One of the main reasons we include email marketing in our digital marketing strategies for so many of our clients is because of its potential return on investment. Research shows that every $1 spent on email marketing, achieves an ROI of $44. However, marketers still face a major challenge when it comes to ensuring recipients notice their emails in their overloaded inboxes and actually open them. Even once a potential customer has opened your email, there’s no guarantee they will engage with its contents and begin their journey to conversion. Businesses need to carefully consider what kind of content will lead to valuable engagement and direct potential customers towards sales channels. Here are 5 email marketing campaigns we leverage at Balmer Agency to deliver significant results in terms of lead generation and return on investment.
1. Focus on established connections with warm sales emails
When it comes to generating leads, it is important to note that there are many different types of leads, which can come from a variety of sources and are at different stages of the buying cycle. Cold leads refer to people that have not yet shown an obvious interest in your services or products and they need to be treated differently to warm leads (people who have already shown interest in your business). Think about how many cold sales emails you have received over the last few weeks. How many of those did you respond to or even read? Most likely, not even one. It is much easier to sell to someone you have some form of established relationship with. That’s why warm sales emails tend to perform much better than cold ones.
Warm leads can be people who have visited your website, been to an event you’ve hosted, read your blog, downloaded your eBook, signed up for your newsletter or clicked on an ad. If you think about all of these different channels and still can’t compile a good list of warm leads then you can be proactive about establishing a connection before sending out an email.
One good way to do this is to engage with leads on social media before you reach out to them via email. This can mean following them on Instagram or responding to a question they have asked in a LinkedIn Group. Once you’ve done this you then need to ensure that your warm sales email establishes that common ground with the recipient. You could mention a post they’ve shared, an article they’ve written or event an event that they’ve attended and mentioned in a post.
At Balmer Agency, whether it’s an email or direct message on a social network, we always focus on how we can add value for the target audience rather than straight selling. This means first understanding your customers and their needs. It’s important to establish that connection first before you bombard your audience with salesy communication.
2. Nurture relationships with lead nurturing campaigns
When you starting sending out warm sales emails you will realise that a great number of the people who you have contacted are not ready to buy at the time you’ve reached out to them or they have visited your online store/blog/social media page. That’s where lead nurturing emails come into play. These kinds of emails are designed to deepen the relationship with your leads, gaining their interest and trust in your brand and guiding them towards the decision to make a purchase or employ your services. A typical lead nurturing email campaign will consist of a series of 3-7 emails that guide potential customers towards conversion.
Our lead nurturing email campaigns educate customers about brands, products, services, innovations and industries, before inviting them to take any buying action. We often do this as part of our wider content marketing efforts, establishing our clients as thought leaders in their field.
3. Stay in touch with tailored newsletters
A great way to grow brand awareness amongst warm leads as well as nurture current customers, is by sending out a weekly or monthly newsletter. This kind of email can provide your audience with valuable information such as insights into the industry, or updates about products, services or company news. The key is in finding out what kind of content your leads will value and enjoy the most, and it is a good idea to take inspiration from your most read blog posts or previous content that attained high levels of engagement. Including different types of content which supports your thought leader or industry leader status is advantageous. For example, insights into the industry showcase the expertise and authority of your business, whereas updates about your business’ achievements will work towards growing the trust customers and potential customers have in your brand.
At Balmer Agency, we create tailored newsletters for our clients which address the specific needs of their audience. We use research and data to understand what is important to your audience and are constantly testing, monitoring and optimising newsletter content and formats to ensure the best results are achieved.
4. Promote a new product or website with a launch campaign
One of the most important kinds of email marketing is a product launch campaign. Your business invests in a great deal of resources into launching a product so it is vital that your email marketing activity is executed effectively as part of your overall launch strategy. We have run several website launch and rebranding campaigns and what we have learnt is that the key is to start a conversation with your audience.
One launch campaign email might get lost in the recipient’s inbox but 3 or 4 emails which each tell a part of the launch story can help to make your message stand out in a busy inbox. Again, understanding your audience and personalising content to ensure that you explain just how your new product or new website can help your prospect is key.
5. Demonstrate real value through strategic offers and promotions
Out of all the email marketing campaigns we’ve run over the past year we’ve achieved the best results with campaigns centred around specific offers and promotions. You’d be surprised to find out how many of the people in your current database would be interested in an offer or promotion if it demonstrated real value to them in some way. Simply sending out every offer or promotion you run to your entire database is a waste of your time and money. We segment your database and target each buyer segment with personalised campaigns that speak to what interests them.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you create a valuable lead list, and nurture and convert those leads using powerful stand alone email campaigns or integrated marketing campaigns contact us today for an informal chat.
