Chances are you haven’t thought about the similarities between the duties of an email marketing consultant and the process of dating someone. In this blog you will learn a valuable lesson, just as dating often teaches us. We will walk through a sample email lead nurturing campaign that can have you “going steady” with your leads and conversions in no time, or eating a pint of ice cream after a breakup.
Let’s start at the beginning. A customer is looking for something they want and they come across a possible solution on your website to their current unfulfilled need.
Email One: The Introduction
The email nurturing process begins after the customer fills out a form by clicking on a call to action (CTA). A CTA helps you get the attention of a potential customer on your site and directs them what to do next. They click on the CTA and fill out a form which gets forwarded to an email marketing consultant. It’s like going to a cocktail party, meeting someone you find interesting, and getting their phone number on a napkin. The first email the customer receives is like the first phone call, reminding them why you are contacting them and inviting them to do something, like download an offer or going to dinner and a movie.
Email Two: Follow Up
So you’ve met this special someone and you find each other agreeable. You have a successful date full of plenty of laughs and minimal awkwardness. A few days go by and you haven’t made contact again, but you want to make sure you follow up before they forget about you. When it comes to your email nurturing campaign this is where an email marketing consultant sends out a second email to provide the customer with more information about the products and services your business offers.
Email Three: Express Your Feelings
In this step, you assess the relationship based off your last two interactions. Then you’re open an honest about who you are and your expectations. You give the relationship another go. In the world of an email marketing consultant this would be where the customer is offered another opportunity to download an offer, find out more about you by visiting your blog, or even setting up a free consultation. The email would describe the value of what your business has to offer and where you see the future going.
This step is a little more aggressive. The goal is to move the customer along in making a decision.
Email Four: The Breakup
By this time if the customer hasn’t taken action to access what you offer they might just not be interested, or at least not interested right now. It’s time to break up. It’s important to end on good terms though. Remind them why they were interested in you in the first place (the offer), direct them to where they can find you again (your website or blog) and thank them for their time and interest (they were good company while it lasted!).
Why is Email Marketing so Important?
If you’re not convinced that email nurturing is important you might find yourself wasting time gathering a bunch of contacts and pushing the BLAST button to find that people just get annoyed with you. The goal is to go slow and become friends first and then move forward according to the reciprocated thoughts and action.
You Know The Steps, But Why Email Marketing?
To explain this further, watch this quick four minute video that explains the value of email marketing. This is a source of leads that always gets looked over when planning a strategy to gain more customers. If done right as an email marketing consultant, you can bring in a tremendous amount of leads simply by nurturing your leads through email contact.
As we leave you today, take time to assess your current email marketing strategy and see where the holes are. Sometimes you’ll have 3 emails or sometimes you could have 7. It all depends on your internet marketing strategy. Start by asking yourself this question: If I were someone coming to my site would someone find it attractive, interesting and want to date me?
