How long should a sales email be?

A sales email should be under 90 words. A reactivation email to an old lead should be shorter still, at most 60 words, because the relationship already carries part of the job. A single CTA, worded as a question, closes it. Anything more lowers the chance of a reply.

Why do short emails win?

Two reasons, and both are about how email is actually read:

• Mobile. A large share of all B2B email is opened for the first time on a phone, often between two meetings. On a phone screen, 90 words is roughly what shows without scrolling. An email that requires a scroll requires a decision, and the easiest decision is to move on.
• The scan. No one reads unknown email word for word. The recipient scans for the answer to three questions: who is this, why are they writing to me, what do they want? A short email answers all three in one screen. A long email hides the answers, and what is hidden is deleted.

There is also a signaling effect: a short email says the sender respects the recipient's time and is sure of their point. Five paragraphs say the opposite.

How do you lay out 90 words?

A structure that fits with room to spare:

1. The opening on a concrete reason. Why this recipient, why now. One to two sentences.
2. The link to a problem. What the reason likely means in the recipient's day. One to two sentences.
3. A CTA as a question. One sentence with a question mark.

What does not fit, and should not: your company presentation, your feature list, your customer logos and your disclaimer that you understand the recipient is busy. Every sentence about you instead of the recipient is one sentence too many.

Why should reactivation emails be even shorter?

Because you are not strangers. A lead who has already met you, downloaded something or received a proposal needs no context about who you are, and every line explaining what you already did together signals that you forgot the relationship. At most 60 words is plenty: a line that ties to the history or to something new at their company, a line about why it is relevant now, a question.

The brevity is also a credibility marker. A long email to an old contact looks like a campaign. A short one looks like a human thought of them.

How should the CTA be worded?

As a question, never as a task. Compare:

Task: "Feel free to book a time in my calendar next week and I'll tell you more."

Question: "Worth a short call, or wrong time?"

The question can be answered in three seconds from a phone with one word. The task requires the recipient to open a calendar, choose a time and commit to 30 minutes with a stranger. Questions get replies, tasks get postponed.

One CTA per email. Two questions halve the chance either gets answered, because the recipient has to choose before they can reply.

Keeping every email under the limit, with the right reason and a single question, is easy to describe and hard to do consistently across hundreds of leads. That is the discipline Leo, Revexa's AI for lead reactivation, is built to hold. Run the numbers on your own list in the calculator on the home page.

Common questions

Does the 90-word rule apply to follow-up emails too?

No, follow-ups should be even shorter, under 50 words. The thread already carries the context, so the bump only needs to add something new and ask a question.

Are there times when long sales emails work?

Yes, later in the dialogue. Once the recipient has replied and asked questions, you have earned more words. The length rule applies to the first unanswered email, where every word competes for two seconds of attention.

Does the signature count toward the word count?

No, but keep it short: name, role, company. Banners, quotes and four phone numbers make the email visually longer, and it is the perceived length that decides whether it gets read.