For those of us in marketing, the rationale behind an email nurture campaign is very clear: once is not enough. We need repetition to build familiarity and trust with our audience, and to cut through the clutter. Building on our message through a series of communications gives us the time and space to create more of a connection with our target audience and reinforce desired perceptions of our products or services.
Plus, augmenting our primary call to action (CTA) with second-level CTAs provides more data, allowing us to segment our audience more intelligently. Follow-on, or responder, emails can be tailored based on which CTAs a reader clicks on for a more personalized (and more effective) customer experience.
At the end of the day, a nurture campaign is all about driving leads. While sophisticated marketing automation tools and lead scoring capabilities are ideal for optimal results, creating a simple nurture campaign is well within everyone’s reach.
The main thing to keep in mind is to think like your target customer. What would appeal to them? What information or assets can you provide that will help them do their job better? How can you entice them to open your emails, not once, not twice, but every time?
The meat of your emails is what you have to offer. Here’s what I’ve found works well:
- FAQs. There’s something about a question and answer format that’s incredibly appealing. Maybe it’s the instant payoff. Think of FAQs as the potato chips of marketing collateral – you can’t help yourself.
- Infographics. Face it – we’re a visual species. We love to look at things that are well designed, and teach us things quickly. We feel invigorated by the design, drawn in by the numbers, and smart because we figured something out quickly.
- White papers. Yes, yes, I keep talking about short and sweet. But the great thing about white papers or other longer-form assets, is that they speak directly to your best target customer. Who wants the details? Someone who is very interested. So give them what they want!
But hey, this is what works for me, and my particular audiences. What works for you, and yours, could be entirely different. That’s the fun part of email. Unlike direct mail pieces where you’re locked into fixed costs, you can experiment with email. Try different copy, different offers, different visuals.
Be creative. (After all, that’s why we’re in marketing!)
