It’s never been more important to keep your prospects engaged.
On average, 50% of the leads in any system are not yet ready to buy. And that’s in a normal climate. When we bring the dreaded C-word into this (…. Coronavirus, obviously!), we’re faced with a situation where many people are pressing pause – either out of necessity or caution.
They might not be in a situation right now to convert, and there’s not a lot you can do about that, but you can make sure you’re front of mind for when they are.
We’ve shared our email nurturing advice:
- Approach everything from their perspective. Now more than ever. Put down your sales pitch and think about what they might still want to know; what are their considerations, challenges and needs?
- Be helpful. Guides, advice and other educational content are great for building trust with your audience, plus they demonstrate your knowledge and experience in your field. Don’t be afraid to send them guides where they can teach themselves. It’s a gesture that will be remembered in the long run.
- Use data. Tools like Answer The Public, or search volume tools are a great way to identify what queries people may have around your given product or service. Google Trends can help you identify topics growing in popularity. Similarly, you can use your own data, through Google Search Console, to find out what people were looking for when they came across your website.
- Segment your data. To make sure you’re reaching people with the right message, you need to be sending different emails to different groups of people. For example, the content you send someone new to your brand will be different to what you’d want to put in front of someone almost ready to convert.
- The usual rules still apply. When setting up a prospect nurturing campaign, don’t forget best practice advice for email marketing. Timing is important, as are an enticing subject line and preview text, and strategic calls to action.
- Incentivise your customers to tell your story. People are more likely to believe Clive from Milton Keynes when he says how brilliant you are, then if you tell them yourself. Most people only write a review when they’ve had a bad experience but you can change this by simply asking them. See if your customers would be happy to leave a review, or recommend you to a friend on social media, and reward their loyalty with a discount code, or complementary service.
Lastly, stay patient! You’re playing the long game here, and it’s not just about making a sale, but building awareness of your brand, and creating a community of advocates.
