We did our own research to find out how long (or short) a sales email needs to be to drive the desired outcome (receive a reply, book a meeting, click on a link, etc.). According to our calculations, it should be about 40 words long.
Ideal sales email length, according to everybody else
The top results on the first two pages of Google all say the same thing: the ideal length for a sales email is between 50–125 words. This is based on data released by Boomerang in 2016, with a revamped version published by HubSpot and last updated in 2021.
50–125 words is a pretty big range, considering that an average sentence is about 15 words long. So, that comes down to between 4–8 sentences in an email. Hmm, a lot of room for trial-and-error and not really an exact science.
We’re not convinced. Maybe it’s time to bust some myths and find a more accurate sales email length.
How fast do your prospects actually read?
According to Statista, people spend about 10 seconds reading an email. Another recent study found that the average silent reading rate for non-fiction is 238 words per minute (wpm), lower than most popular studies estimate (250–300 wpm). One of the reasons for this is that fiction writing uses longer words compared to non-fiction like email.
Average non-fiction reading rate = 238 words per minute ÷ 60 seconds per minute = 3.97 words per second.
Using these two researched averages, we can guesstimate that your prospect reads about 40 words in an email. Much lower than Boomerang’s range!
But there’s another factor at play: skimmability. We all know most CEOs and leaders are avid readers. They’re also busy people. If you want to make your sales emails easily digestible and actionable for your prospects, then work on making your email content skimmable.
Skimmable content is built around a few key phrases, has a logical structure, and contains zero fluff. Speed readers generally skim text in a Z-shape, going from left to right at the top of the page, quickly scanning down and then going from left to right again at the bottom.
Our email skimmability checklist
- Try to get to the ideal sales email length (40 words).
- Don’t take too long to introduce yourself — make it more about your prospect.
- Put the most important information first.
- Make the intent very clear — if you want them to book a meeting, put your call to action (CTA) near the top.
- Use key phrases that describe their pain points.
- Use short words and sentences, but don’t be abrupt.
- Avoid using too much punctuation, as it makes a sentence feel longer.
- Add emotive words to create a sense of connection and urgency.
Emails must be personalized related to a prospect’s intent signals or personal/professional background. The first sentence is decisive! Use simple sentences, and avoid long paragraphs.
Analyze and improve your sales emails
Let’s apply what we’ve learned so far about sales email length and skimmability to create an irresistibly “respondable” email.
We’ll take an example of a typical sales email, analyze it, and try to improve it further.
Sales email example 1 (100 words)
Copy and paste example:
Good day Jill,
My name is Jen, a Consultant from Zompany. I attended the talk about your company, Xompany, at the Trade Fair and would love to learn more about the problems you’re trying to solve. We at Zompany help companies like yours grow their revenue by 2-5X in 12 months.
I would like to set up a call with you and chat through your pain points to find out if Zompany can help you and your team reach your next level.
If you’re keen, please book a meeting in my calendar here.
Warm regards,
Our first example is well within Boomerang’s word range, but is it skimmable?
- The sentences are overly long and punctuated.
- The email writer talks too much about themselves.
- The call to action is all the way at the bottom of the email.
- No emotive words.
Sales email example 2 (55 words)
Copy and paste example:
Hey Jill,
Hope you’re doing great. I learned about Xompany at the Trade Fair and would love to learn more.
I’m Jen from Zompany. We help companies like yours grow their revenue by 2-5X in 12 months.
Keen to set up a call and see if we can work together?
Warm regards,
We almost halved the word count on the second try. Here’s what else we changed:
- Shortened the sentences and used less punctuation.
- Used more line breaks to improve skimmability.
- Wrote in a more informal tone, allowing us to shorten greetings and phrases.
- Added some emotion to the content.
But there’s more room for improvement, as the CTA is still on the third line at the bottom of the email.
Sales email example 3 (38 words)
Copy and paste example:
Hi Jill,
Love what I learned about Xompany at the Trade Fair.
Want to grow your revenue by 2-5X in 12 months? Let’s set up a call and see if we can work together.
Warm regards,
In our third iteration of the same email, we tried to keep only the most basic and important information. This turned our email into a two-liner with a clear intent and call to action. Here’s how we did it:
- Removed the pleasantries. They can see who you are in your email footer.
- Put emotive and action words at the beginning of sentences to create connection and urgency.
A good way to gauge the effectiveness of your 40-word email is to think of it as a LinkedIn invitation note. LinkedIn allows you to add a 200-character note to a connection invitation. Challenge yourself to be both persuasive and brief.
The litmus test for emails
We’ve looked at the research. We’ve applied the findings. But how do you know if it’ll work for your targeted campaigns? You need to test different email lengths in different campaigns.
If you’re using email automation software, it may allow you to do A/B testing on various elements of your emails, including the email content. You can try what we did above and create three different versions of your sales email to find a winner.
How do you know if your emails are up to standard? Mailchimp released industry-specific benchmarks for email campaigns. Let’s highlight a few of these below:
- Health and fitness: Open rate 37.07%, click rate 1.87%.
- Insurance: Open rate 30.08%, click rate 2.96%.
- Marketing and advertising: Open rate 29.71%, click rate 2.30%.
- Recruitment and staffing: Open rate 32.40%, click rate 2.38%.
- Software and web apps: Open rate 28.12%, click rate 2.40%.
Hit reply
With our research into sales email lengths and general benchmarks as your foundation, you can gain specific insights from your own A/B tests to improve your campaigns.
Many other factors contribute to your sales emails’ success, along with email length. Check out our other articles on all things contact info to increase outbound sales.
Did you learn something from this post, or want to add your insights to the conversation? Leave a comment below and continue the discussion.
