Now, we move to the next stage in the buyer’s journey funnel, where you, as the mentor, guide the hero, your potential customer, along on their journey to find the solution to their problem.
How do you do this?
Through email.
Why Email is Still Your Best Communication Method
Yes, I admit, I am a huge proponent of email, for a number of reasons, many of which have been discussed on this blog before.
Here are the three big ones:
- It is a direct and personal channel that brings you into your potential customer’s inbox, not dissimilar to coming into their living room.
- It gives you a chance to engage their full attention, instead of fighting with everything else going on in a social media platform.
- The only person who can take away your ability to communicate with your potential customer is your potential customer themself.
When your potential customer accepts your gift, (your lead magnet) they are giving you permission to communicate with them through email.
This means they are asking for your continued guidance as their mentor.
Don’t lose this opportunity! Be there for them as they continue on their journey to find their ideal solution to their problem. (Because you want that ideal solution to be your product or service.)
Have a Welcome Sequence Ready to Greet Your Hero
For clarification, I will refer to your potential customer as both “potential customer” and “hero” for the rest of this blog post.
Your welcome sequence holds the first few emails your potential customer receives when they opt into your lead magnet.
The first email goes out as soon as they opt in and welcomes them to your list. It delivers your lead magnet and tells them exactly what to expect as a new member of your list. It can also give them other ways to connect with you, if you so desire.
I want to point out this really awesome welcome email I got today after I purchased some essential oils. It does everything I stated above.
- I am welcomed by the founder of the company and told that she’s happy I’m part of her community.
- I’m offered a video to watch to explain more about the company and its community.
- I’m told exactly what to expect, my oils will ship in 1-3 business days and I’ll receive a shipping receipt as soon as my order leaves their warehouse.
- I’m asked to join their Facebook group to learn more about their company and get early access to new products.
- I’m told to email them with any questions or concerns.
This is an awesome first email! Follow this example!
The second email should share an additional piece of information with your hero to help them continue on their journey. This can be a blog post that you’ve written, an article from somewhere else, or even a recommendation for a book or some other resource.
You want this to be something your potential customer can access easily and that will genuinely help them move further along in your buyer’s journey funnel.
The third email should make some sort of offer on a product or service that will help them solve their problem. This can be a discount on an existing product, an introduction to a brand new product, whatever you want it to be.
Whatever you do, make this product or service relate to the problem your hero is trying to solve!
Seriously! Do not promote yourself as a hair restoration company and then try to sell your potential clients a product for gastric distress.
Yes, this is an exaggeration, but only a little. You’d be amazed at some of the crazy things companies to make a buck.
If you want more examples of the welcome sequence, and templates to create your own, please check out this blog post.
The normal cadence is to send these emails in the first 3-5 days after someone opts into your email list. You can also add another email or two, if you feel that is appropriate for your audience or for your product or service.
Continuing as The Mentor in the Buyer’s Journey Funnel
Once you’ve sent the welcome sequence, you must keep communicating with your hero!
How would you feel if you had an awesome mentor who gave you a great gift, told you how to use it, then just disappeared?
That would suck rocks.
However, I see it happen all the time.
You opt in for a lead magnet, you get a few welcome emails, then you don’t hear from the company again until they want to sell you something.
Rude!
You’re not going to be that kind of mentor.
Instead, you’ll email your hero regularly, offering them useful information to help them continue on their journey.
You should include how often you’ll email in the first email you send.
Whatever you do, make this a realistic cadence for you.
If you can do once a day, awesome! Just make sure you’re sending useful information every single day.
Once a week is very common and a good cadence for most businesses.
Some prefer once every two weeks, either because they don’t have that much to share or because they have enough going on in their business that they don’t have time to write every week.
Once a month is the absolute bare minimum as far as I am concerned.
Why is it important to keep writing to your potential customer?
To keep your business top of mind.
Your potential customer may buy from you right away and be thrilled with the results. But if they don’t hear from you for another 3 months, why should they buy from you again?
Your potential customer may not be quite sure what they want to do to solve their problem. You need to continue to guide them through your buyer’s journey funnel or some other company will steal them away.
Most importantly, you want your potential customer to see your company as the reliable, trustworthy mentor you’ve set yourself up to be. If you continue to provide help, with or without a sale, that trust will develop into a strong relationship and your potential customer will become a loyal customer who buys again and again.
That’s the dream, right there.
There’s More To the Buyer’s Journey Funnel
Honestly, I just sketched the continued journey out in that last full paragraph.
I’ll talk more about how to keep your hero on their journey next week.
Meanwhile, if you want to set up your own email welcome sequence, I recommend clicking on the button below to download the templates I created for this very purpose.