A well-timed email nurturing series is crucial. It can increase conversion rates if done correctly. Plus, learning the fundamentals improves email marketing and seamlessly automates business processes.
Before we get in-depth on how to utilize email nurture sequences, we need to understand it at its core.
In this article you'll learn:
- What an email nurture sequence is
- Why email nurture sequences are important
- How to write an email nurture sequence that gets results
What Exactly is an Email Nurture Sequence?
An email nurture sequence is an automated mail campaign aimed at converting leads into paying customers. This is done by prioritizing the value of prospects gathered from local lead generation and other means rather than just how your business can benefit from them.
Here are some examples:
- After a consultation call, you send sales prospects a detailed email.
- Following a sign-up for a free trial of your product, you send emails with free tips on how to use it more efficiently.
- After your initial client outreach, you send follow-up emails with relevant case studies and more detailed information about your services.
That's the basics, now, let’s go through the benefits they provide.
Why Use an Email Nurture Sequence?
Build Stronger Relationships With Prospects - It’s not easy getting an email from a potential client. Having their email means they’ve trusted you with providing valuable content that can help their business.
For this reason, nurturing clients with customized email sequences is such a powerful tool. Being consistent with your emails and the content will keep your business on top of a prospect’s mind.
In time, they'll trust you enough to purchase a tailored solution to their problem. When they’re planning on making a big decision, you’d be the first one they go to.
Create Sustainable Marketing & Sales Campaigns - Running ads, cold email outreach, and other marketing campaigns to generate leads can get expensive. As such, you need to make sure not to waste any of the resources.
Email nurturing sequences after acquiring leads' email addresses through marketing help retain buyers. For this reason, an effective marketing plan must include a nurturing campaign.
Shorten Sales Cycle - Time is essential in business-to-business (B2B) sales cycles. Studies suggest that 74.6% of business-to-business (B2B) deals require at least four months to close.
But a lot can happen within those four months. Prospects might research other options, compare your services to others, or evaluate if they even need your services.
7 Tips to Write a Great Email Nurture Sequence
It's easy to see that email nurturing provides immense value to marketing and sales. That’s why we need to learn how to create effective nurturing sequences to make the most out of our time and resources.
However, it's not as easy as it looks, especially for those that are new to nurturing. That’s because there are several moving pieces that come before nurture sequences such as writing a networking email.
But as long as you stick to the following foundations, you can easily navigate your way and start converting leads.
Plan Your Nurture Sequence Structure
Planning the structure of your nurture sequence is the base point of every campaign. But it's often rushed or lacking important components. Standard practice is to pre-write and arrange email text and designs, much like a template, but also consider the sequencing.
How and when you send out content and messaging to your audience is important. A chaotic, nonsensical order might make readers question what they signed up for.
Identify Your Target Audience
Knowing your audience is another key to a good nurturing sequence campaign. Content, email style, and tone can affect reader response.
Everything, from content to tone, must target prospects. This boosts engagement by making the material feel relevant. To target the right audience, categorize prospects who require your service.
Personalize Your Campaigns
Empathetic, friendly, and amusing emails are more effective than having robotic tones. In addition, it promotes brand engagement and long-term relationships.
Having personalized emails resonates better with every reader. Through this, you disarm hesitation in the reader while appearing genuine with your message.
Practice Brand Consistency
Branding your emails is a necessary practice. The design may change between email campaigns, but brand colors and logos should remain. This also applies to nurturing sequences.
Being able to visually link emails in a nurturing sequence is crucial for recognition and engagement, given they land in inboxes often.
Keep Your Emails Concise
It's normal to want to jam as much information as you can into an email. However, simpler is better in the case of email nurturing.
Because nurture sequences are consistently sent to a subscriber's inbox, you can slowly drip the information to prospects in a systematic and logical way.
Include links in the email only when necessary, especially to various pages or material. The optimal places for links are the header CTA, the footer CTA, and the content itself (once or twice).
Mind The Cadence and Triggers
Map out critical web pages, content, and upcoming initiatives. You can then remark on their "persona." Set up the following with your Marketing Ops team/CRM software:
- Once a week is a reasonable cadence of release, but you can adapt. Don't release them too close together or they won't be tagged as spam by filters.
- Ensure the appropriate prospects receive nurtures.
- If they 'leave' the nurturing by accomplishing it's objective or unsubscribing, dump them.
Optimize and Update Your Campaign
Check your nurturing sequence periodically. Keep in mind that the services you offer might change. Along with this, your subscriber’s interests could be different over time.
As a result, you must constantly examine and be flexible with all the changes.
Key Takeaways
Email nurture sequences ensure an automated flow of content directed toward potential clients. This way, sales and marketing initiatives have higher chances of converting prospects from lead generation to customers.
Here’s a rundown of nurture sequence best practices:
- Effective nurture campaigns start with planning sequence structures, triggers, and cadences.
- Content should be readily available and supported by a long-term content strategy.
- Simple and personalized emails that provide value and have clear CTA are the most effective.
- Having a consistent brand image makes your service more memorable. That way, you’re service will be top of mind when prospects decide to make a purchase.
- Consistently update your sequences to get ahead of the competition and provide more value to your customers.
