When it comes to marketing, it’s all about the relationships you create. Before you can even think about putting an offer in front of someone they first need to know, like, and trust you. Selling too soon simply won’t work – there’s a reason they call it cold-calling, because that person knows nothing about you and probably needs to warm up to you first.
Your customer’s journey through your marketing should be a little like dating. You wouldn’t propose marriage on your first date, so don’t throw your checkout page at people who’ve just encountered your coaching or speaking business.
Take your customer along the path from not knowing you at all to trusting you as an authority in your area of expertise. Now, in dating you might achieve that through romantic gestures, but in marketing you can do it through nurture emails.
What Are Nurture Emails?
Nurture email campaigns are pre-prepared email sequences sent out over a specific time frame. Their aim is to build trust, inform, and motivate potential leads towards an eventual offer. These campaigns build up slowly, bringing value and reliability to your brand, ultimately creating a relationship where the lead is motivated to purchase at a later date.
It’s not the job of the nurture email to land a sale. Just to make them like you…
Nurture emails are pure, unbridled value. This type of email goes out to potential leads regularly and does not try to sell anything. The focus of nurture emails is the ‘know, like, trust’ principle.
People buy from people that they like and have a connection with, and they are less likely to take action from boring, immediate sales pitches. That’s something we can all relate to!
It can feel like an impossible task to create a relationship with a stranger on the internet that you may never have a one-to-one interaction with.
But effective marketing makes this simple.
With patient processes, like nurture email campaigns, you can create a trust-filled relationship by:
- Being transparent and honest
- Sharing valuable knowledge
- Sharing your personality and being a real person
Through education, awareness, and relationship building, you can turn potential leads into conversions in as little as 3 or 4 nurture emails. You can take the benefits of nurture emails one step further and automate your nurture email campaigns. Streamlining your inbound marketing strategy with automations like this picks up on every lead that might otherwise be lost.
The next thing you’ll need to know is what exactly should go into a nurture email campaign…
The 5 Things To Include In Your Nurture Emails
Because nurture emails find leads at particular points in your customer journey (i.e. opt-ins and website visits), they can be highly specific and answer questions. A full nurture campaign could vary in length from just 3-6 emails – or even a never-ending weekly email campaign, depending on your customer-base and the deal you’re offering at the end of the process.
However many emails in your sequence, be sure to infuse your nurture emails with these 5 features:
1
Valuable content
This could take the form of solving a problem, giving interesting information for free, or offering up a thought-provoking idea.
2
Personality
People buy from people, not from businesses, which is why it’s so important to show yourself and your personality in your emails. This can be as simple as writing from the first person and signing off emails with a personal signature.
3
Case studies
Providing clear, honest social proof works. Beware of turning reviews into sales pitches, but do tell your customers’ stories.
4
Personal information
This follows the principle of coming across as a real, trust-worthy human. Let your leads get to know you – share some of your own experiences and stories that could be relatable or inspiring.
5
Stories
With ‘know, like, trust’ firmly in mind, use stories to engage and interest your leads, but ensure every story has a point of value.
Don’t Put These In Nurture Emails
Remember, these emails should be purely for nurturing, not hard-selling or even just summarising all of your latest offers. We’ve covered what every successful nurture email campaign should include.
Now here’s what not to put in your nurture email campaigns:
- Sales pitches - The point of the nurture email is to build a relationship - not to scare off potential leads with blatant sales pitches and shameless selling. Don’t go in for the kill prematurely.
- Boring content - Good content is key in nurturing emails, because this is your opportunity to create a fruitful connection and convince your leads that you’re worth their attention.
- Pointless emails - Just as every good joke needs a punchline, every email needs a point to it. Ask yourself, what are you trying to get across or achieve in each email?
Nurture emails can be a crucial component in your marketing strategy, but email marketing is most powerful when you combine different email strategies together. You can learn more about the 5 types of email campaigns you should have in our blog here.
