In today’s competitive market, the secret to standing out in marketing might be hiding in your email nurture campaigns. Are you leveraging the power of emails to capture, and nurture leads all the way to the checkout?
Well, businesses that do not have unlimited funds for marketing endeavors can get a lot of returns for a modest budget when they invest in well-planned lead nurturing campaigns. According to a recent study, firms that excel at lead nurturing best practices produce 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower lead costs. That is because the goal of lead nurturing is to foster brand recognition, and transactions.
However, a successful lead nurturing campaign depends on many moving parts. These strategies include much more than a straightforward, attention-grabbing message and call to action. The best lead nurturing examples are well-researched, super-targeted, and may use more advanced tools (like AI lead nurturing tools) to facilitate the best results.
So, if you want to launch a successful lead nurturing campaign, or simply improve the effectiveness of your existing e-marketing efforts, consider the following foundational guidelines. They will give your email nurture campaigns an immediate boost.
Understanding email nurture campaigns
In the most basic terms, an email nurture campaign is a suite of emails sent to contacts and customers that aim to guide recipients through the sales funnel, and toward an actual transaction. Unlike standard email campaigns, which generally aim to keep a company on consumers’ radars, the goal of an email nurture campaign is to generate revenue, and not just brand awareness.
Drip campaign vs. nurture campaign
Drip campaigns and lead nurture campaigns are two terms that are sometimes used interchangeably but are unique in their own ways. However, there are subtle differences in the purpose of these two marketing initiatives.
Drip campaigns are pre-written messages sent at set intervals, such as on a specific date, or timeframe after a contact has signed up for an email list. They are often used to educate consumers and lead them through the sales funnel. They can also be effective for businesses with short sales cycles.
Nurture Campaigns
Nurture campaigns are a little bit more in-depth. Instead of following a pre-determined schedule, they are often triggered by a contact’s actions or behaviors, like visiting a website or connecting with a blog post or social media link. Nurture campaigns are focused on building individual relationships with customers. They work effectively by guiding them through the buying process by forming a closer connection and a better response to a consumer’s potential pain points, needs, or other triggers.
Furthermore, nurture campaigns are used to generate new customers. However, they can also encourage existing customers to make another purchase or become a lifelong fan of the company. So, nurture campaigns are the better option for companies with longer sales cycles, regular repeat business from existing customers, or companies that offer high-value products and services.
Lead nurturing best practices
The exact formula for a truly successful lead nurturing campaign depends highly on your individual business, industry, and target demographic. However, a few general lead nurturing best practices that tend to apply to every organization.
Do Your Research
You can’t connect with a customer if you don’t know who they are, so before you start any email campaign, do extensive research on your demographic. This includes identifying details like what messages or promotions grab their attention and what time(s) they tend to make purchases.
Provide Valuable and Targeted Content
Generic messages that announce your company’s existence or current promotions are fine. However, the best lead nurture campaigns resonate with consumers and include valuable content that will grab – and keep – attention.
Focus on Your Subject Line
The average open rate for an email marketing campaign is just 36.5%, so while your message content is essential, your email subject line is crucial. Ensure it’s eye-catching in a crowded inbox and encourages users to pause and read more.
Keep it Short
The average person receives 121 emails in their inbox every day, so no one has time to wade through lots of verbiage. For that reason, keep your message short and concise, and don’t bury the lead – you have only seconds to capture a customer’s attention.
Keep Your Foot on the Gas Pedal, But Don’t Go Too Fast and Too Furious
Everyone has had encounters with companies that sent bombardments of emails, leading all future messages to be directed to the dreaded spam folder. It’s important to send emails at regular intervals. Therefore, the lead nurture campaign can progress naturally, but don’t send emails for the sake of sending emails. Make sure you have something to say and that the timing aligns with your research on your company’s unique sales funnel timeline.
Keep Branding Elements Consistent
Have a set theme for your emails that does not deviate. This includes color schemes, font choice, logos, images, and other brand-identifying design elements. This helps foster brand recognition and loyalty, a secondary but still important goal of any email campaign.
Always Use Personalization
There are multiple tools available to personalize emails in many ways, from the email salutation to the specific promotions or messages that align with a consumer’s unique interests. An expert in lead nurturing like C1M can help you identify these opportunities and tools to help tailor your emails to all your distinctive groups of future customers.
Keep Your Audience in Mind
Your lead nurturing campaigns may vary based on your recipients. For example, b2b lead nurturing emails generally have different best practices than lead nurturing emails directly sent to customers. Keep these variations in mind and adjust accordingly
Review, Revise, and Repeat
Be sure you have concrete ways to track the success of your email nurturing campaigns so that they can continue to evolve, improve, and be more effective in the future.
Consult with an expert at C1M before you hit “send”
Expert guidance will go a long way toward ensuring that your imminent lead nurturing campaigns resonate with past, current, and future customers, and C1M can help.
Connect with us today to get the ball rolling. We’ll work together to ensure that this budget-friendly marketing venture creates a lasting impression with your target audience and, more importantly, leads to a trackable source of revenue.
Contact us and start your lead nurturing campaign today!
