So - what are you supposed to do with leads who just aren’t taking action & converting? You’ve spent valuable time and money warming them up, getting their information and enticing them to take action through the READY Model. [As mentioned in The FREE 20-Page Ultimate Digital Marketing Road Map To 10 X Return On Investment In 90 Days Or Less (Which also comes with The 20-Page Facebook Ads Targeting Guide 2020)] This is where email marketing in the nurturing process comes in. Continue reading to learn how to set up a simple but high-converting email series that will turn those ‘cold’ leads into paying customers.
Let’s say you have a landing page which is generating leads for people to request a consultation, quote, assessment, etc. You receive between 30-50 new qualified leads every week, and the people in your sales team are immediately contacting them and getting back to every one of those inquiries while supplementing that with automated SMS’s. Unfortunately, on average, only 50% of the people you spend time following-up with, will become customers. The rest you may never hear from again.
You are probably thinking what does this have to do with email? By setting up an automated email series to further nurture these leads & deal with objections; you can not only stay in touch with them, but you will also be able to get them to convert by satisfying their emotional decision with rational & logical backing. Oh, and big emphasis on automated; so you don’t need to spend hundreds of hours emailing each lead, every day; Allowing you more time to generate inquiries while your automated email series closes existing leads, allowing you to increase revenue for your business.
While it can be tempting to just continually send these people promotional emails & monthly newsletters for your service, that approach just isn’t likely to get you any results these days. Remember – Marketing Is Marriage. So it’s like you're dating them, but they aren’t ready to commit to marriage just yet – you need to still show them why having you in their life solves pain points while making it more beneficial & easier. Here are the 5 Essential Emails you need in your Automated Nurturing Series that will turn those leads into actual paying customers:
1. The Educational Email
The first email in the series should be focused solely on providing valuable information to your leads. This often is a lead magnet/downloadable of sorts, as well as some more information & benefits of the offering or about your business. You could also provide them with a couple of additional blog links, which is also perfect for educating them further in particular pain points and/or dealing with potential objections. Last but not least, by showcasing some social proof/testimonials – you can really back up the valuable information you are providing them, and consolidate your businesses perception of authority, credibility & expertise.
2. The Problem Email
The second email in the series should still be focused on providing valuable information, but, this time, your goal should be to educate leads on why the problem they came to you about is worth solving. Although still educational, this email demonstrates to your leads why their problem is important and helps create a sense of urgency that compels them to seek out a solution.
3. The Solution Email
Now that you’ve convinced your leads that their problem is important and worth solving, it’s time to demonstrate with logical & rational reasoning as to why your product and/or service is the answer. While prior articles sent have been rather negative based, dealing with pain-points – now is the time to send them to an article on the advantages of your product and/or service; dealing with any price, time, and/or location objections. Although still educational, this email helps convince your leads that they need a professional service like yours and gets them thinking about who the right provider might be.
4. The Social Proof Email
Now that you’ve shown leads that their problem is important and that they need to find a proper solution, it’s time to prove that you’re the right provider for them. Now is the perfect time to send them a case study or video testimonial that outline how great your business is to work with and how amazing the results have been for your customers. This email, combined with the sense of expertise you’ve built around your business by continually sending educational content, should give your leads confidence that your business is the right choice and compel them to take action & purchase your product and/or service.
5. The 'Hail Mary' Email
If at this stage in the series, you haven’t convinced your leads to purchase, then your chances of converting them are looking a little slim. It might be time to throw the Hail Mary pass by offering something like a 20% discount, coupon code, free consultation, etc. Although this may reduce your margins a little bit, this is the last email in the series and, likely, your final chance to convert them into a customer, so it’s probably better to get them at a slightly discounted rate than to not get them at all. Keep in mind, with additional automated series you can retain customers and get them coming back for more, and more frequently; think lifetime customer value, not first purchase value.
If you are hoping to set up something like this for your business, your best bet is to integrate your CRM, sales funnel or website with your email marketing software, like our favorite choice at New Age Explorer - MailChimp. You can set up tags or rules that automatically send leads that haven’t purchased into a specific list in your email marketing software. You can also segment customers based on their particular interests or demographic for more a more personalised customer experience & higher conversion rates. By setting it up like this, these emails can be automatically sent to new leads as they enter your list and can be working to increase your businesses revenue, while you focus your time and energy on other parts of the business, or maybe even reap the privileges of the entrepreneurial lifestyle.