It’s often how you say something that determines whether you get the result you want. This applies in financial services, marketing and even tax collecting.

In one experiment by the Nudge Unit they improved the payment of vehicle taxes by using simple plain language, “pay your tax or lose your car”. In fact HM Revenue & Customs attributes the recovery of an extra £210 million a year from taxpayers by using behavioural insights in its letters i.e. changing the words to influence behaviour.

We see the same effect in email marketing. According to Hubspot 33% of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email based on subject line alone.

When it comes to sending overdue invoice reminders it can quite literally pay if you follow some of the following tips:

1. Use a familiar sender name

We’ve all received emails from people and organisations we don’t know. Sending your reminders from your name or your company name can improve your open rate. Learn how >

2. Add personalisation

Personalising your overdue invoice reminder emails with the name and/or company name of your recipient has shown an increase open rates. Learn how >

3. Segment your audience

This might sound more like marketing speak but the same holds true when reminding your customers to pay. Using Collectors you can tailor your reminders according to the type of customer (e.g. good payer vs slow payer) to improve your results.

4. Include a call-to-action

Whether you’re making a phone call or sending an email the goal is to get payment or at the very least a promise to pay. Try including the following call-to-action in your invoice reminders:

ACTION REQUIRED: Please reply to this email and advise when you will make payment so we can update our records.

Think about the kinds of emails you respond to and which ones you send straight to trash. It might be time you changed your approach and applied some of the tips above to improve your late invoice payment results.

Need some help with making changes? Email Jess at Debtor Daddy.