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. 


      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • 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

          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • Custom templates for calendar report

                                    What about being able to design custom templates for the calendar report, as well as for other types of reports? I think more users are waiting for this.
                                  • Print a price list or price book

                                    Hi Community. Am I right in concluding that Zoho has no functionality to print a price list from either Zoho CRM, Zoho Inventory or Zoho Books? I won't get stuck on the fact that Zoho doesn't sync price books between Zoho CRM and Books/Inventory (more
                                  • Disable payment thank-you emails

                                    Hello, can someone please tell me how to disable sending of the "Payment Thank-You" emails? 
                                  • Maximum tags possible in Contacts Records

                                    I read in some documentation that Zoho allows a total of 200 tags across all records. Is this correct? So is it not possible to have one tag per record for 500 records?
                                  • Integrate your Outlook/ Office 365 inbox with Zoho CRM via Graph API

                                    Hello folks, In addition to the existing IMAP and POP options, you can now integrate your Outlook/Office 365 inbox with Zoho CRM via Graph API. Why did we add this option? Microsoft Graph API offers a single endpoint to access data from across Microsoft’s
                                  • Any way to "Pay with Check" or "Refund with Check" for Credit Notes?

                                    When we have a Bill in Zoho Books, we can select the "Pay with Check" option which then allows us to print/cut the check directly out of Zoho Books. When we created a Credit Note and want to refund the customer, is there any way to Refund with Check,
                                  • CRM Mobile reports

                                    When our engineers finish a job they like to email the customer a job report. This is best done todate as an email template but we can find no way to include an image field from that module. Is there any other options?
                                  • When Zoho Tables Beta will be open to EU data center

                                    Hello all, We in EU are looking at you all using and testing and are getting jealous :) When we will be able to get into the beta also? We don't mind testing and playing with beta software. Thank you!
                                  • Start Form on a different page (i.e., hide form pages)?

                                    I have a Zoho form that uses the `Field Alias - Prefill URL` feature. My goal is to have a pre-filled field that directs the user to a specific starting page in the form. For example: The URL will have a field alias that will auto-populate a field with
                                  • Microsoft Teams now available as an online meeting provider

                                    Hello everyone, We're pleased to announce that Zoho CRM now supports Microsoft Teams as an online meeting provider—alongside the other providers already available. Admins can enable Microsoft Teams directly from the Preferences tab under the Meetings
                                  • Standard Payment Term is not pulled from account to quotation

                                    Hey Team There seems to be something off. I do have "Net 30" as my default payment term in Zoho Books for my customers. If, from the customer overview or quote section, I create a new Quotation, the payment terms field stays blank and doesn't get the
                                  • Passing the CRM

                                    Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when
                                  • How can we disable "My Requests"?

                                    We are not using this functionality in our system at all and our users get confused.
                                  • PayPal payment received recording problem

                                    Hi, A little while back one of our customers used the PayPal payment option to pay an invoice For some reason though the payment is showing up twice within the Payments section of the invoice! Instead of setting the invoice value to ZERO, it now shows a negative value Anyone else face this problem? I've checked PayPal and there is only 1 payment in reality... A bug? Actonia ps: for anyone from Zoho Customer Service or tech team,  its Invoice 785 in our account
                                  • string(87) "{"code":"INVALID_TOKEN","details":{},"message":"invalid oauth token","status":"error"} " grtting this error

                                    Using access token i am trying to add sales orders through api but it is throwing errors like the above i have mentioned. Please help me for that
                                  • How to mute chat notification sound by default in Zoho SalesIQ?

                                    We’ve recently embedded the Zoho SalesIQ chatbot on our website, and we’ve noticed that notification sounds sometimes play even when the visitor hasn’t interacted with the chat widget yet. We’re trying to understand two things: Why do these sounds occur
                                  • Kanban View for Projects.

                                    At our organization, we describe active projects with various statuses like "In Proofing" or "Printing" or "Mailing". In the Projects view, one can set these project statuses by selecting from the appropriate drop-down. While this works, it's difficult to view and comprehend the progress of all of your projects relative to each other in a table. Creating a Kanban view for projects where I can move them from one status to another allows me to see where each project is in the order of our workflow.
                                  • How to Hide Article Links in SalesIQ Answer Bot Responses

                                    I have published an article in SalesIQ, and the Answer Bot is fetching the data and responding correctly. However, it is also displaying the article link, which I don’t want. How can I remove the link so that only the message is shown?
                                  • Add RECURRING option when adding email to calendar events

                                    When you add an email to a calendar event, there is no option to make that new calendar event into a recurring event.  It is counterproductive to make an event from your email to then have to go to your calendar, find the event, and make it recurring. 
                                  • Using Contains as a filter

                                    We are using Zoho Reports, ServiceDesk Plus analytics. I do not see how to create a report filter using Contains comparison of a string values, is one string contained in another. For example, Task Title contains the word Monitor. Is this possible in Zoho Reports?  This reporting feature is available in SDP reporting. Thanks in advance, Craig Rice
                                  • LINE Auto Message Connect to Zoho

                                    When I integrated LINE into the CRM, I was prompted to disable “Chat,” “Auto Response,” and “Greeting Messages,” and to enable the webhook. However, since I have already set up some auto-reply features in LINE, including Rich Messages and greeting automation,
                                  • Option to block bookings from specific email address or ip adresss in zoho booking

                                    Sometime few of our client keep booking irrelevant booking service just to resolve their queries and they keep booking it again and again whenever they have queries. Currently its disturbing our current communication process and hierarchy which we have
                                  • Threaded conversations for emails sent via automation

                                    Hi Guys, I hope you are doing well. Don't you guys think we should have an option in a workflow to notify users either as a new email or the previous email thread. For example, if you have one deal in the process and there are 10 different stages during
                                  • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

                                    The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Managing addresses
                                  • Create folder is fetch fails

                                    coming from zapier... zapier has a google drive task that searches for a specific folder in google drive, and if it fails to find the folder it will create a folder based on the search criteria, and contine along the singluar path of the flow. Trying
                                  • Meetups de Usuarios de Zoho - Noviembre 2025

                                    ¡Hola, Comunidad! Durante el mes de noviembre celebraremos los Meetups de usuarios de Zoho, encuentros presenciales pensados para quienes queráis mejorar vuestras estrategias de lead nurturing y aprender a sacar el máximo partido a herramientas como Zoho
                                  • Introducing 7 New Connectors in Zoho DataPrep!

                                    We’ve just made data management even easier - Zoho DataPrep now supports 7 new external connectors to help you build more robust, scalable ETL pipelines. Why it matters: ✅ Broader data access ✅ More automation, less manual work ✅ Smarter pipelines, better
                                  • System flaws and lack of response from Zoho

                                    I have had to go on here as no-one is replying to my emails regarding my problem (been 10 days and no email reply) and your chat facility online through your Zoho Books software opens and closes immediately, so not functioning properly. I actually called
                                  • Sales Order, Invoice and Payment numbers

                                    Hi zoho friends, it is me again, the slow learner. I'm wondering if there is a way to have it so the Sales order, invoice and payment numbers are all the same? It would be easier for me if they were the same number so there is not so many reference numbers
                                  • Missing information data Zoho inventory

                                    there some missing data in Zoho inventory connection. pick list stock counts bin location we have requested it via mail and the support team doesn’t gove feedback. has anyone achieve to get these info or to ask other ya les
                                  • First day of trying FSM in the field.

                                    What we found. 1. with out a network connection we were unable to start a service call? 2. if you go to an appointment and then want to add an asset it does not seem possible. 3. disappointed not to be able to actually take a payment from within the app
                                  • Zoho Desk app update: AI powered features

                                    Hello everyone! We’ve introduced various AI-powered services on the Zoho Desk app. Let's take a look at what's new. Generate Content: Generate Content uses AI to formulate responses based on the your query and provides a ready-to-use reply which can be
                                  • How to Automate Email Sequence

                                    I'm having trouble trying to set up a workflow to automate an email sequence. Once a group of emails in a Task has been tagged by a certain tag, I want an instant email template to be sent. After 7 days with no response, another email template would be
                                  • Turning off the new UI

                                    Tried the new 'enhanced' UI and actively dislike it. Anyone know how to revert back?
                                  • Zoho Sprints Android v2.0.4 app update: Item reminders, archive Epics, Kanban projects, Epic progress

                                    Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.0.4) of the Zoho Sprints Android app update, we have introduced various new features. Let's take a look at what's new! Item Reminder Stay organized and never miss an important date with the all-new Item Reminder
                                  • Credit Management: #3 Setting Credit Limit for Customers

                                    Think about that one familiar customer of yours who always buys on credit. They usually pay on time, maybe a little late here and there, but not alarming. So, you are fine saying, "Sure, pay later." Then, one day, they place a significantly bigger order
                                  • Canvas View in Zoho Recruit

                                    Is it possible or would it be possible to have the new 'Canvas View' in Zoho Recruit?
                                  • Adding Reports to Portals

                                    Is there a way to add Reports to portals so only the user can see report templates relevant to them?
                                  • Update on the client portal URL for Guest users

                                    We’re updating the way Guest users access their Connect network. As part of this change, all client organization portals used by Guest users will now be accessible through a dedicated domain specific to each data center. The access URLs mentioned here
                                  • Preserve Ticket Issue Mapping When Migrating from Jira to Zoho Projects

                                    Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We are currently exploring a full migration from Jira to Zoho Projects, and we identified a critical limitation during the migration process involving Zoho Desk integration. Current Situation: We use
                                  • Next Page