Before we jump in:
AdRhino is a paid ads agency that I am a customer of and an investor in.
They run paid search and social media ads for clients in pest control, HVAC, plumbing, car washes, restaurants, real estate, and more.
They track everything and will tell you the exact dollar amount return on all of your ad spend across channels.
Want a free ads audit to tell you how your company can improve?
Just respond to this email and I'll make an introduction.
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How to send better emails:
Sending great emails and learning to write well more broadly is one of the most underrated skills in life and business.
Billions of emails are sent and received every single day but nobody talks about email etiquette.
The people who are good at it shine. The people who aren’t have a disadvantage and they often don’t even know it.
Here's what you need to know:
1. Email contents:
Nobody has time to read a novel. Keep your emails short, to the point, use bullet points and other formatting if necessary and keep your paragraphs small.
No email should be over 150 words.
If you are sending an important email to an important person spend just as much time reducing its size as you spend writing its contents.
Remove as much fluff as you possibly can.
If your email is too long, go through it line by line questioning if each sentence or paragraph is absolutely necessary to get your point across.
Delete everything that isn't clear or useful.
It goes without saying but proper grammar and punctuation is important. Make sure it is well written and makes logical sense.
2. Connect your business domain:
Ditch the Comcast, AOL, or hotmail email. That shows everyone you are living in the stone age. Set up a professional email address using your company domain name and setup “send mail as” so it connects to your gmail account.
There is a reason my email isn't NickHuber553@gmail.com. Nick@sweatystartup.com took 5 minutes to set up 7+ years ago and looks much better.
This way you get the professionalism of your own domain with all of the features of Gmail and the Google suite.
3. Set up a professional signature:
At the end of every email, you should have a professional signature.
This should include your full name, title, a link to your website, and a logo if it makes sense.
Don’t make your title CEO unless your company has 30+ employees. It's obnoxious and is not a good look.
Set up the gmail app on your phone the same way with the same professional signature so nobody can tell if you email them from your iPhone or your computer.
Make sure to delete the “sent from my iPhone” tag at the bottom of the signature. This isn't a good look.
4. "CC"ing and "Reply All":
Carbon copying people is a great way to keep someone in the loop even though no action is required from them. I do this with my partner on nearly every email I send. BUT, don’t overdo this.
Especially if it is a sensitive email or corrects someone for a mistake they have made. It's similar to criticizing someone in public. It's never acceptable.
When you receive an email with other people carbon copied it generally means that they want to keep everyone else on that thread in the loop.
As long as you aren't giving negative feedback, make sure to REPLY ALL to these. This is the most common mistake that I see people make. Replying only to the sender when the sender wanted to keep others in the loop on that communication.
5. The cold sales email:
I get thousands of cold sales emails each year.
Most of them are too wordy. Most of them put their hands out saying ME ME ME ME please help ME.
Set yourself apart by customizing it.
Do a little online research about the owner. Read the about us section of their website.
Write a very simple message with a clear value prop and offer. Add 1 line of context explaining why you are reaching out.
Always add value first by offering to do something for free or giving some actionable advice without worrying about or charging for it.
Gain trust and show the owner that you really can provide some great value before you try to sell.
6. Customer service:
Use exclamation points and be nice! I know you don’t want to do this but it's important. Too many customer service reps come off as cold and rude when its so easy to sound energetic and positive.
Always thank them profusely for reaching out. Always end with a positive note or personalized touch.
Canned responses can be great for this. Shortkeys allow you to insert pleasantries before and after any message. Deal with the same customer service questions often?
Develop a few canned responses that your reps can insert with a quick keystroke to save time.
7. Record keeping:
Emails are amazing at keeping a record of everything that you do. They are searchable. They are easy to bring back and forward.
If you make a deal with someone in person or over the phone follow up with them by email and ask them for a confirmation response.
If you don’t have a record of it, it didn’t happen.
CC your partner if it was a big deal and you want them to be in the loop.
Lay out tasks and have someone else agree to do something important for you? Always confirm by email.
Did somebody agree to help you with something and promise a date? Confirm by email.
I can’t tell you how many times this has come in handy when there was a disagreement later.
Sometimes when I send an email recapping a conversation, we disagree, and then we have to clarify tasks again via email that were just agreed upon on our call!
It saves tons of headaches and miscommunications down the road!
You can also send yourself emails to have in your records with attachments that are important.
The bottom line:
Copywriting is the one skill that virtually guarantees success.
If you can write clear, concise, hard-to-misunderstand, persuasive text, you can do very well in life and business overall.
Writing great emails, texts, slack messages, tweets, etc is how you communicate and delegate to your team and it's how you market your product or service to customers, vendors, stakeholders, and more.
Literally everything important in business is done via the written word.
You might have a call about a deal, but the follow up email and contract is what seals it.
Writing well is a must have skill for any founder or senior role within your firm.
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I'm an investor in an insurance brokerage called Titan Risk. They're focused on helping SMBs get insurance policies including general liability, errors and omissions, cyber insurance, directors and officers liability and more.
The insurance guru at Titan, Jon, has helped over 1,500 clients get policies throughout his career.
He's offering 5 free consulting calls to review your current insurance and risk management program.
Just respond to this email if you'd like an introduction.
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A few tweets from this week.
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One of my secret weapons in business:
Hiring all over the world for 80% less than US wages.
My company, Somewhere.com, has these three candidates available to hire today:
Click here to set up an interview and get $500 off.
Onward and upward,
Nick Huber
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