Imagine you have been working hard to collect some emails and names of your prospects, and eventually you get a name and a mailing list. Great work! But what next? Having a name and email list is not just enough; you need to actively engage in connecting with your potential customers through lead-nurturing emails.
In this post, we are going to cover everything you need to know about lead-nurturing emails, including how they work, how to write them, and how to put CTA in everything.
What is a Lead-nurturing Email?
A lead nurturing email is written message with the intention of selling a product or service in the end but at the beginning is a road to build relationship and trust between a sales rep and prospect, a sales person or marketer sends to prospect who has previously shown interests in a service or product but did not make any purchase.
Lead-nurturing email is focused on the prospect’s specific need, interest, and pain points in several stages of the customer journey. It is intended to build rapport, trust, and make prospects feel the scarcity of your service or product to make them purchase eventually.
What is Lead Nurturing in Email Marketing
Lead nurturing in email marketing is a strategic approach to building a relationship with prospects by sending regular email content, analyzing their interest and pain point with the intention of providing a solution and creating a business opportunity.
Email marketing is such an important way to generate leads and meet sales goals because one stats can give more clarity which is â86% of business professionals and 73% of millennials prefer email marketing for lead nurturing because of lead nurturing email marketing campaign generate 50 percent more sales-ready leads at a 33 percent lower cost.â
How Email Nurture Campaigns Work
An email nurture campaign starts with a series of automated emails designed to build a relationship and trust with potential customers to guide them to the sales funnel with the ultimate goal of conversion. Email campaigns work in a few steps; let’s walk through them below.
- Identifying and Segmenting Leads
- Creating and Automating Email Sequences
- Guiding Leads Through the Sales Funnel
- Measuring and Optimizing
These are major steps in how an email campaign works. An email nurture campaign gives you better ROI and builds a permanent relationship with customers.
Typical Lead Nurturing Email Sequence
Triggers & Timing
When a prospect signs up on your website, you can send a welcome email and then offer to download a report. According to their response, offer a trial version of your service or product through email. Not everyone will respond to the trial; some will respond by offering a webinar. One more crucial thing is that when someone leaves an added product in your online store’s cart, you can send a reminder email to trigger their emotion to buy.
Sending your email on right time very important because if someone doesn’t open their email on weekend and if your them them on that day it’s a waste of time, one more citation can be someone does not open mail after 10 PM at night and if you send them then it has very less possibility to get opened in the next day because more mail can take yours one down.
Sample Sequence (5â7 emails)
Welcome & Expectation-setting
Introduce your brand, welcome new users, set expectations for future communication, you can send a warm greeting, brief your company details, etc. These steps are a must for nurturing leads through email.
- Example subject line: âWelcome to XYZ, let’s get startedâ
Educational Content/Resource
analyzing prospects’ pain points, specific needs, interests, etc, you can send them informative content like blog posts, articles, industry insights, or helpful guides which will trigger their pain points and let them proceed with CTA.
- Example subject line: â5 Solutions for Employee Management With No Presenceâ
Product Feature/Benefit Highlight
It is essential in this step to highlight product features or benefits that might attract your prospect, including Case studies, testimonials, product demos, or a free trial offer, which can also be effective.
- Example subject line: âSee How XYZ Helped Mr X get 10 Grands a Monthâ
Exclusive Offer or Trial Reminder
It is normal that your project will not always visit your website or they are not always aware of exclusive offers your are giving, so it is ideal to remind them with a email for upcoming or running offers and in case some took a trial version and its came to near end then you can remind them to make purchase also.
- Example subject line: âStill Thinking About it? Here is Something Special for You.â
ReâEngagement Email
A re-engagement email can be effective for a prospect who was interested but did not respond previously, maybe due to their busyness or something. So if you try them for reconnecting, it can work effectively.
- Example subject line: âWe Miss You! Here is a Free Guide to XYZ.â
Feedback/Survey Request
If someone used your trial or paid version of the product or service, you can ask for feedback or run a survey to enhance quality, and also upsell through this engagement according to their current use.
Best Practices For Sending Lead-nurturing Emails
Sending a lead-nurturing email is crucial because your connection is the key to making a prospect respond. So you need to be careful about information, CTA formatting, and many other things. Let’s see how you can practice lead nurturing through email.
Personalization & Segmentation
Personalization and segmentation are two of the most important key practices of lead nurturing through email practices. You can use prospects’ behavior, demographics, and stage to tailor messages according to the dynamic fields, industry language, and role-based references, etc.
Personalizing email content based on prospects’ interests, pain points, and needs can be effective and triggering to guide them to the CTA. Format your email according to the prospect you are targeting because a common email format can make you lose a lot of potential customers.
Single Focus & Clarity
Focusing on a single topic and making it crystal clear to a prospect can be very effective. Most normal human beings will like clear and focused content. And try to keep the subject line within 60 characters, including spaces. While your content is single-topic focused, you can create urgency for the prospect, and also you can create scarcity of your product or service, which can drag the prospect into your CTA sooner.
Timing & Cadence
Automate your timing of sending emails, like 5 to 7 times over a few weeks. Sending too many emails can make your prospect feel annoyed, and it can cause unsubscription or block, so you need to be careful. Follow-ups should be on time for the prospect, mostly mail checking time with valuable content, according to the actions taken by potential customers.
Content Value & Flow
Putting value to your email content is important, like you can put some educational resources, their pain point, and figure out related blogs, articles, or reviews. You can add some tutorials, real-life case studies highlighting your products. Make sure irrelevant attachments are always harmful, so if you are not personalizing the prospect, don’t try common templates or idea-based solutions.
Design & Mobile Optimization
Not all of the prospects will use a computer to check your email; mostly, they can use a phone or tablet, so optimize your content structure according to all devices. People like no mess everywhere. Mobile optimised content is mostly successful nowadays, as stats say 81% emails are opened on mobile phones. You can be bold by providing an unsubscribe link to make them believe in the quality of your product or service, along with attaching a brand logo, greeting, and clear CTA.
A/B Test & Analytics
Continuous A/B testing can improve the performance of your content marketing in email. If one method does not stand out, keep another in the queue to prove your marketing skills. Test the subject line to see if it is working or not, because 47% emails are opened based on the subject line. There are more important things, such as call to action, sending times, tracking the opening of your email, clicks, conversion, etc.
How to Write Lead-nurturing Emails With an Example
Writing a lead-nurturing email takes a different format according to the different situations of the potential customer’s journey. Let’s explore some samples on how you can approach your email from sign-up to follow-up or reminder.
Email 1: Greetings and Onboarding (sent right away following registration)
| Subject | Greetings from [Your Business]! Now let’s get you going. |
| Body | Hey [Name], Greetings from [Your Company]! To find out how [Your Product/Service] can assist you in [achieving a certain advantage], we are thrilled to have you on board. We advise reviewing our [link to onboarding guide] to get the most out of your 14-day trial. It goes over important features and how to get going. [Optional] Add a little tutorial video. If you have any questions, feel free to reply to this email or schedule a quick call with our support team. |
| CTA | [Link to schedule a call] or [Link to onboarding guide] |
Email 2: Value-driven Content (Sent 3 days after signup)
| Subject | Use [Your Product/Service] as a quick recommendation to increase your [particular advantage]. |
| Body | Hey [Name], We have noticed that several of our users who used [product or service] have had better results within a very short time. Here is a tip: [brief tip with a clear, actionable step]. This is just one way you can take your profit boost with [Your Product/Service] to improve your [area of focus]. Check out our blog for more tips and best practices: [link to blog] |
| CTA | [Link to schedule a call] or [Link to onboarding guide] |
Email 3: Case Study and Social Proof (sent seven days after enrollment)
| Subject | Examine how [Your Product/Service] is being used by other companies. |
| Body | Hello [Name], Are you trying to find strategies to do better at [your area of focus]? See how [Company like the lead] is using [Your Product/Service] to accomplish [certain outcomes]: [case study link]. This case study highlights how [feature] has helped them streamline their process and achieve [specific results]. Want to know more? Please respond to this email and let us know how we can be of assistance. |
| CTA | [Link to schedule a consultation] or [Link to case study] |
Email 4: Special Offer or Discount (Sent ten days after signing up, if the trial is about to expire.)
| Subject | [Your Product/Service] limited-time offer |
| Body | Hello [Name], Your free trial is about to expire! We do not want you to lose out on [Your Product/Service’s] advantages. As a thank you for being a trial user, we are offering a [discount percentage or special offer] if you upgrade to a paid plan before 2025. This is a great opportunity to continue using [Your Product/Service] and see even better results. |
| CTA | [Upgrade page link] |
Email 5: Customer Support and a Final Reminder (sent 14 days after signup)
| Subject | The trial period for [Your Product/Service] is about to end! |
| Body | Hi [Name], this is a reminder that your free trial of [Your Product/Service] is expiring soon. We hope you have enjoyed using [Your Product/Service] and found it helpful for [specific benefit]. If you have any questions about upgrading or need any assistance, our support team is here to help. |
| CTA | [Link to upgrade page] or [Link to support page] are calls to action. |
What Would CTA Be in a Lead-nurturing Email?
A CTA in a lead-nurturing email is an action-driven element that takes the prospect to the next step in their journey with your brand or company. There are a few characteristics of a CTA that make it more actionable and effective.
- Appropriateness
- Transparency
- Action-oriented language
- Positioning
- Importance
- Single CTA
- Measurement
CTA examples:
- Download our free eBook on [topic]: Provide a downloadable resource for additional interaction if the email has insightful information on a particular subject.
- Schedule a free consultation: Promote setting up a meeting if the email’s content relates to a consultation or demo.
- Read the full case study: Provide a direct link to access the full case study or to your landing page if it is included in the email.
- Watch the webinar recording: Provide access to the recording for individuals who were unable to attend or would like to study the information if the email is advertising a webinar.
Conclusion
The lead nurturing process is like gardening; the more effort your sales and marketing team puts into it, the better the outcome you will see. Conversion rate is 47% higher if a lead is properly nurtured, so you know its importance now, and it’s time for you to get started. Even if you are in trouble with your leads, then CallingAgency can help you with a high-quality lead generation service that needs no nurturing for better results.
