Technology is a wonderful thing.
We may have a frustrating relationship with it, but it’s an entrepreneur’s best friend. Because tech tools can save us time and money by handling daily tasks, and many marketing tasks.
Like staying in touch with prospects, for example.
You may remember the old adage that it takes 7 to 8 touchpoints to convert a prospect.
Guess what?
It now takes 12 to 13 touchpoints to get a sale, according to many experts. That’s the price of cutting through greater noise in 2023.
So, is your business cutting through the noise and staying in touch?
Use lead nurturing emails to take care of it. Because with the automated tools available, you can set it and almost forget it.
What is a lead nurturing email?
Think of a traditional salesperson following up with leads occasionally—just checking in and seeing if prospects are ready to buy. A lead-nurturing email does this for you automatically, and without the hard sell.
It’s a note in their inbox that reminds them you’re around and ready to help. Best of all, it gives you a chance to provide value while also building a relationship and gaining trust—all on autopilot.
We say on autopilot, because these emails work especially well when they’re set up to go out automatically, in a series. So, if someone signs up on your website or does business with you, they should start receiving your emails without you having to babysit the process.
What’s in this type of email? Well, since this is a series, you don’t want to hit them with constant pushy sales messages. Remember, you’re trying to gain trust and build credibility. The perfect way to do this is by offering information they value—recommendations, educational resources, exclusive offers, and personalized messages—all things that show you care about their needs.
How will it help your small business?
We talked about using these emails to build trust and that’s important. But one of the biggest benefits is keeping in touch and nudging people along to the sale.
No more leads falling through the cracks. With lead-nurturing emails, you can keep these connections alive and stay in touch until they’re ready to buy.
They also keep you in touch with past customers. We all know it’s easier to sell to past happy customers than to new ones. Let your emails do that for you.
In the end, lead nurturing emails will help you reach out consistently and get to your ultimate goal: getting sales and growing your business.
How to get started
By now, you’ve noticed that this isn’t about 1 or 2 emails, but a series of emails or an email sequence. This series can be for a limited time, like a campaign, or can continue on a weekly or monthly basis.
Whatever you decide, the key here is consistency.
Here are some steps to get started:
1. Goals first.
As we always say, set your goals first. What do you want to achieve with these emails? Do you want to nurture new leads until they buy? Maybe you want to build brand loyalty and gain repeat orders from past customers?
Decide on your goals to help set your course.
2. Tools next.
Get an email marketing platform that offers automation. This helps you save time and stay on schedule. Not all of them offer this feature, but it’s crucial to the success of your program. And keeps it more hands off for you too.
We use Keap for our clients, since it’s ideal for small business marketing. We can also recommend ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign.
3. Segmentation boosts results.
For the best results, we suggest segmenting your email list. This is about sorting subscribers in your list into groups based on common factors.
Here are few ways to segment or group your email subscribers:
👪 By gender or demographic
🌎 By geolocation
💳 By buying history (i.e., bought one type of product or service or spent more than $x)
✅ By customers vs. prospects
💬 By engagement (i.e., opened more than x number of past emails from you)
Writing emails specifically for the needs of each group is where you’ll see the biggest gains. It takes some extra time, but is worth it in the end.
The tools we mentioned above can also help you group your lists with automatic filtering and rules.
4. Got content?
Writing or creating content for emails is often a challenge. So, we’ll borrow advice from the fashion world and say, “shop your closet first.”
What have you got in your files? Older blog posts that can be updated a little? Perfect. Explainer emails you’ve personally sent to past customers? Those make great seed material for educational emails. News articles you’ve been featured in? Grab those for later. Scripts or guidelines your team uses to help customers? You can adapt those as well. Case studies or customer success stories? Even better. Photos of your business or team over the years? Keep those too.
Save any type of content that can help you tell your story, give advice, build trust and make a connection. Don’t forget a few promotional offers that can motivate people to take action.
5. Wrap it up with a CTA.
If you read our post on Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid, you know that an action step or a call-to-action is often forgotten or left out of emails. And that’s a big mistake.
Every email should have a next step for your readers to take. Whether it’s visiting your website, scheduling a consultation or making a purchase, that step should be clear and impossible to miss.
These action buttons will keep your prospects moving forward towards your final goal.
6. Assess and refine.
Once you start sending, keep an eye on how it’s going and assess results every month. Over time you can continue improving for greater results.
A long-term outlook is key. And remember, these emails work best if you provide value. In return, you’ll gain more trust, loyalty, and more business, from your customers and prospects.
Need help nurturing leads or improving your marketing? Schedule a strategy call to get started.
Leave a Reply