nurture journey marketing

• América Latina (Español)
• United States (English)
• All Other Countries (English)
• Deutschland (Deutsch)
• España (Español)
• France (Français)
• Italiano (Italia)
• United Kingdom (English)
• Australasia (English)
• 香港/台灣 (繁體中文) (CT)
• 日本 (日本語) (JP)

Nurture Marketing 101: Everything You Need to Know About Turning Prospects into Sales

In its simplest definition, nurture marketing is a communication strategy designed to place content in front of prospective buyers at various points in a customer’s journey.  Nurture marketing involves regularly reaching out to leads and your customer base by presenting important information before they ask for it. Successful nurture marketers provide customers with a forum for feedback, listen to their needs, and customize services to fit those needs.

What is Nurture Marketing?

Many leads picked up from websites, trade shows or purchased lists need time to feel you out before committing to any sort of communication or relationship. So, building nurture-based campaigns for prospective customers will help you manage and organize them until they’re ready to buy.

Nurtures are designed to build relationships through communication and are almost conversational in nature. Your company reaches out and contacts prospects, giving them the opportunity to reply back, and so on, until, hopefully, that conversation escalates into a sale. 

These communications strengthen existing relationships and build the foundation for new ones. Businesses can introduce themselves to potential customers using nurture marketing and persuade the recipient to take action.  

Nurture marketing helps businesses:

• Establish communication with prospects
• Be at the front of prospects’ minds when they’re ready to buy
• Strengthen current customer relationships

Nurture marketing establishes company credibility. No matter the size, location or need of your target audience, customers buy from companies they trust. Companies can establish credibility and trust through:

• Customer retention

How are Companies Using Nurture Marketing?

Nurturing prepares prospects to buy. Marketers implementing successful nurture campaigns have built a detailed structure–designing every available customer path based on all possible actions. Thus, having the right tools to facilitate nurture creation makes a significant difference. With the right marketing automation platform , you can automate most of the processes and design a nurture flow that makes sense to you, your company, and most importantly, your customers.

Marketers must make certain that the nurture campaign is relevant in both content and stage of the buying cycle because, as we all know, there’s a fine line between persuasive and pushy.

As the prospect stays engaged, their nurture plan evolves into more frequent correspondence focused on product advantages and personal interactions. These frequent-without-being-annoying emails will help segment your targeted audiences. By segmenting leads based on their interests, you know that you won’t reach out with the wrong message–which could create annoyances and lead to disinterest or loss of sales. Likewise, a marketing automation platform that leverages artificial intelligence to provide predictive lead scoring can help you further target leads most likely to convert.

Nurtured leads often make larger purchases than non-nurtured leads because they have greater trust and investment in your company. Once these leads become customers, their education continues, now receiving retention-focused communications.

Nurture marketing can also serve as a conversational platform for leads and customers. For example:

• What challenges are they facing?
• What reservations or concerns do they have?
• What enhancements would bring in more business?

Don’t be afraid to ask these tough questions, because honest answers will stop minor issues from becoming major setbacks down the road.

Leveraging Marketing Automation to Nurture Leads

Marketing automation tools are an efficient way to streamline the lead nurturing process with minimal effort. When selecting your tech, make sure to choose the one that gives you a clear view of the customer, eliminates roadblocks, blind spots, and busywork.

At their core, nurture campaigns are emails filled with product information and call-to-action (CTA) opportunities. Many tools of this kind accomplish this through drip-based and trigger-based emails, which are subsets of a nurture campaign.

Nurtures typically begin when leads are performing an action like going to your website and completing a form or opening an email and clicking a link. Sugar Market’s Nurture Builder 2.0 tool is perfect when it comes to automating the entire process, so be mindful when selecting your marketing automation tools.

Ideally, your marketing automation system should keep track of all actions taking place inside these emails (opens, clicks, downloads). Once your desired sequence of events has taken place, they will be scored and passed along to Sales. For successful interactions, keep your action items engaging and mix them up as often as possible. Webinars, lunch and learns, and whitepapers, are all great choices of marketing materials to include.

Also, take the time to experiment with nurture campaigns. Test different subject lines, time sent, layout, action items, and determine what helps increase your click-through rates. It doesn’t matter how perfect your campaign is, if leads aren’t engaging, then your prospect will never know what they are missing.

Sugar Market diligently tracks nurture statistics, even showing which call to action within your email is giving you the best results.

Nurture campaigns are a long-term commitment, not a quick turnaround – they give leads time to get to know your company and make their own informed decisions.

By the time these leads are in the hands of the Sales Department, they should be educated, informed and ready to buy, while customers will be confident and informed, chomping at the bit to sign another contract with your company.

Still not sure how to leverage marketing automation and nurture marketing to enhance customer experience and boost customer loyalty? Check out our blog section to learn more on the topic!

Sign up for the newsletter.

We're committed to your privacy. SugarCRM uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information, check out our privacy policy.

• Try Ortto free

Lead nurturing: Best practices and examples

• Introduction

Tips for effective lead nurturing

Examples of l ead nurturing, lead nurturing faqs, the final word .

Consider sharing.

More like this:

• Product-led growth

Marketing automation

• Personalization

Lifecycle marketing

• Marketing strategy
• Email marketing
• Customer experience

Generating a new lead is hard and, in many industries, expensive. As a marketer, you need to do everything you can to convert as many leads as possible and, ideally, without further inflating your cost per acquisition.

A strong lead nurturing strategy does just that — helps drive conversions to drive growth, with organic or low-cost campaigns and activations. In this article, we share:

Lead nurturing examples

Before you start building your campaign, consider these best-practice tips.

1. Create segments of leads

No matter how long your list of leads is, it's unlikely they are all looking at your product for the same reasons and it's even less likely they are all in the same stage of the buyer's journey. They're different people — and the more you speak to them like different people, the more success you'll have.

Before considering messaging, consider how best to segment your leads . Some examples include:

Demographic and psychographic data including like seniority or title, indicated goal, or geographic location

Company information like industry, business size, or technographic data

Action taken like eBook downloaded or pricing page viewed

Intent using lead score or actions and behaviors that indicate intent

Lead stage including new lead, contacted, qualified, or ready to re-engage

Once you have these segments, you can identify which to focus on in your lead nurture strategy, and assess against your ICP to ensure alignment.

2. Make first-party data generation part of your strategy

When you start to think about your lead nurturing journey as a first-party data generation strategy, you can unlock opportunities to learn more about your leads to better personalize their journey.

One way to do this is with a data enrichment email. You can do this with a simple survey, or create an email with a question followed by a list of responses for them to click on. Each response can include a unique UTM parameter; so when a lead clicks on a response, their contact record is updated with what they’ve selected.

It's worth being transparent about why you're using this information — most customers want a personalized experience, and they are happy to hand over some information if they know they will get more relevant and useful messages as a result.

Beyond surveys and questionnaires, look at every action your lead takes as an important data point. Website page views, emails opened or clicked, SMS messages engaged with, pop-ups tapped — everything your lead does can tell you more about who they are and what they are interested in.

3. Personalize wherever possible

Segmentation will help you personalize your lead's journey, but if you can go beyond that step and add more elements of personalization , your messaging will be more relevant and memorable.

This can include things like individualized educational content or content recommendations, testimonials specific to their industry or circumstances, and product or service recommendations.

4. Create an omnichannel experience 

Email is, without a doubt, an essential part of the lead nurturing process . But it’s not everything. Seeing a brand in different online environments can go a long way to cutting through the noise. 

Taking an omnichannel approach to your lead nurturing strategy will go a long way. Try retargeting your leads on social media or search, using pop-up messages or offers when they visit your website, and using live chat or chatbots to reengage them at critical moments.

5 . Don’t give up too soon, but do be diligent about list clean-ups

Whether it's an email playbook or an omnichannel journey, ensure you have enough content to keep nurturing that lead right through to conversion. It takes time to build a relationship with a lead and convince them that your platform, product, or service is the right one for them.

How much time will be dependent on your business type, pricing model, and contract terms, so be guided by the data, and if you don't have a lot to work with yet, it's better to create a longer nurture journey and let leads drop off naturally than risk shutting the conversation down just as a lead is heating up.

That said, inactive subscribers can damage your domain reputation and email deliverability. So you do need to be sure you are cleaning your list through a re-engage or sunset email journey .

6 . Measure success

Ultimately, success will be determined by how many leads in your lead nurture journey actually become customers. But not every conversion will be directly attributable to the lead nurture journey — there are other factors, like sales calls and demos, that play a role along the way.

Aim to set up a dashboard with a number of key metrics like opens, click-throughs, conversations started, average lead score, and conversions. Keeping a close eye on these things will help you generate insights that will help you improve the experience.

6. Make it a team effort

If you have a sales team responsible for closing deals and a success team helping onboard those new customers, you will need to brief both teams on exactly how the lead nurutre journey works and — mostly importantly — the messaging and product positioning throughout.

Take this as an opportunity to gather feedback for improvements to give teams outside of marketing a sense of ownership, and ensure you have buy-in from senior leadership.

Doing this will ensure you have a seamless transition between the nurturing stage, the sales closing stage, and the all-important onboarding phase. This consistency will help ensure those hard-earned customers stick around, and perhaps even go on to become brand advocates.

A great lead nurturing campaign will tell a cohesive story about who you are, and what you do, nudging leads further and further down the buyer's funnel to conversion. Here are some examples of how real brands nurture their leads in different ways:

1. How Snagajob welcomes leads

Most businesses are sending a welcome email to every new customer, but you'll want to welcome a new lead too — both because there's a living, breathing human behind that email address and because it can help ensure your emails continue to get delivered to their inbox. It's simple, when a new lead shares their contact, they will be expecting this email, meaning it's more likely to be opened than almost any other non-transactional email you send. Plus, getting your brand top of the inbox while still top of mind is beneficial for creating a mental tattoo — the more frequently they see your brand in a short period of time, the more likely you are to stick. There are many ways to go about your welcome email — share more information about your brand, ask about your new lead, or send an offer. The example from Snagajob below gives a new lead a quick summary of what they do, and how to get the most out of the platform.

2. Skillshare uses a quiz to generate first-party data

You've just met your new lead, it's the perfect time to learn more about who they are. Whether you create a quiz, form, or a one-question survey, finding out more about why came to you and how you can help them can go a long way to ensuring the rest of your lead nurture series resonates with them. And, like your welcome email, they may be more inclined to open and respond in the early stages of your relationship than they would be down the track.

This quiz from Skillshare demonstrates how this can fun and simple for the new lead, while providing an opportunity to generate data and share more specific product recommendations.

3. How coinbase educates leads

In industries like B2B, health, and finance, leads are generally looking to solve a problem or improve something. Your job is to convince that lead that your product, service, or platform is can solve their problem or benefit them more effectively than your competitors — but a hard sell straight off the bat isn't going to get you very far.

Instead, you can use your early lead nurture content to provide educational material on a relevant topic. This does a couple of things; first, it shows your new lead that your brand understands what they're experiencing and was built for people like them. Next, it positions your brand as an authoritative expert on the topic, helping to reinforce the idea that your business is the best solution out there.

The more you can personalize this the better, especially if you have a number of different ICPs or products.

In this example from Coinbase , the lead gets a clear, concise list of the benefits of Ethereum with a CTA to check out the price and learn more.

4. Banking app Chime provides social proof

When your lead is getting further down the funnel and they understand who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how you do it, it's appropriate to get more direct about why you're the best.

Social proof is a great way to do that. Like everything, it's best if it is personalized to include a quote or review from someone who is in the same industry or situation as your lead. This may not always be possible, or even necessary, but the more your lead feels as though the testimonial comes from someone like them, the more likely they are to sit up and take notice.

In this example from banking app Chime , a member quote is heroed alongside some bullet points about the app's benefits. It's a straightforward email with a clear CTA and one that will help sort the real leads from the tire kickers.

Email images sourced from reallygoodemails.com

1. What is lead nurturing?

Lead Nurturing is a strategy that helps guide leads who enter the funnel, whether through marketing, sales, or self-discovery, to become customers. Whether lead nurturing through email, social media, retargeting, or even sales intervention, the idea is to deliver a remarkable omnichannel experience that results in more conversions.  

2. What are the benefits of a lead nurture campaign?

Lead leakage is inevitable to some degree, but a strong lead nurturing campaign will go a long way to ensure that real leads who are looking for a solution like your business offers fully understand your point of difference and have ample opportunity to become a customer.

With sky-high, and still climbing, customer acquisition costs (CAC) across almost every industry, leads are more valuable than ever before — if you're not working to convert them with a nurture journey, you're potentially leaving money on the table and driving your average CAC up.

Finally, the data generated from a lead nurture campaign can teach you more about who your leads are, the messaging they are most likely to respond to, and how you can improve your buyer's experience.

3. How long should a lead nurture campaign be?

How long is a piece of string?

Seriously though, that's going to depend on how long your sales cycle is, how your lead enters the funnel, when a salesperson gets involved, and how engaging your emails are.

A lead nurture campaign is typically a long-term play, so aim for at least a few weeks. Longer sales cycles, like in B2B, should aim for a few months' worth of campaign content. In either case, you should set your journey up so that unengaged audience members are removed as this will help protect your email deliverability.

4. How can I use AB testing in lead nurture campaigns?

AB testing is a great idea — it can help you better understand the type of content that resonates with your leads, and optimize the journey. That said, the data can become cloudy when you are dealing with a long nurture series, and assessing the performance of a single subject line or even a single email. A nurture campaign should build on itself to tell a story, so it's a little like asking an audience to read a single chapter of a book rather than assessing the novel as a whole.

Because of this, AB testing is often most helpful after you have some initial data to go off. Let's say you're seeing a larger-than-average number of unsubscribes on a specific email. You could test changing the content or subject line of that email specifically, or placing it in a different stage of the journey (e.g. maybe you have a hard-sell email too early on) to see which version of the email or journey performs best.

Without lead nurturing, you're leaving money on the floor. Buying cycles, especially for higher-priced items or products that require an annual commitment, can be on the long side, and staying top-of-mind while your lead makes a decision is critical to edging out the competitor.

Stacked: Best Salesforce integrations for sales and marketing

First impressions count: The ultimate guide to SaaS onboarding

Next-level email: What is BIMI and why you need it

Try Ortto today

Build a better journey.

• Data platform (CDP)
• Journey builder
• Startup pricing
• Book a demo
• SMS marketing
• Push notifications
• Knowledge base
• In-app messages
• Popups, forms & surveys
• Checkmate tracking
• Transactional email
• Multi-lingual marketing
• Security & privacy
• Ortto for Salesforce
• Ortto for Shopify
• Documentation
• Developer docs
• Case studies
• Product updates
• Journey builder templates
• Email marketing templates
• All templates

Integrations

• All integrations

Autopilot is now Ortto.

Ortto® is a registered trademark.

• Product Overview
• Customer Data Platform
• Artificial Intelligence
• Advanced Personalization
• Marketing Automation
• Digital Analytics
• Channel Overview
• Email Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Web Marketing
• Services Overview
• Deliverability Services
• Strategic Data Consulting
• Client Technical Services
• Success Stories
• Partner Program
• Business and Certified Partners
• Technology Partners
• Become a Partner

Become a partner

Our latest posts on digital marketing.

Access to guides, case studies, webinars & more.

Develop your knowledge at your own pace with Mapp learning tools!

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

• MACH Alliance

• Get started

Take a guided tour

Nurture Marketing: 11 Ways to Make That Second Purchase Happen

What’s better than converting a lead into a sale? Nurturing that sale into a regular customer of course! And the best way to do that? By using data-driven strategies to connect with customers at every touchpoint. 

Why is it so important to invest in nurturing your customers? Because customer retention has a considerable impact on ROI (return on investment). In fact, a 5% increase in customer retention can result in 25 – 29% more revenue.

Now, we hear you; you might already be nurturing your customers. But are you achieving the results you want? If you aren’t, it just might be that you’re missing a trick – and it exists all in your customer data.  

Using your customer data effectively can help you gain valuable insights into their characteristics, interactions, behaviors, and buying preferences. Done well, this information can be used to optimize all aspects of nurturing to improve engagement, develop relationships, and strengthen customer loyalty.  

Yes, all that data you’re storing can do wonders for your bottom line. But it can be pretty overwhelming and tricky to know what to do with it and when to use it when it’s stored in siloes and its raw format. If it’s not structured correctly for your team, it almost feels like you’re trying to “find waldo” when extracting insights. This is where mapping the customer journey is key. Using your data, you can identify the areas in your customer’s journeys to use certain techniques to communicate with them. This is known as nurture marketing, and you can use our customer journey map to help. 

What is nurture marketing?

Simply put, nurture marketing is a strategy for communicating with your customers, with techniques to encourage and foster brand loyalty that leads to repeat sales. This is crucial to the success of your business, because repeat customers have been shown to spend 67% more than new customers on average. 

What exactly does it take to nurture customers the right way? Nurture marketing done well involves reaching out to your customers with important information, while personalizing the experience of every interaction itself. It gives your company credibility and fosters trust, while also helping businesses to:

• Strengthen current customer relationships
• Increase the value of each customer
• Encourage sales from first-time buyers
• Establish communication with prospects

Identify your customers first to learn about them

To nurture your customers, you first need to know who they are, what they like and dislike, and where they hang out online. Customer Data Platforms are essential here as it unifies your customer data to create a single unified view of your customers in real-time, to build unified customer profiles. Enriched with real-time data, you can put customer insights at the core of your marketing to build your strategy. Then you can leverage this information and use the right tools to create lead nurturing campaigns to engage your audience and persuade them to buy from you. 

11 nurture marketing tactics that will increase your conversion rates

65 – 75% of business often comes from retained customers, so it’s crucial to craft your nurture marketing carefully to generate business. Here are some easy-to-implement techniques you can try to nurture your customers:

1. Abandoned cart

eCommerce brands lose $18 billion in sales revenue each year because of cart abandonment . You read that right – $18 billion a year! To avoid being a part of this statistic, leverage your customer data to send automated emails to customers who’ve added something to their basket but left before completing the checkout process.

Here’s a great example from Casper. It’s short, on-brand, and to the point. The playful, catchy headline draws customers in, while a simple and straightforward CTA button tells them exactly what to do next. 

Remember to ensure the cart is automatically rebuilt when customers click the CTA link for ease and convenience. Customers finding an empty basket is usually a dealbreaker!

2. Product reviews

In a world ruled by online purchases where customers can’t touch, feel, or experience a product before they buy it, testimonials are essential in the shopper’s purchase decision. Asking your customers to review the products or services they buy will provide you with valuable insights and improvement opportunities, while showing your customers that you care.

Now, customers often only leave reviews when they’ve been absolutely blown away by a product or had a bad experience. So, to increase the chances of getting reviews across the board, pre-populate the review form with relevant information (such as product type or customer name). Not only will this encourage more reviews, but this form of personalization is a perfect way to achieve your goal and gain brand loyalty.

3. Price drops

Got your eye on something but not ready to commit yet? You’re more likely to buy if the price drops, right? If your customers are looking at certain items, notifying them of a price drop is a surefire way of securing a sale. You already know they’re interested in the product, and now you’re offering it to them for a cheaper price – now that’s a deal! If you’re conscious of your profit margins, even a small price drop can nudge these customers to convert.

Not only are you offering better-perceived value for money, but lowering the price also creates a sense of urgency. Include a phrase such as ‘Get yours before the sale ends’ to capitalize on this.

4. Birthday greetings

Your customers are important to you, right? Show them by sending a celebratory message when it’s their birthday. You could also include a small gift as a token of appreciation. This could be a discount code, a free item, or even a personalized postcard in the mail.

Customers expect brands to be more than just a business, and birthday emails are a great way to demonstrate how you value customer relationships. They are not often used by budding eCommerce brands, but are an incredibly successful form of email communication. In fact, birthday emails ‘generate 179% more clicks, 481% more transactions, and 342% more revenue’ compared to regular marketing emails. Those numbers are pretty impressive! 

5. Anniversary celebrations

You don’t need to limit yourself to birthday wishes, either. Anniversaries, whether for your business or your customers, are a great opportunity to re-engage with your audience. You could send an incentive or coupon during this time to drive sales without offering discounts for the sake of it (which can, in fact, devalue your brand).

6. Annual summary

If you’re anything like us, you look forward to Spotify Wrapped; that time of the year when Spotify lays bare your listening choices, and you can cringe or remember your most popular songs of the year.

It’s a brilliant way to highlight how customers have used their service. It increases engagement, enhances relationships, and it’s easy to achieve. 

7. Customer journey analytics

Do you know the paths your customers take to complete an action? Whether they’re buying a product, downloading content, or signing up for your newsletter, understanding the route they took to get there can help you identify opportunities and solve bottlenecks in your site. In fact, effective customer journey mapping results in an average increase of 54% in marketing ROI.

8. Lifecycle emails

New visitor, first-time buyer, dormant customer? You can target customers depending on where they are with a sequence of automated emails sent during key points of the customer journey. And the good news? If you make use of point 7, you’ll know exactly what they are. So, if you want to encourage a customer to buy from you again, send them relevant information and resources, cross-sell or upsell, ask for a review, or send them existing reviews. Base it on your data, and the choice is yours!

We all make mistakes. That’s what makes us human. But did you know you can use your mistakes to your favor? Next time, use it as an opportunity to send an apology email and watch the engagement roll in.

But just a heads up, don’t send the apology email twice. People are fickle, and duplicate emails are heading towards spam territory – a definite way to get a heap of unsubscribers.

10. VIP content

Show your most loyal customers that you appreciate them with exclusive VIP rewards and content. This simple but highly effective tactic helps keep high-value customers by demonstrating that you care and recognize them.

11. RFM(E) modeling

And finally, we have Frequency of Engagement and monetary value Modeling. Consistently monitoring these metrics will help you to understand if your customer nurture tactics are working or where you need to make changes. It will also help you to spot areas where customer churn is high. 

Nurture your leads using actionable insights

So, you know you want to nurture your leads. A  Customer Data Platform is a great way to gain insights into your customer base and act on it in an automated way, which can then be used for lead nurturing strategies. 

Unifying all your data into one easy-to-use platform makes decision-making simple. Not only do you get on-time and accurate data when needed, but it also makes managing your nurture strategies and entire customer journey easy. 

Mapp Marketing Cloud is insight-led customer experience platform that helps you to generate actionable insights to drive customer engagement. It helps to tailor personalized customer experiences, drive repeat purchases, retain customers, and build brand loyalty. 

We need your consent to load this Youtube video!

We use a third party service to embed video content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details and accept the service to watch this video.

Orchestrating Reactivation Campaigns to Engage Churning Customers

Reactivation campaigns are all about reigniting a past connection with your churning customers. Acquiring new customers can help replace any churn, but industry studies show that acquiring a new customer can be five to 25... Read More »

How To Measure Email Engagement In Your Marketing

You’ve mastered the art of email marketing from personalization, targeted segmentation, and email design to compelling content. But how do you gauge the impact of these strategies? Measuring email engagement is key to understanding your... Read More »

Mastering Email Marketing in the Customer Journey

63% of marketing decision-makers utilize automation in their email marketing. But are you using email automation in the most strategic way that benefits your business? Without a clear strategy or rooting in data-driven insights, you... Read More »

Lead Nurturing Strategy – Definition, Tips and How-Tos

Table of contents

To see what Databox can do for you, including how it helps you track and visualize your performance data in real-time, check out our home page. Click here .

Say you just planted a new flower in your garden – what would be some of the best practices to ensure it grows into a healthy, thriving plant?

You’d probably start by watering and fertilizing it, keeping it in a place where it gets enough sunlight, and protecting it from weeds and pests, right?

In other words, you’d have to nurture your plant.

Well, lead nurturing isn’t much different.

If you want leads to convert to paying customers, you need to build meaningful relationships with them and provide them with relevant content at each stage of their buying journey.

Somewhat similar to watering and fertilizing, huh? Put simply, you need a lead nurturing strategy in place.

But building and implementing a lead nurturing strategy is a bit harder than feeling up your flower can with water.

That’s why in this report, we’ll get into the trenches of lead nurturing and see exactly what it is, how it works, which channels are working today, and give you step-by-step instructions on how you can build your own.

Let’s dive in.

What Is Lead Nurturing and Why Is It Important?

Best lead nurturing channels.

• What Is a Lead Nurturing Campaign, And Why Do You Need One?

7 Steps to Create a Lead Nurturing Strategy

6 highly effective lead nurturing strategies.

• Measure Your Lead Nurturing Strategy Results with Databox

Lead nurturing refers to the process of building meaningful relationships with your prospective customers, by providing them with appropriate and relevant content at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Basically, the goal is to guide them through the sales funnel and move them closer to making a purchase decision.

We develop lead nurturing strategies because not all leads generated by your marketing team are sales-ready.

While they might be interested in your product or service, they typically have some questions and concerns that need to be answered to move from the awareness stage to the decision stage.

If you are having second thoughts, here are just some of the important benefits of lead nurturing:

• Builds relationships : Lead nurturing is about more than just selling a product. It’s about establishing trust and credibility. If you’re consistently providing valuable information, you are essentially building a relationship with your leads, which makes them more likely to choose your business when they’re finally ready to make a purchase.
• Educates and informs : Potential customers often need time to research a product before making a decision. Lead nurturing allows you to educate leads about the benefits of your offerings, address their concerns, and help them make informed choices.
• Shortens sales cycles : Effective lead nurturing can help speed up the sales process by keeping your brand top of mind. When leads are constantly receiving relevant information, they’re more likely to move through your sales funnel more quickly.
• Increases conversion rates : If you have a good understanding of your leads’ needs and create tailored content, you increase the likelihood of them converting them into customers. Personalized and targeted communication can significantly boost conversion rates and increase your average order value (AOV).
• Reduces marketing costs : Nurturing existing leads is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Maintaining relationships with leads who have already shown interest in your products or services helps you significantly reduce your customer acquisition costs .

Another important caveat to mention is that even qualified leads need nurturing.

In fact, more than half of the respondents to our latest survey report that 40-70%+ of their qualified leads aren’t yet ready to buy.

Before we start nurturing leads, we first need to attract them.

That’s why we asked 100+ industry experts about which marketing channels they’re seeing the most success with when it comes to lead generation.

More than 50% said organic search (SEO), with paid search, content marketing, email, and social media also ranking highly.

But these channels can serve for more than just lead generation – they can also be great for lead nurturing if used properly.

Organic Search

Paid search, content marketing, email marketing, organic social, ai lead nurturing.

For starters, you need a robust organic search strategy for successful organic lead nurturing.

This includes crafting informative blog posts and engaging articles that appeal both to your target reader and Google.

But remember that organic search isn’t just about ranking high – it’s about building trust.

When your website consistently provides accurate, relevant information, you position yourself as an authoritative source.

And this trust is a critical factor as leads progress from awareness to consideration and, eventually, to making a purchase decision.

Expert Insight: Trying to grow organically but having a hard time navigating all the different metrics and KPIs? Here’s a Website Engagement Dashboard you can download for free! You can connect your key SEO tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Analytics 4, and more, and drag-and-drop the metrics most relevant to your performance. You can streamline your analysis efforts by having all of your key data in one place.

One of the primary advantages of paid search is its ability to provide immediate visibility.

Unlike organic search where rankings evolve gradually, paid search ensures that your ads are immediately shown to users actively searching for products related to what your business offers.

This way, you can meet them in the consideration stage.  

Content marketing is another highly effective lead nurturing channel because it allows you to provide valuable information to your audience at different stages and in different formats.

This channel goes hand in hand with SEO, but it’s not limited to it.

Whether it’s blogging, podcasts, social media posts, or some other format, you can deliver content that meets their needs, concerns, and interests.

A popular strategy is to leverage ebooks, whitepapers, and webinars to immediately capture the lead’s information and then continue nurturing them through other channels like email.

Expert Insight: Does YouTube play a big role in your content marketing strategy? If it does, you’ve probably witnessed first-hand just how unintuitive its main interface is when it comes to reporting and analytics. Here’s how you can simplify it – download our free YouTube Channel Performance Dashboard . You can track everything from new subscribers to watch time in a single dashboard.

One of the key strengths of email marketing is its ability to deliver personalized messages.

Within an ESP, you can segment your audience based on demographics, behaviors, or preferences, and then tailor the emails you send out to resonate with the specific needs of each lead.

You can build drip campaigns that are instrumental in gradually guiding leads through the sales funnel and nurture your leads in real time by setting up triggered emails.

Just keep in mind that email marketing isn’t all about promotional messages – you should have a balanced mix of promos and educational content.

Industry insights, how-to guides, exclusive access to resources… all of these are great for providing value and building more trust with prospects.

Are you leveraging the full power of your social presence and using it to showcase your brand’s personality?

The thing about social media is that you shouldn’t just share a piece of content and then forget about it – make sure you also respond to comments, participate in discussions, or even share some behind-the-scenes glimpses of your organization.

This way, you can humanize your brand and establish a more genuine connection with leads that goes beyond just transactions.

Plus, social media platforms offer a variety of content formats, from images and videos to polls and stories.

Expert Insight: If you’re using several social media platforms to nurture leads, it’s easy to get mixed up in all the numbers. But not if you use our free Social Media Dashboard . You can connect data from each of your social platforms (from Facebook to LinkedIn) and compile your most relevant metrics in one place, where you can track performance in real time.

Here’s something that’s been getting a lot of attention in the past few months – AI lead nurturing.

AI lead nurturing refers to the use of artificial intelligence technology to automate and optimize the nurturing process.  

With AI algorithms and machine learning, there’s a lot of opportunity building up to better analyze and understand the behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns of leads.

Some of the popular applications right now include:

• Behavioral analysis : Some AI tools that can analyze the online behavior of leads, such as website visits, content consumption, and interactions with emails.
• Personalization : AI can help speed up the creation of highly personalized content tailored to the individual preferences of each lead.
• Lead scoring : AI can assign scores to leads based on their behavior, which helps sales teams know which leads to prioritize.
• Automated communication : You can automate the delivery of targeted emails, messages, or content in real-time with AI chatbots.
• Predictive analytics : AI can leverage predictive analytics to forecast which leads are more likely to convert into customers.

What Is a Lead Nurturing Campaign and Why Do You Need One?

A lead nurturing campaign is the precise systematic process of building relationships with your potential customers throughout their buying journey.

Here are some of the main types of lead nurturing campaigns marketers use:

• Welcome campaigns : Welcome campaigns are automated email flows that are designed to make a positive first impression on new leads. You send a series of welcome emails over a few days introducing your brand, providing essential information, and inviting them to explore your products.
• Drip email campaigns : Drip email campaigns involve sending a series of pre-scheduled emails over time that can include a mix of educational content, product information, success stories, and special offers, gradually guiding leads through the sales funnel.
• Social media engagement campaigns : This campaign type involves sharing valuable content, running contests, hosting live Q&A sessions, and participating in relevant conversations.
• Webinar campaigns : You can also host webinars that focus on topics your leads are interested in hearing and then pitch them a complementary solution at the end. Webinars are effective because they allow for real-time engagement and the opportunity to address questions. Plus, you can record them and send them later to prospects who’ve failed to show up.
• Multichannel campaign : No matter how good your lead nurture campaigns are, you can’t rely on a single platform. Why? Because your audience doesn’t spend the entire time there. That’s why a multichannel approach is so efficient. For example, you can include organic search to get them into your funnel and then have them download a free ebook where they’ll give you permission to for email marketing, where you’ll send automated campaigns.

PRO TIP: Create a Leads By Source Dashboard for HubSpot Marketing in Just A Few Steps

Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. Which sources generate the most traffic and leads? Creating a comprehensive report takes time and a lot of data combining, but with our free dashboard, you can have it ready in just a few clicks.

Our HubSpot Leads by Source Dashboard includes data from HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:

• New Contacts vs Visits by Source – Discover how many new contacts and visits each source generates within the pre-set time period. 
• Visitor to Lead Conversion Rate – Gain insight into the number of visitors that convert into leads in a pre-set time period. 
• New Contacts by Referral –  Track the number of new contacts generated through referrals from your existing contacts. Is your word-of-mouth marketing a success?
• New Contact Sources Referral Traffic – Are your link-building efforts paying off? Discover which sources drive most contacts through referral traffic. 
• New Contacts by Organic Socia Source – Gain insights into your effectiveness of social media marketing by analyzing the number of brand-new leads generated by social media campaigns.
• Contacts by Social Source – Discover the number of brand-new leads generated by social media campaigns and determine the effectiveness of your social media marketing efforts.

New Contacts by Source – identify your most effective lead generation channels by digging into the number of new contacts acquired from various sources within a defined period of time with this plug-and-play free HubSpot Leads by Source Dashboard .

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your HubSpot account with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you create an effective lead nurturing strategy:

Step 1: Define Your Target Audience

Step 2: map your customer journey, step 3: establish clear goals, step 4: develop valuable content, step 5: choose your communication channels, step 6: set up lead scoring, step 7: monitor and analyze.

Begin by conducting thorough market research.

Identify the demographics, psychographics, and behavioral traits of your ideal customers. You should consider factors such as age, gender, location, interests, and pain points.

Without this step, all other efforts may be wasted as your nurturing campaigns won’t be focused and relevant.

Create a detailed map of the customer journey, starting from the awareness stage to conversion.

You need to understand the touchpoints where leads interact with your brand, both online and offline. And then, analyze potential challenges or bottlenecks in the customer journey that may hinder progression.

A well-mapped customer journey allows you to align your nurturing efforts with the specific needs and expectations of your leads at each stage.

A good idea here is to set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) for your nurturing strategy.

For example, your goals could be to increase lead engagement by 20% within the next quarter or to convert a certain percentage of leads into customers.

Clearly defined goals provide a roadmap for your strategy and enable you to measure success effectively.

Then, it’s time to craft content that addresses the pain points your audience faces at each stage of the journey.  

One good idea here is to create a content calendar to ensure a consistent flow of valuable information that you can turn back to.

Also, consider using a mix of formats, such as blog posts, infographics, videos, and whitepapers.

The goal is to position your brand as a valuable resource that provides solutions and insights when they need them the most.

Select communication channels based on where your audience is most active.

For example, LinkedIn might be a primary channel if your target audience is professionals. If visual content is crucial, platforms like Instagram or Pinterest may be suitable.

As a best practice, try to build a multichannel approach for maximum impact.

Lead scoring is a systematic method for assigning a numerical value to leads based on their interactions with your brand, helping you prioritize the leads that are most likely to convert into customers.

To do this, you first need to identify key criteria:

• Demographics : Consider factors such as job title, company size, and location.
• Behavioral engagement : Track interactions like email opens, clicks, webinar attendance, and content downloads.
• Website engagement : Monitor visits to key pages, time spent on the website, and specific actions taken, such as completing a form or requesting a demo.

Develop a scoring system where each criterion is assigned a point value. For example, downloading a whitepaper might earn more points than simply opening an email.

Adjust the point values based on the perceived importance of each criterion to your sales process.

Then, define scoring tiers.

Establish scoring tiers that categorize leads into different segments based on their total score. Common segments include “Cold,” “Warm,” and “Hot.”

Lastly, determine the threshold for each segment, indicating when a lead transitions from one stage to another.

Regularly monitor KPIs to assess the effectiveness of your lead nurturing campaigns.

Track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and the time it takes for leads to progress through the funnel.

This should give you enough data that you can analyze to identify trends, successes, and areas for improvement.

Then, conduct A/B testing on different elements of your campaigns, such as subject lines, CTAs, and content types, and use the results to refine your approach.

Expert Insight: If you’re using HubSpot as one of your primary tools for lead nurturing, how often do you get confused by all the different reports available in the tool? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Luckily, there’s a way you can streamline the way you monitor your nurturing strategy efficiency – using our free HubSpot CRM Overview Dashboard . Instead of wasting precious time juggling through all the different HubSpot reports, simply connect your most relevant data onto one dashboard.

To find out what lead nurturing tactics are most effective, we asked 30+ marketers to share the methods they’re currently using to nurture and  reengage leads .

These are the six methods they’re using right now to effectively nurture and re-engage leads and they include:

Email Lead Nurturing

Retargeting, personalization, one-on-one interactions.

Email lead nurturing is the process of building a relationship with potential customers over time through a series of targeted and personalized emails.

The primary goal is to guide leads through the sales funnel, providing them with valuable information and relevant content to move them closer to making a purchase.

And for nearly two-thirds of our respondents, email nurturing is the best way to re-engage leads.

Growth Hackers ’ Jonathan Aufray says that one big benefit of email lead nurturing is that it’s also “very cost-effective compared to paid advertising. Also, you can completely automate your email marketing campaigns.”

But what about cadence? How often should you send out emails?

Aufray recommends doing it regularly:

“I recommend sending one email per week with relevant content that leads might be interested in. Don’t make the mistake of sending too many emails; at max, send two emails per week.”

Nearly half (45.1%) of our respondents agree that one email per week is ideal:

In addition to weighing in on the right frequency for email nurturing, our respondents also shared a variety of nurture email best practices and examples for executing them.

5 Email Nurturing Best Practices and Examples

When it comes to email nurturing, here are the top five best practices, along with some great insights from industry experts.

1. Send Relevant Content

This sounds like a no-brainer, but so many businesses misinterpret how relevant their content is to the reader.

One of the main reasons for this can be a lack of research. Investigate what your audience wants to learn more about, see what pain points they experience, and run surveys to get their direct feedback on what they want.

This is the best way to make sure your content stays super-relevant and practical.

And you can do it in multiple formats, as long as it’s valuable. Agence Nile’s Lydia Deborne says that the content you send can be “an ebook, blog post, or any other type of content you have available.”

“The goal is to provide appropriate content that helps your leads—and not just trying to sell them something,” Deborne says.

2. Combine Email and Video Marketing

Video content tends to be more engaging than plain text, so why not add it to your campaign as well?

You can convey information more quickly and use it for demonstrations for some of your products that might need a bit more visual explanation.

Richard Owens of First Five Eight says that “by combining email and video marketing, you can provide higher-quality content that’s easier to digest.”

“Then, you can integrate with your marketing automation software and CRM to track how much time leads are spending watching your videos, and you can use that data to set up triggers that notify your sales teams of the most nurtured leads,” Owens says.

3. Segment Your Email List

Segmenting your email list allows you to send targeted content to specific groups of subscribers.

This personalization increases engagement and conversion rates as you address the unique needs and interests of each segment.

For example, if you’re selling health and fitness products, you won’t send out the same email to a 20-year-old who wants to put on muscle and a 50-year-old who wants to lose weight, right?

Sadi Khan of RunRepeat says that “lead nurturing is all about relationship-building, and you have to be relevant and listen to others to build relationships. This can be achieved by segmenting your email list based on leads’ interests and then sending personalized emails.”

“For example, we segment our lists based on the specific products or categories that leads were browsing when they signed up for our list. Someone interested in road-running shoes will get emails related to road-running shoes, trail runners receive messages related to trail-running shoes, and so on. This leads to a better engagement rate, more clicks, and more conversions.”

4. Set Up Automated Email Sequences

Once you have your emails written and assembled, all that’s left to do is automate your sequence so it starts going out after specific triggers ( e.g . downloading a free ebook).

Cass Polzin of Accelity Marketing shared her process for automation:

“With any new campaign, we build a workflow to drip relevant content offers onto prospects who download the new offer. This ensures they can continue consuming content that they’re interested in, and they will get points for viewing emails and clicking on links.

Additionally, we regularly create lists of content that are at a certain lead score. We send those contacts personalized emails asking what their thoughts were on the offer they recently downloaded, offering recommendations for further reading, and eventually encouraging a demo call.”

5. Leverage Data

Lastly, don’t forget to make your decisions based on data. If you’re optimizing your nurturing strategy based on instinct, you’re shooting darts with a blindfold on.

Mor Mester of Automizy shared a story from his businesses that showcase just how important it is to leverage data:

“About two months ago, we identified that there was an issue with our nurturing sequence. We thought maybe we were sending too many emails, so we decided to cut back on the number of emails we sent.

After we made the change, we monitored our data and found that the new, shorter, and simpler automation works way better at converting people into  sales-qualified leads . The lesson: data-driven is the name of the game, and less is more.”

After we made the change, we monitored our data and found that the new, shorter, and simpler automation works way better at converting people into  sales-qualified leads . The lesson: data-driven is the name of the game, and less is more.”

Head of Growth at Automizy

Want to get highlighted in our next report? Become a contributor now

Expert Insight: Want to see how effective your lead nurturing efforts are in HubSpot? Then you need this free HubSpot Email Marketing Overview Dashboard . You can track everything from the open rate and click rate to the number of new subscribers on your list. With this free dashboard, tracking your email performance has never been easier. And if you’re not a HubSpot user, there are dozens of other ESP integrations you can connect instead.

If your email marketing game is on par, it’s time to introduce retargeting across multiple platforms in addition to it.

With both newsletters and retargeting campaigns, you make sure that your business stays top-of-mind for your prospects.

Oksana Chyketa of Albacross revealed how you should plan your retargeting campaign:

“For example, you shouldn’t repeat the information that your leads were already exposed to on your website. Instead, switch it up and make sure you’re conveying the value of your product. If a lead wasn’t impressed with your demo, a retargeting ad would be the perfect place to attract them with a free trial,” Chyketa says.

Let’s dive in a bit deeper here and see how you should retarget your leads using social media and display ads:

Social Media Retargeting

Social media retargeting involves showing targeted ads to users who have previously interacted with your website, app, or other online content.

This interaction could include visiting your website, viewing specific pages, or taking certain actions such as adding items to a shopping cart.

And for your lead nurturing efforts, it’s an invaluable strategy.

Jeff Rizzo of The Slumber Yard says that social media retargeting is the “single most effective way to stay in front of leads.”

But he also talks about the importance of matching your ad with the exact customer segment and social platform:

“For example, when we target individuals under the age of 34, we will not use Facebook or Twitter. We’ve found that Instagram and YouTube are the most engaging platforms for this segment. Plus, using video allows us to connect with them on a more personal level.

Our Instagram retargeting ads, on average, get 19% more clicks than the same ads run on Facebook or Twitter.

If we’re targeting a more mature audience with some of our health-related guides, we exclusively use Facebook and no other social site. Not only that, but we’ve noticed that by including closed captioning on our videos, we get a major bump in clicks—about 25% more.

One interesting thing with the older demographic, however, is that they require more consistent nurturing to turn over. We are a lot more willing to retarget our older audience than we are the younger one.”

Display Retargeting

Display retargeting is about showing visual display ads to users across various websites. These display ads can take the form of banners, images, or other visual formats.

For Andy Hoek of Invalshoek , display retargeting is one of the “most effective ways to nurture leads.”

Here’s how he does it:

“Once leads start moving through the buying journey, they start seeing display ads relevant to the stage they’re in. Because of this, we can still nurture leads through display ads even if we don’t have an email address for that lead. And if we do have an email, it’s a good extra channel to reach leads on.”

“Also, display increases email opens because of more exposure to the brand. And by using display ads to nurture leads, they get less exposure to competitors’ ads because you’re using more of the available ad space.”

Which advertising message would catch your attention better – something that’s personalized to exactly what you’re looking for or something that just vaguely covers your relevant subject?

This is why personalization is so crucial.

With so many generic ads and pitches everywhere around us these days, leads are only interested in what’s highly personalized for them.

If you can do it properly, it will make stand out even in the most crowded markets.

If you’re wondering how to improve your lead nurturing efforts with personalization, here are 3 ways to do so:

Email Personalization

If you’re not sending personalized emails, you won’t see the results you want – no matter how good your content may be.

Some of the simple personalization tactics include using your lead’s name when talking to them and analyzing their previous purchases and behavior to see what kind of content they’re more likely to be interested in.

Kraig Martin of Storage Vault says that in his business, “all of the emails we send to customers have a focus on personal details.”

“When we’re planning a campaign, we come up with a basic series of email templates, and then we personalize these as much as possible, adding in any unique details we know about the customer—like their name or interests—to help build that all-important relationship.

Since implementing this approach, we’ve seen our open rates for emails increase by 46%, and we’ve seen a 30% increase in confirmed leads.”

Content personalization

You can’t personalize content like blog posts or YT videos as well as you can with emails, but you can still make it highly relevant to your leads.

How? By seeing what answers they’re looking for the most and then solving their pain points with your business’s expertise.

Here’s one interesting way you can personalize your content – creating dynamic content.

Alexandra Zelenko of DDI Development says that “dynamic content allows you to display different versions of an email, web page, or landing page, depending on who is going to receive it.”

 “Then, instead of setting up and configuring individual campaigns for each segment and trying to route leads into the best one, you can create just one campaign. This allows you to save time, track results more easily, and deliver a seamless and personalized experience.”

Of course, the most personalized interactions you can have with leads are one-on-one conversations.

And with all this talk on automations, retargeting, campaigns… it can be hard to forget how important a one-on-one touchpoint can be.

If you’re not sure how to have one-on-one interactions, here are 3 ways to do so:

Meet with Leads In-Person

Meeting with leads in person is one of the best ways to build trust and rapport.

With face-to-face interactions, you can get a deeper connection and a better understanding of their needs. It humanizes the relationship by not having to interact only through advertising.

Paige Arnof-Fenn of Mavens & Moguls talked about the importance of this nurturing strategy and said that “meeting for coffee or lunch can accomplish so much more than email exchanges, social media posts, etc. – and it’s a great way to get to know people better.”

“I’ve found that building relationships is what drives my business, and technology supports those relationships once they’re solidified. Technology helps advance the conversation, but it will never replace those human interactions that build trust over time.”

“Meeting for coffee or lunch can accomplish so much more than email exchanges, social media posts, etc. – and it’s a great way to get to know people better.

I’ve found that building relationships is what drives my business, and technology supports those relationships once they’re solidified. Technology helps advance the conversation, but it will never replace those human interactions that build trust over time.”

Paige Arnof-Fenn

Founder & CEO at Mavens & Moguls

Connect with Leads on Social

Connecting with leads in person isn’t always doable, especially if your target audience can be found in numerous places around the globe.

In that case, the next best thing is one-on-one interactions on social media.

Hyfa Ahmad of Mindster says that social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram “should be your secret weapon.”

“If you can connect with your leads there, you can add a personal element to your relationship that becomes extremely powerful during the sales process.

For starters, set up Google Alerts for your most important leads and their companies. This way you’ll know about any big news related to them that could make for a good excuse to reach out.

For the really important leads, set up calendar reminders every two months to touch base. If you haven’t reached out in two months, find some excuse—any excuse—to connect. Even if it’s because you’re both fans of the same football team and they won a big game, be sure to send a message so you stay on their minds.”

Leave Nurturing to Specialized Sales Development Reps (SDRs)

SDRs are specialized in lead generation and qualification – but you can also leverage them for your nurturing strategies. Most companies either outsource this team or develop an in-house business development department.

Outsourced SDR companies are specifically trained to identify and engage with potential leads, making them well-suited for nurturing relationships in the early stages of the sales funnel.

What’s more, they’re skilled in initiating conversations, understanding prospect needs, and positioning the value of a product. And they excel in initial outreach, follow-ups, and building rapport, which are all key elements of effective lead nurturing.

AJ Alonzo of demandDrive says that for his business, “the best lead nurturing tactic is to let the specialized SDR team handle it.”

“We see a lot of companies employ a similar process: the SDR gets in touch with a prospect, the prospect isn’t ready to buy, the lead gets kicked to marketing and placed in a drip campaign, and… nothing happens.

In today’s world, personalization and relevancy win deals. Marketing can do its best at crafting relevant messaging, but it won’t be personal like the one-to-one communication an SDR can deliver (and this is coming from a marketer).

Handing the nurturing process over to a specialized SDR team allows them to keep messaging relevant, personal, and up-to-date based on changes in the prospect’s online profile. This process is much more effective (for us at least) to take prospects out of the nurturing stage and into our opportunity stage.”

“The best lead nurturing tactic is to let the specialized SDR team handle it.

We see a lot of companies employ a similar process: the SDR gets in touch with a prospect, the prospect isn’t ready to buy, the lead gets kicked to marketing and placed in a drip campaign, and… nothing happens.

Handing the nurturing process over to the SDR team allows them to keep messaging relevant, personal, and up-to-date based on changes in the prospect’s online profile. This process is much more effective (for us at least) to take prospects out of the nurturing stage and into our opportunity stage.”

Director of Marketing at demandDrive

We’ve already touched upon how powerful content marketing can be in lead nurturing – it provides valuable information to potential customers at practically all stages of their buying journey.

Quality content, whether in the form of blog posts, ebooks, or videos, positions your brand as a helpful resource rather than a mere sales pitch.

Put simply, content marketing serves as the bridge between initial awareness and eventual conversion.

For Ollie Roddy of Catalyst Marketing Agency , “content is still king.”

“Sending relevant, useful content out to your prospects that genuinely helps them without boasting and bragging about your services and successes is the best way to nurture a lead.

Not only do you build trust and a quality reputation with someone, but content is also the best way to prove to prospects that you know your stuff.

In a sort of chicken-egg scenario, I actually use my conversations with prospects to fuel my ideas for content, which in turn brings in new prospects which, in turn, brings in more content ideas.

If you don’t have a dedicated marketing and business development manager, be sure to have those two separate functions working together on content; that’s the number-one way to use content to warm up leads.”

Expert Insight: LinkedIn is becoming more and more powerful as a content marketing channel – but its user interface simply isn’t intuitive, especially for beginners. If you’re nurturing your leads through your LinkedIn page, you should simplify the process of analysis and reporting by downloading our free LinkedIn Page Overview Dashboard . Check out exactly how many new followers you have, how they engage with your content, and which industry they come from (and more) in one place.

Surveys play a pivotal role in lead nurturing because they provide invaluable insights into the needs and preferences of your potential customers.

You can directly engage with leads through surveys and then align your communications and offers based on their feedback. It’s the closest thing we have to “reading the minds” of our customers.

Anna Rubkiewicz of Survicate says that “surveys combined with website user behavior data (such as session recordings) are effective for pre-qualifying leads and customizing messaging.”

However, she also mentions that the key to using surveys for nurturing is to “make sure you aren’t pitching your product too early in the buyer’s journey. Your leads need to be approached with relevant, unobtrusive questions, and your actions need to strictly relate to their answers.”

“To identify the specific stage your leads are in, you should observe which pages they visit (ex: general blog posts versus pricing or product feature pages), ask them about their goals in a survey, and create separate lead nurturing journeys for each answer.”

For example, if leads visit a page that compares your product/service to the competition and also declares in a survey that they’re browsing options on the market, it might be a good time to display a pop-up inviting them to a free product demo.

Respectively, if leads found your blog via organic search and answered that they visited your page ‘for educational purposes,’ you’ve likely encountered a lead who isn’t interested in a product yet.”

“In this scenario, you’re better off inviting those leads to  subscribe to your newsletter  so you can nurture them with content that combines educational and product promotion purposes.”

“This way, you will show your leads that the queries they’ve been searching for in Google relate to a problem your product is an answer to.”

Measure Your Lead Nurturing Strategy Results with Databox 

In today’s competitive environment, having a lead nurturing strategy isn’t a matter of preference anymore… it’s a requirement for any business that wants to convert more clients.

But building a proper nurturing strategy is anything but easy.

It’s time-consuming, requires lots of research, you need to test a variety of elements, and you need to come up with campaigns for multiple channels.

And even when you have a strategy in place, tracking the results from it is another big headache.

That is, unless you use Databox…

For starters, we have dozens of free Sales Leads Dashboards that you can download and populate in a matter of minutes.

They come pre-built with sales metrics that businesses most commonly track and you can integrate any of our 100+ tools .

Here’s how easy it is to get started – all you need to do is pick a template, connect your data source, and choose which metrics you want to add to the dashboard. Then, you can turn the dry numbers into professional visuals in just a few clicks.

With our dashboards, you can easily measure the results of your lead nurturing campaigns and see in real-time where you’re standing performance-wise and if there’s anything you need to optimize ASAP.

Then, you can use Databox Reports to report the data you’re seeing to senior executives in a way that they’ll actually understand what’s going on.

And if you want to see how other businesses in your niche are performing? Well, we have Benchmark Groups just for that.

You can use Benchmark Groups to instantly see how you stack up against competition when it comes to lead nurturing (and use can use it for a variety of other areas). No need to rely on industry reports with vague data anymore.

So, if you’re ready to take your lead nurturing campaigns to the next level, sign up for a free trial and see how easily Databox can make that happen.

• Databox Benchmarks
• Future Value Calculator
• ROI Calculator
• Return On Ads Calculator
• Percentage Growth Rate Calculator
• Report Automation
• Client Reporting
• What is a KPI?
• Google Sheets KPIs
• Sales Analysis Report
• Shopify Reports
• Data Analysis Report
• Google Sheets Dashboard
• Best Dashboard Examples
• Analysing Data
• Marketing Agency KPIs
• Automate Agency Google Ads Report
• Marketing Research Report
• Social Media Dashboard Examples
• Ecom Dashboard Examples

Does Your Performance Stack Up?

Are you maximizing your business potential? Stop guessing and start comparing with companies like yours.

A Message From Our CEO

At Databox, we’re obsessed with helping companies more easily monitor, analyze, and report their results. Whether it’s the resources we put into building and maintaining integrations with 100+ popular marketing tools, enabling customizability of charts, dashboards, and reports, or building functionality to make analysis, benchmarking, and forecasting easier, we’re constantly trying to find ways to help our customers save time and deliver better results.

Do you want an All-in-One Analytics Platform?

Hey, we’re Databox. Our mission is to help businesses save time and grow faster. Click here to see our platform in action. 

Filip Stojanovic is a content writer who studies Business and Political Sciences. Also, I am a huge tennis enthusiast. Although my dream is to win a Grand Slam, working as a content writer is also interesting.

Get practical strategies that drive consistent growth

Implementing an Outcomes-Led Strategy (w/ Alli Blum, Hypothesis Department)

Marketing and Sales in Uncertain Times: Strategies & Spending Impact (2024)

Landing page best practices for b2b saas and tech companies.

Build your first dashboard in 5 minutes or less

Latest from our blog

• Implementing an Outcomes-Led Strategy (w/ Alli Blum, Hypothesis Department) June 8, 2024
• Marketing and Sales in Uncertain Times: Strategies & Spending Impact (2024) June 5, 2024
• Metrics & KPIs
• vs. Tableau
• vs. Looker Studio
• vs. Klipfolio
• vs. Power BI
• vs. Whatagraph
• vs. AgencyAnalytics
• Product & Engineering
• Inside Databox
• Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy
• Talent Resources
• We're Hiring!
• Help Center
• API Documentation

Lead Nurturing

Understand the benefits of lead nurturing to developing personalized B2B relationships with customers and prospects at every stage of the sales funnel.

Lead nurturing can help you to develop personalized B2B relationships with customers and prospects at every stage of the sales funnel. Our guide will help you understand the common problems a solid lead nurturing process can solve and what possible returns you can get on your investment.

We’ll also run through how you can plan, implement and fine-tune your own lead nurturing program and improve the bond between your company and your future customers.

In this lead nurturing guide, you’ll discover:

What is lead nurturing.

• How marketing automation can help your lead nurturing strategy
• Common problems lead nurturing can solve
• Components of a lead nurturing strategy
• ROI of a successful lead nurturing program
• Plan, implement, and optimize your lead nurturing program in 4 simple steps
• Frequently asked questions

Lead nurturing is the process of developing and reinforcing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel. A successful lead nurturing program focuses marketing and communication efforts on listening to the needs of prospects and providing the information and answers they need to:

• Build trust
• Increase brand awareness
• Maintain a connection until prospects are ready to purchase

“On average, half of leads in any given system are not yet ready to buy.”

- Marketo Engage

That’s why it’s crucial to nurture relationships with buyers through a strategic lead scoring system. Additionally, lengthening sales funnels fosters independence within prospects, creating a greater need for well-crafted lead nurturing programs.

How marketing automation can help your lead nurturing strategy.

Marketing automation platforms enable your team to develop flexible, adaptive communications at scale by forming a lead nurturing strategy. In doing this, you create a pathway, through which you:

• Create relationships with potential customers and prospects.
• Maintain these connections as they move through the buyer’s journey.

By creating a lead nurturing program, you will help build lasting relationships, increase clickthrough rates (CTRs) and increase the chances of customer buys. This is all while building brand advocacy at the same time.

Lead nurturing campaigns not only allow you to interact with buyers. You can also use the data you collect to gauge their interest and monitor behavior to further optimize future campaigns and increase return on investment (ROI).

Nurturing through personalization.

The more connected we become via technology, the more necessary it is to create a cross-channel experience for buyers. Today’s consumers also expect personalization in marketing, to deliver seamless engagement, without bombarding them with ads or emails.

Buyers do not want to be sold to. They want to be heard. When you get to know your potential customers and what they want through a lead generation process, you can better serve them and earn their patronage through genuine understanding.

Effective lead nurturing must encompass your entire marketing calendar, to incorporate the total amount of communications your leads are receiving, including:

• Newsletters
• Product updates
• Database emails
• Other cross-channel communications

Focus on making these interactions work harmoniously, in a way that is relevant and gives customers the best possible experience, and you’ll earn the loyalty of your leads.

“Lead nurture is still primarily centered on email marketing efforts, but the customer experience needs to span all channels to foster engagement and point-of-sale — from in-store, to mobile, sales, referral, social, and support.”

- Corinne Sklar

Global CMO, Bluewolf

Common problems lead nurturing can solve.

Longer sales cycles, self-directed buyers, and shortened attention spans can be a headache for marketers. But a lead nurturing strategy can help you convert customers and build brand loyalty.

Lead nurturing increases the chances of a customer doing business with you, by maintaining solid relationships with them.

Such relationships are critical in today’s sales cycles, which can be volatile, given that many of your competitors are likely adopting a similar approach.

By nurturing leads, you can maintain that relationship over time. All the while, you’re using these communications to gradually build brand loyalty and trust.

Buyers today take more time to explore their options and educate themselves, before making a purchase decision. Today’s sales cycles are longer, which is why it’s so important to nurture leads.

To adapt to this ever-changing customer environment, you can shorten your sales cycle. This may give you a better chance of converting more leads into buyers and long-term customers.

To have an effective lead nurturing program, you must engage buyers. When you nurture your communications with leads, you demonstrate value in the content and knowledge you share.

This approach can begin the process of creating trust in your brand and an improvement in the impact of your marketing campaigns .

When you set up lead nurturing, you have to put goals in place, before you can hope to see and measure impact. Ask yourself how many leads you need to generate, what products you offer, and what audience you want to attract.

You can then use that information as a jumping-off point to gather relevant data.

Marketing automation is key to navigating longer sales cycles, lead scoring and lead lifecycle management. It’s also important when deciding on the level of personalization in your marketing and analytics you focus on.

Today, implementation of a manual program is simply too costly and time-consuming for most businesses. That’s why having an automated process is crucial to looking after and catering to those leads.

Learn more about how to set up the right program with How to Create a Lead Nurturing Strategy.

Download now

Components of a lead nurturing strategy.

Lead nurturing consists of cross-channel communication that combines content marketing and marketing automation to create a system that builds and maintains relationships with customers. Here are some of the key elements.

Lead scoring.

To develop a successful lead scoring strategy, sales and marketing must come together to pinpoint a particular lead within the brand’s buying model. Such collaboration is the backbone of a strong lead nurturing process.

It identifies when and how to address each buyer with the most timely and relevant communications. Each lead scoring system will be unique to each brand and includes:

• Lead fit. Demographics, firmographics, BANT (budget authority, need, time).
• Lead interest. What content are they engaging with? How long are they on your site?
• Lead behavior. Are they serious about buying yet or still looking for information?
• Buying stage and time. What stage are they at in the sales funnel?

Content marketing.

If lead scoring is the backbone of a successful online marketing strategy, content marketing is the muscle. It’s the process of creating relevant and valuable content for your customers and prospects.

This can include:

• Written content. Found in your emails and on your website.
• Audio content. Used in any company-branded podcasts.
• Video content. Shared on social channels, YouTube or on your website.

Learn how to build a content marketing strategy

Multichannel distribution.

To implement a successful lead nurturing campaign, you must interconnect your channels to maintain contact with leads across the board. This is absolutely vital, as you can widen your potential audience by diversifying the ways in which you reach and maintain connections with your leads.

Plus, widening your scope for communications can help open up new revenue streams, simply by keeping in touch with more people across a wider range of channels.

Your website is a great place to capture new email addresses, but it’s also a fantastic location to continue and start conversations. The web experience can and should be dynamically personalized to reinforce and extend the dialogue started in emails.

Getting this part right is crucial. Optimizing your website’s content and functionality ensures you give new and existing leads a positive experience with your brand — increasing the chances of them continuing through the sales funnel.

Retargeting.

Display ads and retargeting can be a large part of your marketing budget. But how can you create a consistent experience for your buyers across those channels?

It’s simple. Retargeting advertisements will need to be consistent in their branding, yet still personalized to the different customer segments you’re trying to win back. Each ad should also reflect where the user originally exited your website and provide content that is relevant to them.

Social media marketing is a critical part of cross-channel nurturing. Running social campaigns can be fantastic at engaging potential leads with one-off campaigns.

But making every campaign social is an even better approach. When you connect your lead nurturing to your social efforts, they enhance each other and can work in unison to help reach more possible customers than ever.

Direct mail.

Consider adding direct mail to your lead nurturing campaigns to further personalize your marketing and add a human touch. Online channels dominate the customer landscape of today, but there’s still room for offline marketing.

A direct mail campaign puts your message into the hands of potential customers. While the outlays might be more than an online campaign, the long-term benefits of a grassroots direct mailout can be plentiful.

Marketing automation.

Marketing automation is a technology solution that allows brands to streamline and automate their marketing efforts across various channels, to:

• Improve efficiency
• Drive more sales

Automating a workflow helps align all your marketing efforts and messages and makes sure each lead receives the most relevant messages, at the most opportune times.

Learn more about what lead nurturing can offer in our Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing.

Roi of a successful lead nurturing program..

Since today’s sales cycle is significantly longer, nurturing leads is crucial to conversion and maximizing profit.

Lead nurturing can result in:

• More sales. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost (Marketo).
• Larger purchases. Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads (The Annuitas Group).
• Improved performance. Email marketers rank automation campaigns among their top three tactics for improving performance ( HubSpot ).

Learn more about how lead nurturing contributes to the bottom line in Calculating The ROI Of Lead Nurturing.

Download Now

How to plan, implement, and optimize your lead nurturing program in 4 simple steps.

Launching a lead nurturing strategy and program lays the framework for what you need to convert new and returning customers. Do it in 4 steps:

Step 1: Define your leads.

To define the perfect lead, you need to agree a joint lead definition between sales and marketing . You’ll need to determine:

• Your market
• Who is already in your database
• Current prospects
• Which buyers are closing

Once you know this, use these parameters to establish lead scoring thresholds, lead fit, and lead engagement points.

Step 2: Build your lists.

To grow your business and set up a robust lead nurturing program, you must feed the top of the funnel with list-building tactics. Regularly give your leads a check-up, identify and scrub duplicates, and remove inactive or junk contacts.

Step 3: Segment your audience groups.

We recommend your basic lead nurturing programs use two dimensions of segmentation: buying stage crossed with another measurement variable important to your business. This creates a happy balance.

One is not enough, and each dimension beyond two creates an exponentially more complex framework. Think of it as segments and subsegments.

Step 4: Test and optimize your campaigns.

You must monitor and test your lead nurturing process regularly. Testing gives insights into the aspects of a nurture track you could optimize, including:

• How many touches within a specific period of time
• The types of messages sent out
• What time of day interactions took place

You need to optimize your lead nurture frequency, path, content and creative (including copy length and design), and content mix.

Learn more about how to get lead nurturing working for you in What To Seek In A Lead Nurturing Solution.

Frequently asked questions about lead nurturing., how do we nurture leads.

The phrase ‘nurture leads’ is all about establishing a relationship with potential customers or clients. Then helping them through the buying journey, towards an eventual sale.

You can summarize the dictionary definition of ‘nurture’ as ‘taking care of something, or someone, to help them develop’. This is what happens when nurturing leads, as you get to know their issues, help them work out potential solutions and serve them relevant content.

What is lead nurturing content?

Lead nurturing content makes a direct connection with a prospect, by showing its creators have understood their needs and challenges. One example is an exclusive whitepaper that is created specifically for a group of prospects, that focuses on a specific challenge they have identified.

The whitepaper would empathize with their situation and contextualize it with data. It would also offer a viable solution, generally through a product or service provided by the company that created it.

What is a lead nurturing definition?

A good definition of lead nurturing would be that it is a mature marketing process, which is designed to identify prospects and buyers. It then builds relationships with them, listening to their needs, and guides them through each stage of the funnel, towards making a purchase or signing up for a service.

Advanced Lead Nurture Segmentations

• United States (English)
• Deutschland (Deutsch)
• France (Français)
• Australia (English)
• United Kingdom (English)
• España (Español)

• Share on Twitter
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Facebook
• Share on Pinterest
• Share through Email

10-Step Guide To Mastering Nurture Campaigns

How do you keep your brand top-of-mind in a 15-second video world? Nurture campaigns. Follow these 10 steps to gently guide your leads through the sales funnel from prospect to customer.

Nurture campaigns do one thing really, really well — they keep your customer’s attention on your company.

Attention means dollars in the 15-second video world. If you can master the art of nurturing prospects, you’ll win in the long run. 

What Are Lead Nurture Campaigns?

Nurture campaigns are essentially a series of touch points and follow-ups (think email sequences, social media outreach, texts, etc.) that help guide sales leads through your funnel and come out as paying customers.

The scope of nurture campaigns extends far beyond mere customer engagement. These campaigns are instrumental in shaping the customer's journey, influencing their purchasing decisions, and ultimately impacting a company's revenue. 

RevOps pros have the data to back the success of nurture campaigns as well. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost, as reported by Forrester Research. 

Additionally, nurtured leads tend to make larger purchases , with Annuitas Group noting that nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. I’m here to delve into the strategic nuances of lead nurturing, offering a comprehensive roadmap for RevOps professionals.

10 Steps For A Successful Nurture Campaign

1. identify the target audience.

A critical step in lead nurturing is identifying who your leads are and understanding their needs and behaviors. Before you and your team go running to create content and marketing campaigns, first dig into your organization’s Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). 

2. Outline Your Ideal Customer Profile 

First dig into demographic information, firmographic data for B2B companies, and psychographic details. RevOps teams use data and analytics to pinpoint characteristics that make up your most valuable customers.

Author's Tip

Beware the common pitfalls of bad research. Ensure that your research teams aren’t just checking boxes but are uncovering data that will help your sales team close more deals.

Here’s an example of how to think about your customer’s buying journey and discover what matters to them: What is the buying cycle of your ICP? Do they have to present internally? If so, what questions are asked in those internal meetings? A $10 gift card to a coffee shop and a 30-minute conversation with a network referral or LinkedIn connection can provide these answers in-depth.

Coming soon — Get career resources, software reviews, & expert tips right in your inbox

• Your email *
• By submitting this form, you agree to receive our newsletter, and occasional emails related to The RevOps Team. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more details, please review our Privacy Policy . We're protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
• Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

3. Define the Buyer’s Journey and Key Messages for Each Stage

Understanding the buyer’s journey is essential for effective lead nurturing. The buyer’s journey typically consists of three stages: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. RevOps teams map out this journey, identifying the specific needs and questions customers have at each stage. Then, the marketing team can craft key messages tailored to these stages, ensuring that communication is relevant and timely. This targeted approach helps in moving leads smoothly through the sales funnel.

4. Segment Your Audience

Not all leads are the same, and treating them as such can be a costly mistake. Audience segmentation is the process of dividing your audience into smaller groups based on certain criteria like industry, company size, or behavior to target the right market .

RevOps teams use segmentation to help sales and marketing teams deliver more personalized and relevant content to each group. By understanding the unique challenges and needs of each segment, businesses can tailor their nurturing strategies to be more effective, engaging, and align with the overall go-to-market strategy .

5. Develop Your Content Strategy

A well-crafted content strategy is vital for a successful lead nurturing campaign. The content you share with your leads should not only be relevant and engaging but also aligned with where they are in the buyer’s journey. Here’s how to outline an effective content strategy:

Types of Content to Include in a Nurture Campaign

• Educational Content: This includes blog posts, white papers, case studies, webinars, and sales enablement content . Educational content is particularly effective in the early stages of the buyer’s journey, where potential customers are seeking information.
• Email Newsletters: Regular newsletters keep your brand top of mind. Takeaway: The welcome email of an email newsletter is absolutely key, so ensure you know your audience very well!
• Drip Campaigns: A series of emails that are automatically sent out based on specific triggers or time intervals. These are effective for gradually nurturing leads with a steady stream of information.
• Re-engagement Campaigns: Targeted at leads who have gone cold, these campaigns aim to rekindle interest with compelling offers or new insights.
• Social Media Content: Engaging posts, stories, and updates that reflect your brand’s personality and values can help in building a community around your brand.

The frequency of your content distribution should strike a balance between keeping your leads engaged and not overwhelming them. This can vary based on your industry and the nature of your products or services. A/B testing can be a valuable tool in determining the optimal frequency. Timing is also crucial; for instance, sending emails at a time when your audience is most likely to open them can significantly improve open rates.

For a more in-depth lead nurturing example , look at Adobe’s shift to a subscription-based model. By nurturing existing customers through targeted messaging about the benefits of switching to Creative Cloud, Adobe significantly increased its recurring revenue. This story is outlined in depth in Scott Belsky’s book The Messy Middle . 

6. Set Up Your Nurture Campaign

There are so many modern and high-quality CRMs today that it is difficult to choose which one to pick. One piece of advice, find one that is affordable and can scale with your business as you grow. A RevOps leader with an organization that is focusing on developing into enterprise level should probably think about Salesforce, Hubspot or Oracle. But if the goal is to build a smaller, leaner organization then CRMs like Pipedrive, Monday.com, and GoHighLevel are better fits. 

Tools and Software

At the very least your CRM should be setup to: 

• Track Customer Interactions: Every touchpoint with a lead can be tracked and analyzed.
• Segment Your Audience: Efficiently categorize leads based on various criteria, ensuring more targeted communication.
• Measure Campaign Effectiveness: Understand which strategies are working and which aren’t, based on real-time data.
• Automate marketing outreach: Send automated texts, emails, voicemails, etc. 

Key Consideration: Look for a CRM that integrates seamlessly with other tools in your marketing stack and offers advanced analytics capabilities. Or, test out tools designed for lead management that can be integrated into your current tech stack.

7. Optimize Outreach

Email marketing platforms are critical for executing nurture campaigns. When choosing a platform, consider:

• Automation Features: Essential for scheduling and sending emails at scale.
• Personalization Capabilities: The ability to personalize emails based on lead data.
• Analytics and Reporting: Insights into open rates, click-through rates, and conversions are vital for optimizing campaigns.
• Lead Scoring: Helps in prioritizing leads based on their engagement and likelihood to convert.
• Lead Nurturing Workflows: Some platforms offer more sophisticated options for creating and managing nurture sequences.
• Decision Guide: Assess the complexity of your sales cycle and volume of leads. If they are high, investing in dedicated lead management software might be beneficial.

Platforms like Klaviyo, HubSpot, or Marketo offer advanced features that cater to various levels of complexity in email marketing strategies.

8. Create Templates

In all honesty, templates are a better way to go than creating emails from scratch. Do some digging and find an email copy master who’s already found success and use their templates.

Michael Pozndev has just the one for ecomm specialists (plus check out this MASSIVE resource from GoHighLevel) .

9. Launch the Campaign

Once the groundwork for a lead nurturing campaign is laid, the focus shifts to execution and monitoring. This lead management phase is crucial as it involves not only the implementation of the campaign but also continuous tracking and optimization based on performance data.

• Test Before Launch: Ensure all elements of the campaign, from email sequences to landing pages, and especially CTAs are thoroughly tested for functionality and user experience.
• Segment Your Audience: Tailor your campaign to different segments of your audience for more personalized and effective communication.
• Clear Communication: Ensure that your messaging is clear and aligns with your overall brand voice and the specific goals of the campaign.
• Optimize for Mobile: With an increasing number of users accessing content on mobile devices, ensure that all components of your campaign are mobile-friendly.
• Set Clear Objectives: Define what success looks like for the campaign, whether it’s an increase in lead quality, quantity, or specific engagement metrics.
• Inform Your Team: Make sure all relevant teams (sales, marketing, customer service) are aligned and understand their role in the campaign.

10. Track KPIs and Iterate

Don’t start with a complex dashboard. Please, just don’t. Here’s a pro tip — don’t download the latest Business Intelligence software and spend a fortune on a BI consultant to build a complex dashboard.

Instead, use the 5 metrics below, track them for 90 days in a spreadsheet and then hire a low-cost analyst contractor to design an Excel or sheets dashboard. I’ve worked with companies doing mid-8 figures with this type of setup. It is effective and simple, giving you and your RevOps team the insight they need to make smart decisions before investing in a more complex dashboard. Also, it only costs about $500 to set up.

Basic metrics to track

• Conversion Rates: Track how many leads move to the next stage in the sales funnel and eventually convert to customers.
• Engagement Metrics: This includes email open rates, click-through rates, and social media engagement. Be careful with engagement metrics as they can quickly become vanity metrics, ensure there is a good reason you’re tracking these. 
• Lead Quality: Monitor the quality of leads generated and how they align with your ideal customer profile.
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Understanding the cost involved in acquiring a new customer is crucial for evaluating the campaign’s ROI.
• Lifetime Value (LTV): This metric helps in understanding the long-term value of the leads being nurtured. 

Your team should be constantly A/B testing. Not enough teams spend time testing content and copy to see which resonates with their clients better. For example, a SaaS provider I worked with tested two landing page designs. The first featured a short-form sign-up process, while the second offered a more detailed, step-by-step approach. The short-form page resulted in a 15% higher conversion rate, indicating that users preferred a quicker sign-up process. This insight led to a redesign of their onboarding process, significantly reducing drop-off rates.

Common Pitfalls And How To Avoid Them

The graphic below is one of, if not the best visualization of most campaigns. As a RevOps professional, you can’t simply turn on a campaign and say goodbye. It takes constant tweaking, monitoring, discussing, and relaunching to navigate the messy middle .

More Articles

The 17 best account management books to master client journeys, what is sales forecasting your key to informed decisions, what is cpq: a guide to ‘configure, price, quote’ for revops teams, how to build a lead funnel in 5 steps, prospecting vs. lead generation: a quick guide, over-automation.

Relying too heavily on automation can make your communications feel impersonal and robotic. While automation tools are essential for scaling your efforts, they can sometimes strip away the human element that is critical in building relationships with potential customers. And, according to a study by Epsilon, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer  personalized experiences .

How to Avoid:

• Personalization: Use automation tools that allow for personalization. This can be as simple as including the lead’s name in emails or as complex as tailoring content based on their past interactions with your brand.
• Human Touch: Regularly intersperse automated communications with personal messages. For instance, a personal check-in email from a sales representative can make a world of difference.
• Feedback Loops: Implement systems to gather feedback from leads about their communication preferences and adjust your approach accordingly.

Content Overload

Bombarding leads with too much content too frequently can be overwhelming, leading to high unsubscribe rates and low engagement.

• Segmentation: Tailor the frequency and type of content to different segments of your audience. Not all leads require the same amount of nurturing.
• Quality Over Quantity: Focus on providing high-quality, relevant content rather than trying to hit a certain quantity of communications.
• Monitor Engagement: Keep an eye on metrics like open rates and click-through rates to gauge how your audience is responding to the frequency of your content.

A report by HubSpot revealed that email open rates decrease as the number of emails sent per month increases, underscoring the importance of sending a clear message and not burning your customer’s goodwill by filling up their inbox.

Ready for Launch

Follow these steps, and you'll be well on your way. The important thing to remember is to keep testing and iterating on your campaign. You can always improve, and your data will show you what's working and what isn't. Want to take your RevOps game to the next level? The RevOps Team is launching a newsletter soon. Sign up to get career resources, software reviews, and advice from RevOps experts delivered to your inbox .

Top 9 Lead Generation Sources

6 Steps to a Successful Nurture Program

By Payal Parikh , Director of Client Engagement at Heinz Marketing

Would you marry someone on your first date? I’m guessing that 99% of you would say NO. Then why would you expect your prospect to make a purchasing decision at the first interaction? Most of your leads are not purchase-ready when they first raise their hand. In B2B marketing, it requires multiple touches (at least 7) for a prospect to convert. Does that mean you’d send them ‘Marry me’ or ‘Buy Me’ messages at least 7 times? No. They would run away at lightning speed and ghost you, block you, and unsubscribe.

So how do you approach your prospect who just showed that interest or who fits your typical buyer profile?

You nurture them.

What is lead nurturing and why is it important?

Lead nurturing is a process of engaging your prospects with your brand by providing them content that is appropriate at each stage of their buying process so you can earn their trust and ultimately their business.

Lead nurturing helps in elevating your brand in the eyes of your prospect by providing them relevant information. Prospects are looking to solve their problems and concerns, they have specific pain points. A nurture strategy helps address those concerns by providing content that resonates with them, educates them, sets your brand as a subject matter expert, and builds trust. And once you’ve established that trust as a brand, you have a much higher chance of earning their business.

6 steps to create a successful nurture program

Step 1: know your audience.

Buyer personas are a key element to a successful marketing and sales strategy. If you don’t understand your target audience, how do you plan to sell them your product or service? By understanding your audience, their pain points , you can develop content that speaks to their concerns and needs.

By knowing their job focus and responsibilities , you’ll again be able to draft your messaging and content accordingly.

It is also important to determine their goals . This will help you determine how your product or service will help them achieve their goals more efficiently. Here are Nine Questions to consider when building B2B Buyer Personas.

Step 2: Know your content

Conduct a thorough audit of your existing content and identify gaps.

Before diving into new content development, make sure you know what you need to develop to achieve your goals. Chances are, you’ll find a lot of content you can repurpose. Conduct a content audit of your existing content pieces. And as Lisa mentioned in her blog here ,  it doesn’t necessarily have to be whitepapers, case studies, ebooks, and guides. It also includes any webinars you’ve done in the past, video clips, blogs, articles, etc. Add all your content pieces to a spreadsheet and start mapping each piece against which persona it is speaking to. Also, map the stage in which it will be relevant to your audience – Top of the Funnel (Awareness stage) – Middle of the Funnel (Consideration stage) – Bottom of the Funnel (Decision stage).

Once you have this information mapped out, you will be able to determine where your content gaps are. This exercise seems daunting to start if you have a lot of content pieces floating around. But it is a crucial step to focus your content development efforts in the right direction.

There are other benefits of this exercise. When developing the nurture programs, you will be easily able to pick your content pieces from the spreadsheet.

Step 3: Map the Buyer’s journey

A well-thought buyer’s journey is important for a successful nurture program. This will help you understand what your Persona is thinking/feeling at each stage of their journey. This will in turn help you deliver messages to address their pain points and speak towards their goals at each stage.

Here are 8 core components of a Buyer’s journey.

Step 4: Choose the right nurture program

Steps 1 to 3 were about building the foundational elements and doing the groundwork before you start developing a nurture program. Once you have this ready, it’s time to start thinking about what kind of nurture tracks you’d like to develop. Here are some of the nurture tracks that I’ve seen success with:

• Generic Persona nurture

By integrating your personas into marketing automation workflows and assigning a persona to each lead, you’ll be set up to automatically nurture every lead. As prospects interact with your business, your website, and your content, they’ll progressively receive relevant information that builds the case for why they should spend money with you.

If your database supports different nurture tracks for each persona, go for it. If not, you can develop separate nurtures for each of your products if you think the audiences are vastly different.

• Industry or Vertical nurture

Again, if your database has enough information on different verticals of your target audience, this is a nurture track you can use to speak differently to each vertical.

• Re-engagement nurture

Even with the most sophisticated marketing strategy, some leads can go radio silent. There will be a lot of prospects in your database who didn’t open your emails, didn’t interact with you on social channels, and didn’t visit your website for a specific amount of time. Depending on your sales cycle and the number of touches from marketing and sales to reach your prospect, you can determine a time limit.

You can set up separate nurture for them to help them re-engage with your brand.

• Top product page visit nurture

This is another nurture you can set up for people visiting particular product pages on your website. Could be one page of X amount of time or X number of pages. The only limitation to this is it will trigger only ‘known’ contacts in your marketing automation database.

• Content syndication nurture

I recommend setting up separate nurture for content syndication leads. It is not best practice to dump content syndication leads into a generic nurture stream – it will do more harm than good (meaning it will lead to more unsubscribes). Even though the generic stream is persona-specific. The prospect wouldn’t have any context or even remember they downloaded the content since it is viewed on 3 rd party sites.

• Disqualified leads nurture

What happens to the leads after they are disqualified by your sales team? Do they just sit around in your database? Most B2B marketers I know are looking for more ways to generate leads faster. But here’s a question to think about:

Do you have a process for handling leads from sales back to marketing when they are not sales-ready?

These prospects have raised their hand before and that’s how they landed in your CRM as a lead. Which means they don’t need any awareness about your product. The lead might have disqualified for various reasons, so be careful here. Working very closely with your sales team is key. Make sure you follow-up with the disqualified leads with reasons that work out for the sales team. They know who is a better fit.

When you set up a Disqualified leads nurture, make sure to set it up for marketing as well as sales.

• Campaign Specific Nurture

I recommend setting up specific nurtures if you have some major campaigns running.

• Abandoned cart nurture

This one is for all of you with e-commerce capabilities on your website. For whatever reason—whether they were distracted, their laptop ran out of power, their dog started barking, or someone called them on the phone—customers abandon their online shopping carts all the time. That’s where abandon cart emails come in. They act as a glue between the customer and the cart, used by merchants to recover those almost-lost-forever sales.

Step 5: Create a workflow

Once you have identified which nurture tracks you want to set up, it’s time to map the workflow. Again, collaboration is key here. Work with your Marketing Operations team to understand marketing automation capabilities and limitations. Map out when and who you want to enter each nurture track, what to do after the nurture ends, what to do with catch-all prospects who don’t have much information to qualify for either of the nurtures, what leads marketing nurtures should never touch, etc.

Here is an example of what a typical workflow could look like:

Step 6: Lead scoring

Work with Marketing Operations to determine what your current lead scoring criteria is and determine if it is too loose or too tight. You don’t want to end up sending a bunch of cold leads to sales and you also don’t want to miss out on important ones if the criteria are too tight.

Next Steps:

Once you have all the foundational elements and planning squared away, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start working on actual copy and designs.

Don’t forget to measure and keep checking if leads are getting scored correctly, just to be sure the back-end setup is error-free.

What are some of the other steps you add to your nurture programs? What other nurture program ideas do you have to share with our readers?

Related Articles

Decoding the Customer Journey: A Guide to Effective Marketing Attribution – Pt. 4

Marketing Orchestration vs Marketing Operations

Navigating Regulatory Compliance: Lessons from Coca-Cola

Top 5 considerations when building a customer nurture journey

How well you nurture your leads and existing customer relationships can be the difference between a successful marketing campaign and a flop.

By building trusted relationships through a personalised, cross-channel experience, you can increase conversion rates and enhance brand loyalty. But in today’s digital, arguably complex, and customer-centric environment, what’s the best way to achieve that? Before you even begin to build a lead nurture strategy, you first have to lay the right foundations.

Here are 5 key things to consider before building your customer nurture journey:

Know your purpose

Perhaps the most important thing to consider is the why; your campaign’s purpose.

Do you want to nurture cold leads from your website to generate a sale, or are you nurturing an existing B2B customer to upsell or grow their annual sales revenue? Once you know this, you can use clear CTAs (call to actions) that will drive the right action to fulfil that purpose.

Define success

What does a successful customer nurture journey look like to you?

Whether it’s a certain number of conversions or sales, or brand awareness in the form of click-throughs and time on page, make sure you clearly define your KPIs or goals from the very beginning. This knowledge should inform the design, length and breadth of your campaign.

You can provide better value by focusing on metrics that closely influence direct business outcomes.

Drill down on demographics

Before you can nurture your customer relationships, you first need to understand who your customers are. By thoroughly researching the demographic you want to reach, you can target the customer segment more accurately through the type of content, call to action, tone and sales approach you use in your customer nurture journey. The more your communications connect and resonate with your audience, the more likely they are to convert.

Weave a story

Think of a lead nurture as a way to prioritise meaningful conversations with customers. This can be done by tapping into your customer segment’s values and concentrating a campaign’s focus on how your product or service will benefit your customers or potential customers, rather than your product’s specs.

Stay consistent

For the best results, keep your messaging brief and consistent in targeted customer interactions, across all media touch-points. This doesn’t mean you can’t use a mix of interactive content and imagery – in fact, you should – but it does mean ensuring your business maintains a steady tone of voice that reflects your business’s brand.

Whether your nurture campaign is based in web, email or social media, you can always leverage it further through cross-channel marketing, which also lets you take advantage of the interactive features across different platforms.

Ready to design a customer nurture journey? Idea Science can help with that.

Lead Nurturing With HubSpot: How to Craft a Killer B2B Campaign Using Workflows [Part 2]

Updated: October 28, 2021

Published: February 01, 2019

Lead nurturing and content marketing go hand-in-hand, right?

As a B2B professional, you may or may not be aware that educating your audience is a definitive way to gain more leads and conversions compared to flashy marketing techniques often associated with B2C strategies. 

So, let's assume you have a content and lead nurturing strategy in place.

A visitor stumbles across one of your brand's social posts. They visit your website, view a few of your educational blogs, and find themselves at a content-gated landing page. They even fill out the form on the page, providing you their contact information.

Then, they go silent, failing to become a customer. That's unfortunate! But was all that work turning them into a lead a waste?

No — it doesn't have to be! B2B sales cycles can be long. So, just because they aren't ready to purchase right now, doesn't mean they never will. By creating a nurturing campaign using HubSpot workflows, you can continue to engage your leads, keeping you top of mind, and providing them the content they need to move closer to becoming a customer.

Follow along. Here's our how-to for creating nurturing workflows in HubSpot for B2B:

Step 1: Identify the Goal of Your Lead Nurturing Campaign

A good foundation for your B2B lead nurturing campaign is more than just the content you'll have in place. What would the purpose of that content be if you had no goal in mind? Thus, when creating a B2B lead nurturing campaign, know your goal beforehand, and ensure that your content targets the right audience's problems with the right solutions. Otherwise, your sales process won't guide your audience through the buyer's journey — say “sayonara” to strong conversion rates.

When setting goals, there are two types you should define:

• Quantitative goals: Which are numerically measured so that you can easily track your audience's progress?
• Qualitative Goals: Which reflect your lead nurturing campaign's bigger picture, to organize and maintain a lead's actions and details, and help marketing and sales teams collaborate?

You should also look at how each goal impacts each stage of your audience's buyer's journey and your sales process. How do they encourage a potential client's movement from one stage to the next? How do you effectually guide them? Is the contact property that you set for a lead appropriate to the type of workflow they're enrolled in?

Visit HubSpot's knowledge base to learn how to create goals in HubSpot for your team and how to manage them.

Step 2: Identify the Audience You Want to Nurture

Before you can craft any campaign, you must first know your target audience. This starts by developing your buyer personas. Buyer personas reflect your target audience.

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), include the following:

• Demographics
• Behavior patterns
• Motivations

Once developed, you want to add your personas to your HubSpot account as a contact property and begin assigning created buyer personas to contacts within your HubSpot account . Depending on whether you want buyer personas to be associated with just a handful of contacts or if you want to build buyer personas with more complex criteria, HubSpot offers methods for each.

Now you can create active lists based on buyer personas, and then create and activate targeted nurturing campaign workflows using those active lists.

Step 3: Understand Each Stage of Your Buyer's Journey

If you're looking to nurture your target audience with workflows, you must look at every stage of the buyer's journey . Below are the three stages of the buyer's journey, along with some context about how a prospect is feeling and what their goals are:

Let's cover each stage in some more detail:

The awareness stage

The awareness stage of the buyer's journey is when people first become aware of their problem, or perhaps they're even unaware of their problem. Usually when a potential contact or lead experiences an indescribable discomfort, that is a good indication they face a challenge.

To solve for that discomfort, a potential buyer will try to better understand their challenge, its possible solution, and how to address either one. Thus, they're in the earliest stage of looking for answers to solve their problem.

So for this stage, focus on engaging unaware prospects and website visitors. This type of audience hasn't provided you with much more information other than how they interact in a minimal manner, such as coincidentally viewing one or two similarly focused blog posts on your website.

The consideration stage

The consideration stage of the buyer's journey is when people are clearly aware of their problem and are actively searching for solutions. While searching, they consider solution offerings from a variety of businesses and heavily engage with content that provides the most relevant and best answers to their problem.

So for this stage, focus on nurturing prospects as well as marketing qualified leads (or MQLs). Every action this audience takes, such as clicking a blog post or completing a quiz, can attribute to gaining more information about them. By also analyzing how your audience previously interacted with the awareness stage content, you can generally start segmenting them by sending relative pieces of content or assets. 

The decision stage

The decision stage of the buyer's journey is when a person is just about ready to make a purchase. They're focused on finding a solution to their problem. So, what makes your brand and business the best solution?

For this stage, focus on nurturing sales qualified leads (SQLs) and even past customers. During this stage, you'll gauge your audience's interaction with your brand, eventually handing off the accumulated knowledge to your sales team. Send decision stage content to delight and fully position your brand in the customer's mind, such as providing direct comparisons against competitors or offering special deals on pricing pages.

Keep in mind, there's no guarantee that a contact will purchase when reaching the last stage of their journey. To increase the likelihood of a purchase, qualify your leads and customers even further with lead scoring. This will help your sales team ultimately provide targeted solutions for the lead's problem.

Step 4: Create and Promote Educational Content for Each Stage of the Buyer's Journey

So now that you have a good understanding of the buyer's journey, here comes the fun part: creating content for each stage. 

Awareness stage content creation and promotion 

Awareness stage content acts as a foundation for website visitors to become leads. However, they first need to have some awareness of your brand and be able to engage with you. At this stage, you want to offer educational content that helps your buyer identify what their problem or goal is and whether or not it's a priority.

Here are five content ideas that can help your buyer in the awareness stage and attract leads to your company:

• Produce a basic quiz (Like the one below). Review how to capture more leads using quizzes with HubSpot  to gain feedback on a lead's awareness of their problem and its solution, thus where in the buyer's journey they are.

Consideration stage  content creation and promotion

Ideally, you should want to know your audience as well as possible. Therefore, shouldn't that mean directly engaging with and getting to know them as more than just a lead but rather as a person? Ask yourself: If I were facing the same problem that my consideration stage audience is facing, how would I want to be treated in that situation?

At this stage in their journey, your lead has identified their problem or goal and has decided to take action on it. They're now ready to evaluate possible solutions, and you're just the one to help them do that with premium educational assets:

• Promote an event with inbound marketing: Grasp how to promote an event step-by-step with inbound marketing in your HubSpot account so that your audience and leads can interact with your brand face-to-face, which builds a stronger, more familiar relationship.
• An ebook: Learn how to write an ebook to promote within your HubSpot account , offering leads an educational guide to follow while also positioning your brand favorably.
• Writing and adding whitepapers to your website: Understand how to write a whitepaper to capture more leads   so that you can offer in-depth, specific problem-solving guides to leads, triggered by a download or form completion.
• Showcasing and hosting webinars: Find out how to use HubSpot's integration with GoToWebinar   so that leads can engage with your brand in a live manner while being taught educational, solution-based information about their problem.
• Developing and creating case studies: Follow how to write a great case study to entice a lead with previous successful statistics of campaigns that you've helped other brands achieve.

Decision stage  content creation and promotion 

Decision stage content is like the cheering fan at the finish line in a foot-race of guiding potential customers through the buyer's journey and your sales process. It's that last little bit of encouragement. It's that last little bit of comfort knowing that they're being cheered for. So, create and promote your decision stage content with that in mind.

Here are examples of content that work well at this stage:

• Product/service demos: Be conscious of how to create a product/service demo to positively position your brand in the eyes of your target audience and win their customer loyalty over competitors.
• A well-positioned pricing page: Although a pricing page may be one of the last pages on your website a lead visits, make sure the location it's placed is accessible and the pricing structure is simple to follow so that leads can convert easily.
• Free trials: This allows the buyer to try before they buy. You free your sales and marketing teams from  educating responsibilities and empower the customer to learn autonomously. 

Step 5: Set Up a B2B Campaign Using Email Lead Nurturing Workflows

To make sure your B2B lead nurturing email campaign engages with your target audience(s) at every stage of the buyer's journey and your sales process, you must engage or re-engage them with appropriate workflows. That's why a lead nurturing campaign is never optimal with just one workflow type.

Visit HubSpot's knowledge base to learn how to create a contact-based workflow .  

Subscriber or welcome email workflows  

This type of workflow engages with and converts visitors into contacts soon after they provide their information via forms. In response, use their contact information to welcome them as a subscriber to your email newsletter. You can also include CTAs in this email that link to other types of content from your website.

Perhaps that content is for the consideration stage, and they follow it and convert into an MQL. Perhaps it's for the decision stage, and they convert into an SQL. Or, perhaps they don't follow the link at all. Understanding the actions your contact takes allows you to better serve and nurture them with more accurate content.

Topic workflows

Topic workflows are used to gauge what type of content a contact is interested in. This workflow is able to target every stage of your audience's buyer's journey and your sales process. It's used for better lead scoring and segmenting.

Imagine the person you're trying to nurture just became a contact. You send related awareness and possibly consideration stage content that would be relevant to the page they first visited.

What if they don't follow that path?

Instead, after some delay in time, you'd send other topic workflow emails regarding sub-related content or even other pillar content to see if they'd engage with it instead. Based on the if/then principle:

• If yes, they do follow the content, you can continue sending them content of that type.
• If no, they don't follow the content, you should try sending them other types of content.

The “if yes” sequence will guide a contact, prospect, or lead from one stage in the buyer's journey to the next as you continue to feed them relevant content.

Asset offer workflows at every stage

Asset offer workflows are similar to topic workflows in the case that you're still sending your audience content. However, this workflow's audience is already segmented, such that you already know the content they're interested in.

The goal of this workflow is to successfully guide contacts and prospects into becoming MQLs and SQLs via an email workflow promoting an awareness stage offer, then an email workflow promoting your consideration stage offer, and (eventually) an email workflow promoting your decision stage offer.

Engagement workflows

Engagement workflows are made to target your hot decision stage leads. They're in that final period of deciding whether to purchase. When you hit them with engagement emails, you're helping keep your brand top of mind. 

At this point, you're going to be sending decision stage email offers to MQLs and SQLs.

• The first email's goal is to position your business. Your lead is already fairly familiar with their problem and need, but now they need to know why your solution will be right for them. Therefore, target them with assets that will support this, like a case study.
• The second email's goal is to offer a piece of content or asset that will show your possible solution in action. Gift them a free trial, demo, or consultation for your product or service.
• The third email's goal is to fully position your business, knowing whether or not the lead was receptive to the previous two email offers. Include an asset that completely reflects this, like your product or service's pricing page.

Re-engagement workflows

Re-engagement workflows are made to target your cold leads. These are leads that perhaps once were strong candidates for becoming your client or buyer; however, they fell out mid-way or during the awareness stage. There are several reasons why this might happen. Perhaps:

• They find another business to be a stronger suit for solving their problem / need.
• They no longer consider their problem / need to be of highest priority.
• The product or service that they're looking to solve for their need is too expensive, thus out of reach.

To re-engage this audience, there are several choices of email types that you could send.

• Your first re-engagement email could tell the receiver about general company, product, or service updates; lower prices or deals; or perhaps even your brand's story, re-engaging through sentimentality.
• Your second re-engagement email could propose they take an interactive survey over platforms and tools like Survey Monkey or Typeform, determining whether they've solved their problem or need.
• Your third re-engagement email could re-position your business among your audience, using conversational language. Perhaps it's a farewell email, a win-back email, or a reminder about the content that they last viewed, softly offering a final recommendation.

And yes, put delays in between the emails in this workflow! How long? Days at a time with the longest being a week in between.

Successful customer workflows

Successful customer workflows look to re-engage with your target audience once they've reached the end of the buyer's journey. It's aimed to delight customers with:

• Gracious emails, saying thank you.
• A survey-response email, asking about how or if they're enjoying their new product or service.
• The promotion of a recommended product, discount, or upgrade, based on their response to the previous email.

You can tell the success of this workflow when a customer that you haven't engaged with in a while opens or responds to the email.

Step 6: Test and Adjust Your Lead Nurturing Workflow Strategy to Optimize for Success

How important is it to test and adjust your lead nurturing workflow strategy once it's in place? VERY.

The goal of your sales process is to convert as much of your target audience as possible, helping them move through their buyer's journey. To do that, you need your process to be as efficient as possible.

Testing and adjusting your lead nurturing workflow strategy is a huge benefactor for optimizing success, and if you perform this on an ongoing basis, you'll know:

• When it's the right time to target your audience at every stage of your sales process.
• What workflows and strategies to use for your overall B2B marketing campaign.
• What content, assets, outreach, promotions, etc. works well or what doesn't, thus what needs to be kept, scrapped, or improved upon.

In the next blog of this series, we'll elaborate on how to use segmenting and lead scoring to better optimize your overall lead nurturing strategy, and in the one after that, we'll discuss testing and optimizing your entire lead nurturing campaign.

What Results Can I Expect?

B2B tech brand, PlanetTogether, faced stagnating growth due to a lack of lead flow and inability to operate a high-touch sales process. Unfortunately, they conducted sales activities manually. They wanted to automate their lead nurturing strategy and reduce friction in their buyer's journey, which in-turn positively affected their lead flow rate and how they qualified leads.

PlanetTogether shortened their sales cycle from 6 – 9 months to 3 months after implementing a lead nurturing campaign, which automated and replaced many of the touch points previously made by sales reps.

As you can see, implementing lead nurturing workflows into your marketing strategy is a game changer. You'll see high lead conversion rates, speedier sales cycles, and happier sales reps.

And that wraps up Part 2 of the series, Lead Nurturing with HubSpot. Here's what's coming next:

• Part 3: How to Begin Lead Scoring to Fuel Your Nurturing Strategy
• Part 4: How to Test and Optimize Your Lead Nurturing Campaign 

You're halfway there! 

Want to connect with others on HubSpot tips, tricks, and updates? Head over to the HubSpot Community to join a conversation or start one of your own. 

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

3 Service Workflows to Increase Efficiency

Introducing Marketing Contacts

Improve Workflow Collaboration with 2 New Features

The Workflows Update You've Been Waiting For

How to Navigate Integrations Reporting: GoToWebinar

How to Do Sales Forecasting in HubSpot CRM

How to Clean Up Your HubSpot CRM Data

A Closer Look at Multi-Touch Revenue Attribution Models in HubSpot

What's Under the Hood of HubSpot's AI-Powered Business Card Scanner?

Using the Lists Tool to Remedy Workflow Enrollment Mishaps

Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

Our products

• Email signature generator

Create a stunning email signature for yourself within a few clicks

• Email signature manager

Manage your teams email signatures and gain control over your brand

• Gmail signature
• Google Workspace
• Outlook signature
• Outlook 365 signatures
• Exchange signatures
• See all platforms
• Education facilities
• Real Estate agencies
• SaaS companies
• Health care
• Finance & insurance
• See all industries
• CEOs & executive
• Realtors & brokers
• Legal & lawyers
• Marketing & sales
• All signature examples
• Email signature examples
• Email signature templates
• Email signature design
• Email sign offs
• Email signature banners
• Handwritten signatures
• Disclaimer templates
• Cool signature templates
• Minimalist templates
• Animated templates
• Banner templates
• Signature generator
• Banner maker
• Email disclaimer generator
• How to add signature in Outlook
• Add a signature in Outlook 365
• Add signatures in Exchange
• How to add signature in Gmail
• Add multiple Gmail signatures
• Google Workspace signatures
• See all guides
• Email marketing updates
• Digital marketing hub
• Branding & PR
• Business updates
• Tech & IT
• Product updates
• Our features
• Help center
• 24/6 support
• Contact sales
• User reviews
• Terms of service
• Privacy policy
• Security and compliance
• Trust center

Users stories

See how companies save time & money automating their email signatures

Home / How to run nurture campaigns

Create nurture campaigns with outstanding engagement

Best nurture campaigns examples that will keep your email leads coming back for more. Get insights into email nurture campaigns to help you boost engagement.

If you’re a small business, then your marketing strategy should take advantage of the best email nurture campaigns. These will help drive the greater success of your ads, converting more leads into conversions.

Before we go any further, it’s a good idea to understand some of the terms and lingo we’ll be using.

• Nurture campaign – is a time-based series of emails sent to your mailing list to let your users know about special offers, eventually motivating them to take action.
• Email nurture sequence – is emails you send to your mailing list to deliver value and build trust in you and your brand.
• Lead nurturing emails – is emails that are sent in your nurture campaign that strengthen the relationship between your subscribers and your brand.

What is an email nurture campaign ?

An email nurture campaign is a part of what’s called inbound marketing. Its objective is to convert leads on your email list into paying customers. By educating, building relationships, and spreading awareness using nurture campaigns, you can boost your sales conversion rate.

Think of nurture campaigns as investments in your audience. If you want loyal subscribers and to expand your customer base, you need to develop relationships. These need to benefit both your brand and audience.

A nurture campaign is an initiative that will be engaging with your audience organically. The emails you will be sending out to your mailing list subscribers should be inspiring, educational, and meaningful. Any information and messaging that helps your prospective customers on their buyer’s journey will be included in an email nurture campaign

Why do nurture campaigns?

Email nurturing is important because it will increase your sales. Since email still delivers one of the highest conversion rates out of any marketing method out there, you should take advantage of it.

The personalized email campaigns you run will make your audience feel valued and closer to your brand. That’s why most marketing campaigns personalize their lead nurturing emails. These campaigns will inform and educate your leads on who you are, what you do, and why you are the best in your niche.

In business, relationships mean everything. You should cultivate relationships with your leads just as much as with your existing customers. Prospective buyers will want to feel like they can trust your brand and feel connected to it.

The last thing they want is to feel pressured. That will create resistance to them buying anything from you. Instead of pressuring someone into a sale, you nurture them until they are ready to take action and buy something on their own terms.

Lead nurturing will help you engage with your email list’s subscribers in a meaningful way. You stand to gain respect from your audience as someone who is understanding of challenges and problems people face. You will organically offer solutions to those problems and get a monetary kickback for doing so in the form of sales.

When you run an effective nurture campaign, it’s not unusual to enjoy a whopping 50% increase in sales. Also, you get to spend, on average, about 33% less on advertising costs. Email marketing is completely free, so you will want to take advantage of email nurturing campaigns.

What is the buyer’s journey & how does it tie into a nurture campaign?

The buyer’s journey is the path your customers take to awareness, consideration, and evaluation of your products until they are ultimately making a purchase.

• Awareness – the part of the buyer’s journey, the users realize that they have a problem that needs a resolution.
• Consideration – the part of the buyer’s journey, they define their problem and look into potential ways it can be solved.
• Decision – the part of the buyer’s journey, they pick a solution to their problem.

Read more about optimizing your buyer’s journey in email marketing funnels .

Adapt your nurture campaign to each stage of your buyer’s journey

Awareness : At the awareness stage, you can help them realize that there may be a problem they face. They may not have even realized they had a problem in the first place until you told them through your email nurture campaign!

Consideration : At the consideration stage, you explain what that problem is and offer the solutions your product offers to them

Decision : At the decision stage, your nurture campaign seals the deal and gives them a compelling solution in an attractive way.

Essentially, your nurture campaign can guide potential customers on the buyer’s journey instead of them going at it on their own. You focus their awareness on your product being the answer, leading to more sales for you.

Use email nurturing to increase engagement rates

How can your lead nurturing emails increase engagement rates? For that, you will need to make sure your welcome onboard campaign includes campaign desire, content type, and structure.

1) Welcome Campaign

Welcome campaign emails are the first emails your new subscribers will receive. These are looked forward to, enjoy a high open rate, and are easy to automate. These emails are structured and crafted very differently from all of the other emails you will be sending in your nurture campaign. These elements should be included in your welcome emails:

1. Campaign desire

The most essential component of an email nurturing campaign is the email newsletter you will be sending out to your email list subscribers. This newsletter should be personalized to each prospective customer. By doing so, you can treat them differently according to time frames.

2. Content-type

You can turn your email into a nurturing campaign by introducing something that is coming up down the road. This could be anything from new products and services to upcoming events. Build up hype and spread awareness about anything that will drive sales in the future.

3. Structure

Introduce your new prospect to your brand and products, but slowly at first. You want to avoid overloading them with information because this can turn them off. Remind your new subscribers why they joined your email list while starting an information drip that cultivates their interest.

2) Top-of-Mind Campaign

The purpose of a top-of-mind campaign is to engage with the subscribers of your email list in a way that isn’t so salesy. You’re going to want to churn out these emails regularly to avoid them. This leads to forgetting about your brand and getting poached by your competitors.

These elements should be included in your top-of-mind emails:

Your email nurture sequence is intended to engage with the segment of your audience that is interested, but not ready to buy from you yet. Sending out emails as regular touchpoints is something you should do here, to make sure your prospective customers don’t forget about you. Lead nurturing emails will be sent out over a long period of time, and deliver content that is focused on the value of your prospects.

Some of the kinds of content you should consider for a top-of-mind campaign include blog posts, white papers, videos, webinars, infographics, and any news relevant to your niche. The aim here is to deliver value, consistently, to your prospects. The more value they receive from you, the most likely they are to end up as paying customers.

You can embed helpful resources and information directly into your email for maximum engagement. Alternatively, you can provide snippets of value and then direct your audience to head to an external website.

3) Re-engagement Campaign

Not everyone who signs up for your mailing list will end up buying something from you. In fact, many of them will become inactive and stop engaging with you. That’s where re-engagement campaign emails come in. These emails are specifically targeting your inactive leads.

Include the elements in your re-engagement campaign emails:

Most of your prospects will not become paying customers. For whatever reason, they will not end up buying your product. However, these inactive leads can still be re-engaged through a re-engagement campaign.

The key to effectively re-engaging inactive leads is to find the perfect moment to send a potential customer retention email. You should make this compelling and offer them a perfect opportunity to re-engage with your brand. When you send unique content, such as personalized moments, you can reignite a meaningful and long-lasting relationship with your inactive leads.

A prospective customer retention email could be a “We miss you!” email, delivering a casual message that shows you have been paying attention to them. You can also send a web flow email that informs them of the milestones your brand or product has reached. A time-triggered reactivation email is a third way to structure re-engagement emails that are time-triggered.

3 Tips to help you maximize the effect of your nurture campaigns

In each one of these types of nurturing campaigns, you can maximize their effectiveness by following a few additional tips.

A) Make personalized subject titles:

Your first touchpoint with a subscriber of your email list is the email subject title. Depending on how engaging, interesting, and intriguing it is, your open rate will either be higher or lower. That is why you should humanize your email subject lines and avoid coming across as being too salesy.

b) Perfect a clear and concise opening paragraph that quickly gets to the point:

Once your subscribers open the email, they will shift their attention to the opening line of your email. As with the email subject line, if this isn’t going to capture their attention, they’re going to exit out of the email. You should know how to write the best email opening lines to get your prospective leads to keep reading, letting you continue nurturing the relationship.

c) Don’t neglect a follow up email:

If you notice that your click-through or open rates are low on your initial emails, then you can consider sending a follow-up email in case they missed your previous email. Sometimes life gets in the way and your subscribers have simply never seen your email. That’s what makes a carefully-crafted follow-up email a great idea.

Final Thoughts

Email nurturing can be a powerful tool for increasing your conversion rate. Engaging with your email list subscribers using specific types of email campaigns will allow you to guide prospects on their buyer’s journey. You will also be delivering value and strengthening the relationship between your brand and your prospects.

From brand awareness all the way up to repeat customers, nurture campaigns should become an essential tactic of your overall digital marketing strategy.

More on this topic

• GetWiser polls & insights by WiseStamp
• The complete guide to email and domain reputation
• Top 10 email marketing platforms (Their Cost and Worth)
• Electronic direct mail (EDM) Marketing: A comprehensive guide
• Emotional appeal advertising: Understanding and using It
• Understanding ATL, BTL, and TTL Marketing Strategies
• Personalized marketing: Enhancing customer experience
• Email blast marketing: Learn how to effectively promote your brand
• Non-Profit Marketing: Supercharge your online presence
• Google Business Profile: Boost Your Visibility in 2024

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

Demand Gen: Growth Unleashed.

How to Write an Effective Nurture Email Sequence

Ron Sela / Last updated: November 11, 2022

Email marketing is one of the most efficient methods to convert leads into customers. Of course, sending out a blast email to their list isn’t enough. That’s why you must know how to write an effective nurture email sequence that converts.

Your marketing efforts shouldn’t be random. It should be strategic to convert new subscribers into paying customers.

A well-crafted nurture sequence will guide new customers through their journey and help old customers stay updated on the latest products, promotions, and more.

Through this blog post, we’ll explore why nurturing customer relationships through email sequences is one of the most effective methods to increase engagement and build brand loyalty.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• Email marketing is a strategic approach to transform leads into customers, requiring a carefully crafted nurture email sequence to guide new and existing customers through their journey with updates on products, promotions, and more.
• Understanding the psychology behind email marketing is crucial; it involves creating an emotional connection with subscribers while providing clear and concise information to encourage action.
• The effectiveness of an email marketing campaign hinges on adhering to best practices, such as ensuring emails are well-written, making calls to action clear, personalizing emails, and maintaining appropriate frequency and length to engage subscribers without overwhelming them.

What is an Email Sequence?

An email sequence is a pre-written, automated series of emails that are triggered when someone undertakes a specific action or interacts with your website in some way. They usually promote a specific product and include a call-to-action for the recipient.

Email sequences can be used to build relationships with your subscribers, provide value, and ultimately make sales.

Understanding the Psychology Behind Email Marketing

Email is not dead . It’s still one of the most used marketing channels out there. But to be successful with email marketing, you need to understand the psychology behind it. Why do people unsubscribe from emails? What makes them open and click through?

And how can you use that to your advantage?

The answer lies in understanding how people make decisions. Our choices are based on two things: our emotional state and our cognitive state. Our emotions are what drive us to take action, while our cognition is what allows us to rationalize that action.

In email marketing, you need to tap into both states.

That’s why the best email marketers focus on creating an emotional connection with their subscribers.

They know that if they can get people to feel something – whether it’s excitement, fear, or even just a sense of belonging – they’re more likely to take action. At the same time, they also provide clear and concise information that allows people to rationalize that action.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Email Marketing Etiquette

Now that you understand the psychology behind email marketing, it’s time to learn the do’s and don’ts of email marketing etiquette. These are the unspoken rules that everyone should follow to create emails that convert.

The Do’s of Email Nurture Sequences

1. make sure your email is well-written and error-free..

Even if you’re not a professional writer, it’s important to make sure your email is well-written and error-free. Typos and grammatical errors make you look inefficient and unprofessional, and they can also change the meaning of what you’re trying to say. If you’re not sure how to write a proper email, there are plenty of guides and resources available online.

Just take the time to do a little research, and you’ll be able to write emails that are clear, concise, and free of errors. Make sure it’s perfect. Your future clients will thank you for it.

2. Make the call to action clear and concise.

Your email should have a clear purpose, and it should be easy for people to understand what you want them to do. Whether you’re trying to get people to buy a product, sign up for a service, or simply learn more about your brand, your call to action should be clear and concise.

Don’t try to be too clever with your wording. Just tell people what you need them to do, and make it easy for them to do it. The simpler your call to action, the more likely people are to take it.

And don’t forget to include a link! People can’t take action if they don’t know where to go.

3. Personalize your emails whenever possible.

Email marketing is big on hyper-personalization . You can take advantage of that by personalizing your emails whenever possible. It doesn’t mean you have to write a novel about each person on your list. Just mention their first name in the subject line, or include something you know they’re interested in.

Your subscribers will be more likely to care if you show them that you care about them.

4. Avoid using too much text or images.

Your email should be easy to digest. That means using short, punchy sentences and avoiding large blocks of text. It also means using images sparingly. Your email can look cluttered and difficult to read if it contains too many images.

The general rule is to use as much text as you need to get your point across and to only use images when they’re necessary. Less is almost always more in email marketing.

5. Use effective subject lines that capture the reader’s attention.

The subject line of your email is the first thing people see when they open it, so you want to make it count. A good subject line should be interesting, unexpected, and specific. It should also be short – ideally, no more than 50 characters.

Using the right subject line will get people to open your email, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Think outside the box and be creative .

If you’re struggling to come up with a good subject line, there are plenty of resources and tools online that can help.

The Don’ts of Email Nurture Sequences

1. don’t send too many emails..

Over-emailing is the biggest mistake you can make in email marketing. It’s important to strike a balance between staying in touch with your subscribers and bombarding them with too much information.

If you’re sending two or more emails a week, you’re probably sending too many. Once a week is generally considered the maximum amount of email people want to receive from a business or organization.

This rule may, of course, be subject to exceptions. If you have something truly special or time-sensitive to share, it’s okay to send more than one email. But in general, try to limit yourself to one email per week.

2. Don’t make your emails too long.

Another common mistake is to make your emails too long. Remember, people are busy, and they don’t have time to read a novel. So make sure your emails are short, sweet, and to the point.

If you can say what you need to say in a few paragraphs, that’s ideal. If you find yourself going on for pages and pages, it’s probably time to scale back.

3. Don’t use Sales Language.

When you’re writing your emails, it’s important to avoid using salesy or pushy language. Remember, you’re trying to build a relationship with your subscribers, not close a deal.

So instead of saying things like “Buy now!” or “Sign up today!” try to use language that’s more conversational and friendly. Something like “Check it out” or “I think you’ll like this” is a much better way to get people to take the action you want.

4. Don’t forget the mobile reader.

With more and more people reading email on their mobile devices, it’s important to make sure your emails are optimized for mobile. That means using a simple design that’s easy to read on a small screen.

It also means keeping your images to a minimum and using large, easy-to-click buttons for any call-to-action. If you’re not sure how your emails will look on mobile, there are plenty of tools and resources available online that can help you out.

Types of Lead Nurturing Emails

There are a few different types of lead nurturing emails you can send, and each has its own purpose in your sales funnel .

Drip Campaign

A drip campaign is a type of lead nurturing email that helps to keep your prospects engaged with your brand. It works by sending them timely, relevant information. If you drip-feed content to your audience, you can keep them interested in what you have to say without overwhelming them.

Drip campaigns can be used to introduce new products, promote special offers, or simply keep your sales prospects up-to-date with what’s going on in your business. They can be highly effective in boosting brand awareness and generating leads.

Welcome Emails

Welcome emails are the first opportunity you have to make a good impression on a new subscriber, so it’s important to make them count. They should be personal and engaging, with a strong call to action. And if you can include a freebie or discount, even better!

There are a few different types of welcome emails you can send, but some of the most popular include:

• A freebie or discount
• A webinar or event invite
• A behind-the-scenes look
• A personal message

Educational Emails

An educational email is an email where the sender is providing valuable content to the recipient. It can be a short article on a new development in their industry or a comprehensive guide on how to use a particular tool or service.

Educational emails help recipients learn new things and keep up-to-date with developments in their field. Searching for new resources can be challenging with so much information available online. Educational emails provide a curated selection of content, which can save recipients a lot of time and effort. 

It can build trust and relationships between sender and receiver. By sharing helpful, relevant information with your audience, you can position yourself as an expert in your field and start to build a relationship with your subscribers.

Engagement Emails

Engagement emails are designed to encourage recipients to interact with your brand in some way. They can be used to promote a contest or competition, encourage people to share your content on social media, or simply invite recipients to give their feedback.

Engagement emails are a great way to increase brand awareness and get people talking about your business. By giving people a reason to interact with your brand, you can encourage them to spread the word to their friends and followers.

10 Steps to Write a Lead Nurture Sequence that Converts

Define the Objective

Before you start writing a single word of your email nurture sequence, what you’re trying to accomplish must be clear to you. What’s the purpose of your email nurture sequence?

Are you looking to generate more leads?

Or convert those leads into paying customers?

Maybe you’re trying to increase customer retention or satisfaction levels?

Make sure you have a specific goal in mind, so your email sequences are more effective. Without a specific goal, it’ll be much harder to create an email nurture sequence that actually converts.

Understand the Audience

Writing an email nurture sequence requires an understanding of your audience.

What are their needs and wants? What are their pain points? By understanding these things, you can craft emails that provide value and address their concerns.

Every email in your sequence should have a specific purpose, and each should build on the previous one. Maintain your readers’ interest throughout the entire process by sending them interesting, informative emails.

Email nurture sequences will be more effective if you know more about your target audience .

Plan and Map the Sequence Journey

After you’ve defined your goals and understand your audience, it’s time to start planning and mapping out the journey your email nurture sequence will take.

Think about the overall message you’re trying to get across and how you can break that down into a series of smaller messages, each one building on the last.

Your email lead nurturing sequence should have a beginning, middle, and end, so it flows well and keeps your readers engaged from start to finish.

Start by mapping out the overall journey you want your readers to take. What information do you need to include in each email? What call-to-action (CTA) will you use to encourage them to move on to the next email in the sequence?

For example, if your goal is to generate more leads, your email nurturing sequence might look something like this:

• Email 1: Introduction and offer
• Email 2: Elaborate on the offer
• Email 3: Provide additional value
• Email 4: Urgency CTA
• Email 5: Final CTA

Remember: Each email should have a specific purpose and move the reader one step closer to taking your desired action.

Ensure value, Rather Than Sales Pitches

Once you’ve planned out your email sequence, it’s time to start writing the actual emails.

And the most important thing to keep in mind while writing your emails is that they should provide value rather than being one big sales pitch.

Your readers will quickly become turned off if they feel like they’re being sold to in every email. So make sure you’re providing them with something relevant to their needs and interests.

One way to do this is by sharing helpful tips, interesting information, or valuable resources that they can use in their business. If you can provide value in every email, you’ll be much more likely to keep your readers engaged and convert them into leads or customers.

Decide Sequence Triggers

Your email nurture sequence should have some sort of trigger that tells the system when to send each email.

For example, a subscriber should automatically receive the first email in your email sequence if they subscribe to your email list.

Or, if someone buys a product from you, they could be added to your customer onboarding email sequence that’s specifically designed for customers.

There are different types of triggers you can use, but the most important thing is to make sure each email is triggered by something, so it’s automatically sent to the right people at the right time.

Write the First Email

The first email in your sequence is the most important one, so make sure you take your time with it and include all the necessary information.

Introduce yourself and your business, and let them know what they can expect from your emails.

If you’re offering a freebie or discount, be sure to include all the details and explain how they can redeem it.

And finally, make sure your CTA is clear and concise, so they know what they need to do next.

Write an Email for Each Stage of the Sequence Journey

Once you’ve written the first email, it’s time to move on to the rest of the emails in your sequence.

Your emails should have a clear purpose and lead the recipient one step toward the action you want them to take. So take your time with each email and make sure you include all the necessary information.

Implement a Marketing Automation Platform

As you build your email nurture sequence, be sure to implement a marketing automation platform. Doing so will help you keep track of leads, automate email sending, and score leads based on engagement. Plus, you’ll be able to segment your list into different nurture tracks based on interests and buyer stage.

Test, Measure, and Optimize

Finally, don’t forget to test, measure, and optimize your email nurture sequence on a regular basis.

Test different subject lines, CTAs, and email content to see what works best for your audience. And be sure to measure your results so you can continually improve your email nurture sequence over time.

Deploy to Live Server

Now that you’ve written the perfect email nurture sequence, it’s time to deploy it to your live server. Doing so will ensure that your emails are sent out on time and to the right people.

There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re ready to deploy your email nurture sequence to the live server.

• Make sure all of your emails are ready to go – no last-minute changes!
• Make sure all of your links are working properly.
• Double-check your opt-in forms to ensure that they’re going to the right email address.
• Test everything! Send yourself a few test emails to ensure that everything looks and works the way you want it to.
• Sit back and relax – you’ve done it! Your email nurture sequence is now live and working for you.

Check out these excellent examples of email sequences.

Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and build a relationship with them. But it’s important to do it right.

If you followed all the steps above, you should have no problem deploying your email nurture sequence and seeing success with it. Just be sure to monitor your results and make changes as needed so you can continue to improve your conversion rates.

Here are other questions related to the lead nurturing email sequence that we have not discussed in the article.

The best way to start a nurture email sequence is by figuring out what your audience’s needs are and then mapping out a content strategy that will address those needs. Once you have a plan in place, you can start creating or sourcing the email content that will resonate with your readers and help move them down the funnel. Timing is also important. So, make sure to space out your emails accordingly and leave enough time for people to digest the information before sending additional messages. Last but not least, don’t forget to track, measure, and analyze your results so that you can continually improve your nurture email strategy over time,

It depends on your business, goals, and where you are in the lead nurturing process. If you’re looking to nurture leads, then you should probably send an email at least once a week. However, if you’re looking to keep customers engaged, then you might want to send emails more frequently – maybe 2-3 times a week. The key is to test different frequencies and see what works best for your audience.

The content of your nurture email sequence should be based on the interests and needs of your subscribers. If you don’t know what their interests and needs are, then you need to do some research to find out. You can ask them directly, or you can use data from your website analytics or CRM system to figure out which topics they’re most interested in. Once you know what those topics are, you can create content that’s relevant to them and send it to them in a series of nurturing emails. The content could be anything from blog posts to infographics to video tours of your product. Just make sure it’s helpful and useful and that it provides value for your subscribers.

No, you should not always send a nurture email sequence to cold leads. It depends on what the goal of your nurture sequence is. If the goal is to get the lead interested in your product or service, then no, you should not always send a nurture email sequence to cold leads. However, if the goal of your nurture sequence is to warm up the lead and get them interested in your product or service, then yes, you should send a nurture email sequence to cold leads.

When you’ve built up a bit of rapport with a subscriber, you’ll start to get a feel for when they might be ready for your next offer. Pay attention to how engaged they are with your content, how often they purchase from you, and whether they seem interested in what you have to say. It’s also important to remember that not everyone is going to be ready for your next offer right away – some people might need more time to warm up to you before they’re willing to buy something else from you. Just stay patient and keep putting out great content, and the rest will fall into place.

Related Posts:

• The Complete Guide to the Customer Acquisition Funnel
• One to One Marketing: All You Need to Know
• 7 Successful Strategies for B2B Demand Generation
• What is a DTC Brand? Definition, Examples, Strategy
• The Most Effective Lead Prospecting Tactics

About Ron Sela

Ron is a marketing advisor to technology-driven businesses. He has 15 years of digital marketing experience and an MBA from the University of Florida. Ron helps companies grow their revenue by developing and executing integrated marketing plans that align with their business goals. He has a proven track record of success in helping companies achieve their growth objectives.

[Guide] What a Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy Looks Like in 2024

Letizia Marinucci

Almost 96% of visitors who land on your website are not ready to commit to a purchase. But that doesn’t mean you can’t persuade them.

The process of building brand awareness among targeted audiences, capturing the contact information of potential customers, and persuading them to convert via ads, content, email, and more, are all part of what is known as the marketing funnel.

Simply put, the marketing funnel is a way to organize the typical customer journey. It identifies the different stages a potential customer generally goes through to become a paying customer. 

These stages can also be grouped together according to their position in the funnel – ‘top’, ‘middle’, or ‘bottom’: 

• Top of the funnel (Awareness): The early stages of awareness when the brand appeals to a large potential audience of people who may not have heard about it yet and may be interested. 
• Middle of the funnel (Consideration/Preference): The potential audience is nurtured via content and interactions with the brand. They learn more about the product and begin to consider becoming a customer.
• Bottom of the funnel (Conversion/Purchase): This is the later stage of the funnel when the person is persuaded to convert and becomes a customer. 
• Post-funnel stage (Retention/Advocacy): Now, the goal is to keep customers happy and satisfied so they continue as customers and even become ambassadors for the brand, recommending it to friends and associates.

Ok, so what is a full-funnel strategy?

A full-funnel marketing strategy is when all these stages are active and connected so the target audience enjoys a complete, unified, and consistent experience with the brand, throughout their journey from awareness to purchase and beyond.

If a brand has a really strong top-of-funnel strategy but fails to nurture potential customers through the mid-funnel, then the number of converted customers will remain low. 

If the top-of-funnel strategy is weak, then it will be harder to generate a pool of potential customers in the mid-funnel with the potential to convert.

Having a full-funnel marketing strategy – one that is robust at every stage – leads to higher brand recognition, more leads, more conversions, and higher average customer value. Therefore it is imperative that companies not only optimize their funnel at all stages but make sure that all the stages connect and work together to maximize the full potential of the funnel.

Let’s go step by step through the top, middle, bottom, and post-funnel stages, and explore what a full-funnel strategy really looks like.

Top of Funnel: Cast a wide net to attract potential customers

The top of the funnel (TOFU) is where potential customers start to become aware of your company or product. They may not have heard of your company before, or they may have only a slight awareness of your offering. At this stage, brand awareness and recognition are generally low.

Marketing messages communicated at the TOFU stage should focus on the pain points and needs of the target audience, rather than on your business. It’s not yet time to talk about specific products or solutions. Don’t focus on your brand or product; rather, talk about what the customer is going through or a related topic that is relevant or insightful to them. In this way, you can build trust and value in the eyes of the target audience, setting the stage to nurture them further along the funnel.

TOFU example

Take a look at this native ad by Mansion Global , the luxury real estate news and listing website. The ad directs the reader to an article about kitchen design, featuring an interview with a renowned New York architect. Note that the ad is not trying to sell a mansion. Rather, it is trying to attract relevant audiences and drive them to the site, where they can sign up for the newsletter, browse listings of prestigious real estate, and perhaps one day even purchase a mansion. 

TOFU tactics

For top-of-the-funnel marketing, it is vital to cast a wide net to reach a broad audience. By capturing the attention of large audiences, you will gather a substantial pool of potential customers to filter through the funnel. TOFU tactics cover a wide range of digital channels and methods, including: 

• Search engine optimization (SEO): Improve website visibility on search engines and target potential customers via popular search keywords in your niche.
• Social media marketing: Build a presence on popular social media platforms where the audience spends their time.
• Content marketing: Resonate with your target audience by providing valuable information or entertainment, including videos and interactive content (ie. quizzes and polls).
• Influencer marketing: Partner with influencers whose audience is suitable to your brand. 
• Native advertising: Capture the attention of relevant audiences on the open web, outside of the ‘walled gardens’ , with the purpose of driving them to your landing page or website.

TOFU metrics

The marketing metrics commonly used in top-of-funnel activities and campaigns include: 

• Impressions: the cost per 1000 impressions of your ad shown to audiences
• Traffic: how much traffic is arriving from a particular ad or link to your website or landing page
• Click-through rates (CTR) : how many clicks your ad or link is getting compared to the number of impressions served

Measuring the performance of TOFU campaigns will help you understand what’s working and what’s not, so you can adjust your strategy, generate more awareness, and drive more potential customers to the mid-funnel part of your customer journey.

Middle of the Funnel: Nurturing customers with tailored tactics

When potential customers reach the mid-funnel, they are more actively considering their options about how to solve a particular pain point or have their needs met. In an effective full-funnel strategy, marketing efforts should now nurture and guide the audience toward their final decision. 

How? By providing valuable, insightful content and meaningful interactions that entertain, educate, or engage the target audience while helping them solve their pain points or fulfil their needs.

MOFU example

Smartling is a popular translation tool used by businesses to automate multi-lingual websites, marketing campaigns, and user experiences. As a B2B company, Smartling offers educational and informative events and content about technologies and trends in the translation arena. An upcoming webinar was promoted on LinkedIn, targeting relevant audiences who may be interested in learning more about machine translation and getting to know Smartling’s offer. By positioning itself as an expert in the field with free webinars and content, Smartling is building brand authority and relationships with its audience, which is crucial to nurturing potential customers through the middle of the funnel.

MOFU tactics

Common MOFU tactics that engage, educate, or entertain potential customers typically include: 

• Ebooks/how-to-guides: Explore topics of interest to your audience and showcase your company’s position as an authority who can help.
• Email marketing campaigns: Share relevant and informative content and encourage recipients to take the next step in the buying process.
• Webinars: Educate potential customers on topics related to your products or services and demonstrate industry expertise.
• Testimonials/reviews: This is a particularly popular and effective tactic in B2C and e-commerce, often with influencer collaborations.

Action-driving content is key at this stage and incorporating compelling offers and CTAs is crucial at the middle of the funnel. These should nurture potential customers, striving to actively move them through the funnel to the next step in the buying process.

CTAs should be tailored to the target audience’s needs and interests and provide clear and tangible benefits. Personalized calls to action have been shown to convert 202% more leads than untargeted CTAs, so they need to be clear, specific, and action-oriented. 

MOFU metrics

For middle-of-the-funnel campaigns, metrics are more focused than the TOFU stage. Instead of measuring broad outcomes, such as traffic and impressions, MOFU metrics include: 

• Cost-per-Lead: Evaluate how much it costs to get the contact information of potential customers or drive another type of conversion.
• Lead quality: Assess the quality of leads so you can nurture them with appropriate content and experiences. 
• Engagement rates: Understand how and when the audience is engaged and interested in your ads or campaigns so you can optimize toward their preferences.

Evaluating the effectiveness of MOFU marketing helps companies to make data-driven decisions and optimize the strategies that are providing the best results.

Bottom of the Funnel: Effective conversion tactics to boost acquisition 

By the time a lead enters the bottom funnel (BOFU) stage, they are already familiar with the brand or product and have already engaged with the company in some way. Perhaps they signed up for a newsletter, downloaded an ebook, or attended a webinar. 

At this final stage, it’s all about converting leads into paying customers by offering an easy and enticing purchase or conversion experience. This is the time for strategies that encourage customers to take action and close the deal.  

BOFU example

In a BOFU email campaign, Amazon Business in the UK offered a promo discount to entice potential customers to sign up for an account. By including the words “Last Chance” in the subject line, the email creates a sense of urgency. Combined with the purchase discount offer, this is a powerful example of bottom-funnel marketing in the B2B world.

BOFU tactics

Popular tactics used in the bottom-of-funnel stage are specifically designed to drive conversions. These include:

• Retargeting: Target users who have previously interacted with your brand or have not completed a sale to encourage them to complete a purchase.
• Email marketing:  Provide personalized offers and incentives to encourage potential customers to buy.
• Live demos/consultations: Especially in the B2B world, meeting with customers online or face-to-face is often crucial to closing the deal.

In the bottom-of-funnel stage, it is crucial to optimize the conversion process, making it as easy as possible for the customer to follow through. Purchasing and payment should be straightforward and intuitive, with clear and concise instructions at each step to remove friction. For some companies, offering support via phone or live chat is necessary to address any concerns or issues promptly and create a positive customer experience (CX).

BOFU metrics

Metrics for bottom-of-funnel marketing closely measure the cost of conversions, not just for the actual purchase but for the projected duration of the customer’s relationship with the brand.  BOFU marketing metrics include: 

• Conversion rates: How many people are converting compared to the number of people who visit a website or other digital asset.
• Customer acquisition cost: How much it costs to acquire a new customer. The lower the amount, the better!
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): The value of the revenue generated by a customer across their lifetime as a customer. 

Post Funnel: Retaining customers with post-sale marketing

Every marketer already knows: it is cheaper to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one. Meaning, it is vital to put effort into post-funnel retention strategies, so you can keep customers coming back and maximize your revenue. 

Post-sale marketing builds customer loyalty, generates repeat business, and creates positive word-of-mouth referrals. It is a chance to show customers that you care about their experience even after the purchase has been made. 

Post-funnel example

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of reading Stacked Marketer newsletter, you’ll know that you’re dealing with marketing pros. Subscribers receive the very latest news and hottest takes on marketing via a daily email newsletter. Stacked Marketer engages in post-funnel marketing with their referral program, which is regularly promoted in the newsletter. It’s simple, yet effective: current subscribers can access exclusive content and merchandise by referring new subscribers. 

Post-funnel tactics

Effective post-sale marketing is an opportunity to be creative and get personal with customers, offering them exclusive deals and promotions. Here are some popular post-funnel tactics:

• Personalized offers and incentives: Tailor rewards to individual customers’ preferences and behaviors to encourage loyalty and repeat business.
• Referral programs: Incentivize customers to refer their friends and family, not only retaining the existing customer but also acquiring new ones through the referral. 
• Loyalty clubs: Offer exclusive members-only rewards and benefits, encouraging continued purchases and customer loyalty.
• Customer satisfaction surveys: Identify areas for improvement and address customer concerns, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Exclusive promotions and events: Offer unique experiences and discounts to loyal customers, fostering a sense of appreciation and strengthening their relationship with the brand.

Post-funnel metrics

Measuring success at the post-sale stage is performed with metrics such as:

• Customer retention rates: The percentage of customers retained over a specific period, indicating the success of post-funnel activities.
• Monitoring customer satisfaction via qualitative feedback and polls: Reach out to  existing customers to find out what they think and feel about your company. Aggregate the information to gain insights.
• Net Promoter scores: Measure customer satisfaction and loyalty by asking customers how likely they are to recommend the product or service to others.

The Key to Full-Funnel Marketing: Minimize Friction

A funnel that nurtures and guides customers from awareness to loyalty must be smooth and intuitive from the customer’s perspective. This means removing any possible impediments or friction along the way. Consistent monitoring and adjustment of the funnel are needed to maintain optimum performance. Events like economic changes, seasonal fluctuations, and marketing shifts must be addressed to ensure a maximum return on investment (ROI). 

Some businesses benefit from investing heavily in top-of-the-funnel tactics such as SEO or native campaigns to attract potential customers. Others may benefit most from removing friction at the bottom of the funnel using strategies like email marketing or referral programs to convert leads into paying customers. The success of a full-funnel strategy depends on a myriad of dynamic factors and is constantly changing. Always keep your finger on every stage of the funnel – separately and together – so your target audience can enjoy a seamless, smooth, and enjoyable experience of discovering your brand and becoming a customer.

TL;DR: What a Full-Funnel Strategy Means for You

A full-funnel marketing strategy is essential for your business to attract, retain, and grow its customer base, across channels and experiences. 

• Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) tactics such as SEO, social media, content marketing, native ads, and influencer marketing can help create awareness and attract customer attention. 
• Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) employs lead generation tactics such as ebooks, email marketing, webinars, and free trials to convert leads into paying customers. 
• Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) focuses on activities like retargeting, incentivization, and email marketing to close sales and encourage repeat business.
• Post-sale marketing, such as loyalty clubs, exclusive offers, and personalized communications, is crucial for building customer loyalty and encouraging repeat business and advocacy. 

A full-funnel marketing strategy is one that ties these stages together, with minimal friction and maximum relevance and value to the audience. That is the key to customer acquisition, retention, and growth.

Launch your Campaign!

Create full funnel campaigns that drive real business results..

Related Articles

Laura Kloot

Cyrus Jabbari

Libi Rynkyu

Stephanie Sentuc

For Advertisers

• Advertise with Outbrain
• Native Advertising
• Contextual Advertising
• Demo Outbrain
• How to Buy Outbrain
• Outbrain Academy
• Advertiser Guidelines
• Advertising FAQ
• Advertising Glossary
• Vertical Insights
• Vertical Hub
• Affiliate Marketing
• Affiliate Hub
• High-Conversion Content
• Repurpose Social Campaigns

About Outbrain

• Company Overview
• Cultural Manifesto
• Trust & Transparency
• For Publishers
• Thought Leadership
• Outbrain Blog
• Resources Hub
• Case Studies
• Performance Marketing
• Advertising Academy
• Publisher's Directory
• Help Center

Ready to start?

Try Outbrain for Advertisers today

• Interest-Based Ads (Opt Out)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is a methodology to attract loyal customers to your business by aligning with your target audience's needs. Creating tailored marketing experiences through valuable content is the core of an inbound marketing strategy that helps you drive customer engagement and growth.

Inbound Marketing Overview

The inbound methodology is the strategic method of growing your organization by building meaningful, lasting relationships with consumers, prospects, and customers as opposed to interrupting them with traditional advertising methods. It’s about valuing and empowering these people to reach their goals at any stage in their journey with you.

Why? Because when your customers succeed, you succeed.

The inbound methodology can be applied in three ways:

• Attract : drawing in the right people with valuable content and conversations that set you up as a trusted advisor.
• Engage : presenting insights and solutions that align with their pain points and goals so they are more likely to buy from you. 
• Delight : offering help and support to empower your customers to find success with your product. 

Why is inbound marketing important?

When customers find success and share that success with others, it attracts new prospects to your organization, creating a self-sustaining loop. This is how your organization builds momentum, and this is why the inbound methodology serves as a strong foundation for your flywheel .

To reach and engage with that target audience effectively, you need to shift your business focus toward inbound marketing strategies. From HubSpot Co-Founder Brian Halligan’s perspective, "[If] you create all this content, and it's rich content — it's informative, it [will] pull people in…so people fall in love with your brand." By using social media, email marketing, blogging, and a truly exceptional website, you can create valuable, informative, and engaging content that pulls people in and cultivates a genuine connection with your brand. Embracing the inbound methodology serves as a strong foundation for building momentum to attract new prospects and ultimately drive business growth.

How does inbound marketing work?

Inbound marketing strategies will help you effectively market to your target audience the inbound way. Keep your flywheel spinning and help your business grow better .

Attracting Strategies

Inbound marketing strategies that attract your target audience and customer personas are tied to content creation and development.

To reach your audience, start by creating and publishing content — such as blog articles, content offers, and social media — that offers value. Examples include guides on how to use your products, information about how your solution can solve their challenges, customer testimonials, and details about promotions or discounts.

To attract your audience members on a deeper level through inbound marketing, optimize all this content with an SEO strategy . Target specific keywords and phrases related to your products or services, the challenges you solve for customers, and the ways you help customers.

This SEO strategy will allow your content and information to organically appear on the search engine results page (SERP) when people search for this information. These folks are your target audience, and likely the right customers for your business.

Engaging Strategies

When using inbound strategies to engage your audience, make sure you’re communicating and dealing with leads and customers in a way that makes them want to build long-term relationships with you. When using these engagement strategies, inject information about the value your business will give them.

Specific engagement strategies may include how you handle and manage your inbound sales calls . Focus on how customer service representatives handle calls from interested people and prospects. Additionally, be sure you’re always solution selling rather than product selling. This will make sure all deals end in mutually beneficial agreements for customers and your business — meaning, you offer value for your right-fit customers.

Delighting Strategies

Inbound strategies that delight make sure customers are happy, satisfied, and supported long after they buy. These strategies involve your team members becoming advisors and experts who can assist customers at any time.

Incorporating thoughtful, well-timed chatbots and surveys to help, support, and request feedback is a great way to delight your customers. Bots and surveys should be shared at specific points throughout the customer’s journey to make sure they are relevant and valuable.

For example, chatbots may help current customers set up a new technique or tactic you've started offering that they’d like to take advantage of. Additionally, a satisfaction survey may be sent out six months after customers buy your product or service to get their feedback and review ideas for improvement.

Social media listening is another important strategy when it comes to delighting customers. Social media followers may use one of your profiles to give feedback, ask questions, or share their experience with your products or services. Show that you hear and care by responding to these interactions with information that helps, supports, and encourages followers.

Lastly, the mark of an inbound strategy focused on delighting customers is one that helps and supports customers in any situation, whether your business gets any value out of it or not. Remember, a delighted customer becomes a brand advocate and promoter, so handle all interactions, both big and small, with care.

Get Started With Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

As an inbound marketer, your goal is to attract new prospects to your company, engage with them at scale, and delight them individually.

You also partner with your sales and services teams to keep the flywheel spinning effectively and help the business grow. It's a big job, but the inbound methodology and Marketing Hub have you covered.

You don’t want just anyone coming to your website. You want people who are most likely to become leads and, ultimately, happy customers. How do you get them there? You attract more of the right customers with relevant content at the right time.

Use the content strategy tool to build your authority in search and rank for the topics that matter the most to your prospects. Publish your blog post or video content across social networks using social media tools. Create ads to increase awareness of your brand with your target audience. Throughout each stage, reporting and analytics will help you know what’s working and where you need to improve.

Use HubSpot Conversations to create lasting relationships with prospects on the channels they prefer — through email, bots, live chat, or messaging apps. Use conversion tools like — CTAs, forms, and lead flows — to capture the information of prospects visiting your site. 

Use all the prospect and customer information in the CRM to personalize the website experience using smart content, and the entire buyer’s journey using email and workflows. Create brand loyalty by targeting specific audiences with your social content or ads. Connect your favorite tools to HubSpot to fit the unique needs of your business.

Use email and marketing automation in conjunction with HubSpot Conversations to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time, every time. Use the Conversations inbox to align with your sales and service team members to create contextual conversations with the people you do business with. Create memorable content your prospects can share with their friends and family by using a variety of content formats that your prospects prefer, like video, .  

By combining the inbound methodology with   HubSpot software , you’ll grow your business and get customers to buy more, stay with you longer, refer their friends, and tell the world they love you.

Learn Inbound Marketing

Sign up for a free HubSpot Academy course to learn inbound marketing, access free tools to try inbound yourself, and get certified. Grow your business and your career with the inbound methodology.

MARKETING AUTOMATION TOOLS

Sophisticated marketing automation tools to convert and drive revenue

You work hard. Now work smarter, with automations. Mailchimp’s advanced, automated multichannel tools will help you drive personalized marketing messages that scale alongside your business.

Find out why we’re best-in-class

The #1 email marketing and automations platform* that recommends ways to get more opens, clicks, and sales.

Up to 7x more orders

when using Customer Journey Builder automations*

1.5 million

Customer journeys created in Customer Journey Builder

increase in click rates with automated emails built in Customer Journey Builder compared to bulk emails*

60+ pre-built

journeys to give you a head start and inspiration

Unify your data for an organized, holistic, and always up-to-date view of your customers

Use the data you have to power advanced automations

Leverage the tools you already use to make an even bigger impact. Integrations like Shopify let you use audience behavioral data to trigger actions, like sending a product-specific email to a customer based on what they searched for on your website.

Get started easily with a personalized product tour

Schedule a call with an onboarding specialist at any time during your first 90 days to help you get started with confidence—it’s already included with Standard and Premium plans.*

To watch this video, you need to accept Performance and Functionality Cookies .

For more info, check our cookie policy .

We're sorry. Due to a technical issue, the video is currently unable to load. Please try again later.

Capture what your customers want and take action—automatically

Drive revenue by automating the whole customer journey

Drive repeat business, retain customers, reward big spenders, and more with marketing automations. Customer Journey Builder automations generated up to 7x more orders for users with connected stores than bulk emails.*

Engage with your customers as soon as they show interest

Mailchimp’s Customer Journey triggers give you the power to stay on top of your customer’s behavior at all times. You can instantly be informed when they show interest, encounter purchasing roadblocks, or become brand loyalists—all in real time.

“The Mailchimp + Zapier integration allows us to save time and also allows us to accurately segment the audience that we wish to target and just makes everything seamless.”

Shapeways Louise Lau, Performance Marketing Manager

283% Open rate increase

525% Click-through-rate increase

Extend your reach beyond email in a few clicks

Build relationships by engaging people where they are.

Engage your customers across channels that matter most to them, and drive higher returns. Using Mailchimp, you can create seamless omnichannel campaigns across email, SMS*, social, and more.

Free Trial of Premium for 1 Month and plans for large contact lists available. Talk to our Sales team at +1 (800) 330-4838 or contact us .

Recommended

Mailchimp Recommends

Scale fast with dedicated onboarding, unlimited contacts, and priority support; built for teams.

Talk to Sales You've selected more contacts than this plan allows

Starts at $350 per month for {contacts} contacts

Sell even more with personalization, optimization tools, and enhanced automations.

Contact limit exceeded You've selected more contacts than this plan allows

Starts at $20 per month for {contacts} contacts

Send the right content at the right time with testing and scheduling features.

Starts at $13 per month for {contacts} contacts

Personalized Onboarding

Predictive Segmentation

Campaign Manager

Easily create email campaigns and learn more about your customers.

Starts at $0 per month for {contacts} contacts

A/B Testing

Basic Automated Customer Journeys

* Overages apply if contact or email send limit is exceeded. Free plan sending will be paused if contact or email send limit is exceeded.

What's new in Mailchimp?

Efficiently deliver personalized experiences—and generate revenue—with our advanced new AI assistant and SMS features.

Learn more about marketing automations

Demystifying marketing automations

Learn how automation can help simplify and streamline many everyday marketing tasks.

What is marketing automation software?

Marketing automation software is a valuable tool that can help speed up repetitive and time‑consuming processes.

How to build your B2B marketing automation strategy

Learn how to build a strong marketing automation strategy with this guide.

Does Mailchimp have marketing automation?

Yes, Mailchimp offers marketing automation, which allows you to personalize customer journeys, send trigger-based emails, and more. You can also send automated messages to customers that are uniquely tailored to their interactions with your business. Plus, you don’t have to be online, so you can send more emails at the right time and focus on other important matters. Whether you want to send an email after a user signs up or purchases a product, the right tools can help you keep the conversation going.

How do I add automation to existing campaigns in Mailchimp?

You can’t edit campaigns that have already been sent out via Mailchimp. However, if you haven’t hit the send button yet or the campaign is paused, you can set a schedule for it. Simply select the email campaign you want to work on and change the triggers, edit the schedule, alter the segment, or set a post-sending action.

Make sure to click “Resume” once you’re done making changes.

How do I set up Mailchimp marketing automation?

To set up marketing automation, you’ll first have to connect your store to Mailchimp. This way, you can leverage important customer data to send engaging emails. It’s also good to know which Mailchimp plan you have. The Free plan only allows you to set up a single email automation, so you can enable welcome emails for new users or send a birthday email on a customer’s special day. On the other hand, you can create an automated workflow for the whole customer journey with the Standard and Premium packages.

Once you’ve completed the steps above, you can head over to the Automations icon, click the “Create” tab, and select “Classic Automation.”

What is automated marketing?

Automated marketing refers to using technology to reduce the creation of manual emails. So, instead of composing an email after a customer abandons their cart or makes a purchase, you can let the system handle it for you. As a result of automated campaigns, potential customers and current clients can receive emails in relation to where they are in the customer journey.

Not only can this help shoppers remain engaged with your brand, but it can also allow you to create loyal customers. After all, 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that create personalized experiences.

What is needed for marketing automation campaigns?

To set up a few marketing automation campaigns, you’ll need to decide how often to send emails and define the trigger. Preset automations often have triggers already defined, so you’ll only worry about creating the content for the email. However, custom automations require you to indicate the trigger.

Make sure your automated marketing campaigns sound human and go to the right people. Emails that are too focused on landing the sale or sound robotic can scare off prospects. Instead, focus on crafting automated emails that naturally communicate your message while moving consumers onto the next step in the sales journey.

What are the different types of marketing automation?

Marketing automation encompasses a range of automated processes and strategies to streamline marketing efforts. Major types of marketing automation tools include:

• Email marketing automation: Setting up triggered emails based on specific actions or events, such as welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, or personalized follow-ups. Mailchimp offers robust email automation capabilities, allowing you to create and schedule automated email journeys tailored to your subscribers' behavior.
• Lead nurturing automation: Guiding potential customers through the sales funnel by delivering targeted content and communications. Mailchimp provides tools to segment your audience, personalize messages, and automate the delivery of relevant content based on subscriber preferences, demographics, or engagement levels.
• Social media management automation: Scheduling and publishing posts across various social media platforms and tracking engagement across multiple channels. Mailchimp allows you to connect your social media and email campaigns by creating social posts right in the email builder, and reuse design assets from your other marketing while keeping your messaging consistent. You can also share your email newsletter to social media from your sent campaigns with a link, allowing you to reach more people with content you’ve already developed.
• Workflow automation: Workflow automation involves automating internal marketing processes and tasks, such as assigning leads to sales representatives, tracking campaign performance, or managing customer data. Mailchimp's audience-focused journey and workflow tools provide powerful automations like ad retargeting, drip campaigns, and audience segmentation.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) automation: CRM automation involves integrating marketing automation with customer relationship management software to streamline customer interactions, track customer journeys, and improve customer relationships. Mailchimp's customer experience (CX) automation features allow you to orchestrate existing customer data to determine where automation is necessary and most valuable, and communicate with clients when it makes sense.

What are marketing automation tools?

Marketing automation tools streamline marketing processes and tasks while helping businesses manage and execute marketing campaigns more efficiently. Here are some key features of the best marketing automation tools:

• Email marketing: Allow businesses to create, send, and track email campaigns. These tools provide email templates, automation workflows, subscriber management, and analytics to optimize campaign performance. (We think Mailchimp is pretty great at this, but we're biased.)
• Campaign management: Help keep track of various marketing campaigns across different channels. They enable businesses to plan, execute, and monitor campaigns from a single place, providing insights and analytics to track campaign effectiveness. Campaign management tools like Mailchimp offer features like campaign scheduling, audience segmentation, A/B testing, and performance reporting.
• Lead management and nurturing: Follow leads throughout the customer journey. They provide lead capture forms, lead scoring, and lead nurturing capabilities to engage and convert prospects into customers. These tools enable businesses to automate personalized interactions, track customer behavior, and deliver relevant content based on specific triggers or actions. Mailchimp enables this through features like customer journey maps, drip campaigns, and user data orchestration.
• Analytics and reporting: Marketing automation tools often provide robust analytics and reporting features to measure campaign performance, track key metrics, and gain insights into audience engagement. These insights help businesses refine their marketing strategies and make data-driven decisions.

Businesses should choose tools that align with their specific needs and scale as their marketing requirements evolve. Mailchimp's marketing automation platform offers a wide range of features and functionalities to support email marketing, audience management, automation workflows, and analytics for businesses of any size.

What is an example of marketing automation?

One example might be the process of setting up an abandoned cart email campaign for an e-commerce store. When a customer leaves items in their cart without completing the purchase, Mailchimp can trigger automated emails to remind and incentivize them to return and complete the transaction. This marketing strategy helps businesses recover potentially lost sales by sending targeted and timely emails automatically.

The most common forms of marketing automation tools are simple engagement-based forms of communication. Anniversary and birthday cards and appointment reminder emails fit into this category. Emails that include surveys and feedback requests can be executed with marketing automation as well.

Other examples of marketing automation tools include trigger campaigns which help nurture leads throughout the buyer’s journey with various content assets, including, editorial posts, promotions, e-books, guides, and more.

What is the main purpose of marketing automation?

Marketing automation tools are designed to enhance your marketing efforts while also making them more efficient. When you create automated campaigns, you can market in an effective way while gaining time back to focus on other business development efforts.

How does marketing automation work?

Marketing automation tools allow you to use a digital platform to consistently and efficiently market your products. By performing the repetitive tasks for you, it allows you to be more productive in other ways and also gives you a chance to work directly with your customers.

With that said, marketing automation platforms depend on quality information. Each time someone subscribes to your list, buys something from your store, or clicks on your ads, they’re providing you with valuable data.

If you use Mailchimp as a marketing automation tool, your contact data is all in one place so you can get a holistic view of your audience as a whole. It also offers a visual breakdown of data—like where your contacts are located, how often they engage with your emails, and more insights—that you can turn into a map that will guide your customers to take the desired action at different interaction points.

What can marketing automation tools help with?

If you're hesitant about investing in marketing automation tools, you may wonder what they can do for you.

With most marketing automation tools, you can ensure your sales and marketing teams work better together to deliver targeted campaigns your audience actually cares about. This type of tool can also enhance audience segmentation, A/B testing, lead qualification, and data analytics.

Data analytics is a crucial part of the marketing automation process. It lets you see what’s working in your marketing efforts and what isn’t. This enables you to discover what's relevant to your customers and apply that to your strategy. As such, you can use the data gathered by marketing automation tools to adjust your marketing strategy and boost results. You can also uncover the efficiencies in your market segments and what’s most important to drive sales. Then, by leveraging these efficiency gains, you can increase leads and your bottom line.

You can achieve your desired business outcomes by streamlining marketing tasks, increasing productivity, and enhancing efficiency. The extra effort and time it takes to complete repetitive tasks, such as keeping track of campaigns, monitoring leads, and posting compelling advertisements, will be reduced or eliminated by marketing automation tools.

A marketing automation platform can even help you automatically send emails at specific times or when certain conditions are met. For example, you can send an automated email to a shopper who added items to their cart but never finalized their purchase. These types of emails are known as abandoned cart messages and can remind a consumer of the products they left behind, which helps keep your business top-of-mind. You may even add a discount code to this correspondence to encourage them to buy.

Regardless of how you use marketing automation tools, you can help your team save time and make it easier for them to focus on other crucial tasks that require their attention.

Millions of users trust us with their email marketing. You can too.

*Disclaimers

Onboarding services differ per plan and are available for new or upgraded users with a paid plan for the first 90 days after account creation or upgrade. Onboarding services are currently offered in English, Spanish and Portuguese for Premium plans, and in English for Standard plans.

Five ways to drive experience-led growth in banking

Customers’ needs are changing. They expect more from service providers in the form of fast, frictionless, and personalized journeys. Their banking practices have also altered, with many of them now using digital and looking for it from their banks. Customer experience (CX) is proving to be the strategic differentiator for banks, with experience leaders outperforming laggards.

In this article, we explore how banks can improve customer experience, identify five bold moves they can make to gain the competitive advantage, and why they must act now, given the current dynamic macroeconomic environment.

Our research shows that banks that are frontrunners in customer satisfaction lead in financial metrics such as total shareholder return (TSR), increased growth, and decreased costs (Exhibit 1). We also see a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and purchasing decision—customers who are satisfied with their banking experiences say they will purchase more of that bank’s products. And satisfied customers are six times more likely to say they'll remain with a bank than dissatisfied customers are.

In this uncertain economic environment, excelling in customer experience is more important than ever for banks—the past year has seen one of the most dynamic macroeconomic conditions in the past several decades. Over the past 12 months, interest rates have risen by more than 300 basis points, mortgage originations have dropped by 60 percent, and the flow of money between financial institutions has increased four times.

Confidence is waning—more than 65 percent of customers are pessimistic about the economic outlook for the coming year, about a ten percentage point increase compared to last year. Their biggest concerns are inflation, the rising cost of goods, and savings for emergency funds.

With the dynamic macroeconomic environment and the overall pessimism consumers are feeling, customers are thinking to the future, shifting their financial practices, and reevaluating relationships with their financial institutions. We notice a move toward increasing household spending and accelerating paying down credit card debt, as well as reducing savings for retirement and emergency funds. New financial accounts are being opened at twice the average rate, and new banking relationships and switching banks are being considered (Exhibit 2).

Five critical CX moves banks can make to get ahead

Here are five get-right moves for those that want to seize the moment and become industry leaders.

Reimagine, not just de-friction, priority journeys

A typical regional bank has over 1,500 customer journeys (across business units, product lines, and customer interactions). 1 McKinsey analysis. Looked at simply, these journeys can be categorized into two broad categories—those that a bank needs to “de-friction” and those that need to be reimagined. Most journeys fall into the de-friction bucket, as streamlined, seamless experiences still matter and drive customer satisfaction. However, our research shows that the “bookend” journeys of shopping, onboarding, and problem resolution disproportionally drive the overall experience that a customer has with their bank. It is here that a bank could consider flexing its reimagination muscle (Exhibit 3).

To truly reimagine a given journey, banks can take the following steps:

• Assemble a cross-functional group that can bring diversity of experiences and thinking.
• Understand the competition, including recognizing that experience leaders also come from adjacent and other B2C industries outside purely banking—for example, a mobile payment application.
• Take inspiration from other industries as a customer’s bar for great experiences is driven by interactions and experiences outside banking.
• Leverage the concept of a zero-based design (“clean sheeting”): start with a blank canvas and imagine a new journey without considering the current state or any constraints; layer on (technical and operational) constraints afterwards.
• Co-create with customers to increase the chances of success, especially for novel signature moments.
• Push innovation to the next level. For example , how could something happen with no user-inputted data, with one click (or even no clicks)?

As a case in point, a large North American bank established an innovation factory to redesign critical banking processes and digital journeys. This brought together cross-functional teams—across product, business, technology, design, marketing, risk and compliance, legal, operations, finance, etcetera—to work on reimagining key customer journeys. Over the course of two years, more than 30 reimagined journeys were developed and rolled out. The resulting impact was a 25 to 50 percent increase in customer satisfaction of those journeys.

Radical shifts in customer behavior can be disruptive, but by delivering differentiated value for their customers, banks can take advantage of this defining moment to stand out.

Help customers migrate to digital

Most banks have highly inconsistent digital adoption. Even for banks that have similar levels of digital migration, McKinsey’s proprietary Digital Migration Index shows a two to four times variation in digital adoption of the underlying products and journeys. Our research reveals that customers who regularly use a bank’s mobile app or website (or both) have the highest average satisfaction compared to customers who use other interaction channels or infrequently use the digital channels (Exhibit 4).

So, while banks have correctly focused on building digital experiences to enable customers to bank in their channel of choice and self-serve for many interactions, there is still an opportunity for banks to actively help customers migrate to digital channels. This, in turn, will likely not only drive higher customer satisfaction, but result in a lower cost-to-serve and convenience.

Banks can actively migrate customers to digital in several ways:

• Enable: Banks can streamline enrollment into digital, seamless login, pre-authentication, and more.
• Educate: They can drive awareness of new digital offerings or features with marketing and communications, such as “how-to” videos on the website and mobile app.
• Redirect: Banks can utilize in-branch and call center or IVR intercepts to direct customers to digital channels, for example, in-branch digital and co-browse tutorials.
• Motivate: They can consider charging fees for using non-digital channels, and reward employees who redirect customers to digital channels, for instance.
• Nudge: Lastly, they can encourage customers to migrate with messaging on statements, reminders in emails or mails, gamified experiences, and so forth.

A leading Latin American bank launched a holistic digital adoption campaign to drive digital migration for its new web and mobile experiences. The bank rolled out a broad advertising campaign to encourage customers to download the new mobile app, developed incentives for recurring digital users (such as digital payments), sent out targeted customer messages after non-digital transactions were completed (for instance, in branch transfers), and thoroughly trained its front-line branch employees so they could redirect customers to digital. This broad campaign resulted in a 20 percent increase in customer satisfaction, a 5 percent increase in digitally active customers, a 25 percent increase in digital payments, and a 10 percent reduction in branch costs.

(Re)establish and (re)fortify trust

Our research shows that around 60 percent of customers currently trust that their primary bank will be helpful in navigating the next financial downturn. And this number jumps to more than 80 percent for customers who report high satisfaction with the experience their bank delivers.

Banks can take several actions to establish (or reestablish) trust

First, they can be transparent for emotionally charged interactions such as the ways fees are charged and explained (for example, on statements), the status of a loan application, and how disputes are handled. One leading payments player recently underwent a company-wide program to dramatically simplify its customer communications—from everything such as statements to the terms of loan applications to product offers on its mobile app. This program resulted not only in higher customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, but also fewer calls coming into the contact centers (for example, for customers not understanding bills or terms and conditions clauses).

Second, they can deeply know how customers want to bank and then give them the power to interact across any channel. For example, the marketing messages they want to opt into, what channel with which they prefer to interact (email, mail, phone call, or text message), and what data they would like the bank to use when making them product offers.

Third, banks can proactively identify and help customers resolve fraud by leveraging advanced analytics. Fraud resolution is one of the most emotionally charged journeys for customers, and anything that can help them feel at ease dramatically drives trust, as well as “advocacy” by the bank on their behalf. Several banks now send text messages or emails and phone customers at the first sign of potential fraud—offering customers an opportunity to “dismiss” the alert or follow through with a fraud claim. Many banks also use this to drive advocacy by removing the charge from statements while they investigate (versus charging customers first and then refunding the charge).

And last, banks can offer a window into a customer’s financial wealth, based on customer spend and transaction history, credit bureau data, balance information, interest charges, fees, and so forth. This opens the space for banks to offer a “financial-health” score for their customers. For example, a fintech company took this to the next level by not only showing a financial-health score for its clients, but also offering advice on how to improve that score (for instance, through paying off high-interest debts and savings strategies). With this move, they aimed to become more customer-centric and develop clients’ trust.

Close the loop on measurement

“You cannot manage what you don’t measure” is a common adage in business. This is especially true for customer experience. Traditionally banks have relied on surveys, which are necessary but not sufficient to achieve these capabilities. In fact, only 16 percent of chief customer experience officers believe surveys are granular enough to act on, and only 4 percent think that surveys allow them to calculate the ROI of a decision.

Organizations that measure up well do so across four capabilities: capture (how feedback is collected and integrated), interpret (how feedback is analyzed and insights produced), act (how insights are implemented), and monitor (how dashboards are updated in near real time).

• Leaders in the industry use predictive analytics, machine learning, and big data (augmenting survey data with operational data) to overcome the well-known limitations of customer feedback. 2 “Experience DNA data and analytics platform,” McKinsey, February 2023. For example, only 7 percent on average complete surveys, 25 percent believe surveys provide timely insights to act on, while just 4 percent allow banks to quantify ROI. 3 “ Prediction: The future of CX ,” McKinsey, February 24, 2021. Banks can leverage the analytics-driven customer feedback system to personalize the experience by identifying unique customer needs and trends at scale that may go unnoticed with one-off surveys.
• They can also proactively resolve issues by ensuring that drivers of customer experience are updated in real time from all available data—as opposed to the limited survey questions that are only updated sporadically to quickly resolve trouble areas.
• Banks can predict with confidence the satisfaction for 100 percent of customers with a “single source of truth” versus the 7 to 10 percent in typical survey responses.
• Lastly, they can improve “hidden” customer interaction points; that is, quickly see how customer experience changes along a customer’s interaction with various parts of a given journey.

For example, a global bank is building a capability that scores the experience of every customer based on data such as transactions, balances, recent branch and contact center experiences, and location. It then uses machine learning to predict customer satisfaction for each customer based on their individual experience. This new capability allows the bank to dramatically improve its follow-up with customers immediately after poor service experiences and identify opportunities to deepen relationships.

Ingrain the philosophy of “customer success” in every part of the organization

Customer success is a proactive, data-led, and client-centric approach that seeks to understand client priorities and help B2B customers optimize their outcomes. The customer-success discipline is well developed in high-tech companies and the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry but is still only slowly finding relevance in banking. Customer success equates to understanding existing B2B customers’ needs and helping them achieve their objectives (which often includes improved outcomes or experience for an end consumer or user). As a result, customer success can be successful in driving growth and reducing churn, while also increasing adoption and usage of products and services.

To implement an effective customer success model, banks can consider taking the following steps:

Build customer success capabilities: Like sales, customer success is a discipline with established practices. Setting up a customer success function requires dedicated capability building, especially if a bank is converting a team of existing client-relationship executives (such as bankers or account managers) to become customer-success managers.

Create capacity for high-value activities: In many organizations, an existing account or relationship manager is inundated with servicing requests and has limited capacity to be proactive. To create space, banks could find a way to reduce the demand on these teams to react to client “problems”, through product improvements, automation, or off-loading servicing activities to lower-cost teams.

Define the operating model with sales: Successful customer success representatives will uncover upsell and cross-sell opportunities as they work with clients to help them achieve their objectives. Therefore, it is critical to have a defined operating model and success-to-sales motion, which may differ based on the customer segmentation and coverage model (for example, teams of customer success and sales reps working together on accounts or using a model that “passes on” customer success opportunities to the sales team).

Measure customer health: A deep understanding of customer health is beneficial to customer success as it helps indicate likely-to-churn customers and assists customer success teams to prioritize how to invest their time across their customer portfolio. Banks can use all the data they have available for a customer—such as financial performance, industry trends, engagement with product and digital journeys, customer satisfaction (for instance, NPS, CSAT), product performance, and the ability to meet customer service level agreements—to develop a predictive measure of “customer health” as a key enabler of customer success.

For instance, a large wealth management player is moving to a customer-success model for its B2B business. It has introduced a “teaming” coverage model, in which large customers each have a dedicated representative for sales and customer success. The company has also defined an operating model for how sales, customer success, and sales operations will work together throughout the customer’s lifecycle. This new model has helped it better understand the needs of its customers and increased the opportunities to pursue new products and services with its existing customer base.

Bringing it all together

So how can banks achieve CX success in a competitive environment where customers want more, quickly? The good news is that we have seen companies attain leading positions by addressing three core building blocks of customer experience: a clearly defined, strong aspiration; a disciplined transformation journey; and thoughtful deployment of new capabilities such as analytics (Exhibit 5). 4 Victoria Bough, Ralph Breuer, Nicolas Maechler, and Kelly Ungerman, “ The three building blocks of successful customer experience transformation ,” McKinsey, October 27, 2020.

McKinsey research shows that this approach has delivered powerful results: a 15 to 20 percent increase in sales conversion rates, a 20 to 50 percent decline in service costs, and a 10 to 20 percent improvement in customer satisfaction. 5 Victoria Bough, Ralph Breuer, Nicolas Maechler, and Kelly Ungerman, “ The three building blocks of successful customer experience transformation ,” McKinsey, October 27, 2020.

By using these building blocks to achieve successful customer-centric transformations, and embedding the five bold moves described above, banks can take gold in the customer-experience race and attain a competitive advantage that boosts growth, lowers costs, and provides superior customer satisfaction.

Shital Chheda is a partner in McKinsey’s Chicago office; Jonathan Goldstein is an associate partner in the San Francisco office, where Robert Schiff is a senior partner; and Tim Natriello is an associate partner in the New York office.

The authors wish to thank Tim Bail, Anubhav Choudhury, Kate Ford, Alex Lapides, and Adrian Nelson for their contributions to this article.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

Managing a customer-experience transformation in banking

Making customer experience transformations pay off in banking

Build AMP and HTML templates with a drag-and-drop builder

Engage users across the lifecycle with email automation

Leverage interactive AMP emails for higher in-mail conversions

Drive sales with interactive emails at all stages of the buyer journey

Trigger HTML and AMP emails with API and integrations

Target emails better with advanced contact management

Manage campaigns with a full-stack, intuitive manager

Save 3X time on writing and template creation

Do more with Mailmodo

• WYSIWYG editor
• Forms in email
• HTML email creator
• Widgets in email
• Bulk email campaigns
• Triggered campaigns
• Via 3rd party apps
• Email sequences
• Import contacts API/CSV
• Advanced segmentation
• Managed deliverability
• In-depth analytics

Boost quiz responses with interactive, smart quizzes

Razorpay gets 257% higher survey reponses

Interviewvector gets 45% higher reviews

AllRound gets 28% higher feedback responses

HobSpace gets 20% higher demo signups

Mudrex gets 280% more webinar signups

Drive engagement with games inside email

Traya gets 15% cart recovery rate

• Shopping Carts
• Calendar Invite
• Calculators
• Live Price Ticker
• Spin the Wheel
• Custom widgets
• Real Estate
• Recruitment
• Lead Generation
• Customer Engagement
• Surveys and Forms
• Feedback Emails
• Newsletter Emails

🌟 Featured Resources

Developer APIs

Trigger from

Sync Contact from

Apps inside Email

• Calendly Meeting Booking
• Zoom Webinars
• Shopify Widgets
• Gokwik Ecommerce

• Get started - it's free
• Case Studies
• For Developers
• Try Mailmodo for free

5 B2B Email Marketing Examples You Need to See

By Mashkoor Alam

10 June, 2024

A survey by EMarketer found that 50% of B2B marketers find email marketing the best way to reach out to people. Email marketing strategy is becoming increasingly essential with its growing popularity and ability to deliver high ROI. Therefore, it is important to create email marketing campaigns that keep your business at the top of your customer’s email lists ensuring they remember you. In this guide, we’ve compiled a list of the best email marketing examples and discussed what makes them stand out.

Table of contents

What is B2B email marketing?

Salient features of b2b email marketing, b2b vs b2c email marketing, 5 best b2b email marketing examples, 1. welcome email marketing campaign, how slack uses welcome email marketing, 2. event email marketing campaign, how config uses event email marketing, 3. announcement email marketing campaign, how figarc uses announcement emails, 4. survey email marketing campaign, how stack overflow uses survey email marketing, 5. lead nurture email marketing campaign, how maze uses lead nurturing email marketing.

In B2B email marketing, you use emails to promote your products and services to other businesses. It includes sending a series of emails to customers when they reach specific points in their journey. This approach helps you foster relationships with potential customers, build brand awareness, and generate leads and sales.

• Email strategy is directed towards nurturing existing relationships rather than acquisition.

Lead nurture through lead magnets and events

SQL nurture

Customer nurture for upsell

It primarily aims at customer retention, increasing engagement, and driving upsell opportunities.

Email newsletters play an important role by serving as major campaigns to engage and inform subscribers.

Many B2B businesses use cold emails to acquire customers, but they are usually unsolicited and not recommended.

Let’s take a look at the main differences between B2B and B2C email marketing.

Here are some of the best examples of B2B email marketing that you must check.

A welcome email is the first message sent to people when they sign up for something online. These emails usually get a lot of attention and interaction since they’re sent right when someone connects with your brand. They have high open and engagement rates, which gives them a golden chance to create a connection. Through a welcome email, you can share more about your brand and guide the subscribers on what to do next.

Here’s what a typical welcome email sequence looks like:

💡 Related guide: Welcome email series

Objective: Welcoming users and increasing activation

When do they trigger it? Immediately when someone signs up

In the example above, Slack welcomes its new users as part of its onboarding process. This automated email is sent to users when they sign up for a Slack account. The email includes a friendly welcome message, tips for getting started, and links to helpful resources. It aims to introduce new users to the platform, help them with the initial setup process, and enable them to use Slack effectively.

An event email marketing includes a sequence of emails to inform email subscribers about an upcoming event and convince them to attend it. These emails enable a broad outreach and help to spread relevant information effectively.

Events help brands to generate leads in B2B marketing. If you’re conducting events, inform your audience to spark interest in them, leading to more ticket sales, sign-ups, and booth visits.

Here’s what a typical event registration email sequence looks like:

Objective: Increasing event attendees

When do they trigger it? Before the event to encourage receivers to register

Take a look at the Config 2024 email. This invitation starts with a clear and concise headline, “See who’s speaking,” followed by a brief introduction. The main content includes a list of speakers, their names, titles, and CTA, prompting readers to learn more about the event and speakers. The design is clean and easy to navigate. Additionally, the tone is professional and informative.

An announcement email marketing contains a company's message to customers to inform them about new products and upcoming events. This mode of communication aims to keep customers and subscribers informed and engaged. When writing announcement emails, write a clear subject line and a good introduction. Persuade readers why the email is important to them, and include a CTA.

Objective: Informing customers about new feature updates and releases

When do they trigger it? When they have major product updates to share with customers

Template used

This Figarc beta announcement email is a great example that features testimonials from its existing users. It starts with a personalized greeting thanking the subscribers for joining the Figarc club early. Next, it shares valuable information about the beta launch of Figarc and invites users to participate in the beta testing process. The email has a friendly, enthusiastic tone and a simple design with minimal visuals.

A survey email marketing helps you gather customer data and feedback by sending them surveys or questionnaires. They can be used to accumulate customer insights, enhance strategies, and nurture customer relationships by personalizing offers.

Survey emails are a great way to get genuine feedback from customers since people are eager to share their opinions. To write compelling survey emails, include attractive subject lines, supporting preview text, images, and a link to the survey.

Here’s what a typical survey/ feedback email sequence looks like:

Objective: Getting insights and opinions and understanding audience preferences

When do they trigger it? To conduct research

This email from Stack Overflow aims to get opinions from developers who use AI tools in their development workflow. It features a CTA inviting readers to fill out the developer survey. No distracting elements make it easy to read and take desired action.

You can increase your survey submission rates with interactive emails. Mailmodo helps you create and send interactive emails your readers will love. Sign up today.

3X email ROI with interactive emails by Mailmodo

Lead nurture emails are sent to leads gathered from various sources, aiming to foster relationships with them and convert them from being prospects to valued customers. They involve sending a couple of emails over a period of time to offer valuable content, address pain points, highlight product benefits, and build trust with the leads.

Here’s what a typical lead nurture email sequence looks like:

💡 Related guide: Lead Nurture

Objective: Building trust and credibility with potential customers

When do they trigger it? Decision-making stage of buyer’s journey

This email highlights the overview of the New Research Landscape report, letting readers know what they can expect to find in the report. It has multiple CTAs to engage receivers and prompt them to take action. Also, it includes social proof and contact information, encouraging them to add Maze to their account, fostering ongoing engagement.

There is no magic formula for creating ideal B2B email marketing campaigns—planning strategically, creating engaging content, and understanding your target audience. By using the best email marketing tips, you can improve the performance of your campaigns.

Getting B2B email marketing right takes time, but it’s worth it. Personalize and segment your messages, measure and optimize your campaigns based on performance data, review and refine your email list, try automation, and stay in tune with the best practices to improve your email marketing, drive conversions and better results.

1. How frequently should you send marketing emails if you are B2B business?

The frequency of your email marketing campaign depends on different factors, such as subscriber preferences, engagement rates, and potential buyer’s journey. Ensure you find the right balance to engage your audience without bombarding them with too many promotional emails.

2. How can you segment the B2B email list?

Email marketers must follow the below methods to segment the B2B email list: Segment your email list based on geographic location, buyer journey stage, and industry trends. Gather data from CRMs or email marketing channels to create segments. Try different segmentation strategies and monitor performance of email campaigns to find responsive segments. Personalize email content according to segments, address their pain points, and offer solutions.

3. What are the excellent ways to grow an email list in B2B?

Include social sharing buttons to encourage your subscribers to share your emails. Create new lead generation offers to convince a group of people to sign up. Promote your sign-up page on social media. Use social proof to let people know your emails are worth subscribing to.

4. What kind of content works well in B2B email marketing?

Some content types that work well include case studies, thought leadership ( whitepapers and ebooks), industry news and trends, educational content, customer testimonials, webinar recordings, and how-to guides. Additionally, incorporating promotional emails strategically can help drive conversions and sales.

What should you do next?

Thanks for reading till the end. Here are 3 ways we can help you grow your business:

Get smarter with our email resources

Explore our email marketing guides, ebooks and other resources to master email marketing.

Check out resource library ->

Do better email marketing with Mailmodo

Send app-like interactive emails with forms, carts, calendars, games, etc. to boost email ROI.

Try Mailmodo for free ->

Talk to an email expert

Get a 30-min. free email consultation with a Mailmodo expert to optimize your email marketing.

Book a slot ->

Was this post useful?

Related Guides

• 10 Best Enterprise Email Marketing Platforms in 2023
• 12 Tips to Better Your Email Marketing Game for The Holidays
• 10 Ecommerce Email Marketing Statistics that you need to know
• 13 Email Marketing Benefits You Should Know

Get 3X conversions with interactive emails

Popular Categories

AI Marketing

Email Automation

Competitive Intelligence

Email Deliverability

Email Design

Email Marketing

Email Marketing Use Case

Go to Marketing

Shopify Email Marketing

Create & send interactive emails without coding

Put revenue on auto-pilot with pre-built journeys, save time with ai-powered email content creation.

Try FREE for 21 Days

Talk to a Human

1000+ businesses grew with Mailmodo, including

Marketing Strategy: What It Is, How to Create the Best One for 2024

It is more important than ever to create and maintain a powerful marketing strategy. Here are the 10 main steps to help you create the ultimate marketing strategy.

Omer is the COO and Co-Founder at Mayple. Started the platform over 5 years ago. 1000+ experts and 600+ happy customers later he is leading the marketing + customer service teams. Avid surfer and remote work enthusiast.

Learn about our

Natalie is a content writer and manager who is passionate about using her craft to empower others. She thrives on team dynamic, great coffee, and excellent content. One of these days, she might even get to her own content ideas.

Updated May 1, 2024.

Marketing is a dynamic and ever-changing field. The top digital marketing strategies change with the consumer and technology trends of the day. This is why every company needs a good marketing strategy that's well-planned and has well-defined milestones and objectives. Once you have the right map, the chances you’ll reach the goals you’ve set for your business are much higher.

That means, that while most of us are eager to start launching our marketing efforts the minute after we decide to start a business, we actually need to invest in planning so we won’t waste our limited budget and energies on the wrong things.

If you're a company/startup owner or marketer you need a good digital marketing strategy to hit your goals.

In this guide, we've put together the 10 main steps that you need to follow to build the ultimate marketing strategy for your business. We will take you step-by-step through the process, so you won’t miss a thing and get your digital marketing strategy all figured out.

We have some very useful tips and examples that will make it easier to understand.

If you want to read up on marketing strategy check out our list of the best marketing strategy books. 

Now, let's define some of the basic terms.

What is marketing strategy?

Marketing strategy is a long-term, forward-looking approach and an overall game plan of any organization or any business with the fundamental goal of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage by understanding the needs and wants of customers.

A marketing strategy is a broad strategy that encompasses everything from how a company positions itself, to the creative, the strategic partners, the media relations, the marketing mix , and the channels and tactics.

A marketing strategy refers to a firm's overall game plan for reaching prospective consumers and turning them into customers of their products or services. It also contains the company's value proposition, key brand messaging, data on target audience and customer demographics, and other high-level elements.

The broad marketing strategy is what used to fall under the term "branding" back in the more ambiguous days of marketing. It's a practical summary of the key details of the strategy and some of the broad goals and methods used to achieve them.

What is the difference between a marketing strategy and a tactic?

Marketing strategies are broader than specific tactics. For example, a business could have a content strategy for their social media channels or for search engine optimization, and then they could have specific tactics they execute for each channel.

Here's the correct order to follow:

Overall marketing strategy -> Digital marketing strategy -> Specific tactics

For example, here's a great video that introduces specific marketing tactics. These aren't strategies, these are very specific ways you could grow your sales, which would all be included as part of a larger set of marketing strategies inside of your marketing plan.

» Looking for specific tactics? Head over to our Ultimate Guide on Digital Marketing. 

What is the importance of marketing strategy?

Sometimes marketers and eCommerce owners get lost in the weeds, in the bits and bytes. They lose track of the overall vision of the business and the large goals. They lose track of the target audience and the main pain points that their product solves for the customer. When that happens, the specific tactics that the business employs can lose their effectiveness.

So, a marketing strategy is not some dusty old document that you put on the top shelf and forget about it. It's a vital process of discovering your company's top goals and objectives and ways to achieve them. That becomes a blueprint or a sample marketing plan for everything you do to better market your product or service.

Let's jump into it.

1. Define your brand value and offering

Your brand strategy is about defining the core values of your brand to make sure that they align with what your prospect and existing customer find important, that they align to your industry trends and competitive environment, and to what you actually offer ie your product.

That’s not an easy task, but without it, all the other marketing tasks become much more difficult.

Here are some good marketing strategy examples from data-driven brands that succeeded in doing it right:

AllBirds - Sustainable, transparent, comfortable

AllBirds began as a darling brand in Silicon Valley in 2014 and quickly grew to a $1.4B valuation in 2018. The shoe company set out to create the world's most comfortable, and they overshot their goal.

Their products are fully sustainable and made out of wool and bamboo, and their branding is impeccable. Their mission statement reads - "Allbirds is on a mission to prove that comfort, good design, and sustainability don't have to be mutually exclusive".

In just four years they became the market pioneers of sustainable footwear. It all started with a launch on Kickstarter, in fact, here's their Kickstarter video:

The brand has a really quirky brand voice, and its values are transparency, sustainability, and comfort.

Here's an email with an order confirmation:

You can see the same quirky humorous brand voice in their social media posts.

Besides the humor and the spunky brand personality, the brand has really taken advantage of this concept of transparency. They display the materials they use in a creative way and get down to the fine details.

And that ties really nicely with their overall mission and their third brand value - sustainability.

Ultimately, the quirky brand voice and the incredible brand values of sustainability and transparency led Allbirds to build a super-engaged audience online that has contributed the most to the brand's growth.

Yes, it is a really comfortable product (the NY Times called it "the most comfortable shoe in the world"), but without a strong brand and a focus on the user experience, Allbirds would not have been the giant that it is today.

Casper - "here to awaken the potential of a well-rested world"

Casper is a mattress company that has completely revolutionized the industry. They were the first direct-to-consumer mattress company and quickly grew to a $1.1B valuation in 2019.

Casper's brand values are all about dreaming big, innovation, and bringing joy to a tired industry.

Look how they merge the "dreaming big" brand value with a pun about sleeping in their purchase receipt email.

And here's another great email asking for a review.

Casper's strong brand helped it launch other successful products, like the Casper Glow, which is an innovative bedtime light that changes its light temperature and brightness automatically and can be remotely controlled through an app.

There are a lot of big and abstract words thrown around when talking about brand value creation, so here's a simple way to think about it.

A simple formula to find the right values that define your brand is this:

• Think about the main pain points/needs/frictions your brand is solving
• Translate it into a value-based language
• Make sure it fits your beliefs and motivations

2. Identify customer pain points and expectations

"People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!" - Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business School Professor

One of the top reasons why products or services fail is when their makers fail to identify the customers' pain points. In other words, they don't meet the customer's needs or they don't solve a vital problem in their lives. Also, those needs may change over time so it's important to continue examining the customer journey and solve your current customer challenges.

One of the classic examples is the Segway. It was a device that was said to eliminate walking. It could go up to 12.5 miles per hour, had a lithium battery, and made you look like a dork. It was hailed as the device that would make walking obsolete, and it failed miserably.

It's a sad story but the creator of the device actually drove it off a cliff and died. The problem with the Segway is that no one wanted to stop walking, people love walking, people loved running, so it failed to meet the customer's need and to identify a pain point.

What are the different types of customer pain points?

the most basic pain point is financial. Does your product help your customers save money? Is it more cost-effective than the alternatives? Are the savings short-term or long-term? And if your product is cheaper than the alternatives, does that price difference create enough value for the customer?

These are some of the important questions you should ask yourself. An example of this is Target's launch of the brand Smartly with hygiene/cleaning products all under $2 (approximately 70% less than similar products by other brands).

Convenience

Another really important pain point is convenience. Does your product make your peoples' life more convenient? The classic example of this is Netflix, a brand that became a household name because it was incredibly more convenient than it competitor Blockbuster.

Instead of having to shlep to Blockbuster, for example, and pay all of those late fees customers could now get DVD's straight to their doorstep. Fast forward to 2020, Netflix is worth $203 billion and Blockbuster is is out of business. The company that made me more convenient for people won.

Service is another major factor in solving a customer's pain point. Service refers to the entire customer experience and includes things like - warranty, maintenance, replacements, customer service , and ease of use. A really good example of this is the solar company SolarCity, which was acquired by Tesla in 2016.

SolarCity's solar panels weren't cheaper than the competitors they simply had a better warranty and maintenance on them and that's why customers preferred them. This is one of the major drivers that helped SolarCity become the nation's largest residential solar provider.

Easy steps to identify your customer's pain point

Ok, so we've talked about the type of customer pain points that there are, but how do you identify them for your own company and product? Here are some helpful suggestions that will get you on the right path.

Create a customer journey map

Identify what makes your customers buy your product and how they arrived at your physical or online store. This should include the channels that they visited - a search result, a Facebook ad, a social media post, an email, and other online and physical media. At each stage identify possible pain points and uncover the customer's motivation for using your product.

This will also help you evaluate your marketing mix and see if there are any channels that you need to add.

Survey your customers

Another good way to find the customer pain point is by surveying your customers. Ask your customers what they like and don't like about your product and what are some of the factors that led to their choice. There are a ton of survey tools you could use like Typeform or SurveyMonkey .

Look at customer reviews

If you are thinking of launching a new product you should look at the customer reviews of your existing products. These will tell you a lot about your customers' preferences, expectations, and pain points. What's particularly powerful for eCommerce sites are visual reviews - photos or videos that customers post alongside the text of their reviews. You can use tools like Pixlee, Yotpo, or Loox to collect and display visual reviews.

Ask your sales team

Another good way to find your customer's pain points is to ask your sales team. After all, your salespeople are the ones that hear and have to respond to the objections of your prospects and customers, hence they are the most aware of what people are looking for in your products or services.

Sit down and have a discussion with your sales team. Try to find out what your customers like/dislike about your product, what are the issues that they bring up the most, and what makes them turn down the product. If your marketing team interfaces directly with your customers you could also ask them for feedback.

Study your competitors

It's super important to conduct a competitor analysis to analyze the competitor landscape, in any industry. That's how Netflix and Apple began when they strove to make a product that's better and more innovative than the status quo. Identify where you are, and what your market position is .

Look at all your competitor products, their marketing mix, the type of promotion and media they publish, and their strategies. Identify the pain points that they are solving and ones that are still unresolved. One strategy is to try to solve the same pain points, just better. Another strategy is to go after pain points that remain unresolved, to create something that people haven't seen before.

Use the STP framework

Another effective marketing technique is to use the STP framework. STP stands for segmenting, targeting, and positioning.

• Segmenting - is where you divide the market into distinct groups (or target market segments).
• Targeting - is where you determine which customer segment you want to focus your marketing efforts on. And
• Positioning - is the creation of the brand position, the marketing mix, and other various marketing strategies in order to appeal to your potential customers in your target market and try to influence them to make a purchase decision.

The STP framework helps brands identify the types of marketing strategies and channels that will be required to successfully market their product or service to their customers.

3. Identify market trends and competition

That brings us to our next topic - creating a competitive analysis. This is a crucial step in the marketing strategy plan creation because this is where you will identify what differentiates your product or service from the competition.

You can do this through a simple SWOT analysis to determine your brand's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Without this step, it's going to be very difficult to create a product that provides unique value to the consumer and stays competitive with the market trends of the day. So this analysis is crucial and this is how you go about it:

Identify your competitors

The first step of any competitive analysis is to find out who your competitors are. Find out all the different companies that have similar products and services. Look at their social media content, search in related or niche online communities, news mentions, and product reviews.

Categorize your competitors

Now that you have a detailed list of all of your competitors it's time to categorize them. Put them into different groups - primary, secondary, and tertiary competitors. This will help you get clarity on which of your competitors are directly competing with you and which ones you should focus on in your analysis.

Take a look at their social media and branding

The next step of the competitive analysis is to find out all you can about each competitor. Look at all the various social media pages, the content, and the branding that they use on their site and their email marketing campaigns. This will give you a visual understanding of their brand positioning and how your product or service differs from theirs.

Be sure to check out their influencer marketing campaigns to see the kind of branded image that they try to portray online. Look at their display ads (owned media) and UGC(earned media).

Conduct a site audit to look at traffic sources and positioning

This part is the more technical side of the branding audit. Use a tool like Ahrefs , SimilarWeb , or Alexa to check the keywords that each competitor ranks for and their various traffic channels. This will give you the precise search terms that the user searches for and the specific needs that your competitors meet.

For example, you might discover that a competitor is using a type of content that you're not using yet or a traffic channel that you haven't expanded into. This is super valuable information to have for your online marketing strategy.

Look at their pricing

Use a tool to track competitor prices and see how you compare on various products, categories, and by season. Your cometitors may be using different pricing strategies on holidays, weekends, or busy seasons (depending on your niche) and you can get ahaed just by using a few dynamic pricing rules and tweaking your strategy a bit. So this part of the research is critical.

4. Create your value proposition

Now that you have your story right, it’s time to build the right strategy for your marketing. That means making business decisions about what you are delivering and to whom.

Your product or service tells the most about your brand.

This is the actual hands-on experience prospects and customers have with your brand, and it can affect their perception of it the most.

Use your values to make sure you walk the talk and implement what you said about yourself in your offering.

Here are some examples to help you get the hang of it:

Walmart - translating brand values to service language

IKEA - Brand values & design

Most people will know right away this is IKEA’s products - humble, simple and functional.

5. Identify your target audience

Deciding on your target audience could change the way you present your brand and even the language you use to do it.

We love to use simple models for complex decisions.

We found it is much more effective and fun.

Use this model to map the different target audience groups that you have, and prioritize them accordingly in your audience analysis.

(This is actually one of the models we used to determine our target audiences)

You would want your first-tier target audience to have good market potential for business growth, and it wouldn’t be a Via Delarosa to convince them to buy what you have to offer.

This is not the only tool you need to characterize the people you are going to invest most of your marketing spend to reach out to.

The second tool we recommend for you to use is defining your personas - or, in other words, asking who your ideal customer is, your target customer, to the smallest details.

To define your main persona you can use this question list:

• Who is my persona? Is he a male or is she a female? What age is he or she? Name your persona and attach a photo so it will be easier for you to plan your messaging accurately.
• What is my persona's initial state of mind? - his or her emotions and thoughts before starting the decision-making process?
• What are the different stages of his or her decision-making process until purchase?

If you’re about to launch a new service or product that prospects or customers are not used to using or buying, you might consider applying this psychology of change model. After all, you’re trying to change people's perception here.

Each stage represents a psychological state of mind of people until they reach a decision to take action. You can use the needs that are listed below to create your marketing creative tools that will effectively move your persona to take action.

Identify the following for each stage of the buyer's journey:

• What are your persona’s expectations? What are his goals?
• What process does she go through in this stage? Where does she look for information? Who do they speak with?
• How would you describe the customer's experience at each point of the customer journey?
• What is your objective for each of their decision-making stages?
• What actions can help you achieve these objectives?

Now that you've identified your ideal customers, how are you going to reach them?

That brings us to the next step.

6. Identify partners and potential collaborators

Identifying your potential partners or collaborations is a critical step of reaching your ideal customer. It may be that there are online communities that already exist where your customers hang out. It could be that you need to work with a distributor or get a marketing partner to help you reach them.

This is a critical point to consider before you execute your inbound marketing strategy. Sometimes finding and working with the right partner could give you access and help you achieve 10X the results. This could be through revenue sharing or an affiliate program . It could also be done by social networking at industry events or online conferences.

We’re on the digital marketing portion of our guide and it contains 3 parts - deciding on your creative & messaging, selecting the marketing channels that you’ll be using, and deciding on a strategy and a marketing budget for each channel.

Let’s dive in.

7. Decide on the messaging and creative of your brand

Most businesses (and especially startups) can’t afford to hire a digital marketing specialist in-house so they use the services of freelancers or digital agencies .

From now on, you have a critical job of guarding your brand’s values and strategy in the messaging and creative you’ll create and the different tactics you’ll use.

That’s what storytelling is about .

Make sure that the service provider you hired is aligned with your brand and the various marketing strategies that you want to employ, so they can apply your strategy to the actual marketing communication you’ll have with your potential customers.

Here are two brilliant brands that keep to their authentic brand strategy throughout their messaging:

National Geographic - how to create the “wow” and “wonder” visually

National Geographic knows how to present stunning photography and help us discover the wonders of our world. They constantly keep the language they use on their ads (paid and earned media) to be aligned with these brand values.

8. Define your marketing channels

Now that you have defined your value proposition, your partners, and your creative assets and messaging it's time to select the right marketing channels for your marketing mix.

This is one of the most crucial steps in the process of creating your marketing strategy. Each digital marketing campaign will vary greatly based on the marketing channels that you'll pick. You need to select those marketing channels that fit your brand and your product.

Let's cover a few of the main marketing channels and their best practices.

Social media

Social media marketing is a vital part of any digital inbound marketing strategy and there are certainly a lot of things that you could do. Also, keep in mind that successful social media campaigns can help you get more traffic from search.

Organic social media is used for the awareness stage, or the lead generation stage, of the marketing funnel while a Facebook ad is used for the last stage, or the conversion stage. There are a lot of various platforms and strategies you could use and it's important to pick the right channel for your product.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the best and most effective social media channels to use for different types of companies:

• For visual eCommerce products - use Instagram and Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter
• For B2B companies - use LinkedIn, Instagram, ProductHunt, and Angellist
• For B2C companies - use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
• For written content-heavy companies - use Medium, Quora, and Reddit
• For GenZ-focused companies - focus on Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok

Red Bull is a great example of a brand that has a brilliant social media marketing strategy. Early on they realized that if they wanted to connect to their target consumer they couldn’t just use the traditional marketing and sales campaigns that all the other beverage companies were using.

They decided to create videos of athletes breaking world records and doing unthinkable things like jumping off airplanes and falling 23 miles and skiing down the Himalayas. To date, the Red Bull YouTube channel has garnered more than 10 million subscribers and more than 2.5 trillion views.

This is obviously a very expensive strategy and won’t make sense for most brand marketing budgets, but it’s a good example of a brand sharing success stories and targeting their consumers the right way on social media.

Social advertising

Ads are becoming more and more popular on social media platforms because the recent algorithm changes continue to favor them and decrease organic reach. After all, that’s how social platforms make their money so you have to use paid media to get anywhere these days.

Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram are the most popular platforms for advertising. For B2B you can use Quora, Reddit, or LinkedIn.

Top Advertising Tips:

• Create a lookalike audience on each platform and for each type of campaign that you're running
• Organize your campaigns based on the marketing funnel (top, middle, and bottom)
• Match your copy and designs to your target audience
• Retarget your audience and site visitors on Facebook, Pinterest, and Google.

Paid Advertising

Social media advertising is just a subset of online advertising. Other digital advertising can include native advertising, Google ads, Google shopping, banner ads, and much more. Each ad requires thorough strategic planning to make sure that the messaging and creatives match your market segments to help attract new leads and retain current customers.

Influencer marketing

Working with influencers is one of the most lucrative marketing channels you could go into. Studies show that businesses make $5.20 for every $1 that they spend on influencer marketing. And 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations for their purchase decisions. That’s huge.

That means that on average about half of your customers are going to be searching for influencer posts so it is essential that these people are recommending you and your product online. Now, influencer marketing is different than when your users post images of your product. Influencer shots are called paid media (just like ad campaigns) while user-generated content (UGC) is called earned media.

Top Influencer Marketing Tips:

• Pick influencers based on the type of audience they have, and their level of engagement (not the size of their following)
• Run giveaway campaigns with groups of influencers
• Run stories on Instagram because they are clickable
• Conduct competitor research to see which influencers they are using on all the relevant platforms
• Use YouTube influencers to create videos about your product or service
• Use real data to determine which influencers are your best performers

Pro tip: Looking to find the right influencers for your next campaign? Check out our list of the top influencer marketing tools .

Email marketing

This is going to surprise you but the ROI of emails still remains among the highest in all of the different digital marketing channels and platforms. Studies show that email marketing provides a $42 return on every $1 you spend , which is terrific.

Top Email Marketing Tips:

• Use UGC or earned media in your campaigns
• Set up email campaigns and email flows (cart abandonment flow, welcome flow, sunset flow)
• Create campaigns with educational content, don't just send constant product promotion
• A/B test different types of content, copy and formats based your data to better match your campaigns with your audience
• Continue to grow your email list with popups, subscription forms, contests, giveaways, and promotions
• Create segments based on customer engagement or average order value and create personalized campaigns

That is not to say that the other channels don’t help or assist the sale, it’s like the functions of the various team members in a soccer match. There could have been 5-6 players that touched the ball before it reached the goal post. The same thing happens in marketing.

A user can interact with a brand on numerous channels before they buy their products or services. Which is why it’s really important to have an effective “omnichannel” strategy, a strategy that includes many marketing channels.

Here are a few examples of channels that work really well when combined with email marketing:

Push notifications

Push notifications are those messages you get on your browser on a desktop device or on your mobile screen. They work really well when combined with emails. You could send off the email in the morning for example, and then follow it with a push notification 30-60 minutes later, to remind the user to check out your deal of the day.

Push notifications have a click through rate that’s 7 times higher than emails , so when sent after the email they increase your chances of getting a sale that much more.

Chatbots and messaging

One of the quickest and most effective ways to communicate with customers is through text messages and this has become its own marketing channel. You can set up automated messages and flows that gets sent to a customer or even a chatbot that is able to bring them from product discovery all the way to purchase, without any human involvement.

You can also use this channel to send people a product promotion, a cart abandonment flow, or a content promotion.

Text messages are much more personal and that’s what makes them so powerful for brands. According to Social Media Today , chatbot messages get open rates of over 80% and click-through rates of over 50% so these messages provide an additional and very effective way to augment and boost your email marketing performance.

Search Engine Optimization

One of the most overlooked strategies is Search Engine Optimization, especially for eCommerce. It involves optimizing a site's content to make it easier for search engines to find it and display it.

There are numerous new ways to get displayed on search engines than ever before - in the images section, as videos, quotes, products, how-to's, Q&A, and much more. SEO is a super effective marketing channel and can bring a lot of targeted and high-quality traffic to any site.

Top SEO tips:

• Use Google Search Console data to find the keywords and searches that you get the most traffic from
• Optimize your on-page content with a tool like Ahrefs or Moz
• Build a comprehensive backlink strategy based on competitor data and best practices

Now remember, not all SEO best practices will fit your needs or make sense. It's a delicate balance between SEO and the user experience (UX) and that requires some tough decisions sometimes. So always learn from your data and keep your audience as first priority and you will win.

Content Marketing

Last but not least, let's talk about your content marketing strategy. Content provides a way for users to find your product or service online. Use content to target your ideal buyer persona, acquire new customers, and delight and retain your existing customer base.

To use content marketing successfully, brands have to create different content for each part of their marketing or sales funnel. For example, a company might put educational content at the top of the funnel for first-time visitors and more promotional content for those shoppers who are ready to buy.

Top Content Marketing Tips:

• Write long-form blog posts for organic search traffic
• Publish comparison and shopping guides for the middle-of-the-funnel visitors
• For B2B: create lead magnets, white papers, and gated marketing research
• Use UGC, video content, and longer descriptions on your social media posts to tell your story

Public Relations (PR)

Last but not least, there's PR. Public relations is one of the most effective growth strategies that can help solidify your brand image and expand your digital presence.

Now that we’ve covered the various marketing channels that you should consider to grow your business, let’s talk strategy.

9. Select a strategy and budget for each channel

It’s now time to select a specific strategy and a budget for each of the marketing channels that you’ve chosen for your brand. Here are a few helpful steps:

Identify your business goals

What are your goals? Pick a few strategic business goals or KPIs (key performance indicators) to focus on in the short term. A really helpful rubric for this is what’s called SMART goals . Smart stands for:

• S pecific - describe clearly what you want to accomplish
• M easurable - set goals that you could measure
• A chievable - these goals have to be achievable and not way out of reach
• R elevant - set goals that improve the specific aspects of your marketing, so no vanity metrics.
• T ime-bound - pick marketing objectives that you can achieve within a certain time frame.

Now that you’ve set up your goals it’s time to look at your market.

Here's a fantastic video from Hubspot to watch about setting the right marketing goals for your business:

Conduct market research

Gather information about your market - the size, growth, social trends, search trends, and demographics of your target market. Find out what is possible and feasible to accomplish and which channels, content types, and media, are used to reach your target customer, and which you should add to your marketing mix. You can use a PEST analysis or a SWOT analysis to help you with your market research .

A PESTEL analysis is a marketing framework or management method that helps businesses assess major external factors that influence its operation, in order to become more competitive in the market.

PESTEL stands for political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal. For example, legal factors could include a new regulation that significantly limits a brand's ability to sell their product in a particular region. Political factors could include new trade restrictions, tariffs, or a new tax policy. Environmental factors could include weather conditions, seasonality, and even natural disasters.

Align your strategy with your ideal customer

Go back to the customer personas that you’ve created at the beginning of this process and make sure that your strategy aligns with your personas. Look at the trends, at the type of customers that you are going to be able to reach, and tweak accordingly.

It’s performance time!

At this point, you have your brand story and values, your go-to market strategy, and a professional to run your marketing efforts.

From this point forward, you should focus on much more tactical management. That means iterative testing of your content and creatives, of your target audience segments and even of the words you use on your ads CTAs (call-to-action buttons).

Which brings us to the last step of the process:

10. Analyze your results

This is one of the most crucial steps in anything you do in marketing. Once you test something you have to analyze the results and continue testing. Data is crucial in every aspect of marketing and the omnichannel data you get from testing marketing strategies is the best kind of data to have. Smart marketing managers use data to continue iterating and optimizing their growth strategies.

Once you have the results of your strategy you can then make the changes you need to make and A/B test various aspects to get even better results.

BONUS: Examples of Marketing Strategy Templates

There’s no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy, and if you’ve read this entire guide to this point - you’re probably eager to implement some of the various strategies we talked about. And you’ve probably discovered a lot of topics that you should learn more about to really perfect your marketing strategy.

Here are some of our favorite resources + marketing strategy examples + templates. These are really effective and comprehensive. They cover a really broad range of channels and use cases so you can find some value regardless of which business you’re in. Choosing the right marketing strategy template is the secret behind creating an effective marketing strategy.

How to Plan Your Marketing Strategies in 12 Steps ( CoSchedule )

This beautiful strategy guide has everything you need to know to create the perfect strategy. The best part is that it shows everything visually in each section, and has a really simple marketing strategy template to follow to create your own strategy.

Plus, CoSchedule started off as a content marketing tool for inbound marketing teams (they are now much more than that), so they go into a brief history of content marketing, inbound marketing, and how it all started.

The best part about CoSchedule is that they have a feature where that allows you to divide the tasks among your team members. For example, if you're a content team manager you can use this to visually display who writes each piece of content, who edits it, and who publishes that piece of content on the team.

This is a crucial and super effective step that gets missed pretty often. Once a brand makes their strategy, it’s important to delegate the work and get started on the execution.

10 Marketing Strategies to Fuel Your Business Growth ( Entrepreneur )

This is an old one but when we read it we thought it has the perfect sequence of some of the most successful marketing strategies for an eCommerce business. It has literally everything you need to market successfully.

We’re talking influencers, email marketing automation, content marketing, video content, Facebook retargeting and search engine optimization. This post is an excellent broad overview of eCommerce marketing at its finest.

The Essential Guide to Marketing Strategies ( Hurree )

Hurree is one of the best marketing blogs ever. This post in particular gives a really good detailed overview of each step of creating a marketing strategy. It also has a variety of videos sprinkled throughout the post that explain concepts deeper, and the best part - they have a whole section of marketing automation. Hurree is a marketing automation platform so you know to expect some talk of automation in every single one of their posts. This is a segway from traditional marketing principles to present-day automation and beyond.

The 11 Best Marketing Strategies We Tried This Year ( WordStream )

This post is for the more advanced marketer who wants to really hone in on the top strategies that work in 2022. It’s written by Sujan Patel, the one and only, and he goes over things like webinars, reaching out to other tools in the industry, brand partnerships, search marketing, evergreen content, SMS, and non-traditional social media channels. Check out this post, even though it was written in 2018, it remains one of the best lists of marketing strategies on the web.

The Ultimate Digital Marketing Strategies Guide ( HubSpot )

This is a classic resource from HubSpot and we like about it is how clearly they define every term, every type of content and marketing tactics that you should develop. They also include 5 examples of marketing ads and dissect each one. It’s a great read and you will get a lot of value out of it.

That’s it, folks.

Now that you have a better idea of how to craft the ultimate marketing strategy for your business or startup it’s time to go out there and absolutely smash it.

What are the 5 marketing strategies?

The 5 P's of Marketing are - Product, Price, Promotion, Place, and People. These are key marketing strategies that are used to position any business strategically.

What are the 5 C's of marketing?

The 5 C's is a technique used to help marketers better position their business and make more informed business decisions. The "5 C's" stand for Company, Customers, Competitors, Collaborators, and Climate. It's a type of analysis that helps marketers look at the whole picture as an ecosystem in which the business lives in.

Related Articles

Ben Kazinik

Ecommerce Marketing in 2024: Channels & Growth Hacks

How True Classic Grew to Over $150M

Octavia Drexler

20 Mailchimp A/B Test Ideas to Drive Better Email Marketing Results

The Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce Chatbots

The Beginner’s Guide to SMS Marketing: The Benefits, Strategies & Tools

Email Marketing: The #1 Ridiculously Easy Way To Grow Your Business

Campaign Types

Floating Bars

The Ultimate OptinMonster Guide for Publishers

Case Study: Paint Your Life

• Get OptinMonster

Join 1,213,437+ using OptinMonster to get more subscribers and customers.

See all Features

Last updated on

Syed Balkhi

Friend's Email Address

Your Email Address

I’m Syed Balkhi, one of the co-founders of OptinMonster. Over 25+ million websites use one of my marketing products to grow and compete with the big guys. 100+ million people read my blogs every year to grow their website traffic, sales, and conversions. And here at OptinMonster, over 1.2 million small businesses use us to drive their email marketing campaigns!

I know a thing or two about how to grow and market a business. I’ve written this guide to email marketing as your step-by-step plan, complete with strategies, tactics, and my insider secrets.

• What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a primary marketing channel that uses bulk emails to promote your products or services to a list of subscribers via email. Think of it as a key part of your marketing automation strategy, keeping your leads and customers in the loop and excited about what you have in store for them.

What Are the Advantages of Email Marketing?

What are the disadvantages of email marketing, step 1: define your goals, step 2: choose an email service provider, step 3: create an optin form to build your email list, step 4: select the type of email marketing campaign to send.

• Step 5: Track Email Marketing Metrics
• How to Build an Email List
• How to Ensure Emails Are Delivered
• How to Improve Email Open Rates
• How to Boost Email Conversion Rates
• How to Scale Your Email Marketing Efforts

Frequently Asked Questions About Email Marketing (FAQs)

Email marketing case studies.

• For eCommerce businesses, email marketing lets you sell products, recover abandoned carts, and increase lifetime value.
• Small business owners can use email marketing to maintain brand awareness and build relationships over time.
• Email marketing is great for SaaS companies to turn subscribers into free trial users, and free trials into paying customers.
• Bloggers and publishers use email marketing to drive traffic to their websites and affiliate links, which means more revenue.
• Enterprise clients can scale their email marketing plan to reach thousands or even millions of customers at once.

There are many benefits of email marketing :

• People check their email a lot , up to 20 times a day.
• You own your email list and can email them whenever you’d like. This is unlike social media where algorithms control your reach and engagement.
• Emails can be personalized at scale.
• Email has an extremely high ROI (return on investment) of around 3600%. Calculate the ROI of email marketing and see for yourself.
• Email is 55 times more effective at customer acquisition than Facebook and Twitter put together.
• Shoppers who receive email marketing convert 3x more than those who don’t.

While the case for email is strong, there are a few downsides. I want to make sure you have a full understanding of email marketing, so I’ll go over these disadvantages next.

Email marketing, despite its effectiveness, has several disadvantages:

• Spam: Emails marked as spam can lower open rates over time and hurt deliverability. Learn how to prevent emails from going to spam .
• Inbox overwhelm: Marketing emails can get lost in an inbox filled with marketing emails. Segment your list by their engagement, and maintain a consistent by not excessive mailing schedule to combat this.
• Design challenges: Emails that display inconsistently across devices or email clients can hurt the reader’s experience. Using your ESP’s responsive templates will usually prevent these challenges. Services like Litmus Email Tester can show how your emails perform on various devices and clients, too.
• Regulations and compliance: Privacy regulations like GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CCPA require ongoing attention to avoid legal conflicts. Double opt-ins, and unsubscribe links in every email will help you comply with these regulations.
• List maintenance: Inactive and unengaged subscribers must be regularly removed from email lists.
• Cost: Email marketing service providers typically charge by subscriber, which means your cost increase as your list grows. Maintaining your list, and engaging with subscribers will help ensure every subscriber is worth your investment.

Going deeper…

The competitive landscape and cost of email marketing mean you need to be thoughtful about your email marketing strategy. This will actually benefit your customers and, therefore, your business.

Learn more about how to form your email marketing strategy .

How to Do Email Marketing Successfully: A 5-Step Guide

There are five things I want you to do when you’re just getting started with email marketing:

• Define Your Goals
• Choose an Email Service Provider
• Create an Optin Form to Build Your Email List
• Select the Type of Email Marketing Campaign To Send
• Track Email Marketing Metrics

Before you spend money on an email marketing tool or type out that first email, you must identify your goals. Ask yourself:

• What do I want these subscribers to ultimately do after joining my list?
• What will convince them to join your list?
• What will you share on a regular basis to keep them interested?
• What will convince them to buy what you’re selling?

To write effective marketing emails , you need to know who you’re talking to. Are you reaching out to loyal customers or trying to win over new prospects? Understanding your audience’s age, location, interests, and buying habits will affect how you approach them in your messages. Once you know your target audience, tailor your message to them.

With these goals in mind, you can choose the tools you’ll use to implement your strategy.

The first thing you need is an email service provider (ESP). An ESP will provide the tools you need to create, send, and manage email campaigns to your audience. Choosing the right email marketing software with the features you need can keep costs manageable. I’ll go over some cost-effective options for email marketing software below:

1. Constant Contact

Best for : I think it’s the best email service provider for small businesses.

Constant Contact’s user-friendly and powerful features help small businesses engage their audience with easy to use templates and automations.

Check out our full Constant Contact review or our tutorial for building a Constant Contact email form .

Best for : I think it’s the best marketing automation creator for small businesses.

Brevo , formerly known as Sendinblue, is a versatile email service provider offers an all-in-one solution for small businesses. With Brevo, you can create beautiful email and SMS campaigns. Not every email platform offers SMS, so if text marketing is something you’re interested exploring, Brevo would be a good option.

Read our  Brevo review for more details and learn how to create a Brevo (Sendinblue) popup .

Best for : I think it’s the best email service provider for B2B businesses.

Hubspot offers a comprehensive suite of marketing tools to help small businesses grow their audience and drive conversions. Hubspot’s CRM is also integrated with their email marketing service. This makes Hubspot a great choice for B2B and service-based businesses that have a longer sales process.

See the full  Hubspot review to decide if Hubspot is right for you. If it is, we have a tutorial for how to add a Hubspot popup and other signup forms.

4. Omnisend

Best for : I think it’s the best multichannel marketing for small businesses.

Omnisend understands the needs of eCommerce businesses uniquely. Omnisend helps you create email campaigns, push notifications, and SMS messages that drive sales.

Best for : I think it’s the best email service provider for eCommerce store owners.

Drip was designed for eCommerce with advanced automation features that allow you to personalize your customer purchase journeys.

Read our full review of Drip and learn how to add an eye-catching Drip popup .

6. ConvertKit

Best for : I think it’s the best email service provider for bloggers and digital content creators.

Built specifically for bloggers and creatives, ConvertKit makes it easy to build and nurture your audience. With its intuitive interface and powerful automation capabilities, ConvertKit helps you deliver the right message to the right people at the right time. You can even use ConvertKit to sell simple digital products straight from the ESP dashboard.

For more details, check out our ConvertKit review and see how easy it is to create a ConvertKit popup form .

7. MailerLite

Best for : I think it’s the best free email service provider for small businesses, bloggers, and startups on a budget.

MailerLite is a user-friendly email service provider helps small businesses start using email marketing fast. They have a generous free plan and their paid upgrades are affordable.

8. Mailchimp

Best for : It’s the most popular email service provider, best for almost all types of businesses and content creators.

Mailchimp has been a go-to email service provider for small businesses for years. Mailchimp allows you to create email campaigns, automate your marketing efforts, and analyze your results.

Explore our in-depth Mailchimp review or learn how to create a MailChimp popup .

Going Deeper…

This article provides a high-level overview of our favorite email marketing services. When you’re ready to learn more or choose the one that’s right for you, you’ll want to check out our in-depth reviews of the best email marketing service providers.

Read our in-depth reviews of the most popular email service providers for small businesses .

Once you pick an ESP, the next step is to create your first optin form.

An optin form is the place where visitors can subscribe to your email list. Optin forms are also known as signup forms or lead generation forms .

Every email marketing service offers basic optin forms, usually a popup and an inline form, with limited customization options. You can extend the functionality of those optin forms with OptinMonster. This is especially helpful when you use Lead Magnets like an ebook, discount code, or cheat sheet to encourage your visitors to subscribe to your email list.

Offering lead magnets in exchange for an email is a great way to overcome that “Inbox Overwhelm” I mentioned earlier. That’s because they help you segment your email list by the visitor’s interests. Once your visitor tells you what they’re interested in by subscribing to receive a specific lead magnet, you can send them emails and offers about those interests.

We built OptinMonster for that exact reason! I needed software for WPBeginner.com that would let me treat each of my subscribers as the individual person they are, rather than just one of thousands on an email list, but it didn’t exist at the time.

At OptinMonster , we offer robust email optin forms with 1-click integrations to every major email marketing service on the market.

We offer different styles of forms, including:

• Inline forms embedded within your content
• Popup forms that appear over your main page content
• Widget optin forms in the header, footer, or sidebar of your WordPress site
• Floating bar forms that float over the top or bottom of your site
• Slide-in forms that scroll in from a bottom corner
• Coupon spin wheels and other gamified forms

All this without needing a coder or graphic designer, too.

Not only is it easy to create optin forms, we make sure that your forms show up in front of the right audience at the right time. With OptinMonster you can…

• catch abandoning visitors before they leave
• target users by the page they’re visiting
• generate leads based based on geographic location
• and much more!

We built the tool we needed to grow an email marketing list the right way. Try OptinMonster today see for yourself!

Enough about OptinMonster – let’s move on to what you’ll send after someone subscribes to your email list.

Every email marketing service provider comes with an email editor you can use to send emails to your subscribers. I’ve outlined seven types of email marketing campaigns you can send below. I use all of these throughout my businesses.

I’ve also included links to more in depth examples of each type of email marketing campaign in case you want to dive deep.

1. Welcome Emails

Send welcome emails to new subscribers or customers as soon as they join your list. Use these emails to introduce your business and thank the reader for engaging with your brand. All this helps begin the relationship with your brand on a positive note.

This is an example of the first few paragraphs of the welcome email we send ourselves here at OptinMonster:

It includes a personal welcome from my co-founder, Thomas Griffin. It also includes links to documentation and directions for how to reach support. Likewise, your Welcome email should include the most important next steps a new subscriber should take after joining your list.

To learn more about how to write the perfect welcome email , check out the video below.

2. Newsletter Emails

Newsletter emails are regular communications sent to subscribers. Newsletter contain news, updates, tips, promotions, or curated information related to your business or industry. The goal of an email newsletter is to keep your audience engaged.

Here are some newsletter ideas you can use for your own list.

3. Lead Nurturing Emails

Lead nurturing emails are sent to potential customers who have shown interest in your offer, but haven’t bought yet. The goal is to build trust, educate, and overcome objections. Ultimately, you want to guide leads towards making a purchase decision.

Learn how to nurture leads with an email marketing funnel .

4. Promotional Emails

Promotional emails highlight new products, sales, or special events from your business. They create a sense of urgency and encourage recipients to take advantage of the promotion. You can send these one campaign at a time or automate a whole series of promotional emails.

Check out these promotional email examples if you need some ideas.

5. Seasonal Marketing Emails

Seasonal marketing emails include special offers, promotions, or content tailored to a holiday or season. The aim is to use the festive spirit to increase urgency and engagement.

Take a look at these seasonal marketing emails for Black Friday , Halloween , or Mother’s Day .

6. Transactional Emails

Specific actions or events trigger transactional emails. Customers might receive transactional emails for account updates, shipping notifications, or password resets. They provide information related to the transaction and ensure a smooth customer experience.

Learn more about how to write transactional emails that can grow your business.

7. Confirmation Emails

Confirmation emails verify or confirm an action taken by the recipient. You can send confirmations for subscribing to a newsletter, registering for an event, or buying a product. Confirmation emails typically contain details of the action. They may also provide other instructions or information.

Read about best practices and examples of outstanding confirmation emails .

No matter what type of email campaign you choose to send, there are a four important elements of an email campaign you should include.

1. Subject Line and Pre-header Text

This subject line appears first in your subscriber’s inbox and should give the reader a reason to open the email.

The pre-header text sometimes appears next to the subject line in the subscriber’s inbox. It is shown even before the reader opens the email, and is another opportunity for you to persuade your reader to open the email.

Most email marketing services provide a selection of ready-to-use, easily customizable templates. Or, you can choose a plain-text template if you’d like your email to appear more like it came from a single person, rather than a brand. We often use plain-text emails at OptinMonster to build relationships with our readers.

3. Call to Action (CTA)

Every email should share an action you’d like your reader to take after reading your email, called a “Call To Action” or “CTA.”

Some common CTAs include:

• Make a purchase
• Download a freebie
• Read a blog post
• Follow your brand on social media
• Forward this email to a friend

A good Call To Action can often make or break the success of an individual email. We teach how to create the perfect call to action in OptinMonster University (free with any OptinMonster subscription).

4. Subscription Management

At the bottom of every email, you should have a link to unsubscribe. Email marketing is a consent-based channel. It’s better to let uninterested subscribers leave your list than risk them sending your emails to the spam folder.

One way to reduce unsubscribe rates is to also include a link where people can manage their own subscriptions. Giving them a way to opt out of certain topics or hear from you less often shows that you value their experience.

This brings us to the last step in our guide: monitoring your progress.

5. Track Email Marketing Metrics

After sending your email, track and analyze key email metrics such as:

• Open rate: how many subscribers opened the email
• Click-through rates: how many subscribers clicked links in the email
• Conversion rate: how many subscribers made a purchase, filled out a form, or did some other conversion you want to track
• Unsubscribe rates: how many subscribers unsubscribed from an email
• Deliverability rate: how many subscribers received your email in their main inbox

Use this data to refine your future email campaigns and optimize your strategies.

I also recommend that you regularly clean your email list . Removing invalid or inactive email addresses improves deliverability. Keeping your list clean also ensures that you’re targeting an engaged audience.

Now that you know how to do email marketing, let’s take a look at some common challenges you might face and how to overcome them. I’m sharing these to help you not make the same mistakes I’ve made over the years.

6 Biggest Email Marketing Challenges (And How to Solve Them)

Effective email marketing is relatively simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. There are a lot of different factors involved and, unfortunately, writing good emails isn’t always enough.

We have a full list of email marketing best practices you can read for more detail, but here are some of the most common challenges you might encounter, along with the solutions I used myself.

1. How to Build an Email List

The first challenge is finding people to whom to send emails. Fortunately, this is perhaps the easiest problem to solve!

Even if you have no subscribers, you can build an email list from scratch with email signup forms on your website.

Solution: To get more signups, make sure that visitors clearly understand the benefits of joining your list.

• Adjust your call to action to focus on the benefits, such as “Get your free guide now!”
• Use social proof by showing off how many people have already signed up for your list.
• Add your optin forms to these high-converting places for email signups for best results.
• Take inspiration from high-performing email signup forms.

For more ideas, check out our top list-building tools and ways to build your email list for free .

2. How to Make Sure Emails are Delivered

If getting people on your list is the FIRST challenge, making sure the emails you’re sending actually land in their inbox is the hardest. Average deliverability rates hover around 81%, which means up to 20% of your emails may never even make it to your subscriber’s email client! This is especially relevant with Gmail’s updated requirements for bulk sending in 2024.

Solution: Follow email deliverability best practices to make sure your emails make it into the right inbox.

• Avoid spammy words that trigger spam filters. These might include words like “click,” “free,” “trial,” “cost,” “cheap,” “prize,” or unusual capitalization and punctuation.
• Clean your email list regularly to remove inactive subscribers.
• Segment your emails so that subscribers get content they actually care about.
• Provide ways for users to manage their own subscriptions instead of unsubscribing or reporting as spam.
• Ensure you’re following Gmail’s advice for bulk sending.

I highly encourage you to review the email deliverability best practices above. It’s a painful feeling to find out your hard-work crafting the perfect email was wasted when your emails didn’t land in the inbox (trust me, I learned this lesson the hard way!)

3. How to Improve Email Open Rates

The average open rate for emails is around 21%. There are plenty of ways that you can improve your email open rates.

Solution: Write and send high-quality emails. Everything from the email subject line  to the email template design should be a valuable, pleasant experience for subscribers. If you can convince them to open one email, they’ll be more likely to open future emails.

• Make your subject line exciting and informative enough for people to click on. Remember that the job of the subject line is to get readers interested enough to open the email.
• Keep your subject line length short and easy to understand.
• Use preview text to provide extra insight into what’s in your email content.
• Improve your email copy by thinking back to your goal-setting. What information, skills, or products do your customers need to solve their problems? Deliver content that helps address those issues.
• Optimize your email design, especially for mobile devices. Use visuals wisely and make sure they show up well on different screen sizes. You can also make mobile optins that show up well on smaller device sizes.

4. How to Boost Email Conversion Rates

Let’s say you’re getting a healthy number of signups. Subscribers are receiving and opening your emails. But no one is clicking or buying.

You aren’t alone. The average email conversion rate in a study by Klaviyo ranged from just 0.1% to over 3%.

Solution: Improve your conversion rates by tuning into what your audience needs and wants.

• List segmentation means dividing your list into different groups. You can then send each group more targeted messaging that should improve your conversion rates. Learn about different ways to segment your email list and see what works best for your business.
• Personalized email content goes beyond saying, “Hey, FIRST NAME!” You could send product recommendations based on past purchases. Other personalization techniques include sending location-specific offers or content based on demographics. When subscribers receive personalized emails, customer loyalty is likely to increase.
• A/B testing your email newsletters can help you find the most effective subject lines, content, email templates, and CTAs. Many email service providers have split testing functionality built in.

5. How to Scale Email Marketing

So what if your email marketing strategy is working pretty well, but takes more time than you have?

Creating personalized content for a few segments is one thing. But as you add more subscribers, offers, and promotions, your email marketing will get more complex. Fortunately, we have strategies and resources to help you scale.

Solution: Work smarter, not harder. Build on what already works in your own email marketing or strategies that others have proven.

• Add or expand email automation. For example, you could set up an abandoned cart email series that encourages shoppers to finish their purchases. There are plenty of email marketing automation tools to make this easier. Check out our complete guide to eCommerce email marketing automation for more information.
• Use templates, examples, and best practices. Use these email marketing templates , copywriting templates and formulas , and best sales email subject lines for inspiration.

6. How to Run Email Campaigns in Multiple Languages

We are living in a more globalized world than ever before. This presents many opportunities to tap into foreign markets and expand your business activities. Since we recognize the amazing growth potential that email marketing campaigns present, why not multiply that potential by reaching a global audience in their native languages? 

The “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy – B2C” study , which surveyed over 8,000 consumers in over 29 countries, revealed that 65% of respondents prefer content in their native language. Moreover, 40% of respondents said that they would not purchase a product or service if it was not offered in their language.

So how do you make sure you don’t miss out on such a large percentage of your potential customers?

Solution: Collect and segment your multilingual leads for multilingual campaigns.

• By using OptinMonster with WPML , you can display popups in multiple languages and collect leads with data about their language preferences. 
• Segment your leads based on language and target them in culturally appropriate multilingual campaigns using your preferred email marketing integration . 

As a result, you will expand your campaign reach, enhance customer engagement, improve customer loyalty, and have an advantage over competitors who don’t employ multilingual strategies.

When is the best time to send a marketing email?

The best time to send a marketing email is between 9 AM to 12 PM on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, according to a HubSpot study . Test different times to find when your audience is most active and engaged. I’ve found these times to be true for our companies, too.

What is a good open rate for email marketing?

A good open rate is between 15% and 25%, but it varies by industry. Focus on improving engagement and personalization. I like to tell people a good open rate is the one that’s better than the one you’re getting now – there is always room to improve!

How often should I send marketing emails?

Send emails at a consistent frequency without overwhelming subscribers. Start with once a week or bi-weekly and adjust the timing and number of emails based on feedback and engagement metrics.

What email metrics should I track?

Track open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates. You should also track deliverability, spam complaints, and list growth rate.

What is the difference between single opt-in and double opt-in?

Single opt-in immediately adds subscribers to the list. Double opt-in requires confirmation via a verification email. Double opt-in ensures higher quality but may result in fewer subscribers. Consider your business goals, customer preferences, and local regulations such as GDPR.

Now you have all the knowledge you need to use email to grow your business! I’ve gone over:

• basic email marketing vocabulary and definitions
• different email marketing platforms you can use
• a step-by-step guide for how to do email marketing
• pro tips to take your email marketing to the next level

Email marketing isn’t something you set and forget, even with the power of automated workflows. You always want to be testing and refining your strategy. So I recommend bookmarking this page so you can come back later whenever you need to explore the resources I’ve shared.

I want to leave you with some encouraging case studies of companies just like yours who grew their email lists using the principles shared in this Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing. They have been nice enough to share their entire strategy, complete with screenshots of their email optins, and data about how they improved. You’ll learn how you make money from email marketing in every case study.

• How Nick Gray Increased Conversions by up to 1000% With Smart Opt-in Popups
• How PortraitFlip Converts Over 3% of Its Mobile Traffic into Leads
• How Medstar Media Increased Their Clients’ Conversions by 500%

There’s a lot of money to be made with email marketing. Whether you’re a blogger, affiliate marketer, an eCommerce store, or an online business, I and my team here at OptinMonster are here to help you win every step of the way.

Best wishes for your success,

Disclosure : Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. We only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers.

12 Proven Ways to Convert Abandoning Visitors into Subscribers

Over 70% of visitors who abandon your website will never return! Learn how to unlock the highest conversion revenue from each of your website visitors!

Add a Comment Cancel reply

We're glad you have chosen to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our privacy policy , and all links are nofollow. Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Yes, Popups Work

Imagine – 10 minutes could grow leads and sales from your website by 10% or more. You can start today with just a few clicks – no developer or coder needed.

Save 35% or more

Ask yourself – what would you do if you grew by 10% today? You can get started for a few bucks a month, and we’ll create your first popup fast and free if you’d like. It’s risk-free in the best way.

Blog Topics

• A/B Testing
• Announcements
• Case Studies
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Lead Generation

Popular Posts

Connect with us:, free guides.

See more guides

Growth Hacker Insights: Ultimate Guide to Growth Hacking

Guide to Holiday Campaigns Brought to You by OptinMonster

19 Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonment and Grow Your Revenue

Start making more money today with optinmonster, start getting more leads & sales today with optinmonster.

Popups work, and you can get started for a few bucks a month. What are you waiting for?

Create and launch smart capture forms today in minutes. What are you waiting for?

In only 7 months, we added more than 95,654 names to our email list using OptinMonster’s Exit Intent™ technology. We strongly recommend it!

Michael Stelzner

Founder Social Media Examiner

View Case Study

I hate popups, so I was hesitant to try one on my site. But the results from OptinMonster exit-intent popup speak for themselves. I doubled my subscription rate immediately without annoying my users. I haven’t had a single complaint. My only regret is that I didn’t start using OptinMonster sooner. I can only imagine how many subscribers I could have added to my email list! If you have a blog, then I highly recommend you start using OptinMonster. I’ve researched them all, and it’s the best in market.

Michael Hyatt

New York Times Bestselling Author Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World

Exit-intent popups have doubled my email opt-in rate. When done right, you can see an instant 12% lift on driving sales. I highly recommend that you use OptinMonster for growing your email list and sales.

Founder QuickSprout