Direct digital marketers are always under constant pressure to generate sales leads. Lead generation tactics have evolved over time and become more sophisticated, and marketers have been able to take advantage of the latest tools and platforms for cultivating leads. Regardless, generating high quality, sales-ready leads is a difficult objective. The great news for Mr. & Mrs. Direct is that good old email marketing, if done right, is still one of the most effective ways to generate, nurture and qualify leads.
Today, rather than sitting at a trade show table for hours on end, or setting up a display in hopes that targeted consumers will complete a form, you can generate many leads by using the internet alone. In an email marketing campaign one seeks to provide the right message to the right people at the right time, so there is a great deal of value behind and possibility in leveraging email marketing for new client acquisition and retention.
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Leveraging email marketing as a lead generation tool, however, requires strategy. And as with most growth strategies, it is easier said than done.
There are no magic bullets in today’s direct lead generation game. You need to do lots of little things right to nurture a lead from prospect to client.
Email marketing is itself increasingly about grabbing people’s attention in an overcrowded online space. Emails pile up so fast, it’s easy to get lost in the clutter. Therefore, the first principle with your own sales emails is to take care, above all, not to smother the recipient, while at the same time still provide enough information that the reader can absorb and be influenced by.
While turning a profit remains the end goal, make sure awareness is always the first objective. Your prospect won’t buy from you if they don’t know who you are. It doesn’t matter as much how good or cheap your product is if your target has never heard of you. That said, establishing first contact is often made easier online, since people sign up to your list via a subscription form on your blog or website. This means they’ve shown an interest and made a conscious decision to hear from you. They might not have made a purchase yet, but they’ve shown intent.
Often though, one has the burden of initiative; when one wants your emails to drive existing or potential clients to your website where they’ll make a purchase. In order to do that though, they’ll have to open and read your emails first. Therefore, strong, engaging subject lines are really the key to effective email marketing and lead generation. Furthermore, do not try to get more than one offer or concept into a single ad or solo email. The response rate suffers greatly because you’re asking the reader to split his attention. Instead, use your minimal given space and time to drive home a single-minded call to action.
Keep consistent and stay on your core messages over and over again in everything you do. Sometimes the tendency is to change messages every week and try to make them more interesting. Resist this temptation and have a clear plan about what you are trying to communicate. If your purpose is clear about what you expect to gain from the email, you will know what to write.
Key processes for Using Email as a Lead Generation Tool
Introduce yourself: Send welcome emails to prospective clients who have recently subscribed to your newsletter. This is your opportunity to start earning trust and building a positive reputation with new subscribers. Keep the emails short and simple, while including just enough information to lure the customer to your products and services, and tell them why they need it.
Qualify leads: Next you want to see who reads the emails and then visits your site. Email can be used to qualify potential leads by tracking how your would-be customers are interacting with your email newsletters. By doing a little homework, you can identify the warm leads in need of nurturing by examining what links people are clicking on and what they are reading about.
Maintain interest: Some individuals may be interested in your product or service but are not ready to buy yet. Keep these people interested by continuing to send informative emails, offering free resources; such as white papers and eBooks or invitations to webinars. As they continue to see valuable content consistently originating from your company, they will feel more confident to buy from you when the time is right. And in the long run, consistently sharing valuable, useful content will likely result in satisfied customers who continue to read your email and engage with your brand regularly. Here are some of the best resources you can choose from to feed your prospects with:
Segment, Segment, Segment: Targeting the right people is a large part of good lead generation. For example, an email sent to a buyer holds a different value than one sent to an influencer. The buyer, after all, is the one who ultimately makes the decision. It’s important to be aware of who you are reaching when trying to sell your product. What will appeal to the CFO may be different from what will appeal to the COO; therefore a great tactic is to tailor messages to different types of decision-makers and test which works best for each.
Make the Offer: When the time has come to bring home the bacon, this will be the offer you’ve decided to provide to your prospect in the hopes of converting him or her to a paying client. To make it impactful, the offer email should be incredibly relevant and advantageous to the recipient. Don’t sell yourself short.
Follow up: Follow up emails are vital to the success of your email lead generation strategy. Keep following up with prospects and try to stay connected, you never know what opportunities it can bring you later. Also, a quick “are you satisfied with your recent purchase?” email for new clients is an excellent way to show you care and keep earning trust.
The secrets to success in nurturing your leads until they are qualified as being sales-ready are relevancy and frequency in email communications. Just imagine the letter that would make you buy something, and the go create that email.
