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Email Marketing 101: A Step-by-Step Guide to Successful Lead Nurturing

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INTRODUCTION

To nurture leads is to build trust and brand identity. So what do you do when you have to achieve one of the most crucial marketing goals? You employ the most popular method of all: Email Marketing.

An excellently crafted and executed email marketing campaign can guide your prospects through each sales funnel stage, providing them with the information and support they need to decide in your favor. Email marketing keeps you fresh in your prospective buyer’s memory, and isn’t that all we want? To be remembered at the right time?

Email marketing is a cost-effective way to connect with your audience. You can customize messages and track their impact, which makes it an essential tool for growing your reach and staying in touch with your audience. When you think about it, email marketing is truly an overachiever.

This article will guide you through creating an email marketing campaign that nurtures your leads. Discover the key details to build a winning lead-nurturing campaign and get pro tips to personalize and optimize your email marketing. This article is your key to unlocking the full potential of email marketing.

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HOW TO GENERATE QUALIFIED LEADS USING EMAIL MARKETING

Email marketing is a mechanism that helps you throughout the process, up until conversion and beyond. When it comes to generating qualified, genuine leads, which have a higher rate of conversion, email marketing can play a vital role.

The first step is to create an email list. With a well-researched email list, you’ll have a targeted customer base interested in your venture, allowing you to connect with them. You can expect the interaction to be much more engaging.

You can create an email list by adding opt-in forms to your website or landing page. With these forms, users can give you direct consent to receive email marketing content in their inboxes. A few useful tips to keep in mind while creating such opt-in forms are:

  1. Keep the headlines short and self-evident.
  2. Introduce a lead magnet, such as an e-book, blog, or newsletter, to offer a valuable solution to your customers’ problems.
  3. Make sure you only ask for the information you need. Shorter forms are more likely to be filled out by users.
  4. Include attention-grabbing Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons. Your research on your consumer base comes in handy here since you need to know who they are to create a CTA that speaks to them.

Vitamix is a noteworthy example of how to create an email list through an optimized opt-in form that offers clear value.

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The key to generating qualified leads is to keep the prospect engaged. Do not leave them hanging; give them something to look forward to. Generating a lead involves setting expectations that your campaign will nurture, which is why having a clear goal is immensely helpful.

To read in-depth about how powerful email marketing is in generating leads, read this: 5 ways to generate leads from email marketing.

Learn more about how Thrillark Procured over a 60% Increase in User Engagement through Email Campaigns with WebEngage – View Impact Story

TECHNIQUES FOR EFFECTIVE LEAD NURTURING WITH EMAIL MARKETING

Lead nurturing involves building a connection with your prospects by instilling your brand image and making it more memorable. Before diving into specific techniques, it’s important to remember that personalization is the master technique that underlies a highly successful lead-nurturing email marketing campaign.

Creating a segmented list based on your leads’ specific behaviors and interactions with your brand can enable you to personalize your content and messaging for each group. The reaction that you want them to elicit is of curiosity yet recognition.

Of course, doing that individually for every prospect is a pipe dream, but that’s where we come in. Web Engage offers personalized content based on our behavioral segmentation for your brand. Keeping the results in mind and the brand image, we curate scalable content that is personalized for your segmented leads.

Now that we’ve established this let’s explore some lead nurturing techniques.

Starting with Cross-sell or Upselling technique. This technique uses the previous purchases made by the customer to send them similar or complimentary product recommendations. Sephora uses this technique to create customized emails suggesting products based on customers’ purchases.

Sephora image

Another technique you could use for lead nurturing is sending triggered emails. These are timely and automated email messages sent in response to a user’s action, such as making a purchase, signing up, or abandoning a cart. Triggered emails can improve customer experience and increase engagement, ultimately driving conversions.

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Reward customer loyalty by offering a loyalty program through your emails. It’s a clever way to establish long-term relationships with your customers. Loyalty program emails can help extend guests’ stays in the hospitality industry. Marriott’s loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy, offers customers rewards, upgrades, and discounts.

Mariott image

If you hail from or are interested in finance, look at American Express. American Express has adopted an automated drip campaign that involves sending educational emails on a particular topic, targeting existing and prospective customers. This way, they target existing and prospective consumers while providing educational content for their receivers.

Lastly, to reiterate what we said in the beginning, dynamic content is crucial for successful email marketing campaigns. Tailoring content to your audience can lead to higher engagement, conversions, brand loyalty, and customer retention.

Learn more how DSP BlackRock, a large mutual funds company, uses Personalization to increase engagement through emails

PRO TIPS

Not to make you wait any longer, here are 2 pro tips that can help amplify the results of your lead-nurturing email campaign:

Pro-tip #1: Do not limit yourself to a singular marketing channel. Spread your message through multiple channels to maximize results. Nike has been presenting its content through multiple channels. It uses social media to create a community of fitness enthusiasts while also emails offering loyalty programs and recommendations.

Pro-tip #2: Always keep an eye on your domain reputation to decrease spam reports. Monitoring your campaign through various trackers can help you identify the problems. Keeping a clean email list and removing inactive leads can prevent emails from landing in the spam folder. Additionally, avoiding trigger words such as “Free Products” and “Buy now” can also help avoid triggering spam filters.

MEASURING AND OPTIMIZING EMAIL MARKETING FOR LEAD NURTURING

Measuring and optimizing your email marketing campaign is essential for lead nurturing. It enables you to pinpoint your weak spots and distinguish between effective content and content that has underperformed. This analysis enables you to optimize your campaign and make it more effective.

When you move towards measuring, you need to set in place relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine your campaign’s success. Whether your priority is to increase the open rate or to double up the revenue, your KPIs paint a picture of how far you’ve come.

Some proficient techniques for testing and optimization are:

  1. A/B Testing: Here, you test the impact of various elements of your email, such as subject line, opening, etc., by sending out two versions of the same email to a subset of users and then comparing the results.
  2. CTA Testing: Testing your call-to-action (CTA) and tracking which type generates the best results can help you optimize your campaign for better performance.
  3. Personalization: Personalizing your emails by using the subscriber’s name or other relevant information can increase engagement rates and improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
  4. Mobile Optimization: It is well-known that most of us are glued to the 5 by 6-inch screen; thus, email must be optimized for the mobile screen. The content should stand out and have an easy flow.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, email marketing is the only channel that offers non-replicable results when it comes to lead nurturing. The most direct and cost-efficient way to associate your brand with your current or potential customers is through email marketing.

A few key takeaways from the article are:

  1. To launch a successful campaign, research is crucial. Understanding your customers’ behavior, needs, and interests is essential before going live.
  2. Personalization triumphs all. When seeking to make long-lasting relationships, you need your prospect to believe that you care about them and not just earn revenue. This is achieved through a personalized form of communication.
  3. Value-rich content is your main driving force. If your leads don’t find value in what you are offering, they are less likely to convert.
  4. You can successfully craft your campaign by keeping it in consonance with the needs of your industry. Loyalty programs, Upselling emails, and Automated drip emails are some techniques that can be employed.
  5. Sailing through the sea without keeping an eye on where you are, is bound to inhibit progress. Thus monitoring, testing, and ultimately optimizing accordingly is key.

When embarking on a journey to create a successful email marketing campaign that nurtures your leads, remember that your content has the power to engage your prospects deeply. Embrace automation tools without hesitation, as they can assist you in delivering timely and captivating content.

Are you ready to revolutionize your email game? WebEngage awaits you.

Author

Founder, 

YOSO Media

Diksha Dwivedi comes with 9+ years of experience in creating content IPs. Her first startup AkkarBakkar garnered 150M+ pageviews in its lifetime. She’s now building YOSO Media – a storytelling partner for founders, for leaders, for startups.

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