You’ve been increasing your engagement on LinkedIn and then capturing those leads on your website to help build your email list. Now it’s time to turn those contacts into relationships, and there is no more powerful way to build relationships and qualify prospects than a nurturing campaign. It helps you stay top of mind while educating your clients, and gives you the opportunity to tell your story.
I’ve already talked about the importance of nurturing campaigns and the key elements of a good campaign.
But if you’re not doing the right things with your nurturing campaign it won’t be effective.
Here are a few key things to pay attention to when putting together and running your nurturing campaign.
Follow the Data
Always follow the data. We often talk about open rates, and the truth is that nobody knows how many people read your emails. But the industry norm for standard emails is an open rate of 20%. A really well-performing regular email campaign could bring up your open rates to 25%-30%.
But with nurturing campaigns, the expectations are a lot higher – we’re talking 30%-60% open rates.
You’re sending emails to a prospect who has expressed interest and given you their email address. They’re already engaged and want to learn about your business. If you see that most of your emails are performing at this rate, but you have one email that is showing much lower open rates, that tells you that you need to refocus the subject and content of that email.
Test Different Versions
Sometimes your first idea isn’t always your best idea. Always test several iterations of subject lines and initial paragraphs to see what works best. A/B testing allows you to try out different iterations and look at the open rates in comparison to the overall campaign. Testing is also helpful when you have a specific email or emails with a lower open rate. Make and test changes to that email to see if a different title or subject performs better. And don’t just do one round of A/B testing. Strategic marketing is iterative and you should be testing regularly to see how you can improve the overall open rates of your campaign.
It’s All About Timing
The timing of the nurturing campaigns is dependent on the decision lifecycle of your specific product or service. For those with a shorter cycle, the timing between emails is shorter – maybe just days. For a longer decision cycle, the timing will be more spaced out. At a minimum, you want to aim for at least one email every 2 weeks.
Regardless, you want to have a shorter period between emails at the beginning of the campaign – right after your prospect signs up for emails and is engaged. At some point during the nurturing campaign – usually about halfway through in a longer decision cycle and towards the end in a shorter one – you’re going to add the prospect to your general email list so that they continue to receive your regular key insight-driven content, helping you stay top of mind – forever.
Learn more by listening to our B2B Word of Mouth Marketing podcast episode 22, Nurturing Campaigns.
All the best,
Bill Bice
CEO
