Your ideal customers have seen your ad, social media post, or whatever got them to opt into your lead generation funnel.
Awesome. Good for you.
Now that they’re in your system, how are you talking to them? What are you saying? How are you tailoring your message to best suit their interests? Do you have an email nurture strategy prepared for your new subscribers?
If you’re staring at your screen, a bit dumbfounded at the moment, it’s okay. There’s a lot to take in here. I promise, I’ll walk you through all of it.
Most People Don’t Buy Right Away
It takes 7-10 points of contact to make a sale of any product or service. Granted, this is an average. There will be some folks who are primed and will buy as soon as they see what you have to offer.
But what about the rest of your potential ideal customers?
Sure, you could focus on those folks who are ready to buy immediately, but that can get expensive very quickly. And, the boom/bust cycle of these buyers is real. There’s nothing worse than making financial projections in January, based on a few awesome months, just to discover that your immediate buyers taper off, or become nonexistent the rest of the year.
That’s why you need a solid email nurture strategy to remind those who aren’t quite ready to buy yet of your existence and why they should go with you, instead of your competition.
The Point of Your Email Nurture Strategy
You know how you get that occasional fundraising letter (or not so occasional) from various organizations that contains mailing labels, or notecards, or some other general “gift” along with a request for a donation?
That’s how these organizations remind you of their existence and persuade you to give them money in return for their goodwill gift to you.
You can use this same idea for your email nurture strategy when you send regular emails that deliver something of value, in this case information about whatever product or service your ideal customer is interested in.
Your goal, in providing a consistent message that delivers value is to show that you have the answer to your ideal customer’s problem and your company should be the one they turn to when they’re ready to buy.
Using this strategy means you’ll have a steady stream of customers instead of a boom/bust cycle. Some will be those folks who buy right away, but some will be the subscribers on your email list, who needed a bit more information and persuading to say yes.
Here’s how you can put your email nurture strategy together.
Start with Specificity
Are your new subscribers coming in from a specific lead magnet? Have they shown interest in a certain product or service? Your initial emails should deliver more information on your new subscribers’ interest. After all, that is why they opted into your list.
Your first few emails should focus on whatever your new subscriber wants. In many cases, this may mean setting up a separate email nurture strategy for each lead magnet, blog post or other entry point into your system.
Don’t freak out. This isn’t as hard as it sounds. It can be a bit labor intensive, but mostly, it involves taking a set of basic emails and customizing them to the situation at hand. You can easily adjust your standard email welcome sequence for each entry point.
Duplicate your automated welcome sequence in your ESP or CRM and change the topics just enough to match whatever your new subscriber is interested in. Find past blog posts that match this interest so you have something you can refer your new subscribers to.
Ease Into Your “Main Stream” Email Nurture Strategy
When I say “main stream” I refer to whatever broadcast email cadence you have, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. That stream is ongoing, and you should be constantly replenishing it. If you don’t have a regular broadcast email cadence, you should.
Meanwhile, take a look at your older broadcast emails and pull out the ones that are relevant to your new subscribers’ interests. You can add those to the back of your initial email welcome sequence, to gently introduce them to your “regular emails.” After all, these folks haven’t seen your old emails. How would they know?
This saves you some work, while giving your new subscribers a positive experience. And direct recycling is always a good thing.
Add Your New Subscribers Into The General Broadcast Cadence
You should have an overall theme or message that you write about in your regular broadcast emails. For example, my overall message is about email marketing.
Now that your new subscribers have joined the standard broadcast cadence, make sure you include the occasional email that is specific to their interests, to remind them of what it is they were looking for in the first place.
Your regular broadcasts also serve to remind them of your existence, as you deliver value and position yourself as an expert in your field.
Over time, as they get more information and recognize that your business has the product or service they want, they’ll convert into paying customers.
Now That You Know How to Create an Email Nurture Strategy, are You Stuck Trying to Figure Out What to Write?
Trust me, I get it.
“I don’t know what to say” is the most common complaint I hear from business owners when it comes to writing regular nurture emails.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Your subscribers have 3 Types of Nurture Emails they’re most likely to open, read, and buy from. You just need to know which Email Type your subscribers prefer.
To help solve this problem, I’ve created an easy, 60-second quiz that will answer your question. Click on the button below to discover which Type of Nurture Email your subscribers will open and read.