Unless you are a contestant on the “Married at First Sight” TV show, an engagement comes before a marriage. Keep that in mind when doing email marketing.
Again, the key focus needs to be “What’s in it for me?” Every message should provide value.
Let’s say the potential client joined your mailing list by filling out a form on your website, or you met them at a conference, and they wanted more information. The sooner you follow up, the more likely they are to remember you. Add value in that first message. Here is the link to the information you requested, answer specific questions they may have had, and invite them to learn more with links to specific content.
Message two should follow after you have linked to them on social media, which, again, should be done sooner rather than later.
As they engage more with your messages, you can increase frequency. Every message, though, should continue to contain useful, practical information that will help with their role. Demonstrate your expertise. Don’t SELL, SELL, SELL, but it’s OK if you (sell), (sell), (sell).
Personalization That Matters
So, let’s take a quick look at personalization. Your solution cannot be all things to all people. Clearly define your target audience in granular detail to streamline personalization and customization, everything role, industry, geography, and other characteristics that will allow you develop specific examples and provide individual suggestions. Of course, all this should be done at scale so you can segment your lists.
When you begin to focus on personalization, use industry specific examples, such as cybersecurity challenges for CISOs or regulatory compliance issues for healthcare leaders. Don’t forget about role-based content: the CIO and the project manager have completely different perspectives on how your platform can help their IT operations.
While every message needs to have a call to action, it doesn’t always have to be a hard sell. Give them access to other relevant information, perhaps a case study, or invite them to join one of your users’ groups.
Use your inbound marketing platform to analyze clients’ behaviors as well. If this group of potential clients consistently watches your videos, make sure every message has a link to video content. If another group keeps downloading your whitepapers, make sure they get updated versions from within your existing library and ensure they are notified every time a new, relevant whitepaper is published.
The more frequently they open your content, the stronger possibility you have to transition them from a lead to a client.
Email within the PESO© Universe
While email marketing has the highest ROI of any marketing activity, make sure you reinforce your campaigns across other channels.
Your email marketing campaign may be focusing on the release of your latest whitepaper and how it helps your clients achieve X, Y, and Z. Ensure those same messages are being shared on your social media, public relations, retargeting advertising, and at your conference appearances.
Each message reinforces the others, ensuring potential clients are kept up to date without having to receive an email every day or two; overexposure is not your friend.
Don’t Lose Them
Ideally, marketing and sales are working very closely together under an account-based marketing model. Make sure only qualified, ready leads are passed on to the next steps. Determine what metrics make the most sense for your customer base. It could be engaging with X pieces of content, visiting Y pages, asked specific questions, or requested a demo.
Test and Measure
Consider every email sequence the opportunity to check your strategies and tactics. How many messages did it take for them before they opened one of them? What are the open and click rates? Did message header A perform better than message header B? How long did it take before they asked for more information?
Use the data to refine your sequences. If email two and four had the best performance, tweak messages one and three to match them. If you get a few responses on email two and many more on email four ensure your sequences are at least four messages long.
It Takes Time
Not everyone is going to respond. Not everyone is going to respond in a timely manner. They may not be ready for what you are selling. When they are, though, if you’re consistent, you will be top of mind. Ideally, you’ll provide the right information at the right time to move them along the path to purchase.