Writing the perfect sales email with the help of Google’s Bard

Using AI to write Sales emails? Why not! With Bard, Google’s AI Tool you can generate engaging emails that will convert your leads into paying customers within only a couple of minutes.

In this article I will give a couple of prompts (commands) that you can use to help you write a good email.

In an earlier article I explained how to use the other big AI Tool ChatGPT for writing professional emails. You can find that one here.

I tried using basically the same prompts with Bard. And the results are pretty nifty I must say.

Now, with one caveat. You still need to edit the end results. AI Tools are excellent for generating written content, but much of it still looks and reads like it was created by a bot.

What makes an excellent commercial email

Commercial emails have been around since the late ‘90s and have been a great way in reaching your audience and getting sales. Mainly because writing and sending emails basically is free!  Off course you need to invest some time in actually writing the thing and maybe in a paid email tool, like Mailchimp or Convertkit. But on the whole, it doesn’t cost you money, but can make you a lot of money.

However, you do want your emails to be opened and read. And that enough people in your target audience have the inclination to take action. Depending on whether you offer products or services, this can vary between making an appointment with your company. Or for example clicking on a link to order a product themselves.

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”

Leo Burnett

To achieve that, your emails will have to conform to a few things. First and not least, are your emails readable? No matter how interesting your topic and how good your product, if you send out boring, poorly written emails no one will read them.

In addition, do you know who your target audience is? What are their characteristics, what pains and needs do they have? And how can your product or service make their lives better?

And finally, are you using the right tone of voice towards your target audience?

So before you start writing, you will want to get the following things straight. This will make it much easier to send commercial mailings that actually convert:

• Write readable and engaging. Always ask yourself “Would I want to read this myself?
• Who exactly is your target audience? What are their pain points, problems or needs?
• What does your product or service do?
• How does it solve your ideal customer’s pain points and concerns?
• Are you using the right tone of voice?

First Example: A Cold Email from a Saas Company

Ok, we now know the importance of a certain quality in your emails, time to get Bard to work! In this first example I will use a fictional Saas (Software as a Service) company in the US. This company is midsized, offers Cloud Technology, Cyber Security and Network optimization among other services.

The first step is to feed Bard with information. Remember, this AI Tool is a chat bot, so you’re basically in a conversation with it. Step by step we’re going to give it more info in this conversation, in order to get the best results. For that my first prompt is:

I’m the online marketer in a midsized Saas company in the US. We offer Cloud Services, cyber security and office network improvemens. Our customers are midsized and big companies in the private sector. Who are our DMU’s?

(A DMU is a Decision Making Unit, the person or department who will making the decision if they want to go into business with you) In this example I don’t know who the DMU is. But if you do already, you can omit the DMU part.

And I get the following result from Bard:

Step 2: Having Bard generate the first email:

Next step, writing the first actual email. Bard now has an idea what kind of company I am and who my potential customers are. So I type in the following:

I want you to write a cold sales email for IT-managers. Their main problem at the moment is Cyber Security and staff who don’t comply with even the most basic cyber security regulation. My company offers both new and excellent cyber security software. And staff training where the employees of my leads will learn how to comply in a fun way.

As you can see I’ve included both the problem (or need) my audience is struggling with and the solution my company offers at the same time.

And Bard generates this email:

An excellent first draft, if I may say so. Would I send this email as if? No, probably not. I would highly advise on editing it. Optimizing the wording, look for any spelling mistakes. And if possible have one of your sales representatives look it over to see if this will resonate with the target audience.

The Follow Up Email

If you’re lucky your first email will convert enough people into paying customers. But most of the time a second or even third email is needed to win over your target audience. Such an email is also called a Follow up Email.

So I type in the following prompt:

Imagine that this email has been read by this IT-manager, but no action has been taken. Write a 100 word followup email asking for a short sales call.

You can off course change this to suit your own needs.

And Bard generates the following email:

Sending an Email to close the Deal

You’re almost there, your targeted DMU is ready to close, but needs just one more little push. For that you can send one final email, to close the deal.

Here I type the following prompt:

I’ve just had a short salescall with the IT-manager, who’s ready to convert. Write a 100 word followup mail to close the deal

And get this from Bard:

You could choose to send an even shorter email, by the way. You’ve basically said all there is to say, so you don’t have to rewrite Lord of the Rings in your email.

Second Example: a cold email from an affiliate marketer to his audience

Now, Saas is a pretty specific market and service, so I can imagine my prompts won’t resonate with everyone. So I will give you another example: that of an affiliate marketer trying to promote a specific product.

In this case the budget keyword research tool KeySearch (which I use myself at times 🙂 ) which is perfect for small time bloggers, niche website builders or beginning entrepreneurs with a smaller budget.

Again I have to feed Bard information first, but let’s see if we’re able to immediately write the actual emai:

Do you know the keyword research tool KeySearch? Imagine I’m an affiliate marketer trying to promote affiliate links to KeySearch. Write a sales email promoting KeySearch. The target audience are niche website builders, small bloggers, beginner affiliate marketers and small business owner. All have a small budget and can’t afford more expensive and well known keyword tools like Semrush or Arhef.

And get this from Bard:

A pretty nifty result, although again, edit the email before you send it.

The Follow Up Email

Next step is to write and send the follow up email to those people in your audience that read the first one, but didn’t take any action yet.

So I type in:

Imagine that this email had been read, but no action has been taken. Can you write a small followup email of about 100 words to convince the reader to try KeySearch?

Bard generates the following:

Trying for Fomo

Besides sending 1 or 2 follow up emails you can appeal to the sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) of your audience. You do that by giving them the choice between unsubscribing them from your mailing list ( or simply not sending any emails in this campaign). Or keeping them on your email-list.

This may sound counterintuitive, removing people from your carefully collected email list?! 

But this is actually sound marketing advice. The people who have no inclination whatsoever to buy your product will probably unsubscribe. And good riddance, investing energy trying to convert them is a waste of time.

Knowing who isn’t your audience is just as important as knowing who is.

And the people who remain are those that are interested in your emails at the least. They may not buy anything from you right now, but will later on, if the product and timing is right.

So to get a sense of FOMO, I type in: 

Both emails have been read, but the recipient hasn’t taken action yet. Can you write a final third email Where you appeal to the reader’s Fomo sense? You do this by indicating in a short email that if the content of these emails no longer interests the reader he is free to unsubscribe.

Bard generates the following:

And again, you can use your own wording here.

Changing the Tone of Voice

And finally, you can experiment with the tone of voice of your emails as well. You can ask to write in in a conservative tone of voice, or in this case I want to appeal more to a younger audience, without coming across as phony. So I type in:

I want to reach a younger audience with my emails. Could you rewrite the first email in a fresh and enthousiastic tone of voice, witout coming across insencere?

And get this:

With my Saas example I ask Bard to use the tone of voice of famous comedian Bill Burr:

Could you rewrite the first email in the tone of voice of comedian Bill Burr?

Now, I probably can’t use the end result or need to do some cleaning up regarding the language. But you can use almost any celebrity or style to change to overall tone of voice within minutes.

Conclusion

And here you have it. The tools and prompts to create a compelling, engaging sales email that will convert as well.

The trick is to do your research beforehand, as I explained in the first paragraph: the writing itself should be readable (or entertaining at the very least), you should have a general sense about your audience, their needs and problems. And how your product or service is the answer to these needs.

And finally, as I’ve said before: AI Tools like Bard are perfect for generating content at breakneck speed, but you will need to edit everything before  you send it to your audience.