3 Sales Emails to Send for Your Limited-Time Promo (aka Flash Sale)

Limited-time promotions (aka, flash sales) are one of our favorite topics here at Duett, because my goal is to help you boost sales and conversions for your product launch!

Previously, I showed up with a little pep talk, encouraging you that you CAN set up a simple, effective flash sale using content you already have.

Now, we’re talking about SELLING those puppies and getting them off the ground. Fun, yeah?

Once you’ve decided what product you’re selling, it’s time to tell your audience about it!

How? With a super simple email marketing flow for your flash sale or limited-time promotion.

Before we dive in to these emails, let me break some industry myths:

• Email launches do NOT have to be a dozen emails long (they can, but they don’t have to be)

• A short email campaign can be just as effective as a long email campaign (and oftentimes, even better!)

• And, yes, you can still see great results with a short, strategic email campaign – emphasis on the strategic

Really, it all comes down to priming your audience, announcing your offer, and letting them know how long the sale lasts. That’s it.

Here are the three emails you need to include in your flash sale email campaign to make it a success:

The Priming Email

Now, before you go pitching your audience on your sweet, say, meal plan guide (your paid product), it probably makes sense to get them THINKING about meal prep, right? That’s what the priming email will do!

We don’t want to hit your readers with a deal you think they can’t resist… only to find out that they have never heard of your topic — or worse, aren’t sure that they even have a related problem that needs fixing.

Your priming email could be anything that starts them thinking about meal prep in their lives.

Consider if any of these angles would help you getting your audience thinking about a topic, for instance:

• How meal prep can help them save money

• How meal prep can help them save time and brainspace

• How meal prep can help you eat healthier (by not eating out)

• Addressing myths about meal prep

• Talk about what people get WRONG about meal prep (and tease out some info about what you do, that works better, instead)

This email isn’t selling anything, but it can hint that something is coming (remember me!?).

The Announcement Email

This is it, guys! When your cart is open — aka, the deal is available, the sale is ON, and you’re ready to share it with your audience — it’s time to let them know!

Announce your offer, and remember to explain:

• How does this benefit your READER, the person in your audience you’re trying to sell to?

• Consider — How does this make their life easier? Save them time? Reduce their stress? Make them more money?

• When does the deal end? What will they miss out on if they don’t buy it within that window of time?

Then make it easy for them to buy. Give them a place to click through to your sales page (or purchase page).

The “Cart Closing!” Email

Sales strategies often include “scarcity” — which means that a deal or offer is available for a limited amount of time.

Not everyone will buy your item, but for those who WANT to but need a reason to do it NOW, scarcity — like a discount or bonus expiring — will help them really decide if they want it now or never. 

The Cart Closing email is not meant to make people feel bad for not buying (I repeat — not everyone will buy your offer, because not everyone is a good FIT for your offer). No shaming, no guilt — the Cart Closing email is simple:

The goal is to make one last call to let those (who may have forgotten) know they still have time to snag your offer before it’s gone.

You could send this email the morning of your deal closing down — but usually as a minimum, you want to send it 4 hours before the discount or bonuses expire. Feel free to use a countdown timer, too, if you really wanna get snazzy.

My best tip for sending sales emails

Make sure you offer the product to the right people on your email list and exclude those who won’t want it — this allows you to see higher conversion rates and ALSO not bother people who otherwise still want to hear from you when your promotion is over.

HOW do you do this? Well, you can set up some simple subscriber tags to better understand your email subscribers’ preferences. I break it all down in this step-by-step resource to make it easy for you to do just that!