Tanya Brody

Copywriter | Marketing & Optimization Consultant | Customer Advocate

Email Nurturing: The Key to Building Stronger Customer Relationships

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In today’s competitive business landscape, connecting with your audience on a personal level is more important than ever. That’s why email nurturing is a critical part of your marketing efforts.

Especially with the growing influence of AI, being authentic and letting your current and potential customers get to know you and your business is the best way to make your business stand out amongst the competition.

One of the most effective ways to establish and nurture these connections is through email marketing, specifically through sending nurture emails. This marketing channel lets you speak directly to your ideal customers and keep their attention focused on you, instead of getting distracted by all the shiny objects trying to rip them away from your intended goal.

In this blog post, we’ll dive into the world of lead nurturing emails and explore how you can leverage this powerful tool to build stronger relationships with your subscribers, so they know, like, and trust you, and buy your product or service.

What Is Email Nurturing Anyway?

Email nurturing is a strategic approach to engaging with your email list subscribers over time.

Instead of bombarding them with sales pitches and promotions, which just feels slimy and turns a lot of people off, email nurturing focuses on providing value, building trust, and guiding your audience through their personal buyer’s journey.

By delivering relevant and personalized content to your subscribers, you can keep them engaged, informed, and ultimately, convert them into happy, paying, loyal customers. (That is the point of having an email list, after all.)

When you send a lead nurturing email campaign you help your subscribers get the information they need to solve the problem that drew them to your lead magnet and caused them to sign up for your email list in the first place.

What Are the Goals of Email Nurturing for My Business?

The primary goals of email nurturing are to build relationships with your subscribers, drive engagement, and ultimately, increase conversions.

By nurturing your email list, you can establish trust with your audience, position yourself as a thought leader and expert in your industry, and guide your subscribers towards making a purchase decision.

In essence, email nurturing is all about creating meaningful connections that lead to long-term customer relationships.

It’s also about serving your subscribers. This is just the beginning of your relationship with them. You want to show that you’re their go-to, reliable expert who understands them and genuinely wants to help them solve that problem that’s been keeping them up at night.

When you send them useful content, you can address pain points they’re suffering and share valuable insights on how to alleviate those pain points. This gives them exactly what they want and need to solve their problem and ultimately make a final purchase decision. Your subscribers will become loyal, repeat customers depending on their desire to change their situation and the length of your sales cycle.

Why Should I Nurture My Potential Customers?

Nurturing your potential customers through email is essential for several reasons.

First, email nurturing helps you stay top of mind with your audience, ensuring that they don’t forget about your brand. When you show up in their inboxes every week, they’re reminded of the reason they joined your email list in the first place.

Second, by providing valuable content and resources to your subscribers, you can showcase your expertise and build credibility in your industry. They’ll look forward to hearing from you and reward you by opening and reading your emails. This lets you guide them through your sales funnel to the point where they finally make a purchase.

Finally, email nurturing allows you to guide your leads through the sales funnel, increasing the likelihood of conversion and driving revenue for your business.

The Benefits of an Effective Lead Nurturing Strategy

An effective lead nurturing strategy can yield a wide range of benefits for your business.

From increased engagement and brand loyalty to higher conversion rates and revenue growth, email nurturing has the power to transform your marketing efforts.

When you speak directly to your subscribers in their inboxes every week, you give them a few minutes to focus specifically on solving their problem through using you product or service. You can do this through personalized emails that deliver dynamic content (depending on the capabilities of your ESP or CRM) or through standard “broadcast” nurture campaigns.

By delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time, you can nurture your leads towards a purchase decision and ultimately, boost sales and drive success for your business.

How Nurture Emails Build Relationships with Your Subscribers

Nurture emails are designed to build relationships with your subscribers by delivering valuable and relevant content that meets their needs and interests. Again, your goal is to serve your subscribers. To help them solve their problem, first and foremost. When you take this approach, the sales will follow.

By understanding your audience’s pain points, desires, and objections, you can tailor your emails to address their specific challenges and provide solutions that resonate with them. This lets you speak directly to their personal challenges and where they are in the buyer’s journey.

Not everyone will be ready to buy right away. As you build trust in your brand identity, show that you have your lead’s interests in mind and that they can rely on you, your subscribers will make the decision to become paying customers.

Through consistent communication and personalized messaging, you can establish trust, credibility, and rapport with your subscribers, ultimately fostering stronger relationships and driving long-term customer loyalty. This leads to growth for your business, which enables you to serve your current and potential customers better. It’s a constantly increasing cycle.

Do Nurture Emails Work?

In short, yes. When done correctly, nurturing your email list can have a significant impact on your marketing efforts and business success.

By delivering timely, personalized, and relevant content to your subscribers, you can keep them engaged, informed, and motivated to take action. That can be anything from emails announcing a new blog post, podcast, or article about your business, to longer pieces that address a specific issue they may be having, or an upcoming product launch or sale.

Whether you’re looking to increase engagement, drive conversions, or build brand loyalty, email nurturing is a proven strategy for achieving these goals and more.

Where Does Email Nurturing Fit In My Sales Funnel?

Everywhere.

From the beginning when subscribers join, to the end when they make a purchase, and on to the next purchase, product, or service. Email nurturing plays a critical role in every stage of the sales funnel, from awareness and interest to consideration and decision.

At the top of the funnel, nurture emails can help you attract and engage new leads, introducing them to your brand and building awareness of your products or services. The best way to start is with a series of welcome emails, also known as an email welcome sequence. This is the beginning of your email nurture campaign.

As leads progress through the funnel, continued nurture emails can provide them with valuable information, resources, and incentives that encourage them to take the next step towards making a purchase.

By aligning your nurture emails with each stage of the sales funnel and including calls to action that guide subscribers gently and without pressure toward your sales page or buy button, you can move your subscribers towards conversion and drive continued success for your business.

How Do You Write a Nurturing Email?

When writing a nurturing email, it’s important to keep your audience, goals, and messaging in mind.

Start by understanding your subscribers’ needs, problems, and preferences, and tailor your content to address these effectively. You will know some of this from past customer experience and the rest you can research online or ask your current customers or members of your target audience.

Use a strong subject line to grab your subscribers’ attention and make them want to open your email. Every line after that should be designed to keep them reading the next line, and the next, and so on until they reach your call to action.

Use a conversational writing style. Write like you’re talking to your best friend about a problem they’re having, or about what it is you do in your business. Include personalized messaging, and engaging visuals to capture your audience’s attention and keep them interested.

Be sure to provide value, offer solutions, and include a clear call to action that guides your subscribers towards taking the desired action. This can be anything from directing them to a recent blog post or article about your company, to asking them to schedule a consultation with you, or even clicking through to your sales page.

By following these best practices, you can create compelling nurture emails that resonate with your audience and drive results for your business.

Addressing Your Ideal Customers’ Pain Points In Your Nurture Emails

One of the most effective ways to connect with your subscribers and build relationships is by addressing their pain points in your nurture emails. Your subscribers joined your email list because you can help them solve a problem. So help them!

By identifying the challenges, obstacles, and frustrations that your audience faces, you can create content and deliver relevant information that speaks directly to their needs and interests. Do it in a friendly, comforting way, that shows you have their best interests at heart and genuinely want to help.

Provide tips, advice, or solutions to common problems you know your prospective customers have. Share success stories and case studies that inspire and motivate your subscribers to say yes.

Addressing pain points in your nurture emails can help you establish trust, credibility, and rapport with your subscribers, ultimately driving engagement and conversions.

How Long Should My Lead Nurturing Emails Be?

When it comes to the length of lead nurturing emails, there is no one-size-fits-all answer.

While some subscribers may prefer short and concise emails that get straight to the point, others may appreciate longer, more detailed content that provides in-depth information and insights. The key is to strike a balance between providing valuable content and respecting your subscribers’ time and attention.

Personally, I send two emails a week. One short email, leading to a blog post that gives useful information. If you were on my email list, you received one of these short emails directing you here. The second email is exclusive content for my subscribers that covers everything from best practices, to how to find high quality leads, to making sales to their own lists, and everything in between. What you send will depend on your business and what you sell.

In general, aim for lead nurturing emails that are clear, concise, and focused on delivering a single message or call to action. If you have more to say, consider breaking up longer content into a series of emails to maintain engagement and interest over time.

How Do You Come Up with Ideas for Lead Nurturing Emails?

Coming up with ideas for lead nurturing emails can be a challenge, especially if you’re writing to your subscribers every week. To generate fresh and engaging content, consider the following strategies:

1. Start with your audience:

Think about your subscribers’ pain points, desires, and objections, and tailor your content to address these effectively. For example, come up with a list of questions your prospective clients ask regularly. Then answer one question per email.

2. Look at your data:

Analyze your email engagement metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, to identify which types of content resonate with your audience.


3. Keep it relevant:

Stay up to date with industry news, trends, and events, and use this information to create timely and topical content that speaks to your subscribers’ interests.

If there’s something relevant that has happened in your personal life, or if you’ve got an exciting announcement, make sure to include those stories too. You want your subscribers to get to know you and like you. People buy from people they know, like, and trust.


4. Get creative:

Exeriment with different types of content, such as how-to guides, case studies, success stories, and customer testimonials, to keep your emails fresh and engaging. Consider your audience’s preferences in your content marketing and make sure you notice what they do and don’t pay attention to, so you can give them what they want.


5. Repurpose existing content:

As mentioned earlier, send subscribers to your blog posts, videos, webinars, and other resources to repurpose content for your nurture emails, saving time and effort while providing them with valuable information.

By following these tips and staying attuned to your audience’s needs and preferences, you can generate a steady stream of ideas for lead nurturing emails that keep your subscribers engaged, informed, and motivated to take action.

What If I Get Stuck Staring at a Blank Screen or Don’t Know Where to Start?

I recommend clicking on the button below to download my list of 30 Subject Lines to Keep Your Subscribers Opening and Reading Every Email.

This list gives you 30 proven subject lines, along with accompanying writing prompts, to jumpstart your writing process.

DOWNLOAD MY LIST OF 30 SUBJECT LINES TO KEEP YOUR SUBSCRIBERS OPENING AND READING EVERY EMAIL NOW


In conclusion, email nurturing is a powerful tool for building stronger customer relationships, driving engagement, and increasing conversions. By delivering valuable, relevant, and personalized content to your subscribers, you can establish trust, credibility, and rapport that lead to long-term loyalty and success for your business.

Whether you’re looking to attract new leads, nurture existing subscribers, or guide prospects through the sales funnel, deploying a nurture email sequence is a proven strategy for achieving these goals and more.

By understanding your audience, addressing their pain points, and providing consistent and engaging content, you can create compelling nurture emails that resonate with your subscribers and drive results for your business.

So, take the time to craft thoughtful and strategic nurture campaigns that connect with your audience on a personal level and watch as your relationships and revenue grow. Email nurturing is not just about sending emails; it’s about building valuable connections that last a lifetime.

The Top 3 Things to Look for in an Email Marketing Service

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This post was originally written in February of 2020. Things have changed since then, so I’ve updated the post with new information.

If you’re going to have an email list, you’ll need an email marketing service to manage that list properly.

Not all email marketing services are created equal. Some are very simple and work well for small businesses and solopreneurs. Some are incredibly complex and are really designed for medium to large businesses, even if they do promote themselves to small business owners.

But first, I will answer the question, “Why do I need an email marketing service?”

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Email Newsletters Vs. Content Emails – Which Should You Use and Why?

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This post was originally published on September 8th, 2020. It has been updated to include new information on email newsletters and content emails. Enjoy.

How should you communicate regularly with your subscribers? This is a question that can baffle business owners. Should you send them an email newsletter that gives a bunch of updates? Should you send content emails, also referred to as nurture emails, full of value and information?

And how do you choose between the two? Which one is better for your subscribers and for your business?

Some of this depends on your business and how much time you have to write, as well as what you have to share.

To be honest, you can use both.

You just need to know which one works best in which situations.

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Why You Really Need to Grow Your Own Email List

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Email List

This blog post was originally written in 2016, just after the rise and fall of a social media platform called Blab. Since then, many other social media platforms have come and gone, or are currently falling apart, like Twitter/X. Which just reinforces my point below about why you need your own email list. I’ve updated this post to include current information and give you more tips on how to start your own email list, so you never have to worry about losing your audience to a social media failure again.

Blab is Dead. Long Live Blab.

This is the title of an article on Medium, written by Shaan Puri, the CEO of Blab, explaining why he shut the social media platform down permanently on August 12th 2016.

In the article he explains that Blab was created as a hackathon project. They grew this crazy project, which they built in 3 weeks, to 3.9 million users in less than a year. Yay for them.

But then they shut it down.

Which caused nearly 4 million people to lose their connections to each other via Blab.

And a lot of entrepreneurs, social media influencers and business people lost their audience on Blab. That sucks. Especially if, for some odd reason, Blab was the only place these people paid attention to those businesses.

“Well, yeah,” you say. “But those folks can find those businesses on other social media platforms.”

Yes, they can. But will they?

That’s the kicker. People tend to pay attention to what’s in front of them. If someone follows you on one social media platform, they may not follow you on others.

And if that social media platform suddenly disappears, like Blab did…

Or if people flee a particular social media platform because it gets bought by someone they don’t like, who changes everything about it, as is the current case with Twitter/X…

Can you guarantee that every member of your audience will find you somewhere else? Can you rest assured that your audience on another social media platform will grow by just as many followers as you lost on your other one?

No, you can’t.

Perhaps people just prefer a certain social media platform and won’t use another one. Perhaps they’ve got too many other things they’re following on other social media platforms and adding you will overwhelm them.

Guess what. If you didn’t collect email addresses from those folks, you’re stuck with no way to contact them directly. Which is why you really need to have an email list.

Why Do I Need an Email List?

“I’ve already got a great following on social media. Why would I duplicate that?” I hear you say.

Yes, you probably do. But, what happens if one of your social media channels changes drastically or disappears (like in the case of Blab, and Twitter, and any number of other social media platforms in the last few years)? Or worse yet, what happens if your account is deleted (either by mistake or because the social media company believes you violated their rules)? Can you still contact all of your followers? Not without their email addresses.

Email is more personal than social media. We all “know” people on social media (meaning we’ve friended or followed them, but we’ve never met them in person). But when an email hits our inboxes it tends to feel more like a real relationship. And people want to buy from people they like and have a relationship with.

Think about it. You may check your social media channels a few times a day. How many times do you check your email? Most people check their email boxes multiple times a day. We’re still used to getting important messages via email. Your message could be very important to some, or all, of your subscribers.

How Do I Start an Email List?

To start an email list, you need five things:

  • An email service provider (ESP): MailerLite, Drip, and ActiveCampaign are all good examples of ESPs. There are dozens of others out there.
  • A way to collect email addresses: This can be a static or pop-up form on your website, or a landing page dedicated solely to collecting email addresses.
  • A lead magnet, or opt-in bribe: This can be a one-page resource guide, a chapter from a book, a coupon, or anything else you come up with. You want to give people a reason to sign up.
  • A “thank you” page: A thank you page tells people you’ve received their email address and helps you continue your relationship with your new subscribers.
  • A “welcome” email sequence: This gets sent out as soon as someone subscribes to your list. It’s an acknowledgement of receiving their email address and letting them know they’ll receive useful information on a regular basis.

String these together and you’ve got a perfect lead generation funnel sending email addresses to your list.

Here’s a little more detail on each step:

Email Service Providers

Email service providers are basically SaaS (software as a service) companies that help you collect email addresses and send bulk emails while being in accordance with the CAN SPAM act (yes, that’s really what it’s called, it makes me giggle every time I read it).

As mentioned above, there are dozens of them out there. An ESP collects and stores email addresses (or subscribers) in your account and lets you send out emails to them whenever you have something to share, on a certain schedule, or when someone triggers an automation sequence.

MailerLite offers a “free” version for folks who have under 1000 subscribers. It doesn’t give you all of the functionality and automation of a paid account, but it’s a good place to start.

Drip has a 14-day free trial and a starting price of $39 per month. The price goes up as your list gets larger. But their automation system is pretty slick. They’re geared toward e-commerce customers, but you can use their system for any type of business.

ActiveCampaign is a good option for any business that expects to grow quickly. It’s more expensive at $49 a month, but it also comes with more bells and whistles.

Lots of other ESPs offer free and trial memberships. These are just three I have experience with.

Forms and Landing Pages

 Your email service provider will have static and pop-up forms you can install on your website. These are usually HTML code snippets that you copy and paste into your website code. Some have plugins you can install on your WordPress site.

You can add as many or as few fields as you want to your email subscriber form, but generally speaking, the fewer fields, the better. Studies have shown that people are more likely to click on the “submit” button if they don’t have to give up tons of information about themselves.

Email address is required (that’s sort of a no-brainer). You can also add first and last name, and other identifiers that you may want to know about your audience. Most ESPs will also let you add radio buttons or dropdown menus for multiple choice questions.

A landing page (also referred to as a “squeeze page” if it’s collecting email addresses) is a single page, dedicated solely to collecting emails. Check out my landing page to see how simple they can be. And download the lead magnet while you’re there, to get an idea of how to create one.

Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is something you give away as an incentive to get people to give you their email addresses. (That’s why the other common term for them is “opt-in bribe.”) Your lead magnet can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.

If you go to my landing page, you’ll see a picture of the lead magnet on the right side of the page. It’s a PDF resource guide. It took me a couple of hours to make, including formatting and converting it to a PDF. But it’s something people are interested in, so they enter their email addresses to get it.

You can use any of these things as a lead magnet:

  • Checklists
  • Resource guides
  • A chapter of a book
  • An entire eBook
  • A coupon for your product
  • A free trial of your service

The important thing is, you want your lead magnet to be something useful that people will download. You want it to be interesting, and you want it to benefit your new subscribers so they remember you when you email them.

Thank You Page 

So, usually when you subscribe to someone’s email list, you get a message that says something to the effect of “email submitted” and that’s about it. Or you get a page that says, “We’ve gotten your email address, thanks.”

This cuts your relationship with your new subscriber short. It’s kind of like saying, “I got your email address, that’s all I really care about.”

The better thing to use is what’s commonly called a “Thank You And…” page. This page thanks the subscriber for subscribing, tells them their lead magnet is on the way and it asks them to do something additional.

Take a look at this Thank You page. It’s what you see after you download the lead magnet from my landing page.

I thank my subscribers for downloading my lead magnet. I let them know that it will arrive in their inbox and to look in their Spam folder if it doesn’t show up.

Then I’m giving them an opportunity to buy something from me. It’s relevant to the thing they just downloaded, and it will help them with the problem they’re having.

This is commonly referred to as a “tripwire.” The psychology behind this is people will say yes to something immediately after they’ve just said yes to something else.

Pro Tip: Don’t let new subscribers download your lead magnet from your Thank You page. Send them an email instead. This does 3 important things:

  • It verifies their email address as valid because you’ll know if their email bounced.
  • It gets them to open your email, which is good for your deliverability rating.
  • It tells their internet service provider (ISP) that they want to hear from you, so your emails should sail through the spam filter.

Email Welcome Sequence

You need to have at least one automated email set up in your ESP and ready to go out as soon as someone subscribes to your list. It doesn’t need to be long or complicated. All it really needs to say is:

  • Welcome to the community, thanks for subscribing.
  • Here is the download link for the lead magnet.
  • More cool stuff will be coming your way every (day, week, month, however often you intend to send stuff to your email list).
  • Thanks so much and enjoy the content.

As soon as your ESP receives the new email address from your form or landing page, it will send this email to your new subscriber.

If you want to write a full email welcome sequence, this blog post will show you how.

This starts building the relationship between you and your new subscriber. The more emails you send, the more the relationship flourishes. They grow to know, like, and trust you, and they’ll buy from you.

That’s it. You’ve set up your email list. Now you’ll have a way to capture email addresses from your audience. And, you’ll be able to stay in direct contact with them on a regular basis.

Okay, What do I do Next?

You tell your audience on social media about your cool new lead magnet and you direct them to your landing page. You can also drive paid traffic to your website or landing page. You may already use paid traffic on your chosen social media channels anyway, so use it to get folks to download your lead magnet.

Once you’ve got some names on your email list, you start writing content regularly so you have something to send.

What Do I Write?

That depends on your business.

I send two emails every week. The first email usually promotes a blog post like this one. The second is usually a longer email that gives my subscribers more useful information about email marketing and how they can use it in their businesses.

I also receive a lot of these weekly or monthly emails.

Some of them are similar to mine, with a short note and links to that day’s or week’s blog post. Others are a quick note from the person I’m following and a long list of cool articles that person found to share with me. Some are newsletters with information that is exclusively for subscribers to the email list.

You can also send out weekly or monthly specials on your products. How about a “deal of the week” coupon? I’m sure you can come up with all sorts of ideas.

To get you started, I recommend that you check out my lead magnet, which is a list of 30 Subject Lines to Keep Your Subscribers Opening and Reading Every Email. Plus, you’ll get a writing prompt for each subject line, so you’re not stuck staring at “the white screen of death.”

Click on the button below to download your list of 30 Subject Lines and Writing Prompts now.

DOWNLOAD YOUR LIST OF 30 SUBJECT LINES AND WRITING PROMPTS NOW

Now Go Start Your Email List

Do yourself and your audience the kindness of giving them a reliable way to stay in touch with you. You can find links to every tool you need to create your own email list in this blog post. Trust me, you’ll be happy you did.

How to Make an Email Template Your Own, So It Appeals to Your Audience

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This blog post was originally written in 2019. It has been updated to include new information about email templates and artificial intelligence, as well as a few other things.

I have a love-hate relationship with email templates.

Any kind of template, really.

They bug the crap out of me as a professional copywriter.

Is it because I’m snobbish and think everyone should write their own copy?

No.

Far from it.

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