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So, you’re ready to start using marketing automation to streamline your efforts and expand the reach of your marketing campaigns. Bravo! But where to start?
An email nurture campaign is one of the most successful (and convenient) campaigns you can run using marketing automation. An email nurture campaign consists of a series of emails triggered based on a visitor or prospect’s behavior and that deliver information in a timely manner to help nurture them through the buying process.
If your sales process has been manual so far, it might feel like a leap to put all that responsibility into the hands of some automated messaging, but when done right there can be a ton of benefits to a well-executed lead nurturing campaign. (And let’s not forget one of the golden rules of marketing automation - it’s not meant to replace your other efforts, merely to supplement them, allowing your team to focus on what they do best.)
Reach Prospects in a Timely Manner
No matter how good your team is, it’s not likely that you’re able to capture and respond to each and every visitor that lands on your website in a timely manner. Establishing contact quickly is key to actually connecting with your leads. If it takes a day or two to follow up, more than likely you’ll be reaching them when they are not actively looking for a solution - and in many cases your window of opportunity is already closed. Using marketing automation you can determine what activities signal intent for your business and trigger a follow-up based on that action in real-time.
Email nurture campaigns also allow you to maintain consistent communication over time. People get busy and forget to follow up. Or perhaps your team just doesn’t have the bandwidth to maintain a consistent schedule of one-to-one emails with each and every prospect. But having a series of optimized emails already lined up to help answer your lead’s questions before they can even ask them? That’s a recipe for success.
Build Thought Leadership
People want to do business with brands they know and trust, but building that reputation takes time. Chances are, the first time someone lands on your website they don’t know or trust you…yet. They may know who you are and even what you do, but they’re not convinced that you can help them. Prove it to them by enrolling them in an educational campaign that helps them determine the root of their pain points, find a solution, and convince them that you are the company that can provide it best. At the very least you can follow up on any research they do on your site by providing additional resources from your knowledge base, getting them to subscribe to your blog, or - the holy grail - getting them in touch with one of your experts to answer their questions one on one.
Learn About Your Leads
Marketing automation tools in general, and lead nurturing campaigns specifically, can help you pinpoint what challenges your leads face. Understanding what they are searching to find you and what they are reading when they get there gives you a lot of insight into what kind of help they are looking for. Once enrolled in a nurture campaign, the questions they answer and the actions they take can further qualify your leads and set your sales team up for warmer conversations. As you learn more about your leads, you can further segment them for even more effective communications over time.
Improve Your Sales Cycle
No matter where your lead is in the sales cycle, a well-built email nurture campaign will meet them where they are and maintain engagement until they are ready to make a buying decision. They can also be a great way to re-engage contacts who may have lost interest along the way.
Additionally, Market2Lead found that nurtured leads have a 23% shorter sales cycle, and much of the work is hands-off until the prospect has been nurtured and qualified enough to have a conversation directly with your team. The same study also showed that 9% of nurtured leads have a higher average deal size, meaning that nurturing a lead via email can also help expand your sales pipeline by offering cross-sell and up-sell opportunities your prospects may not have been aware of.
Finally, although your email nurture campaigns should only be sent to existing prospects who have actively engaged with your brand in some way, these campaigns can still generate brand awareness and attract new leads. If you are sharing valuable content and helping your leads make the best buying decisions, they are likely to share your information with others - expanding your reach and attracting new people to your business.
Interest piqued? Browse through some of these inspiring examples of nurture campaigns done well to see what could work for your business. Don’t have a marketing automation platform yet? We gotchu covered. The DofM is a HubSpot Solutions Partner; just contact us today to learn more about how we can transform your marketing efforts - one email at a time.