As the name implies, lead nurturing is more about careful coaxing than rushed pushing. When it comes to lead generation emails, this is particularly true. The average person receives a flood of emails, every single day. Some are from companies they have willingly agreed to be contacted by; others are from businesses that have brought their email addresses. The problem is, many consumers are so bombarded by emails each day that they begin to see very little difference between emails they have subscribed to and those they have not.
It goes without saying that you want your emails to not only be opened but also to be read. You also want to go further and encourage clicks that can hopefully result in a conversion. How do you separate your emails from the countless others that are sent? For starters, you can take a close look at your current lead nurturing email strategy.
How to Improve Your Lead Nurturing Email Campaigns
The good news is that you can get a far better response rate with a few relatively small tweaks. Here are some of the best ways to improve your lead nurturing emails.
1. Personalisation
Personalisation is good… to a point. The problem with personalisation is that it depends entirely on having correct data and the room for human error. You have very likely received an email that has a placeholder instead of your name, opening with ‘Hi {first name}’ instead of ‘Hi bob’. Needless to say, errors like this are never good for conversion. You can still use personalisation to reap the rewards, though. Instead of trying to use first names as often as you can throughout the email, use it once and then personalise further with the help of your buyer personas, segmentation, and personalised offers or content.
2. Subject lines
These can also be hit and miss if you do not take the time to, a) test carefully, and b) consider your audience. In some cases, adding emoticons to subject lines can be surprisingly effective. This would not work as well for a highly corporate audience, however. Vague subject lines are never a good idea. Subject lines that give a false promise or trick people into clicking are a worse idea. Your best bet is to keep subject lines short, simple, and to the point.
3. Tone
Another reason to do comprehensive audience research is to ensure that you get the tone of the email right. Language plays an important part in conversion. Putting thought into how you word your emails can pay off significantly. Using our corporate audience example above, the right tone would be professional, straight-forward, and formal. For a fashion shopper, your tone would be light-hearted, fun, and informal.
4. Frequency
How often do you send emails? How long do you wait before sending the next email in your sequence? Be very careful of sending out multiple emails in a short space of time. Even if your emails have genuine value, very few people enjoy getting ‘spammed’ by too many emails. Once again, testing is a good way to get the right balance.
5. Testing
And, on that note, we can never over-emphasise the importance of testing. A/B testing is the best way to continually improve your emails. You will be able to see what is working and what needs improvement. You will get reliable, real-time insight into your email campaigns, which will ultimately allow you to drive more conversion.
Getting the Most From Your Lead Nurturing Emails
Putting a little thought and effort into your lead nurturing email campaigns can pay off far more than you realise. Once you begin to see the pay-off, you will soon see the value of carefully planned lead nurturing emails.
