Tag Archive for: Drip Campaigns

Lead Liaison

The Most Important Email Marketing Elements For 2016 (Infographic)

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This article was posted as a Guest Blog Post by our affiliates at OnBlastBlog.com 

Let’s get one thing straight: email marketing is not dead, nor is it dying. It is still one of the most effective means of generating leads and conversions for a business. The old ways may have died, but there are new elements rising into the spotlight that change how we look at our email campaigns.

Today I’ll share several of the email marketing elements you should be using in 2016, followed by an infographic filled with the latest strategies that you can implement into your next campaign.

Today’s Top Email Marketing Trends and Strategies (Infographic)

You should start by avoiding the most common email marketing mistakes. Now, let’s look at some of the most important elements in any modern strategy:

  • Marketing automation such as drip campaigns and triggered message series are becoming more important to manage and nurture leads.
  • Segmenting your email lists based on a variety of factors (such as whether they’ve purchased or not) will ensure that your emails are personalized and relevant to each category.
  • Provide timely and relevant communication that addresses their needs.
  • Offer exclusive content they can’t get any other way.

Email marketing is a powerful tool in the right hands. Check out the infographic below for a closer look at today’s top strategies and let us know how it helps you in the comments!How to Send out Emails Like a Professional

Lead Liaison

10 Email Drip Campaigns That Work

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10 Email Drip Campaigns That WorkLooking for lead nurturing help? Here are ten ideas you can use to boost your email drip campaigns.

Create a story

Develop a storyline that is relevant to your solution(s), such as the life and times of your typical customer. Make sure the content is well-written and constructed like an old movie serials about crime fighters, where readers are anticipating a new chapter.

Run a campaign

Start a campaign to reduce waste or to create a movement. This is a variation to cause marketing and can be effective at generating followers.

Host a contest

Design a contest for customers and prospects alike. Leverage social media by having participants follow you. Make it simple to join. Post updates, new information, or other fresh content on social accounts.

Announce an event

Tell your list about an upcoming event that your enterprise is participating in. Use reminder messaging to update readers. Add to previous emails by providing fresh information about the events or its participants. Make sure to include a reference to the new information in your Subject header. It can be an event your enterprise is sponsoring or a third-party event that you’re connected to or attending.

Promote a new product

Introduce a new product with a time-sensitive promotion. Use each message to introduce a new benefit/feature. Update the Subject header to announce the new benefit/feature.

Announce partnerships then drip the benefits

Send an announcement about a new partnership or organization change then follow up with messages about how the move will be beneficial. Be sure to link to websites associated with the change to generate traffic.

Host a charity fund drive

Announce a charity fund drive and follow up with milestone achievements, uses for funds, thank donors, etc. Follow up with goal attainment, notable donors, and other information.

“Did you see this?”

Provide third-party content that can be helpful to your leads. For B2B companies, this can include a wide variety of information such as financial, operational, small biz, legal and regulatory, trends, whatever.

Create a conversation (like with social media)

Use a drip campaign to start a conversation about a topic that is close to your lead’s heart or work responsibility. Send follow up messages that include comments made other participants.  Remember to use bcc:!

Send video links

Provide links to helpful and/or informative videos that can benefit your list. After several messages, take a poll on which videos were beneficial or suggestions for future videos.

Get your marketing and sales people together for brainstorming and input on what interests prospects and customers.

Lead Liaison

Key Considerations For a Successful Email Drip Campaign

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Key Considerations For a Successful Email Drip CampaignWhat are the key considerations you should make when implementing a successful email drip campaign? Email drip campaigns can really boost your lead nurturing program. But it’s not as easy simply blasting a sales letter to your database of leads. Here are some ideas for creating a winning email drip campaign.

Gain permission to maintain contact

I put this as the top priority of any lead nurturing program. It is especially important for email drip campaigns because you can quickly earn a bad online reputation if prospects throw you into the spam folder. Make sure to repeatedly ask for permission to contact prospects. Providing an opt-out feature is essential; it reduces negative impact and minimizes wasted effort for the rest of the drip campaign.

Decide time frame

Lead nurturing requires time to be effective but managing your response rate should be done using a defined period, such as 30 days or 3 months. Buying cycles vary for different products and services, different industries, and among different companies. It’s important to plan the duration of each campaign, because it will be easier to determine how many contacts should be made within the time frame.

Set a schedule

Within the time frame will be scheduled releases, drip releases should be set at intervals no more frequently than 4-7 business days. Staging email drips too frequently may result in a spam designation; too rare and you risk losing your prospect to a competitor. Timing is important to lead nurturing success; therefore it’s a good idea to invest time into setting a proper schedule for your markets.

Determine content for each message

A successful campaign isn’t built on repeating previous messages, with the hope that your prospect will eventually open the email after feeling a sense of familiarity with the sender or subject line. Each contact should be part of a progression that builds interest. The level of engagement through content should increase each time a response to a “drip” is made.

Decide who should write

A winning email drip campaign is not about trotting out hackneyed marketing phrases. The keys to an effective lead nurturing process are fresh messaging, response generation, and timely contacts. Your content provider impacts messaging and response, and not all marketers or salespeople write good copy. If there are no good options internally, consider hiring a professional copywriter.  Email, like most channels, is overstuffed with messages that are often tuned out, so – when choosing a content provider – make sure she understands your market’s buying behavior and knows how to build a relationship.

Build a landing page

For each lead nurturing attempt there should be links embedded that direct interested parties to a landing page. Lead nurturing builds towards deeper engagement, so if a prospect clicks a link within an email, there is a prime opportunity to increase engagement. Prospects should land on a page that requires them to fill out a form for more information. And the landing page should contain new details that support the information in the email message in order to move your prospect deeper into the sales funnel.

Review responses rates to each message

During the drip campaign, monitor the results of each release.  Using Lead Liaison’s Send and Track tool, for example, you can easily see who opened the message, when it was opened, and what, if any, actions were taken.  It’s important to review the effectiveness of your lead nurturing both during and following the email campaign.

Lead Liaison

10 Winning Email Drip Campaigns – Part 2

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10 Winning Email Drip Campaigns – Part 2Email drip campaigns can be an effective lead nurturing tool if used appropriately. Email provides a convenient way to establish trust among leads that take time to cultivate, and allows you to build a relationship without offending prospects. There is a variety of useful ways you can inform, assist, and entertain your leads while they go through their buying decision cycles.

In 10 Winning Email Drip Campaigns – Part 1, we covered five effective options that can be used for lead nurturing purposes. Here are five more that experts agree will boost your lead nurturing effectiveness:

  1. Free Resources – Providing a link to a tool or resource that your prospects can use is a great way to show that you are interested in being helpful, that you wish to be an ally. For example, if your market includes companies that provide financial investment advice, provide links to popular trading software products. Online financial calculators, website keyword analyzers, and energy conversion charts are commonly used examples of helpful tools.
  2. Industry Surveys – Send relevant data that gives your prospects a view into what peers are thinking. Information about trends or opinions can provide valuable insight to your email recipients. One strategy might be to conduct your own survey and furnish the results as part of a drip campaign.
  3. Industry News – Creating awareness about important news can be an effective method of building trust. Many business professionals like to be informed about their industry, so sending a brief message that includes a link to a recent news article provides a reason to make contact – and a way to remain relevant in your prospects’ eyes.
  4. Blogs – Why not provide a link to your blog in an email message? Using this technique combines the marketing power of email and blog posts in your lead nurturing strategy. One good way to promote your company and nurture leads is to share recent posts, but be sure to remain sensitive to the frequency with which you are contacting prospects.
  5. Videos and Images – Visual content can help to achieve TOMA in your prospects’ minds. Sending a useful how-to video or a funny (but tasteful) cartoon can provide a nice break in their routine and build a relationship over time. It’s most effective when you use content that is relevant to your B2B prospect or your offering.

There are a few things to keep in mind when you design your drip campaign. First and foremost, touch points should not be stale rehashes of previous messages. Secondly, every message should be designed to provide value to your prospects. Third, it’s best to integrate a variety of content within a linear campaign; provide content that builds engagement as the number of contacts increases.

While you nurture leads through a drip campaign you should avoid overexposure. On average a schedule of blasts every 2 to 4 weeks is appropriate. And don’t forget to include opt-out links within your email messages to avoid being labeled as spam.

To find out how we design effective email campaigns for lead nurturing, contact a Lead Liaison representative today!

Lead Liaison

10 Winning Email Drip Campaigns – Part 1

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Winning Email Drip Campaigns – Part 1Lead nurturing can be accomplished through several channels: phone, direct mail, social media, and email. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, nearly 60% of Internet users check email daily, so a winning email drip campaign is a logical choice for lead nurturing.

Studies show it takes an average of 3 to 30 impressions to become successful at creating interest through an email marketing campaign. So how can you be effective at lead nurturing through a drip campaign without filling your prospects’ mailboxes with useless marketing fluff? The short answer: provide value. Although the purpose of a drip campaign is to create top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) for your offering, each message should be valuable to your audience while earning trust in your company.

In this two-part series, we’ll discuss 10 ways to provide useful information that makes an email drip campaign effective and engaging. The ideas in this series are not presented according to any specific metric, but each should be used within a comprehensive engagement strategy in order to be effective at nurturing leads.

  1. Newsletter – Invite prospects to subscribe to your newsletter. Avoid simply asking for a subscription; provide a sample of the content to whet a prospect’s appetite for more information. By giving readers a sample of stories it will allow them to determine if a subscription would be beneficial. One effective technique is to provide the actual headline and a portion of the article with a Read More link to a signup form.
  2. Best Practices – Business professionals are constantly seeking ways to improve. By providing information that assists your prospects in their business activities, your company gains trust and value. For B2B consulting or B2B service vendors,  providing free information can be effective in persuading prospects to purchase premium offerings, such as research studies or software development contracts.
  3. White Papers – Thought leadership is a highly coveted position among B2B marketers. Producing white papers filled with relevant statistics and hard-to-find data has been shown to be a productive means of lead nurturing. Introduce prospects to your white paper through email messages. Use a lead-in within your message to generate interest. You can create several drip messages by highlighting different findings within the paper.
  4. Info-graphics – Create a visually appealing email filled with statistics and other data for quick consumption. USA Today is a major media outlet, due in part to its focus on easily digestible graphs, charts, and lists. This strategy works for B2B email campaigns because readers are often sifting through multiple emails at a time. An info-graphic gives prospects a quick dose of relevant information and provides a valuable reason to reach out to your prospects.
  5. Webinar – Sending an invitation to a free webinar you are hosting or participating in can provide value to your leads. One effective technique is to introduce event topics and presenters in the email message. It helps to provide an easy registration process and a follow up message with simple connection steps to make attendance easy for your prospects.

It’s important to schedule email blasts with a frequency that isn’t too pushy but allows you to achieve TOMA as soon as possible. In Winning Email Drip Campaigns – Part 2 we’ll discuss five more ways to nurture leads by providing value to your prospects through effective email messages.

For more ideas on drip campaigns and other lead nurturing strategies that boost your marketing effectiveness, contact us today!

Lead Liaison

B2B Lead Closure Through Linear Drip Campaigns

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B2B Lead Closure Through Linear Drip CampaignsBusinesses who’ve mastered the artistic approach of growing their B2B sales bases know that conventional outbound marketing campaigns are perhaps growing cold, stagnant and simply worn down.  Many leads which are collected from conventional drip campaigns aren’t actively buying since the individual lead either was collected amiss, or wasn’t thoroughly nurtured as it should’ve been. The new innovation which could increase B2B lead closings comes in the form of linear drip campaigns, the inventive approach of taking your regular drip campaigns and spreading automated emails, sequentially created prior to commencement, so that leads are being continually engaged.

The Linear Principle

Since many B2B lead lists will automatically be segmented in varied categories, marketing professionals can simultaneously run regular drip campaigns and linear drips which regularly email inspirational stories related to products being offered.  Along with regularly sent articles or stories, coupons and other cost-benefit analyses can be sent to potential business leads to cultivate more sales closures rather than experiencing lead stagnancy.   Letting potential business customers eek through the door cracks into someone else’s database is rather heartbreaking and takes away that potential lead closing.

Benefits Of Linear Drip Campaigns

Aside from the obvious sales connotations, many long-term benefits reside within successful drip campaigns, perhaps many of them going unnoticed.  When considering marketing agendas for your new or existing businesses, examine some exponentially lionized benefits of using linear drips:

  1. You’ll have the opportunity to make your prospects sales-prepped
  2. Potential outflows in sales funnels are minimal
  3. Increased chances your leads will order products via internet
  4. Motivational for end user when your initial goals are receiving product evaluations
  5. Reduction in time spend educating potential leads on your product or service
  6. Gain targeted business customers through word of mouth or forwarded emails

Since authentic linear drip campaigns trump your conventional ‘one and done’ email blasts, the potential for developing B2B ties and sales grows when your concentration is on slower campaigning since shots in the dark tend to reap little benefits or plausible leads.

Specific Cases Of Effective Drip Campaigns

B2B leads are much more sensitive to erratic marketing tactics since the potential spend is much higher than most customers.  When you’ve already established marketing practices and have obtained business customers, drip campaigns become ‘customer nurturing’ since now retention becomes your primary objective with current business buyers.  Here are several instances when drip marketing campaigns are appropriate for current business clients provided the message is concise:

  1. Renewal of Services – When you’ve encountered clients who are due for renewal, explaining the benefits of remaining your loyal customer and introducing new innovations which better their current service should come in drips; perhaps roll out your new changes prior to sending the renewal emails for more effective closing ratios.
  2. Upcoming training – When your company will offer seminars relevant to products they’ve purchased, sending several drip campaigns including different parts of your seminar and reminder to be present will help the busy business owner to remember to sign up.

Conclusion

Quality linear drip campaigns bring B2B lead generation to greater heights while bettering the marketing efficacy of emails sent.  While not every basic marketing plan will include dripping content or offers into emails within owned databases, campaigns of this magnitude should always be considered as an alternative to aging or completely eradicating leads which you’ve held onto for several years without effectively closing sales to.