Nurturing your subscribers or prospects is time taking and taxing task. Automated lead nurturing emails are the best arsenal to transform a lead from the time it is captured till it gets closed. According to one of the recent surveys, 72% of the buying procedure is completed by the time a recipient is ready to engage with the sales. This shows how important it is to send out nurturing emails. However, Marketing Automation and nurturing tools offer plenty of options for nurturing and sometimes it can becomes tempting to over complicate. So, Uplers by their zeal bring to you some of the Do’s, Don’ts and lead nurturing best practices for sending out awesome lead nurturing emails.
Don’ts
- Overdose of nurturing emails
- Generic subject lines
- No clear CTA
- Using robotic language in the copy
- Similar emails to all the leads
Do’s
- Personalized smart nurturing
- Re-engaging the leads on subsequent emails
- Keep the goal of educating your subscribers
- Include relevant offers
- Create a great copy that sells
- Set-up progressive workflow of emails in right sequence
- Use competitive drips
Lead scoring, Persona Mapping and Segmentation
It is important that you use proper lead scoring to identify the leads that are near to buying cycle against those that needs to be warmed up. Once the cold and hot leads are identified you can run a persona mapping test and segment these leads or subscribers into various lists. You can plan out different lead nurturing campaigns for each of these lists depending on their buying cycle. Make sure to provide relevant content that drives value to the list with different set of progressive workflows.
Data driven personalization
Sending out personalized content with real-time feeds, geo-targeting, urgency counter, etc. makes the lead nurturing all the more interesting. Observe the buying behavior, past purchase data if any, website browsing behavior, social insights and many other aspects to drive personalization with right and relevant data sets. According to a report, lead nurturing rates increase up to a whopping 30% when such emails contain relevant links that interests the lead (based on the data and interaction.) Go the extra mile and send your subscribers’ a TOFU offer that would increase their interest and help them in pushing down the sales funnel.
A good example of data drive personalization could be,
“Hey Kyle,
Thanks for downloading our guide about lead nurturing strategy. Once you have implemented our lead nurturing strategies, your next step is to turn them into sales.
Convert them quickly, 2 days to go before your free download of our SALES KPI GUIDE expires!
Download Now – 47 Hours, 55 Minutes to go!”
Catchy subject line and Copy
Most email subscribers go by the three seconds rule. They decide to continue reading your email or skip it in three seconds. That said; it is vital to have an impeccable copy that sells.
But, before that to let them hop on to your email you also need to create a catchy subject line using special characters if required. A little of wit is always welcome.
Bernie Reeder, content marketing expert at email tracking software, Yesware, provides a great example
Testing the ifs and buts
Sending out emails without testing what works is criminal. Yes, offensive! You could gather a ton of unsubscribe complaints and some bad brand buzz around it. Not testing the email components may it be subject line, copy, Johnson or preheader elements, landing pages, CTA, list personas and anything that wide could hamper conversion. Test the kind of content, frequency and value that drives engagement.
Tracking + Measuring + Analyzing = Revenue Winning Lead Nurturing
As a smart email marketer Tracking, Measuring, and Analyzing is inevitable. You ought to have metrics in place to tie your goals.
In one of the researches, it was concluded that 75% of leads never convert into sales due to poor nurturing. On the other hand the companies that excel in lead nurturing programs generate 50% more sales at 34% lower costs. Thus, measuring how your leads come in and observing how they enter into a lead nurturing program is crucial for every email marketer.
Do keep eyes on how great ROI are your nurturing emails providing you.
Takeaway:
Nurturing prospects is the key to effective conversions. Identify the value drivers and nurture your subscribers smartly through missed opportunities, about company introductions, dynamic personalization, etc. and we are sure that would add a great deal of value to your email automation. Do you have other examples or best practices for smart nurturing? Do share in the comments below.