The Beginner’s Guide to Lead Nurturing Emails

Posted by Will Blunt

Lead nurturing has become a key part of the web marketing strategy in most companies.

Today’s consumers are more informed and more accessible than ever before. Our interactions with potential buyers happen at a number of different stages in their journey, and for that reason, we need to interact with them according to their individual stage.

We build lead nurturing into a marketing strategy because we want to develop relationships with buyers, no matter which stage they’re at. We can nurture leads in a number of different ways, and need to understand our buyers so that we can engage with them in a valuable way.

Quite often we split leads up between two categories: cold and warm. To keep a lead warm, you have to nurture that relationship, and keep them engaged. You don’t just knock on someone’s door and start a conversation, only to turn around and just leave someone hanging (and wondering what just happened).

The same goes for your online visitors. If they visit your site and submit their contact information to you, you’ll want to make them feel welcome. One of the best ways to keep your online visitors engaged and interested is through automating these greetings and setting up an “autoresponder” series of emails. This keeps the conversation with them fresh and interesting.

The autoresponder’s most important function is to take people who are curious about what you do and turn them into raving fans. Sonia Simone

If you’re overwhelmed already, that’s okay – we have a template to help you build out this series of lead nurturing emails, so that you can keep your leads warm, happy, and ready to purchase from you.

The “Lead Nurturing Template“ has been downloaded tens of thousands of times as a part of our 33 Web Marketing Templates – but if you don’t have a copy you can download it below. The template will help you plan the steps, and create the emails, you’ll need to nurture the contacts in your database as they get to know, like and trust you.

The rest of this article will take you through, step-by-step, each of the examples used in the template.

Welcome Series

In this first example of an auto-responder sequence, you are sending a welcome email to anyone who has submitted their contact information to you.

You don’t want to pummel your subscribers with a ton of messages. This template has the series sending out one email a week, which is enough to keep your fans informed, but not so often that they’ll want to unsubscribe.

Your first email should, essentially, let them know that you received their contact information and are welcoming them to your community.

Virgin America does an excellent job here of welcoming their subscribers to their newsletters. Their readers get an understanding of what they can expect from Virgin’s updates, and the messaging is friendly and welcoming.

In the following weeks throughout your welcome series, you’ll want to follow up with subscribers and offer them valuable information and relevant content. This could include helpful templates (like we’ve suggested here), downloadable guides, or some of your best blog posts. The goal is to keep your subscribers interested in the kind of content that you generally offer, because this is an insight into what it would be like to become one of your customers.

Webinar Series

Let’s take a look at another example of an autoresponder series that one of your visitors might subscribe to.

Perhaps you’re offering a webinar series on a topic that you are well-known for. When one of your fans signs up, you’ll want to funnel them into a series of emails to thank them for signing up for the webinar, and remind them about the details.

When they RSVP and register for your event, immediately send them a thank you email, along with specifics on the time and date of the event.

Then follow up with them a good few days before the webinar, to remind them of the event and to distribute any relevant or helpful material they may need prior.

And remind them again, one day before, so they’ll be certain to clear their schedules the next day, or make any last minute preparations they need to.

Finally, sending one last minute reminder, about an hour before the webinar goes live is also a good idea. This increases the chance that people will show up on time for the event and log in where they’re supposed to.

When you’ve finished the webinar, a follow up email, maybe a day after the event, helps to ensure that attendees know where to go for any recordings of the webinar or a special offer that you’d like to make available to them.

Your Own Lead Nurturing Email Series

In this last part of the template, we’ve included space for you to brainstorm your own series of lead nurturing emails.

Think about your visitors and what might prompt them to subscribe to receiving information or updates from you.

Are you starting a new blog or workshop series? Is there a new service or piece of content that you’re promoting? Listen to what your prospects and leads are looking for.

Below is an example of a lead nurturing email, from Hubspot. This is the kind of email marketing that you can use to nurture your leads once they have signed up for your list.

In this example, Hubspot is providing subscribers with information and content that is immediately useful – they recognise the pain that marketers go through when searching for relevant images to use, so they’ve provided some for you.

Once you determine the opportunity you are trying to progress, take some time to plan out your lead nurturing series.

• Start with three to five emails in the series
• Decide how you want to space them out when you will send them
• Set aside time to write the copy for each of the emails
• Set up the emails in your email service provider
• TEST the series to make sure it works!

Conclusion

When it comes to finding and attracting customers, it’s important to remember that leads need to be engaged over time.

Your potential customers don’t just become customers overnight – it takes time to build trust and rapport with people. At any given time, only 3% of your market is actively buying. 56% are not ready, 40% are poised to begin.

Lead nurturing is an excellent tool in developing that trust,  you’re putting yourself front and center with them while they are on their purchasing “journey”.

Have you created your first lead nurturing email sequence? What challenges have you come across?