Sending the Right Email to the Right Person
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Is email marketing dead? No way. In fact, email is one of the most profitable marketing channels in terms of ROI. What kind of emails should you send? How should you segment your contact database to ensure that you're sending the right email to the right person? What email metrics should you look at, and why? This presentation is part of HubSpot's complimentary Inbound Certification. Get started at: http://academy.hubspot.com/certification
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Sending the Right Email to the Right Person
- 1. SENDING THE RIGHT EMAIL TO THE RIGHT PERSON. Inbound Certification Class #8
- 2. #INBOUND
- 3. 1 Why email marketing is (still) important 2 How to send the right email to the right person 3 What makes an email world-class 4 Key takeaways and resources AGENDA
- 5. WHY EMAIL MARKETING IS (STILL) IMPORTANT. 1
- 6. Here’s what people think about email. FLICKR USER THOMAS ROUSING
- 7. SPAM People believe that email marketing means
- 8. OLD SCHOOL People also believe that email marketing is
- 10. 95% of online consumers use email; 91% check email at least once a day. Email has longer lifespan than social media. 77% of consumers prefer email for marketing communications. Email lets you be highly personal. Email marketing has an ROI of 4300%. 1 There are more than 3.2 billion email accounts today. 6 2 3 4 5 REASONS THAT EMAIL WORKS. SOURCE: EXACTTARGET (1,2), DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION (4, 6)
- 11. Marketers who say they use email more today than they did three years ago. EMAIL IS GROWING. SOURCE: DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION
- 12. I get it. I’m in. How can email help me?
- 13. Attract New Visitors EMAIL MARKETING WORKS FOR EVERY STAGE OF THE INBOUND METHODOLOGY 1 2 3 4 Convert Visitors Into Leads Nurture Leads Into Customers Delight Customers Into Promoters
- 14. 1 ATTRACT NEW VISITORS
- 15. People like to share content they like. FLICKR USER BEN GREY
- 16. FLICKR USER IAN SANE Segmented lists + relevant content + sharing = exponential reach beyond existing leads
- 17. 2 CONVERT VISITORS INTO LEADS
- 18. Use email to gain FLICKR BEN GREY
- 19. FLICKR RICHARD.ASIA When a lead forwards your email to someone, you gain the power of social proof. Encouraging referrals from existing leads helps you generate new ones.
- 20. 3 NURTURE LEADS INTO CUSTOMERS
- 21. When you segment lists and tailor emails to each lead, they’ll be more engaged. FLICKR KY_OLSEN
- 22. Build a relationship with your lead by being helpful. FLICKR KY_OLSEN
- 23. Email doesn’t have to be a one-sided conversation. Use it to listen to your audience trigger email responses. FLICKR KY_OLSEN
- 24. Nurture leads with content that helps them do their job better. They’ll be more open to speaking to your sales team down the road. FLICKR USER JENNY DOWNING
- 25. 4 DELIGHT CUSTOMERS INTO PROMOTERS
- 26. Just because a lead becomes a customer doesn’t mean your job here is done. FLICKR USER LISANDRO M. ENRIQUE
- 27. Continue to engage customers by sending helpful resources and customer-only extras – attention is key to delight. FLICKR USER JD HANCOCK
- 28. Email is a cost-effective way to strengthen relationships with customers, upsell products, and reduce churn.
- 29. 2 HOW TO SEND THE RIGHT EMAIL TO THE RIGHT PERSON.
- 30. Determine who your audience is HOW TO SEND THE RIGHT EMAIL. 1 2 3 Segment your contacts database Send the right content at the right time 4 Nurture your lead into a customer
- 31. 1 DETERMINE WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS
- 32. Right Content Right Audience Right Timing SUCCESS +
- 34. This is where segmentation comes in. INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGY
- 35. THE RIGHT AUDIENCE • Who are your ideal customers? • What are their interests? • What are their pain-points? • What are their behavior patterns, motivations, and goals? ?
- 36. THE RIGHT TIMING
- 37. 39% 34% 28% 24% 24% 24% 21% Increased Open Rates Greater Email Relevance Lower Opt-Out/Unsubscribe Rates Better Deliverability Increased Sales Leads Greater Revenue Greater Customer Retention % of respondents EMAIL LIST SEGMENTATION RESULTS SOURCE: LYRIS, INC.
- 38. 2 SEGMENT YOUR CONTACTS DATABASE
- 39. Increase deliverability Increase reach SEGMENT TO HIT SPECIFIC GOALS Increase engagement
- 40. Increase deliverability Increase reach Increase engagement SEGMENT TO HIT SPECIFIC GOALS
- 41. Your list decays at 25% a year. A list with 10,000 contacts will only have 5,625 viable contacts in 3 years.
- 42. FLIICKR USER HEGARTY_DAVID Emailing purchased lists increases your chances of being marked as SPAM and decreases deliverability rates.
- 43. FLICKR USER REMON RIJPER Say goodbye to unengaged leads. Suppress them from your segmented lists.
- 44. FLICKR USER @NOTNIXON Regularly update lists to account for unsubscribed contacts.
- 45. Increase deliverability Increase reach Increase engagement SEGMENT TO HIT SPECIFIC GOALS
- 46. FLIICKR USER EMILIOKUFFER Sending content to targeted lists increases open rates and click through rates.
- 47. FLICKR USER IRON RODAR GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION • IP Area • Time Zone • Area Code • Address
- 48. FLICKR USER _HADOCK_ FIRMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION • Company size • Company type • Industry
- 49. FLICKR _HADOCK_ ROLE SEGMENTATION • Department • Seniority • Function
- 50. FLICKR _HADOCK_ BEHAVIORAL SEGMENTATION • Conversion events • Email opens • Page views
- 51. R ROBERT S. DONOVAN MARKETING INTELLIGENCE • # of Twitter followers • # of Facebook fans • SEO search terms • Website Pages • Technology
- 52. Increase deliverability Increase reach Increase engagement SEGMENT TO HIT SPECIFIC GOALS
- 53. FLIICKR USER MOHAMMED ALNASER Some leads are never going to convert. But they love you!
- 54. FLICKR IRON RODART – ROYCE VAIR (“STAR SHOOTER”) LET THEM SPREAD THE LOVE. • Evangelists • Influencers • Students
- 55. 3 SEND THE RIGHT CONTENT AT THE RIGHT TIME
- 56. SEND CONTENT THAT FOLLOWS THE BUYER’S JOURNEY
- 57. • Videos • Blog posts • Slideshares • Free Tools • Ebooks/Guides SEND CONTENT THAT FOLLOWS THE BUYER’S JOURNEY
- 58. • Webinars • Case Studies • FAQ Sheets • Product Whitepapers • Third-Party Reviews SEND CONTENT THAT FOLLOWS THE BUYER’S JOURNEY
- 59. • Free Trials • ROI Reports • Product Demos • Consultations • Estimates/Quotes SEND CONTENT THAT FOLLOWS THE BUYER’S JOURNEY
- 60. 4 NURTURE A LEAD INTO A CUSTOMER
- 61. Say someone views your pricing page…
- 62. They’re interested, but aren’t talking to sales yet.
- 63. What if you could instantly facilitate a conversation and connect them with sales?
- 64. Create a segmented list…
- 65. …that triggers a workflow.
- 66. Lead receives an email from you asking if they have any questions about pricing. …that triggers a workflow.
- 67. Their sales rep receives a notification that they’ve viewed the pricing page. …that triggers a workflow.
- 68. WHAT MAKES AN EMAIL WORLD-CLASS. 3
- 69. Emails should add value, not ask for it.
- 70. It is also essential that you OPTIMIZE YOUR EMAILS.
- 71. 1 Identify a specific goal EMAIL BEST PRACTICES 2 Personalize sender info 3 Personalize email copy 4 Get to the point 5 Address leads directly 6 Use actionable language 7 Focus on benefits 8 Use multiple CTAs 9 Encourage sharing 10 Edit the plain-text 11 Optimize for mobile 12 Analyze Results
- 72. IDENTIFY A SPECIFIC GOAL. • Generate new leads: enable sharing • Follow up on offer download: kickback email • Collect audience feedback: surveys • Increase program awareness: informative copy • Nurture leads further down the funnel: resources • Facilitate sales process: CTA such as “call us” • Educate customers about new features: overview 1
- 73. SEND YOUR EMAIL FROM A PERSON, NOT A COMPANY. Increase open rate by 3-5% 2
- 75. First name 3 USE PERSONALIZATION.
- 76. 3 USE PERSONALIZATION. Most relevant download
- 77. Company name 3 USE PERSONALIZATION.
- 78. Sales rep info 3 USE PERSONALIZATION.
- 79. Over 75% of email revenue is now generated by alternatives to generic one-size-fits-all campaigns. Personalized emails see 14% higher click-through rates and 10% more conversions. SOURCE: ALCHEMY WORX: ABERDEEN GROUP 3 USE PERSONALIZATION.
- 80. CREATE SUBJECT LINES AND EMAIL COPY THAT GET TO THE POINT. 4
- 81. CREATE SUBJECT LINES AND EMAIL COPY THAT GET TO THE POINT. 4
- 82. CREATE SUBJECT LINES AND EMAIL COPY THAT GET TO THE POINT. 4
- 83. No. CREATE SUBJECT LINES AND EMAIL COPY THAT GET TO THE POINT. 4
- 84. SPEAK DIRECTLY TO A PERSON.5
- 85. • Incorporate verbs into your in-text CTAs and CTA buttons • Get Your Templates • Start Your Project Now • Reserve Your Seat • Let lead know what they can do by clicking your email’s in-text CTAs and CTA buttons • Save time • Generate more leads • Increase production efficiency by 23% USE ACTIONABLE LANGUAGE.6
- 86. FOCUS ON BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES.7
- 87. USE EACH COMPONENT OF YOUR EMAIL AS A CALL TO ACTION.8 Edit alt-text of images + CTAs
- 88. USE EACH COMPONENT OF YOUR EMAIL AS A CALL TO ACTION.8 Edit alt-text of images + CTAs Add CTA to Signature
- 89. 8 USE EACH COMPONENT OF YOUR EMAIL AS A CALL TO ACTION.8 Edit alt-text of images + CTAs Link images to landing pages Add CTA to Signature
- 90. Edit alt-text of images + CTAs Link images to landing pages Modify preview text Add CTA to signature USE EACH COMPONENT OF YOUR EMAIL AS A CALL TO ACTION.8
- 91. ENCOURAGE SHARING TO GENERATE MORE LEADS.9
- 92. ENCOURAGE SHARING TO GENERATE MORE LEADS.9 Use a tracking URL
- 93. ENCOURAGE SHARING TO GENERATE MORE LEADS.9 Use a tracking URL Personalize message when possible
- 94. ENCOURAGE SHARING TO GENERATE MORE LEADS.9
- 95. ENCOURAGE SHARING TO GENERATE MORE LEADS.9
- 96. ENCOURAGE SHARING TO GENERATE MORE LEADS.9
- 97. EDIT THE PLAIN TEXT.10
- 98. Do images display correctly? Is the text legible? Does it zoom properly? Is the Call-to-Action functional? Does the logo work on a smaller screen? OPTIMIZE FOR MOBILE.11
- 99. RUN A/B TESTS FOR: • Subject line optimization • Email templates • Offers • Length • Images • Copy • CTAs ANALYZE YOUR RESULTS.12
- 100. ANALYZE YOUR RESULTS.12 Measure stats such as: • Delivery rates
- 101. ANALYZE YOUR RESULTS.12 Measure stats such as: • Delivery rates • Open rates
- 102. ANALYZE YOUR RESULTS.12 Measure stats such as: • Delivery rates • Open rates • Click-through rates
- 103. ANALYZE YOUR RESULTS.12 Measure stats such as: • Delivery rates • Open rates • Click-through rates • Contact churn
- 104. Measure stats such as: • Delivery rates • Open rates • Click-through rates • Contact churn • Hard/soft bounces ANALYZE YOUR RESULTS.12
- 105. Analyze segment behavior: • URL click popularity • Unsubscribes vs, email preference changes • Social shares by channel • CTA click rate ANALYZE YOUR RESULTS.12
- 106. OK, that’s great. But what does a world-class email look like when you’ve put all of it together?
- 108. Example: Product Email Informational, more text is okay. You’re educating a lead about your product.
- 109. Example: Product Email Informational, more text is okay. You’re educating a lead about your product. Image is central part of the email. It links to a Slideshare about inbound marketing.
- 110. Example: Product Email Informational, more text is okay. You’re educating a lead about your product. Image is central part of the email. It links to a Slideshare about inbound marketing. Is there someone else at the organization that would be a better fit for this email? Encourage forwarding.
- 111. Example: Product Email Informational, more text is okay. You’re educating a lead about your product. Image is central part of the email. It links to a Slideshare about inbound marketing. Is there someone else at the organization that would be a better fit for this email? Encourage forwarding. Primary goal of this email is to encourage leads to learn more about the product. CTAs reflect that.
- 113. Example: Promotional Email Use personalization token such as contact’s first name
- 114. Example: Promotional Email Use personalization token such as contact’s first name Encourage sharing of download with colleagues/friends
- 115. Example: Promotional Email Use personalization token such as contact’s first name Encourage sharing of download with colleagues/friends Provide contact info in signature to facilitate 1:1 conversation
- 116. Example: Promotional Email Use personalization token such as contact’s first name Encourage sharing of download with colleagues/friends Actionable language + speaking directly to lead (“Your Templates”) Provide contact info in signature to facilitate 1:1 conversation
- 117. Example: Promotional Email Image sets expectations for what the download looks like and acts as a CTA Use personalization token such as contact’s first name Encourage sharing of download with colleagues/friends Actionable language + speaking directly to lead (“Your Templates”) Provide contact info in signature to facilitate 1:1 conversation
- 118. Example: Promotional Email Image sets expectations for what the download looks like and acts as a CTA Use personalization token such as contact’s first name Encourage sharing of download with colleagues/friends Actionable language + speaking directly to lead (“Your Templates”) Social sharing buttons to generate new leadsProvide contact info in signature to facilitate 1:1 conversation
- 120. Plaintext style simulates 1:1 email Example: Nurturing Email
- 121. Example: Nurturing Email State reason for sending email Plaintext style simulates 1:1 email
- 122. Example: Nurturing Email State reason for sending email Optimize CTA around main goal: in this case, connecting lead with sales immediately. Plaintext style simulates 1:1 email
- 123. Example: Nurturing Email State reason for sending email Personalize sender. A real person is emailing. Note the position of the sender – gives authority. Plaintext style simulates 1:1 email Optimize CTA around main goal: in this case, connecting lead with sales immediately
- 125. 1 To be successful at email marketing, you need to send the right content to the right person at the right time. 2 Email marketing can be used for brand awareness, lead generation, lead to customer conversion, and customer retention. 3 Segmenting your contacts database increases engagement and deliverability and decreases unsubscribe rates. KEY TAKEAWAYS
- 126. 4 You can use segmented lists to trigger nurturing sequences to move leads further down the funnel. 5 Each email should have one specific goal. 6 Personalization increases engagement and conversions. 7 Take the time to optimize emails – detail is key. KEY TAKEAWAYS
- 127. 1 The Anatomy of a 5-Star Email [eBook] 2 Optimizing Email Marketing for Conversions [downloadable guide] 3 8 Little Tricks to Make Your Emails More Clickable [blog post] RESOURCES
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Twitterhashtag
- Here’s our agenda for today. First, I’m going to outline why email marketing is still relevant and should be utilized in your marketing campaign. Next, we’ll go over how to send the right email to the right person. Then, we’ll take a deep dive into the components of an email and how to optimize each one to create a world-class email. Finally, I’ll leave you with some key takeaways and email marketing resources that you can use for your own marketing strategy.
- As a refresher, here’s the inbound methodology again. This class will primarily focus on the close stage – sending the right email to the right person to turn those leads into customers.
- First things first -- email marketing is still an important part of marketing.
- In 2004, PC Magazine ran a piece titled “The Death of Email.” The article opened up with “Has email peaked and become more useless?”With the advent of new technology coming out every two minutes, it can seem like email is a lumbering behemoth on it’s way out. As a marketer, you want to be as effective and efficient as possible, and you might be asking yourself, is email really worth it?http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1599324,00.asp
- People believe that email marketing means SPAM -- purchased lists and endless email blasts to people who don't want to hear from you.
- People believe that email marketing is old school – it’s the oldest online marketing tool that’s been continuously in play, and people start to wonder why it’s still being used.
- So that brings us to the question, is email still effective?Image: iStockPhoto (we own)
- Yes, and here are 6 reasons why:1) There are more than 3.2 billion email accounts today – that’s a LOT of people using email.2) 95% of online consumers use email, and 91% report that they check their email at least once a day. If people are checking their email every day, it’s probably quite a useful tool, right?3) Since emails stay in your inbox unless you delete or archive them, it has a longer lifespan than other marketing channels, such as social media.4) 77% of consumers prefer email for marketing communications over other forms.5) Email lets you be highly personal, allowing you to talk to your audience as if it’s a 1 on 1 conversation.6) And lastly, we still use email because it has an ROI of 4300%. For every $1 you spend, you get $43 of returns. That’s a pretty sweet deal.
- NOT A COMPLETE SENTENCE -KGIn fact, email is growing.According to the Direct Marketing Association, 76% of marketers say they use more email than they did three years ago.
- At this point, I know thinking, “I get it. I’m in. How can email help me?”
- Even though this class is in the close segment of this series and that’s where it’s most typically used, email can actually be used throughout the methodology - even to attract.
- You can use email to attract new visitors.
- Remember – people like to share what they like. We see it on social media all the time, but the original “share” was the email forward!
- HIGHER RES PHOTO? –KGWhen you segment your contacts database and send them relevant, interesting content, they’re likely to forward it to their friends or colleagues who they think would find your content helpful, too. And that means you’ve reached a completely new audience, driving new visitors to your website.
- You can also use email to convert those visitors into leads.
- PHOTO CREDIT? HIGHER RES IMAGE? –KG
- Moral of the story? When you help leads, they help you.
- Of course, email is used to nurture leads into customers – this falls into the “close” stage of inbound methodology.
- Photo credit? –KGNurturing is all about sending the right email to the right audience – segment your lists and tailor your emails to each lead. This increases engagement.
- Image from Thinkstock photoUse email as a tool for building relationships with your leads. Position yourself as a consultant, ready to help them with their challenges, They’ll be more likely to interact with you.
- Remember, email isn’t a one-sided conversation. Listen to what your audience – are they looking up specific product pages? Replying to your emails with feedback or questions? You can trigger auto-responses to their activities as well as respond directly. Leads will then be more open to listening to you.
- Nurturing is exactly what it sounds like – helping someone grow.Nurture your leads with content that helps them do their job better, and they’ll be more open to speaking to your sales team down the road.
- Lastly, you can use emails even once someone has become a customer.
- Just because they’re no longer a lead doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road for you. Your job here isn’t done.
- Utilize email to constantly delight your customers. Occasionally check in, send helpful resources, and special customer-only extras. Attention is key to delight – and a happy customer can be your biggest advocate!
- Email marketing is a cost-effective way to delight your customers. You can strengthen relationships, upsell new products, and reduce churn – meaning, customers are less likely to stop using your products.
- OK, so it’s pretty clear that email marketing Is important. But how DO you send the right email to the right person?
- You need toDetermine who your audience isSegment your contacts database to match that audienceSend the right content at the right time to that audienceAnd use it to nurture that lead into becoming a customer
- Who is getting your email, and why?
- Email is all about CATS. No, not the cute, furry kind. I’m talking about The right content, right audience, and right timing equals success.
- Remember, inbound marketing is all about adding context to content.
- Segmentation lets you add context to make your content more relevant and engaging.
- Buyer personas are semi-fictional characters that businesses CREATE, through research, analysis, and taking a close look at who’s already buying from them--to represent their ideal customers. You might create these based on questions such as:Who are your ideal customers?What are their interests?What are their pain points?What are their behavior patterns, motivations, and goals?Here’s an example. Let’s say I’m selling machine washers. My ideal customers are middle-aged women and men located in suburbs. They’re interested in energy efficiency, but their pain-point is the higher cost of efficient washing machines. They tend to compare options online before making big purchases like this, because they want to make sure they make the right investment that lasts for a while.
- Where is your audience in the buyer cycle? Sending the right content to the right buyer persona at the WRONG time can be a huge problem. Say, for example, someone was just starting to learn about the benefits of inbound marketing. Sending them an RFP document for marketing automation, or an ROI report of HubSpot would be extremely pushy and may cause the lead to unsubscribe. When someone unsubscribes, you’ve essentially lost them for good.
- And on that note, segmentation drives results.Just take a look at the following data from the Lyris Annual Email Optimizer Report.When asked to indicate their top three results, 39% of marketers who segmented their email lists experienced higher open rates, 28% experienced lower unsubscribe rates, and 24% experienced better deliverability and greater revenue.Sending targeted emails increases click through rates, engagement and the possibility of sales. It also reduces the possibility of your mailing list tagging your mail as "spam", since the message will relate to them.
- Now, you need to segment your contacts database.
- You can segment your database in order to achieve specific goals for a persona.
- This is one of the sad realities of marketing. You spend at ton of time building, cleaning, loving a solid list of prospects, but that list is becoming less valuable by the second. As people change jobs, change emails, and hit the unsubscribe button, your list quickly loses its punch.That’s why you need to supplement your email marketing with blog posts and content to make sure your lists stay healthy and grow over time – inbound methodology means your marketing is interconnected, after all!
- I love SPAM!... Said no one ever.Yet, that’s what email marketing is sometimes associated with, due to bad practices such as buying lists and emailing people who didn’t opt in. This is not only annoying to the people getting your unwanted emails, it actually decreases the value of your brand and you can get flagged for SPAM, hurting your deliverability and credibility.
- Create segmented suppression lists to catch all those leads that are unengaged. For example, you can create a suppression list of everyone who hasn’t opened an email in more than a year and suppress these people from your segments – chances are, they either don’t care or their contact data isn’t even valid anymore, which results in more bounces and lower delivery rates.
- Your contacts who have opted-out of email won’t be receiving your emails, anyways. But unless you suppress them from your lists, your selected list size will be overinflated. This will result in skewed expectations based off of that original list size, so the number of people you think you’re sending an email to isn’t accurate and neither are your projected results.
- You can also use segmentation to increase engagement.
- Sending targeted content increases open rates and click through rates. For example, when we used the word “ecommerce” in the subject line of an email aimed at that segment, we were able to increase open rates by 4%.
- You can segment people by geography using criteria such as IP country, time zone, area code, and address.
- You can use firmographic segmentation, which involves any criteria about a person’s company – such as its size, whether they are B2B, B2C, non-profit, or Ecommerce, and by industry.
- It’s important that you’re talking to the right person at the company. If you are in the business of software, you don’t want to be sending emails about inbound marketing to someone in finance. If you are trying to present the ROI of your product, sending it to an entry level lead isn’t the most effective.Segment your lead by their role, what department they belong to (such as marketing or R&D), seniority, and their specific function within a department.
- If you use a CMS such as HubSpot that has the ability to track a lead’s behavior on your website, you can use that to gauge how interested leads are and what they’re interested in. For example, you can use conversion events (such as downloading an Ebook about Twitter), email opens, and page views.
- If you have marketing intelligence software, you can go one step further and actually incorporate information about your lead and their company into your lists – how many followers and fans do they have? What search terms do they use to find your website? How many web pages do they have (this can show how established they are), and what technology do they have on their website (also an indication of their size and purchasing power).
- Lastly, you can use segmentation to increase reach. Earlier, I had mentioned you can attract visitors with email. Here’s how.
- HIGHER RES PHOTO? –KGSome leads are never going to convert… but they love you!
- So accept that love and let them be your biggest fan. These are your evangelists! Email them with sharing CTAs. You can also bucket influencers and people who are only looking at your products for educational purposes, such as students into potential promoters.
- Now, the title of this session – sending the right content at the right time!
- You’ve got the right audience segment, now you need to look at where they are in the buyer’s journey. This is where the combination of content and timing comes in – content is relevant to your audience if it comes at the right time – the right stage of the buyer’s journey. Let’s go over some best practices of what to send at each stage.
- In the awareness stage, your lead is just starting to notice your business. He or she isn’t ready to buy your products, heck, they might not even know they need your products yet. Keep content top-of-the-funnel (that is, easily consumable): videos, blog posts, slideshares, free tools, and high level guides are great to capture interest and nurture them further down the buyer’s journey.
- If your lead is in the consideration stage, they’re evaluating whether they need a solution or not. This is a chance for you to present a potential solution, but remember, you’re adding yourself into the consideration pile, not asking them to buy. Treat it as one big FAQ, you’re answering unasked questions you anticipate are running through your lead’s head.Some suggestions of content to email during this stage are webinars, case studies, FAQ sheets, product whitepapers, and third-party reviews.
- Ah, the decision stage. Now, your lead has decided they do need a solution, and they’re probably evaluating several solutions, including yours. This is the time to send those free trials, ROI reports, product demos, consultations, and estimates or quotes, depending on your industry. You want to be upfront with what you can offer, and it’s time to let the lead get up close to your product.
- You’ve figured out your audience and what to send them. Now, when you send multiple emails that build off of each other, you start to really nurture them into becoming a customer.
- Now, I want to share a real-live example of something we’re doing to turn leads into customers more successfully. Say someone views your pricing page…
- Sentence fragment? –KGThey’re interested, but they aren’t talking to sales yet.
- What if you could instantly facilitate a conversation and connect them with sales?
- That’s exactly what we did.First, we created a segmented list based off of views of our pricing page, and then we narrowed it down by excluding people who were already customers or being spoken to by sales.
- Then, I used that list to trigger an workflow – this is making use of marketing automation.
- First, the lead receives an email asking if they have any questions about our pricing, and encourages them to reply to the email.
- Next, their sales rep receives a notification they’ve viewed the page, so that marketing AND sales is on the same page about this lead.Then, if there was still no response, we sent one more follow-up email letting them know that we were checking in one last time, and provided a phone number in case they wanted to call us.
- So now that you have an idea of the uses of email and how to pinpoint the right audience and send them the right content, let’s dive into the email itself. What makes an email world class?
- Emails should add value, not ask for it.
- It is also essential that you optimize your emails.
- Let’s get into the nitty gritty of how to make your emails rock. I call it the 12-step guide to email perfection. Here’s an overview – these tips fall into several buckets: goal-setting, personalization, being direct, being helpful, and making sure everything in your email looks great.
- Let’s start with tip #1: identify a specific goal. Why are you sending this email?If you want to generate new leads, enable sharing buttons.If you want to send a follow-up to a download, you can set up a kickback email -- the email someone receives automatically post-download with a short message and link to the content for easy access.If you want to understand your audience, send them surveys.If you want to increase awareness of a certain program, be clear and informative, linking to additional associated pages.If you want to engage leads to nurture them down the buyer’s journey, send them useful resources. They’ll love you for it!If you want to connect them with sales because they’re a great fit, use a CTA such as “Request a demo” or “call us”And if you want to educate customers about new features, send them an announcement with links to the product overview.
- During several A/B tests we ran on over 50,000 recipients, we found that personalizing the sender name and email address increased the open rate an average of 3%. So:It may be best to do this ... Sender Name: Paul Smith Sender Email Address: psmith@company.com... and not this: Sender Name: Marketing Team Sender Email: marketing@company.comOur tests showed personalization works, but we've also found that a combination of a person's name and a company name together in the sender name works well too. You've just got to A/B test what works best for your particular company, brand, and industry as well as what's ideal based on to whom you're sending emails.
- -this is really easy to do in HubSpot-if you have that property set up, you can segment on it!-you can personalize any contact property-first name, last name, email, company name-whatever helps you better target your contact database, use it.-here’s an example:
- -this is really easy to do in HubSpot-if you have that property set up, you can segment on it-you can personalize any contact property-first name, last name, email, company name-whatever helps you better target your contact database, use it
- -this is really easy to do in HubSpot-if you have that property set up, you can segment on it-you can personalize any contact property-first name, last name, email, company name-whatever helps you better target your contact database, use it
- -this is really easy to do in HubSpot-if you have that property set up, you can segment on it-you can personalize any contact property-first name, last name, email, company name-whatever helps you better target your contact database, use it
- -this is really easy to do in HubSpot-if you have that property set up, you can segment on it-you can personalize any contact property-first name, last name, email, company name-whatever helps you better target your contact database, use it
- 75% of email revenue is now generated by alternatives to generic, one-size-fits-all campaigns. In fact, personalized emails see a 14% higher click-through-rate and 10% more conversions
- Time is money, so get to the point! You need to be clear and compelling.Clear: if I can read your subject line and know what to expectCompelling: of course, to get people to open that email-do NOT want to be misleading hereExamples:Complimentary eBook: Double Your Traffic in 50 DaysBusiness Accounting Software
- Time is $$-clear (like this beautiful mountain lake here) and catchy, this is what drives people to open your emails-what do I mean by clear and compellingClear: if I can read your subject line and know what to expectCompelling: of course, to get people to open that email-do NOT want to be misleading hereExamples:Complimentary eBook: Double Your Traffic in 50 DaysBusiness Accounting Software
- Time is $$-clear (like this beautiful mountain lake here) and catchy, this is what drives people to open your emails-what do I mean by clear and compellingClear: if I can read your subject line and know what to expectCompelling: of course, to get people to open that email-do NOT want to be misleading hereExamples:Complimentary eBook: Double Your Traffic in 50 DaysBusiness Accounting Software
- Time is $$-clear (like this beautiful mountain lake here) and catchy, this is what drives people to open your emails-what do I mean by clear and compellingClear: if I can read your subject line and know what to expectCompelling: of course, to get people to open that email-do NOT want to be misleading hereExamples:Complimentary eBook: Double Your Traffic in 50 DaysBusiness Accounting Software
- Speak directly to your lead. You don’t want them to feel like you’re sending the same thing to hundreds or thousands of people – address them personally so it feels like a one-to-one conversation.
- It’s important to use actionable language. People have short attention spans – how many emails have you opened, scanned for two seconds, and then closed? I know I’ve done it. This isn’t the time for fluff.Use actionable language to grab attention and convince leads to go through with an action. Use verbs in your CTAs, such as “get”, “start”, or “reserve”.You can also let your lead know what they can do by clicking your email’s in-text-CTAs or buttons – they can save time, or generate more leads, or increase efficiency by 23%.
- “I’m the best!” “I’m the fastest!” “I’m the strongest!” Gee, sometimes email marketers can sound like little kids competing on the playground. Get ahead by focusing on the benefits, not features, of your download, or product, or program – whatever it may be. Tell them what they’ll learn, how it will help them, and they’ll stop rolling their eyes and start paying attention.
- You only get so much real-estate in an email – you want it to be short and sweet so people aren’t dealing with a novel. Therefore, you want to make use of every component of your email and use them all to achieve your goal by turning them into a CTA.
- Time is $$-clear (like this beautiful mountain lake here) and catchy, this is what drives people to open your emails-what do I mean by clear and compellingClear: if I can read your subject line and know what to expectCompelling: of course, to get people to open that email-do NOT want to be misleading hereExamples:Complimentary eBook: Double Your Traffic in 50 DaysBusiness Accounting Software
- Time is $$-clear (like this beautiful mountain lake here) and catchy, this is what drives people to open your emails-what do I mean by clear and compellingClear: if I can read your subject line and know what to expectCompelling: of course, to get people to open that email-do NOT want to be misleading hereExamples:Complimentary eBook: Double Your Traffic in 50 DaysBusiness Accounting Software
- Time is $$-clear (like this beautiful mountain lake here) and catchy, this is what drives people to open your emails-what do I mean by clear and compellingClear: if I can read your subject line and know what to expectCompelling: of course, to get people to open that email-do NOT want to be misleading hereExamples:Complimentary eBook: Double Your Traffic in 50 DaysBusiness Accounting Software
- Increase your reach! Allow your recipients to share the content in your emails. Many email tools, such as HubSpot, allow you to enable social sharing buttons right in the editor.
- Use a tracking URL so you can pinpoint the source of new leads after in your analytics. We check our conversions right from the sources page of HubSpot analytics, which is convenient.
- You can also use sites like clicktotweet.com to create pre-made tweets that you can link to from your social sharing buttons.
- In addition, you can encourage sharing in the text of your email, too.
- Introduce the idea of sharing the content – here’s something I sent to our evangelists recently: “do you want to join the party and help spread the word?”
- I then followed it up with links to an email forwarding link and a pre-made tweet for easy sharing.
- Details, details. Remember, not everyone sees emails in the beautiful HTML versions you created. Make sure you clean up the plain-text so it doesn’t end up looking like… this. See all those ridiculously long links and random sentences? Those are components of the email that got pulled into the main copy because there wasn’t a separate area for it to exist in the email.
- According to Litmus, 48% of emails are now opened on a mobile device, so you better make sure your email works for multiple screens. Use responsive email templates that fit to any screen size, so things don’t appear stretched and words don’t scroll off the page. Before sending your email, preview it in a mobile format (you can do this with some tools such as HubSpot), or send a test email to yourself and check it on your phone –Does the logo still work on a smaller screen?Is the text legible?Is the CTA clickable?Do images display correctly?
- The last step is all about results. Make the most of your emails by setting an A/B test. Use it to learn more about your emails/audience- You can improve your total clicks, too, by testing the email and then sending the winning version
- Measure stats in each email, such as:Delivery rates
- Open rates – now, keep in mind that open rates are just one short-term metric.
- Focus more on click-through-rates to measure engagement. How many people are you driving to your website through your links?
- Also keep an eye on contact churn – these are people who unsubscribed after receiving this email.
- Look at your hard and soft bounces to gauge the health of your lists. Lots of hard bounces means fake or out-of-service email addresses, while soft bounces means your email is making it into the inbox but getting caught in a spam filter.
- It’s also useful to see what links people are clicking on – are you doing a good job of driving people to click on the CTA that helps you achieve your goal, or are people getting distracted? Check URL click popularity, unsubscribe link clicks, social shares, and the CTA click rate.
- IMAGE CREDIT? –KGWe own – it is a thinkstock photo purchased by HubSpot.
- Here’s an example of a product email.
- It’s informational – more text is okay. You’re educating a lead about your product – you can assume they are further down the buyer’s journey and more apt to pay attention because they’re evaluating products.
- Yet, you still want to draw their eye to one main CTA – in this case, an image of a slideshare presentation we want to drive them to that gives an overview of inbound marketing and HubSpot.
- We also included an email forward link to allow people to forward the email to someone else in their organization in case they weren’t the decision-maker.
- The primary goal of this email is to encourage leads to learn more about the product – the CTAs reflect that throughout the email, from the slideshare link to the demo request option.
- Now here’s a promotion email we used recently.
- It uses personalization – we’re now having a 1:1 conversation.
- We want to attract even more visitors to our website, so we included email share CTAs.
- Provide contact info so the lead can follow up with a human if they want!
- We used actionable language and spoke directly to the lead: using “Download now” and “Your Templates”
- The image isn’t fluffy – it creates expectations for what’s in the offer.
- More sharing! Since this is a piece of content (not a demo) that is aimed at those in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, we want them to spread the awareness if they want.
- Lastly, here’s a nurturing email. Notice how different it is from the other two. This is an email in a series triggered by when someone views our pricing page. It’s highly personal and simple – a true 1:1 experience.
- Using a simple template removes distractions.
- The reason for sending the email is clear: “I wanted to check in one last time – do you have any questions…”
- The CTA here is to have the lead reply or contact sales themselves.
- A personalized sender makes the interaction more human.
- Can you believe it – we’re almost done! Let’s go over some key takeaways, and then I’ll point you to some resources that you can use to take your email marketing to the next level!
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