How to Revive Prospects with the Simplest Email Ever

What if we told you that there’s no such thing as a dead prospect?

Whenever your prospect goes silent, it’s time to hit them with a shot of espresso.

What do we mean by this?

Send them a micro-email.

This is likely the simplest email you’ll ever write and send.

Here’s what you need to know:

Not every prospect moves at the same speed.

Some are ready to make a decision right now.

For others, it might take more engagement and nurturing.

Still, others might cool waaaaaay off. It could take months or years before they’re ready.

And in between that time, there’s a chance that life will get in the way and they may forget about you.

No worries.

That doesn’t mean they’re lost causes. 

You have a lot of opportunity within your email list.

This is where the micro-email comes in.

Essentially, it’s a question that prompts your prospect (who has cooled off) to engage in a dialogue via email.

It’s not a pitch.

It’s not a long, bloviating message.

It’s. Just. A. Simple. Question.

Some micro-email examples include:

• Are you still looking for retirement advice?
• Are you still considering a 401k rollover?
• Are you still looking for a financial adviser?
• Do you still have questions about your taxes?

You may be tempted to add more — don’t.

This ruins the premise of the micro-email.

The purpose of this question is to make the exchange feel personal. 

You see, there is a history attached to the question in your micro-email.

At one point, the prospect was looking for specific advice or an answer to a problem.

Then, life happened.

Time goes by.

Getting back to you hasn’t been a priority…but their problem might still be on their minds.

That’s why micro-emails LEAD with what’s possibly on their minds.

This adds a level of personalization that encourages your prospect to respond.

The earlier you can get your prospect to engage the better. 

Why?

Because they are relevant.

Because they are personal.

Because they are conversational.

One of the biggest mistakes in email marketing?

Speaking to the crowd instead of one person.

You want to build a relationship with your audience, and you can’t do that with a mismatched approach.

The power behind the micro-email is that it’s intimate and non-salesy.

Micro-email templates to get you started:

Pick a micro-email topic.

Here are a few to get you started:

• Retirement
• Investments
• College Planning
• Financial Advice
• Taxes
• Mortgage Refinancing

The list goes on and on. You get the picture.

Write your subject line.

Don’t ignore the subject line.

You want to increase the likelihood of your micro-email getting opened, so here are 2 recommendations:

• Your lead’s first name only
• The topic category

Write your micro-email.

Remember, it’s a micro-email.

One, short question.

Whatever the topic, you can open with one of the phrases below:

• Are you still looking for help with…
• Are you still interested in…
• Are you still looking for…
• Do you still have questions about…

Here are some starters for you.

Retirement Micro-Email: 

• Do you still have questions about your retirement?
• Are you still looking for retirement advice?
• Are you still considering retirement next year?
• Are you still planning to retire next year?
• Are you still interested in retiring?
• Are you still looking for help with retirement?

Investment Micro-Email:

• Are you still considering a 401k rollover?
• Are you still looking for help with your 401k rollover?
• Do you still have questions about your investments?
• Are you still looking for help with your investments?
• Are you still interested in getting help with your investments?
• Are you still looking for investment advice?
• Do you still have questions about your investments?

College Planning Micro-Email:

• Are you still looking for help with college planning?
• Are you still looking for college planning help?
• Do you still have questions about college planning?

Financial Advice Micro-Email:

• Are you still looking for an adviser?
• Are you still looking for a financial adviser?
• Are you still looking for financial planning?
• Are you still looking for financial advice?

Tax Planning Micro-Email:

• Are you still looking for help with your taxes?
• Are you still interested in getting tax help?
• Are you still looking for tax advice?
• Do you still have questions about your taxes?

Sending your micro-email:

Now you’ve got your topic.

You’ve crafted your subject line.

You’ve written your micro-email.

Send it to the appropriate list.

At the beginning of this post, we talked about how these emails are great for prospects you haven’t touched base with in 90 days or more.

If you haven’t done this before, that 90 day mark is a good starting point.

Do you have website form submissions that are growing stale?

Do you have people you have networked with, and your follow-up dropped off?

Look at your email archives for conversations that turned into radio silence.

Take a look at your calendar.

See any meetings with people you haven’t spoken with in more than 3 months?

These are areas you can mine for micro-email recipients. 

Email them.

You may be surprised at the conversations (and opportunities) it sparks.

Here are a couple examples of complete micro-emails.

This one has “Retirement” as the subject line and asks “Are you still planning to retire next year?”

This one has the prospect’s name in the subject line, “Mike”. It asks “Are you still looking for a financial adviser?”

Very simple.

Credit

Credit to the excellent marketer, Dean Jackson, and his “9-Word Email” concept which served as the basis for this post. Dean does a great job of explaining why they work in this podcast episode here.

Want to see more insights and trends? We pulled data from the actual performance of 12,852 active digital marketing campaigns run by individual financial advisers and firms throughout the United States during the first half of 2020. Watch the full presentation and download your free 14-page PDF report here.