Studies show 64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach out to customers. However, not every email campaign is effective. After all, modern-day internet users aim to keep their inbox clear from spam. And between email delivery failure and the inability to attract clicks, the purpose of sending emails gets diluted.
So, if you’re asking yourself “what email campaign should I run to effectively nurture leads with email marketing?”, here are five proven tactics you should consider:
Nurture Leads with Email Marketing: 5 Tactics You Should Know
Segment and score leads
Almost 70% of millennials are frustrated by the fact that brands send them irrelevant emails. Such a figure begs one to wonder, if you are not sending your email marketing campaigns to the right people, why are you even sending it anyway?
The first step to running highly effective lead nurturing campaigns is to segment your audience. It acknowledges that a blanket approach to nurturing leads with email marketing would not work since each of your customers is different. Instead, you should classify them based on factors like their demographics, buyer’s journey stage, behaviour, and interests.
READ: Top 5 Email Campaigns You Should be Sending to Customers
Next, you need to carry out lead scoring. This is a numeric point system that indicates the value of a lead and its likelihood to convert.
Create separate campaigns
As you segment your leads, you may observe that they have varying expectations that change across their buyer’s journey. As such, you have to modify your email marketing campaign to align with these goals.
Typically, any buying cycle can be classified into three distinct stages – ToFu (Top of the Funnel), MoFu (Middle of the Funnel), and BoFu (Bottom of the Funnel). Knowing the characteristics of the lead at every juncture allows you to gently nudge them through the journey to drive favourable results.
For instance, most lead nurturing email marketing examples will illustrate how the ToFu corresponds to the awareness stage. Here, you need to offer them assistance and solutions to earn their trust. Once the lead continues to show an interest, your objective should shift towards learning more about them and their motivation – which is the MoFu.
Finally, when you have garnered enough information about their purchasing decision during the BoFu, you can transfer them to sales. Thus, plan out your email marketing campaigns to suit these objectives.
Stay consistent
It’s now clear that even when you nurture leads primarily with email marketing, the lead would transition through multiple filters and have transformative experiences. And despite its changing landscape, businesses must maintain consistency in their branding, tone, context, schedule, etc., while navigating the conversations.
With this, it would help to have a dedicated person to plan and execute all email marketing strategies. Having a single point of contact allows consistency in all your communications. At the same time, they can act as the custodian of all your marketing material including the creation of email marketing templates and content maps. Such a setup allows room for scalability as you expand operations without marring the customer experience.
Humanise your approach
The key to nurturing long-lasting leads is maintaining a human touch. While tools like CRMs can take care of the “personalisation” aspect in relation to adding customer details, true personalisation stems from hosting natural conversations.
READ: Will Email Marketing Remain Relevant in 2022?
Wherever possible, have your teams draft friendly and conversational emails. Of course, this does not mean that you need to start your emails with a “hey, what’s up, HMU if you wish to buy this.” Find a brand voice and tonality that resonates with your audience and aligns with your organization— and stick to it through all interactions.
Test, optimise, and automate
Finally, understand that lead nurturing is a continuous process. Even if you have formulated a solid strategy to nurture leads with email marketing, consistently review its performance.
Schedule regular audits to test your email marketing campaigns and discover ways to add value.
Conduct A/B testing on your tried and tested email marketing template to discover subject lines, content formats, and CTAs that best work for you.
Also, identify bottlenecks and redundancy to implement an automation software for higher responsiveness. These tools can be instrumental in running trigger campaigns to drive conversions effectively.
Maximise your email marketing success
Lead nurturing through email marketing campaigns continues to remain the most effective channel for connecting with target audiences. While making any decision on how you nurture leads with email marketing, always put yourself in your audience’s shoes so that you can add upfront value at every touchpoint.
That being said, use the above tips to boost your lead nurturing efforts to amp up the relevance and engagement of your campaigns and drive better results.
