For salespeople, every touchpoint is an opportunity to sell. Even emails, which are usually used for brief communications, can persuade a prospect. Unknowingly though, reps may be weakening their sales emails by making simple copywriting mistakes. In an Inc. article, Heather R. Morgan writes, “These mistakes might seem minimal on their own, but get two or more of them into a single email, and your message will go from intriguing to unreadable faster than you can say ‘spellcheck’." She goes on to share five common mistakes that you can easily avoid when writing your next sales-​related email.

For example, a common misstep is giving away all of the selling points at once. You may think that the more, the better, but that’s not the case. You need to give enough detail to intrigue the prospect…then leave him or her wanting more. “Intrigue and curiosity are almost vital to the success of a sales email, particularly in the early stages of a campaign, when the potential customer doesn’t know you,” Morgan explains. Pick just one standout aspect to discuss, which will encourage the prospect to follow up to learn more.

This also touches on another mistake: Listing every feature. Even if you neatly created a bulleted list, it can still be overwhelming to the reader (and subsequently, off-​putting). “To avoid that, set a sentence limit for your emails,” she writes. “Three to five works in most sales scenarios. Imposing this limit on yourself will force you to make a choice about what’s worthy of inclusion and what's less of a priority.” Once again, less is more

As you can tell from these two tips, keeping sales emails short and sweet is key to their efficacy. Write just enough compelling content to give the email value in the reader’s eyes. This sets the stage for even more communications in the future.