Congratulations! Your lead generation efforts have helped you build a solid email list. But that’s just the beginning. Now you’ve got to turn those leads into actual customers. How? Through effective lead nurturing. Often called a drip campaign, this schedule of triggered emails is designed to pull your leads through the funnel, driving conversions and sending them into the next cycle of repeat customers. Ready to get going? Here are five fast facts about lead nurturing you need to know NOW.
“I wish I had a smaller email list…” said no one ever. Quality is key, but sometimes sales is strictly a numbers game. A qualified lead is more likely to convert, and more quickly, but how much qualification should you do up front, and how much can come later? If you are looking to build a strong list, opt-in advertising offers an affordable way to grow your database at scale. How fast, how big and how finely tailored? That’s up to you. Here’s how it works.
A new year represents a fresh start. It’s a time when many make resolutions to eat right, exercise more or make another promise towards self improvement. And while it’s also the start of a new year for businesses, many carry on as usual. Don’t be satisfied with the status quo. As you plan 2018 strategies and budgets, make these lead generation resolutions and see your KPIs improve next year. Happy New Year!
For many marketers, the ultimate question during a lead nurturing campaign is “how often should I send an email?” But if your email deliverability is low, your email frequency won’t matter. Deliverability is the percentage of emails that make it into a valid Inbox, ready to be opened. They don’t bounce, get lost in a Spam folder, or lead to an unsubscribe.
The rampant amount of junk mail and scam emails has led to increasingly strict standards for email deliverability. While this is good news overall, it can be tricky to navigate all the rules when you’re setting up an email campaign. We’ve put together a few tips to help ensure your emails aren’t incorrectly categorized as Spam. Follow these five tips to help improve email deliverability, as well as open rate.
We’re big proponents of double opt-in email marketing, which requires an initial welcome email to validate a user’s email address and allow them a second chance to “opt out.” New subscribers to your email marketing list need to click the link in this welcome email to confirm they would like to join the list. After that, your email marketing efforts continue as usual.
If you’re sending emails to customers or leads, you’ve probably heard of MailChimp. They’re a well-known email service provider that facilitates email campaigns for businesses of all sizes. They offer helpful email marketing tips and a wide array of service levels to fit just about every business owner’s needs. Some might even say they are the “gold standard” of Email Service Providers. Another claim to fame? Double opt-in.
In advertising, nothing is ever a sure thing. But opt-in advertising comes close. When it comes to building your email list, opt-in advertising gives you reliable scalability that is unmatched by any other advertising type. Simple, interactive lead forms are served right where your target audience is already browsing. There’s no need to click over to your website, where you run the risk of losing them to technical error, slow internet speeds or browser issues. There are no wasted clicks without a lead to go along with them. And you get those leads immediately, so you can follow up with lead nurturing emails, retargeting ads or any other conversion campaigns to turn those leads into customers.
Sound like a dream come true? Here are a few reasons opt-in advertising is the best way to grow your email list.
As a consumer interacts with a brand online, they are faced with a number of places and ways to join their email list. Some may overtly opt-in through a subscribe button on site; others complete a transaction and enter a separate database. Still more may take advantage of co-registration, where they join one list and are given the opportunity to quickly sign on with other like-minded companies. But should all these emails be treated the same way? Some imply more permission than others.
Marketers can reduce confusion and weed out any less-than-qualified prospects by using double opt-in. This requires the consumer to confirm they wish to join the email list by clicking an initial opt-in email. Now that they’ve subscribed and confirmed, they are much more likely to continue to open emails and convert. This extra step takes a little more time, but can go along way to reducing cost per lead, and cost to conversion.
While it can sound counter-intuitive at first, to really grow your email list you need to focus on your immediate goals and not your long-term strategy. What does that mean? Your long-term aim is obviously to acquire customers and get conversions. But the short-term is to grow your email list. Then you can use that database of warm leads to really kick your sales strategy into high gear.
Lead nurturing email subject lines have long been a struggle for marketers. They’re the first thing a customer or potential customer sees, and the biggest reason they click to open your email, or send it to the trash without even reading your content or seeing an offer. They are vulnerable to screen size, truncating or cutting off at varying points depending on where and how you read your email. Tricky characters or emoji can render differently, altering your message.