If you’re a CMO or content marketing leader, questions always surface at the end or beginning of a new year as to, ‘What is the most effective online marketing tactic businesses can practice to generate leads? Will email marketing leads still hang on as a top source for lead generation or fall from grace as the go-to channel for marketers?
As an Inbound marketing and growth agency, we understand that the email landscape continually evolves. Your work as an email marketer is not the same as it was a few short months ago. But businesses have grown to depend on the channel, and with good reason.
An effective lead-generation strategy is integral to your overall marketing plan. It connects you with prospects and customers, boosts brand awareness, and increases visibility.
Email gives you direct and personal communication with your audience. When you deliver valuable content weekly, you build trust and credibility, increasing customer loyalty and retention. Email marketing can form the most loyal and long-lasting relationships when done correctly. It’s important to deliver the content you initially promised. For example, if you promised new tips or strategies to increase organic growth or SEO tips—that is what you need to deliver.
A top-notch email marketing strategy builds brand awareness and encourages long-term habitual interactions. Email marketing will help establish your brand as a reliable source for your consumers when employed well. When people subscribe to your email list, they are showing an interest in engaging with your brand. This action makes them a valuable lead, and the research backs it up:
You have a direct line to your subscribers with the email list you’ve built. You do not own social media platforms and could lose your followers and readers if the platform closes or decides to shut down your account. Statistics show you probably want to spend time building your email list . . .
We’ve all done it. Created the best email and sent it without a second look or validation, and you see a mistake. Ugh. Email campaign templates and workflows should be part of your everyday strategy. Nothing is worse than putting effort into an email for it to not only fall flat because you hit send too fast but also lose some consumer confidence. Like it or not, mistakes in emails do not encourage confidence.
Your emails help shape how your peers perceive you. Although emails have become less formal, seemingly innocent typos, misspelled names and words, and sentences without correct punctuation can hurt your reputation. “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” We humans make mistakes—yes. But they don’t go unnoticed. A well-thought-out email review and approval process will eliminate the sinking dread you feel when you see a glaring typo sent with no hope of getting the email back.
The best part of hitting ‘send’ (or having an automated workflow) is the relief that your campaigns are running. Part two is knowing the insights—how’d they perform? You need to understand the metrics to fuel future growth for your next email campaign. Another strategy sometimes overlooked because, let’s face it, you’re juggling a thousand things at once is understanding your email marketing metrics. You can look at the basics—opens, clicks, and unsubscribes but don’t stop there. Go deep and measure monetary value from your email campaigns like:
Litmus says, “The better you track, the better you can optimize.”
The key to email lead generation lies in consistency and implementing best practices. With each email, you need to set a goal. One goal. Each campaign can address whether you’re trying to convert your email leads into customers or the campaign is more about retaining your current subscribers.
Let’s look at some tips to improve your click-thru rates. Some of our clients experienced up to 9.8% click-thru rate when these best practices were used. And one client saw 162 leads generated in 1 day!
So what’d we do?
We found that by crafting thoughtful email campaigns focused on empathizing with clients’ audiences, all while highlighting the strengths, benefits, and value a client’s solution offers their potential buyers, along with utilizing the latest email tracking technologies, we could help generate leads. We then set up beautiful real-time notifications so that a client’s sales team can receive updates on which contacts in their database are engaging with these strategic emails and give them a foot in the door to open a conversation and educate their prospects into satisfied buyers. It all started first with . . .
Your content strategy should include designing visually appealing and engaging email templates aligned with your brand’s style and messaging.
With templates in place, the steps become more straightforward and will help close more leads.
Keep the subject line short and make it unique to the recipient. Let people know about your offer. You must respect their time, so front-load your subject with the benefit. Benefit headlines appeal to your readers because it explains how the information will help them.
For example, use benefits to sell more. “Save 30 minutes a day by using our social media scheduler.” “Get x by having y.” You show your targeted audience exactly how your product will benefit them. If you’re looking for good email subject lines for your marketing campaigns, Drip compiled 180+ email subject lines from authentic brands and organized them by type, industry, and season.
Emails should be easy to absorb with a quick skim. Bullet points are great to get a message across. Bullet points force you to be more concise and direct.
So, nix the unnecessary common filler words and streamline your emails so your message won’t lose substance. Chances are you’re sprinkling in filler words and don’t even realize it. Look back on an email. How often did you use the word ‘just?’ Who hasn’t been guilty of that?
Your choice of image should coincide with your product and, more importantly, your buyer personas. Adding custom images will help keep leads interested. An email with a relevant image will capture your prospect’s attention and move them further down the sales funnel. Embed the image so it automatically displays in the email body. Emails with embedded images have higher open and click-through rates than text-only ones. Using images in your sales and marketing emails can get prospects to engage with your emails. Best practices to avoid the spam filter:
Embedding images will engage your prospects, visually tell your story, and help you close more deals.
Use share buttons to allow your reader to share content they find helpful to their audience. Combining email marketing with social media helps improve your visibility to a more extensive network. However, extending the reach in your emails is considered a secondary goal. Your real goal is to have them take action by clicking on your CTA.
Your call to action is a life-or-death moment in your content strategy and efforts to generate leads. How you craft your email call-to-action will affect your campaign. There’s always something you want your reader to do after reading the content. Email CTAs work by telling them what to do next. A clear CTA will get your prospects to click. Features of a great call to action include an action-oriented verb that is concise and compelling. A few examples are:
Infuse your unique value proposition and branding into your CTA copy. For example, one of Copyhacker’s CTAs is ‘Test drive Copy School for free.’ Here’s the thing: You cannot convert online without clicking one or more buttons. So, even though your button copy is only a few words, you have to choose those words intentionally. Joanna Wiebe, Founder of Copyhackers, shows you everything to consider before you write your button copy and how to give button copy the mad respect it deserves: In addition, use a contrasting color for your CTA.
Which tip are you going to try first to generate email marketing leads?
Investing in email marketing campaigns is more vital than ever. And part of the strategy is knowing your email analytics and marketing metrics. If you decide email marketing campaigns are an avenue you want to pursue to get your foot through your customer’s door faster, let’s talk.
Also Read – Email Nurturing: What is It and How to Do It Successfully