The Right Person + Right Content + Right Time = Email Nurturing
Unlike email blasts that send the same generic information to everyone, email nurturing delivers specific information based on the recipient’s needs. When you combine valuable content targeted to a specific type of person at the right time in their buying journey, your emails get opened and get read – getting your business to the top of the list when it’s time to buy.
Consider this: Only 20% of your leads are sales-ready when they come in. Of the remaining marketing leads, 79% never convert into sales, often due to a lack of nurturing and follow-up.*
By nurturing leads through consistent email follow-up, small businesses can boost sales, capitalizing on the nearly 80% of leads that they may be missing out on today. Say you run an independent insurance agency. You get a fair amount of foot traffic into your store. Some are “Just Looking” – just starting to research their options. Some are “Shopping” around for the best rates and features. Some are ready to “Buy” – ready to secure a policy for their new home.
So, what can you do to turn more of these leads into customers?
Turn to email nurturing and create a simple series of personalized email campaigns based on their unique needs.
Did your new lead indicate, either in-person or online, that they are looking for life insurance instead of homeowners insurance? Send them content specific to life insurance, such as an article on “How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?” or a personalized email, checking in: ”Are you planning for your future?” or even a helpful resource: “The Life Insurance Buyers Guide.”
Will it drive your lead to buy? Maybe not today, but it develops a trusted relationship with your visitor, who recognizes that you’re taking the extra step to make a connection of value to them.
Growth by Automation
So email nurturing sounds great in theory – delivering the right person the right content at the right time to increase sales opportunities at a lower cost. It’s the perfect recipe for exponential growth.
I bet you are wondering how to pull it off. Marketing automation streamlines the sales and marketing process by automating repetitive, manual tasks to increase efficiency, reduce human error, and provide better analytics.
You may be familiar with marketing automation systems built for big corporations with big budgets. This type of enterprise marketing automation software includes sophisticated features meant for complex sales and marketing processes. For most small businesses, however, enterprise-level marketing automation is overkill for their needs.
A better way for small businesses to achieve marketing automation is to leverage a simple CRM integrated with email marketing technology.
Simple CRM + Email
A simple CRM (customer relationship management software) integrated with an email marketing tool allows small businesses to easily collect information, track activity and automate email nurturing.
On the CRM side, contact information is collected, customers and prospects are segmented, and the sales pipeline is tracked. Using this information, you can create targeted, personalized emails that are sent automatically through your email marketing integration.
For example, if you run a CPA firm, your CRM can divide your contacts by non-profits and corporations, track their activity, and automatically categorize them by their place in the sales cycle – “Just Looking,” “Shopping,” or “Buying.”
Then, you can send the right content to the right people through automated email nurturing campaigns. Send non-profits in the “Just Looking” phase a series of emails on how to stay tax exempt. Send corporations in the “Buying” phase a price comparison between your firm and a competitor. Through CRM + email marketing technology, you can efficiently segment your list and deliver timely, targeted content.
Be Personal, Get Results
Like a one-size-fits-all t-shirt that flatters no one, the one-to-many email blast is too broad, too generic to speak to a single prospect or customer.
It’s time to put the heart back into your marketing. Speak to what matters most to your customers and prospects on a personal level. Deliver the content and resources your contacts can relate to through email nurturing. Finally, invest in a simple CRM integrated with email marketing to scale your email nurturing efforts quickly. Through personalized email nurturing you can efficiently increase sales opportunities and propel growth. A great option for this type of system is HubSpot.
If you are ready to change the way you email let me know.