Save it by giving your audience what they really want
Here’s typical email marketing in a nutshell:
- Find (or buy) a list of potential buyers.
- Email them to convince said buyers to buy stuff.
- Keep sending emails to convince said buyers to buy stuff.
Are you guilty of doing this? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.Now, basic email campaigns aren’t all that bad. They’re a direct connection to your sales leads and they provide information about your product or brand. They save a heck of lot of money on paper. And lead nurturing efforts via email can be easily tracked and analyzed.
An email campaign should fit within an Inbound Marketing strategy, which first ensures that you have a full understanding of your audience. Doing so will give you insight into the right content for your specific buyer. It’s all about giving them what they want and not the messages you want to push at them.
The hope is that taking this free, no-strings-attached approach to delivering valuable, non-promotional information will answer your audience’s questions and concerns. Doing this consistently will turn them into frequent visitors because you’re offering engaging, customized content. And over time, those leads can then be converted into buyers. Remember, engagement with valuable content nurtures your leads.
As for how to better nurture your leads, here are a few things to keep in mind when developing and executing your email/lead nurturing strategy.
- Content and Context: Deliver valuable and relevant content, in the right format, to the right people, at the right time.
- Frequency: Timing is everything. By knowing your leads, you’ll be able to optimize the best available times to interact as well as how often they want be contacted.
- Data: Use a combination of analytics from your email, website and/or marketing automation platform to tell you what topics are or aren’t performing to inform future content.
Follow this framework and you’ll be on your way to creating content that engages your audience and transforms leads into sales.