As Sales Person, Here are my New Year Resolutions. What are Yours?

      Being a salesperson, I keep learning from my mistakes and have noted a few changes that I need to make in my approach. I take these resolutions going into 2021, hoping to keep it going for as long as possible :) 1. I will not say "Yes, our product has
    • Once Upon a Sales Meeting!

      It was an awkward silence in the meeting room "Uproar." John Kowalski, the new sales manager, was not happy with the team's performance. After scribbling something in the notepad, he decided to break the silence, John: I cannot believe you guys have been working like this. No reports, delusional forecasting, random targets, and no eye on the ball. Kevin: We followed Richard's orders. John: Well, Richard is not here anymore, is he? John walked up to the whiteboard, and wrote in big bold letters: "TARGET
      • Recent Topics

      • Export to excel stored amounts as text instead of numbers or accounting

        Good Afternoon, We have a quarterly billing report that we generate from our Requests. It exports to excel. However if we need to add a formula (something as simple as a sum of the column), it doesn't read the dollar amounts because the export stores
      • why my account is private?

        when i post on zohodesk see only agent only
      • Getting ZOHO Invoice certified in Portugal?

        Hello, We are ZOHO partners in Portugal and here, all the invoice software has to be certified by the government and ZOHO Invoice still isn´t certified. Any plans? Btw, we can help on this process, since we have a client that knows how to get the software certified. Thank you.
      • 500 Internal Server Error

        I have been trying to create my first app in Creator, but have been getting the 500: Internal Server Error. When I used the Create New Application link, it gave me the error after naming the application. After logging out, and back in, the application that I created was in the list, but when I try to open it to start creating my app, it gives me the 500: Internal Server Error. Please help! Also, I tried making my named app public, but I even get the error when trying to do that.
      • Client Script | Update - Client Script Support For Portals

        Dear All! We are excited to announce the highly anticipated feature: Client Script support for Portals. We understand that many of you have been eagerly awaiting this enhancement, and we are pleased to inform you that this support is now live for all
      • Professional Plan not activated after payment

        I purchased the Professional Plan for 11 users (Subscription ID: RPEU2000980748325) on 12 September 2025, and the payment has been successfully processed. However, even after more than 24 hours, my CRM account still shows “Upgrade” and behaves like a
      • how to edit the converted lead records?

        so I can fetch the converted leads records using API (COQL), using this endpoint https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v5/coql and using COQL filter Converted__s=true for some reasons I need to change the value from a field in a converted lead record. When I try
      • Auto Update Event Field Value on Create/Edit

        Hi there, I know this question has been posted multiple times and I've been trying many of the proposed similar scripts for a while now but nothing seems to work... what might I do wrong? The error I receive is this: Value given for the variable 'meetingId'
      • Pre-orders at Zoho Commerce

        We plan to have regular producs that are avaliable for purchase now and we plan to have products that will be avaliable in 2-4 weeks. How we can take the pre-orders for these products? We need to take the money for the product now, but the delivery will
      • Constant color of a legend value

        It would be nice if we can set a constant color/pattern to a value when creating a chart. We would often use the same value in different graph options and I always have to copy the color that we've set to a certain value from a previous graph to make
      • Zoho Pagesense really this slow??? 5s delay...

        I put the pagesense on my website (hosted by webflow and fast) and it caused a 5s delay to load. do other people face similar delays?
      • Payroll and BAS ( Australian tax report format )

        Hello , I am evaluating Zoho Books and I find the interface very intuitive and straight forward. My company is currently using Quickbooks Premier the Australian version. Before we can consider moving the service we would need to have the following addressed : 1.Payroll 2.BAS ( business activity statement ) for tax purposes 3.Some form of local backup and possible export of data to a widely accepted format. Regards Codrin Mitin
      • Problem with Email an invoice with multiple attachments using API

        I have an invoice with 3 attachments. When I send an email manually using the UI, everything works correctly. I receive an email with three attachments. The problem occurs when I try to initiate sending an email using the API. The email comes with only
      • Page Layouts for Standard Modules like CRM

        For standard modules like quotes, invoices, purchase orders, etc, it would be a great feature to be able to create custom page layouts with custom fields in Zoho Books similar to how you can in Zoho CRM. For example, and my current use case, I have a
      • Non-depreciating fixed asset

        Hi! There are non-depreciable fixed assets (e.g. land). It would be very useful to be able to create a new type of fixed asset (within the fixed assets module) with a ‘No depreciation’ depreciation method. There is always the option of recording land
      • Fixed asset management

        I want to know if there is any individual module for fixed assets management
      • One time sale item in billing automatically detects as service

        if i have some items which i don't want to add in my "item" list because its sold only for one time. but when i type item name in invoice, it (system) automatically takes it as a service and despite of HSN , it shows SAC code to be entered. if its selectable i.e. either item or service , it would be very helpful and a must have feature.
      • Project template after project creation

        How can I apply a project template AFTER the project has been created?
      • convert the project to templet

        i have some deployment ME product for different customer , i need to create a fixed template for use it rather then keeping creating this template every time
      • Seriously - Create multiple contacts for leads, (With Company as lead) Zoho CRM

        In Zoho CRM, considering a comapny as a lead, you need us to allow addition of more than one contact. Currently the Lead Section is missing "Add contact" feature which is available in "Accounts". When you know that a particular lead can have multiple
      • Related Module in Sharing Rules

        Zoho CRM team recently added the feature to filter records by Related Records It will be really beneficial if we can have this feature for Sharing Rules as well
      • Assignment Thresholds Resetting After Lead Conversion

        Hello everyone, We're facing an issue with Zoho CRM's lead assignment thresholds that makes them unsuitable for our workflow. I'm hoping to find a potential workaround or solution from the community. Here’s our current process: A new lead is created automatically
      • Zoho CRM Analytics - Allow To Reorder Dashboards

        I would like to suggest that you add the ability to reorder dashboards in the Analytics Module. I can see that this has been requested some time ago, the latest 9 years ago. I am not sure if this is a big or small endeavor, but such a small fix can go
      • Territory view for custom modules?

        I have recently activated territories however I can't seem to find how to use territories for custom modules? These modules have territories:  Contacts /  Accounts / Opportunities These modules don't have territories:   Buildings (custom module) and 
      • Zoho Books - How to Invoke a Custom Function in Schedulers

        We have multiple schedulers that send emails to customers in batches. Currently, we are maintaining the same code across several schedulers. Is it possible to use a custom function inside a scheduler script? If yes, how can we invoke the custom function
      • Approval Process Comments

        Is it possible to view the comments entered during the approval or rejection of a record in the approval process? If not, is there a way to require a field to be completed upon approval or rejection?
      • Login for test case

        Had a few questions regarding authentication test cases and couldn't find an answer in the the docs. 1. If an app like Zoho Creator requires authentication before providing access, do I need to create a login function and add it to each test case? 2.
      • Zoho / Outlook Calendar sync

        The current Marketplace -> Microsoft -> Meetings integration needs 2 changes. 1. The current language for the Two-Way sync option should be changed. It currently states, "Sync both your Zoho CRM Calendar and Office 365 Calendar meetings with each other."
      • Customer members area

        Does FSM support a customer members area? If not what do you propose we use if we want the data used in FSM for customers to give them an area / login to see past orders, create new orders and general announcements.
      • Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series!

        Dear users, Continuing in the spirit of our 'Function Fridays' series, where we've been sharing custom function scripts to automate your back office operations, we're thrilled to introduce our latest initiative – the 'Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series'.
      • Desktop app doesn't support notecards created on Android

        Hi, Does anybody have same problem? Some of last notecards created on Android app (v. 6.6) doesn't show in desktop app (v. 3.5.5). I see these note cards but whith they appear with exclamation mark in yellow triangle (see screenshot) and when I try to
      • Notes created in mobile can no longer be accessed in desktop

        Working with a 2013 Mac running OS 10.14.6; Desktop Notebook version 4.5.3. Using Motorola Moto G Power 5G - 2024; Android app version 6.7 I have been using Notebook for some years. Starting several weeks ago, the notes newly created ion the phone can
      • Function #49: Manage varying installment payments using Zoho Books

        . Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! Last week, we discussed automating the collection of fixed installment payments in Zoho Books. But what if your payment structure involves charging varying percentages of the invoice total as installments?
      • Zoho Writer - Option to Export as .zdoc format

        I've noticed that it's not possible to export a Zoho Writer Document in the .zdoc format. Isn't zdoc, Zoho Writer's own format? My use case is that I sometimes need to create quite complex documents with floating elements, which sometimes need to become
      • Is it possible for contacts to "Re-enter" a workflow in Zoho Campaign?

        We are currently working on a way to automatically add users to from one list to other lists based on specific criteria, but can't seem to find a native way of doing this so we are trying to use Workflows to do this. So, for example, if a user's status is set to "Active," then they should be added to the list "Active Users." If the same user's status is then set to "Paused," they should be added to the list "Paused Users" and removed from the list "Active Users." This works fine for the first go
      • Bulk upload images and specifications to products

        Hi, Many users have asked this over the years and I am also asking the same. Is there any way in which we can bulk upload product (variant) images and product specifications. The current way to upload/select image for every variant is too cumbersome.
      • Out of Office for Just One of My Alias Email

        Can I set up the Out of Office Reply for Just One of my Alias Email Addresses?
      • Can I map multiple Surveys into the CRM using the same fields?

        Hello, We are a healthcare practice that offers two distinct services (Nutrition and Primary Care). We use Zoho Survey for our lead generation form (Get Started Survey), which allows people to express interest in one of the two services and even allows
      • Dealing with API responses where integers have more than 16 digits

        Hi there How do I deal with an api response contaning an int or float with more than 16 digits (before any decimal places for a float). I constantly receive the response "Unable to cast the 'BigInteger' value into a 'BIGINT' value because the input is
      • Can't change form's original name in URL

        Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new
      • Next Page