Make Email a Part of Your Lead Generation Marketing.
Most companies want more qualified leads, but they are not yet convinced digital marketing is the way to get them. However, email can be one of the most effective ways to feed your sales funnel when you use it combined with other digital tools.
When used together, white papers, inexpensive social media ads, landing pages, and emails can help you attract new leads, nurture them through the sales funnel, and even convert.
How does that work? We've mapped out an overview for beginners below:
Marketing Based on the Decision-Making Process
Before you start building your Lead Generation Campaign, spend some time thinking about which kinds of people you want to attract. Do you want people just beginning to think about the purchase, or would you rather reach audiences that are ready to buy in the next few days? Will these people age out of your market quickly, or will they be in it for a long time?
For example, if you are promoting a four-year university, you know that parents and students start thinking about their college choice two to three years ahead of their final decision. So, these marketers will want to capture names years before they are ready to make a choice.
It's essential to categorize leads by where they are in the decision-making process and create campaigns accordingly. Customers just entering the decision process have different informational needs than customers who are about to buy. For example, high school sophomores may be much more interested in majors offered, the college’s location, and the breadth of study subjects, while seniors might want to know more about financial aid or meal plans.
Identify Qualifying Attributes
Not everyone who falls into the right geography and fits the demographic profile is a potential customer. Your best customers are probably defined by a particular set of needs or interests. For example, people who have just moved are more likely to be looking for a new dentist. People who play golf are more likely to use sunscreen. People building large commercial facilities are more likely to be interested in airflow quality. Correctly identifying your target audiences' qualifying attributes is foundational to the success of your Lead Generation Campaign.
Create Self-Qualifying Bait
We all know what bait is, but do you know what self-qualifying bait is? Once you've decided on an audience, where they are in the purchase cycle, and what type of qualifying attributes they possess, you can create bait that only your best customers care about. The nature of the content IS the qualifier. This content should be specific enough and deep enough that they see real value in it and will give you an email to get it.
For example, if you want more people to sign up for classes in training hunting dogs, create a free report that will only appeal to people interested in getting a new hunting dog. After all, owners who have had their dogs for years have already trained them for hunting. However, people considering which hunting breed to get are at the beginning of the process. They are looking for advice and expertise, and they certainly have not trained their dog yet. For this marketer, the content might include a list of qualities or traits to look for in a good hunter. The content might give tips on finding and evaluating breeders. You may provide an overview of breeds used a hunting dogs. You might even include a lesson for three basic commands that every hunting dog must know.
Create information that is appealing only to the people you want to attract. It’s tempting to include more general information to make it more appealing to more people. Don’t do it. Be specific and keep a narrow focus You want a powerful and productive email list, so try to limit your efforts to attract the most qualified leads.
Set up an Automated Email System
Creating a targeted email program is easier than ever. Developing sophisticated automated emails is now within reach of almost anyone. You can choose from a wide variety of email marketing programs, from simple, easy-to-use beginner programs like Emma to mid-range options like MailChimp and super sophisticated powerhouses like Keap.
While these programs were costly in their earlier start-up days, most have leveled out into a more competitive price range, usually charging based on the email list's size. So smaller companies with smaller lists pay less, and bigger companies with big lists pay more.
These cloud-based email programs make it reasonably easy to build and manage email lists, develop landing pages, and create emails that automatically deliver your reports, videos, or e-books. You can create A/B tests against all kinds of factors, including the subject line, content, images, or attachments. You can even schedule follow-up emails at intervals that you choose to meet your needs.
And almost every email program on the market has a relatively sophisticated reporting system, so you can quickly analyze your Leads Generation Campaign's performance, usually with the help of colorful graphics and easy-to-understand comparisons.
Promote Your Content
The next step is to get people to see your content and opt in or give you their email. Whether you choose to market using Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, or another platform, you can target your ads in ways that your messages are delivered to your best leads and most qualified audiences.
Start by scheduling an effective ad to attract people to opt-in. They can give you their email in exchange for the "Bait" report, video, or e-book you've created. You can target people by interests, profession, geography, age, website usage habits, and more.
It's smart to test different messages to see which are most useful for your audience. Remember that messages work differently on different platforms, so a home run on Pinterest may fall flat on Instagram. Testing is key.
Connect your ads to your email program via a URL link, and you've got everything you need to start building powerful email lists that you can use to grow your business and generate even more profits.
Create Automated Follow-up Emails to Nurture Your Lead
Once you have an email, you're ready to send out follow-up emails. Each email should provide valuable content and include a conversion action. A conversion action might be "call us for more details," "buy online," or "make an appointment today." Remember that each email must contain great content so people want to open it and read it. If you're recruiting for colleges, include study tips, tips on choosing a major, school year schedules, and profiles on local restaurants, dining halls, or recreational areas. If you're training hunting dogs, feature training tips, links to training equipment, or offers for one half-price session.
Divide your content into segments. You'll want to send more than one follow-up email. How many you send depends in part on the length of your consideration period. If you're marketing for a university, you may send twenty-four emails over two years. If you're training hunting dogs, your window is probably a matter of months. If you're not sure how many emails you should send or how long you should keep sending, analyze your emails for clues. If you send too often, you'll get a high unsubscribe rate. If you send for too long a period, your unsubscribe rate will spike after a few months. Detailed analytics will give you clues.
Consider Hiring an Expert to Help
Companies like Cup O Content are here to help you create and operate Lead Generation Campaigns. If you want help getting started, if you want a coach to teach your team how to run a Lead Generation Campaign, or if you want us to handle every aspect of your campaign, contact us today. Let's find out if we can help you create an email list that will change the way you do business.
Want to read more blogs about emails and lead generation? Check out these Cup O Content articles.
Comments