#62: CSMs, Here's How To Write Killer Emails That Drive Engagement

Last week I wrote about a terrible CSM email I got and the post went viral. 

Not every email is as bad as this one.

However, many CSMs struggle to write persuasive emails that get customer engagement.

A few of the common mistakes:

1. No Tailoring: A copy-and-paste message that is obviously sent to every customer. There's no mention of the use-case, no hook that is specific to the persona, or relevance to where they are in their journey.
2. Resource Dump: Everything there is to know about everything. With 20 links to different resources, channels, communities etc. You have to scroll to read the whole thing. 
3. Acronym Galore: I know all these letters, but when you put them together they make no sense. "You are my CSM and you'll be working with the COS during the CRM Implementation and I will let you know when it's time for a QBR.". 
4. No Reason To Take Action: Nice introduction, interesting content but there's no obvious value to be gained from this relationship or for taking the action required.

While these emails look different, the root cause is the same: poor copywriting. 

In my CS Mastery Guide I talk about how effective communication is a really important skill for CSMs. 

Everything a CSM has to do hinges on the power of effective communication:

• Need to engage a customer? Effective Communication.
• Need to de-escalate a situation? Effective Communication.
• Need to persuade the product team? Effective Communication.
• Need to secure resources from services? Effective Communication.
• Need to build strong relationships? Effective Communication.
• Need to communicate the great work you're doing? Effective Communication.

Ok, you get it.

Effective communication is important.

So how do you write killer emails that drive engagement and action from customers?

I use the T.A.V.U method (and yes, I just invented it 😂).

Tailor

There's a difference between personalising and tailoring a message. 

Personalising is just adding tokens to make it *feel* like the message was written for me. Today that's table stakes, [name], [company] and other tokens exist to help automate and scale personalisation.

Tailoring is about crafting a unique message that will resonate with me. And for that, you need high-quality, real-time information. 

1. Who am I talking to? When you are assigned a new customer, and you have a contact that you'll be emailing, first and foremost, do your research. Who are they, What role do they have? How long have they been in the company? What are they likely to be interested in? If your company isn't recording personas in the CRM, a LinkedIn search is all you need to do. Most people are on LinkedIn these days.
2. What does the company do? Go to the company website and check out what the company does before you fire an email. That simple step can help you tailor your email.
3. Why did they buy your product? If the sales rep or previous CSM didn't leave a note on how the company intends to use your product, message them. A quick one-liner on what goals they are hoping to achieve with your product can help you make your message super impactful. Bonus point if you are recording this in the CRM in a way that can be automatically used on emails and other collateral.
4. Where are they on their journey? Have they done a trial or a pilot? Have they started to invite users? Have they submitted support tickets?

Seems like a lot, but if you don't know the basic context, you can't tailor the message.

Companies are starting to enrich data to have the latest job roles, industry information, collecting goals at scale and more. It's exciting to think about a future where decent tailored messages don't need to take a ton of time.

I've written about how you can tailor your Customer Experience at scale that in this post.

Action

Next you need to define what action you want the customer to take from your message.

Is the Call To Action (CTA):

• to book a call?
• to get their executive in the next EBR?
• to register for an upcoming event?
• to take action in the system?
• to join the community?
• to log a ticket with support? 

Hone in ONE thing you want customers to do and make the entire message about that.

When you ask for multiple actions in one message you risk confusing the customer and might end up with nothing being actioned. 

Value

As CSMs we should always lead with value, and this should be really clear in your message.

When you're asking the customer to take time from their day to do something, there's an opportunity cost to it. Nobody is going to jump on a call for the sake of it. 

The question: "What's in it for the customer?" should be answered clearly in any email you send.

Urgency

The final tip for effective written communication is to drive urgency. 

Why should a customer prioritise this in the coming days and weeks? 

The tendency is to push it out.

"Let's touch base next month" is my default answer to things that are interesting but not important and urgent enough fo me to act on right now. And I can tell you that the busier the customer it, the more likely they are to give you a version of that, even if your message grabs their attention.

So you need to ensure that there's a reason for them to want to do it NOW.

Let's look at how that same introduction email would look like using the TAVU method:

I didn't answer that first email.

I would have answered this one.

So before we discard customers as disengaged, how about we write super engaging messages using the TAVU method, and see what happens?