What can be better than customers coming to you? Nothing, right? That is why brands spend thousands of dollars trying to make that happen. Social media ads, display ads, discount campaigns, social media campaigns, influencer marketing campaigns – all of these exist so that customers click and enter their details.
But that hardly means that the hard part is over.
You see a typical inbound marketing cycle looks like this :
Attract – convert- close – delight
Since we know a lot about attracting customer attention and natural curiosity takes over when a customer interacts with a new brand, the first step is the easiest.
But once they know a little about the brand, it is old news. It is important to hold attention so that you can convince, engage, and prove that your brand is the best choice for them.
And email marketing happens to be the best tool to do that. In this blog, we bring you a compilation of email marketing ideas that make it possible to nurture your inbound leads and streamline your conversion process through emails.
Before we discuss what emails to send, how, and when, let’s clarify why the focus is on email marketing specifically.
Email marketing strategies come in handy for inbound and outbound lead generation. But there is a fundamental difference between inbound email marketing and outbound email marketing.
When you do cold emails for outbound lead generation, you are a pesky and pushy person who is just pushing the customer in trying your product. The customer will then have a lot of reasons to ignore the email. Consequently, your conversion rates drop.
But inbound email marketing gives you a little more scope to move around. You can play a long game and let the customer move towards your product slowly. Start with educational content and engage them so that they have a reason to hear you out.
And with emails, personalization via segmentation can be at its ultimate best. You can send the right message to the right customers instead of talking to a mixed audience at large. Also, more often than not, you are talking to customers who already have expressed interest in your products or services.
While it is definitely easier to monetize the email marketing platform to make the most of your lead nurturing process, there is a way to do it right. There are definitely some email marketing ideas that work better in attracting the audience’s attention.
So here are a few email examples from D2C and B2B brands that show us the possibilities in email marketing for inbound leads.
This is one of the most critical email marketing ideas to include in your strategy. Someone has willingly shared their information with you, so don’t leave them hanging. Hit the iron while it is still hot. Customer memory is usually very short-lived and the sooner you can engage, the better. It takes 5-7 impressions to create a lasting brand memory and you want them to be in a closer timeframe.
So the best way to begin is with a Hello email or a welcome email. Give your customers a chance to get to know you better and understand what you could offer.
Of course, you can also incentivize your customers to continue the association by offering free samples, free trials, and limited-period discounts.
So we are in the second step of the inbound lead generation and nurturing process. Therefore, your email marketing ideas should be optimized for the customer that has engaged with your content (usually paid) and has expressed interest in your brand. Now, this lead comes to you at a cost (content creation, ad placement, and so on).
Why stop at just introducing?
Knock on that door once more with a gentle but prominent push toward the brand.
A few popular ways of doing this include:
This is one of the most underrated email marketing ideas. Remember when we talked about inbound email marketing not being pushy? This section is what makes it possible. Sometimes, friction in the sales process is immense. Specifically, in B2B sales, it takes a lot to convince a customer to close a deal. And brands benefit immensely by taking the educational approach rather than relentlessly pushing a product.
For this, you could share :
These emails put the spotlight on how the product is different, its USP, and why it is the best product for the customer right now.
Sharing social proof via email is a great way to attract customers. Because you are showing them that other customers have had a great experience with you. Detailed reviews from customers can explain common customer pain points and highlight how your product is the perfect solution.
Emails with videos have higher open rates and also generated the best CTR your campaigns have achieved till now. Videos also make for an amazing medium for educational content.
When you are convinced that your customers know you well and have adequate knowledge of your product, it is time to bring out the big guns. Be it D2C or B2B, it is humans who are the ultimate decision-makers.
So incentivize their journey and relationship with your brand so that taking the first step becomes easier for them.
Email marketing ideas that help achieve this include sharing :
Talk to your customers before and after they buy from you. Especially after. Ask questions like :
Opening a feedback loop immensely helps you when you want to first hand understand your sales funnel.
Some may say that the sales funnel is dead and it is time to dive into a circular buyer’s journey. When offers like a free trial or a free product are put on the table, the process of moving a lead through consideration and consideration stages reduces by a lot. And that is true.
But sometimes, those freebies do not translate into paying customers. And brands get the onus of convincing and establishing trust once again. This is where understanding the buyer’s journey and solving pain points in that journey comes in handy.
Email marketing helps you reconnect with those specific customers who know you and start a dialogue toward conversion with them.
Email marketing looks different today than it did a few years ago. You see a lot of images, GIFs, and videos being used in order to retain the audience’s attention. Creating visually engaging emails is the way forward. Use the right tools to create these email designs or work with professional designers for a stronger brand identity.
