The 3 Emails Your Leads are Waiting to Receive from You

So you’ve got an email database. Are you doing anything with it? If you’re just sending out the occasional blast with sales and coupons, you’re only reaching the sales-ready people – which statistics say is about 25 percent of your list. What do you do with the other 75 percent? What do they want from you? Just a little nurturing.

The majority of your email list may be considered qualified leads, but since they’re not sales-ready yet, they’re still on the fence when it comes to buying anything that you offer or recommend.

One of the best ways to get them sales-ready is to send them lead-nurturing emails. Research has shown that lead-nurturing emails have a click-through rate of 8 percent, while regular email marketing receives about a 3 percent click-through rate.

The trick with lead-nurturing emails is that they have to be worth opening to your lead. If your lead isn’t ready to buy – if they won’t even open an email containing a coupon for a buy-one-get-one offer – then what will get them to open your email? The email needs to apply exactly to where they are in the buying process – they may be gathering information, or looking for testimonials, or actively seeking solutions. Here are three types of lead-nurturing emails that offer valuable, useful information to people who are still making their decision.

1. Educational Emails

For your leads in your email database who are just in the “gathering information” stage, you’ll want to provide them with plenty of informative, educational content – and not specifically about your product or service. Your goal at this point is for them to view you as a trusted resource.

Not sure what they want to know about? Check out the kind of lead data you’re gathering from your website. Ask yourself, “What are my audiences downloading? What pages of my website do they visit frequently? What are my leads tweeting about? If I have a one-on-one conversation with a few of them, what would be their main pain points they express to me?”

There will doubtless be many answers to the above questions, but try to limit your educational emails to one topic. If you own a home furnishings store, send an email with tips on how to layer patterns when designing a room. Save the email for properly cleaning carpets and rugs for another time or group of people who are more interested in topics that have to do with flooring.

2. Testimonial Emails

As they gather information on solving one of their pain points, many qualified leads will want to know what works for other people with their same problems. It doesn’t matter whether your business is B2B or B2C, people want to know about others’ experiences.

Let’s go back to the home furnishings store – maybe one of your satisfied customers is willing to share her experience working with one of your interior designers. Or maybe she used a carpet cleaning product you sell and got great results. Send out an email highlighting one of these scenarios to the people on your list who are interested in these topics. Position your subject line to entice the recipient to open and see what happens: “One woman’s journey to a completely redecorated home in 3 months” or “What happens when you don’t clean your carpet for 10 years?”

3. Helpful Emails

Eventually your leads will have found the information they need and will have read up on reviews and other people’s experiences of the various solutions out there for their pain points. But they’re still not ready to buy from anyone – even you. They may be waiting on any number of things, but sometimes all they need is someone to simply ask, “Can I help you find a solution?”

Sending out an email like this continues to build trust between you and your prospect, and when they reply, you now have the opportunity and the permission to show them just what your business can do for them, as well as the exact pain points they’re struggling with.

The home furnishing store may offer a lead who’s continued to open and click on lead-nurturing emails about decorating a free 30-minute consultation with an interior decorator. Or if the lead is interested in cleaning her carpets, you could email a form to receive a free trial of the product to try in her own home. Both options show that you care about helping them solve their problems, but aren’t requiring them to commit to your business before they’re truly ready.

And that’s the real secret of lead-nurturing emails – keeping the sale out of it, at least to their knowledge. Through strategically timed information, you’re delivering just what they need when they need it. And they’ll ultimately thank you for it by becoming a sales-ready lead.