How to Write an Email Nurture Sequence

Last week we talked about the importance of email sequences and discussed some of the primary types including email nurture sequences. Email is an extremely effective marketing channel. After all, four billion people use email every day. If you haven’t already, you may want to read “Email Sequences 101: An Overview.” This week we are going to get into the practical matter of how to write an email nurture sequence.

You send an email nurture sequence over a course of weeks or sometimes even months in order to engage your audience, interest them, and slowly guide them toward becoming clients. Nurture emails can also keep your current clients warm and promote interest in your other products and services. A nurture email sequence does not overtly sell, but it engages your client’s audience and eventually leads to a sale.

Pinpoint Your Objective and Your Audience

Like anything in marketing, determine your objective before you take another step. You can’t reach a goal without determining what it is first.

You also need to understand your audience. Are you sending your sequence to stone-cold leads who need to be educated about the space? Or maybe to prospects that are still not to the point where they are ready to buy? Who is the specific demographic? What are their challenges and their desires?

Determine Messages, Number, Timing and Triggers

Now that you understand your objectives and have targeted your audience, you need to plan what emails you want to send, when to send them, the focus of each and what happens next depending on the actions your recipients take.

The Message

Yes, you have a primary message that runs throughout every email in the email nurture sequence. But each email should have its own focus and should pave the way for the email that follows.

Determine

• Your overall message
• The message focus in each email
• The call to action for each email. Keep your CTA clear. Don’t ask your audience to take multiple actions in one email.

Let’s say the audience is new to the company. Perhaps they signed up for a newsletter or downloaded a white paper. Here is an example of a possible email nurture sequence to these new leads.

• Welcome email
• Educational snippets about the space
• A success story or two
• A download of valuable content
• Address some frequently asked questions
• Discuss how to get involved with your client’s company – such as see a demo

The Timing

You want to send enough emails to get and keep people engaged without annoying them. How often you send email and how many you send in a sequence depends on variables such as the purpose of the sequence, the audience, the sales cycle and the length of the entire email sequence.

You don’t want to send less than once a week, but when is it too much? For short email nurture sequences, you may be able to send as often as every day, but you don’t want to do this for a long period or you will irritate your audience. The key is to test email frequency and analyze the results.

Triggers

In an email sequence, the next email the person receives depends on their action or inaction regarding the previous email.  A welcome email may be initially triggered when a person downloads a white paper for example and gives their email address. Let’s say at some point you send an email inviting them to a webinar. If they click the email and sign up for the webinar, they might be sent a passcode to get into the webinar. If they do not sign up for the webinar within a set time, they might be sent a different email that touts a benefit not yet presented.

Lose the Sales Language and Offer Value

When you are actively selling to someone, you are not building rapport. And one of the key reasons for an email nurture sequence is to build rapport.

Therefore, you want to avoid coming across like a used car salesman at all costs. Instead, you want to present yourself as helpful and offering something of value such as information, research, tips or resources. Once you have built rapport, you can worry about closing deals. But you aren’t yet at that point, which is why you are sending the email nurture sequence.

Appeal to Their Emotions

An email nurture sequence shouldn’t be all facts, figures and specs. Although certainly those have their place, in a nurture email sequence keep in mind that you want to try to get an emotional response from your audience. You are striving to build trust and rapport after all. Get them excited. Make them feel part of your client’s community. Give them a laugh. Inspire them! You can also make them feel the weight of their challenges… as long as there is a promise that your client has the solution. Emotions motivate action.

Sure, you still want to give people the information they need to make a logical choice. But logic alone isn’t enough. If you can instill an emotional response backed up by solid information, that’s an unbeatable combination to create emails that convert and ultimately generate sales.

Test Everything

What works for one company and one audience may not always work for another. Test everything. Test subject lines, creative, messages, calls to action, frequency and time of day. Always be tweaking to optimize your results.

Umbrella Can Help

If you are ready to help your clients grow their companies and increase sales, email is extremely effective. Email marketing is one of the best ways to engage new leads and keep prospects and clients engaged over time.

But if you are not sure where to start with an email nurture sequence or just prefer to focus on other marketing areas, you may want to resell email marketing services from Umbrella.

Contact Umbrella now to discuss how we can help you with any or all facets of your clients’ email marketing.