Email marketing campaigns are the backbone of any marketing strategy, allowing marketers to connect directly with their organization’s audience apart from algorithms, leading them to next steps in their relationship with the organization and its offerings.
A well-implemented email strategy properly segments email lists into different groups so that they can be targeted differently. These segments are based on a client or potential client’s previous interactions with your organization, their demographic distinctives, and their stage in the buying process.
When it comes to effectively marketing to your audience specifically based on their stage of the buying process, here’s a closer look at four email marketing campaigns that your organization should be running at all times.
1. Welcome Email Sequence
A welcome email sequence is vital in establishing credibility with new email subscribers.
Depending on how you obtain emails from clients and potential clients, the sequence may vary, but the main point of a welcome email sequence is to establish rapport with new audience members, introduce them to what you have to offer, and make them feel like you understand their needs and desires.
Welcome email sequences can range from between four to six emails, which can be sent over the course of days or weeks. If you obtain a subscriber’s email via a lead magnet, the first email, which ought to be automatically triggered for an instant response, should contain a delivery of whatever asset that person signed up to download.
The best way to maintain efficiency for any welcome sequence is to establish an automated workflow that will be triggered every time you receive a new email contact. An instant welcome from your organization indicates that you are both responsive and organized.
Other elements that a welcome email sequence can contain are special discounts or introductory promotions, an introduction to your organization and how you help your customers, or links to some of your most popular and valuable content.
Welcome email sequences should be visually appealing, easy to read, and should avoid being overly salesy. You’re just trying to get your audience to know you.
2. Ongoing Nurture Campaign
An ongoing nurture campaign is what some might refer to as a “newsletter,” though any email subject line that contains the phrase “monthly newsletter” is likely doomed to fail. Nevertheless, what the nurture campaign does is establish an ongoing relationship between your organization and your audience.
As much as your marketing team would like to think that your organization is unforgettable, that simply isn’t the case. If your audience never hears from you, they will forget about you. Then when you do email them with some sort of promotion, they may not have any idea why they are on your email list and mark you as spam!
Nurture emails should contain things like valuable industry insights and current promotions or offerings. These emails should provide instant value to your customers. If you are skilled at providing value, far from unsubscribing from your email list, your audience will actually look forward to your emails, making them primed to respond well to a promotional or sales email campaign (described below).
With regard to how often you should send a nurture email, it really depends on the capacity of your team. If your email content is engaging and valuable, you really can’t send too many emails. In fact, three to five valuable emails a week is not too often.
3. Promotional Campaign
Promotional email campaigns are the time for your emails to get salesy. These emails showcase your organization’s products and services and invite contacts to take a next step toward purchasing them.
Promotions may be occasional, such as when your organization launches a new product or the latest version of your offering. Or they may be seasonal, such as a Fall launch of a particular program that occurs each year.
Throughout all of your other email campaigns, you are seeking to foster trust and build credibility by offering free value to your subscribers. Your promotional email sequences are where you seek to capitalize on that trust and credibility, having earned the right to push toward a sale.
4. Re-Engagement Campaign
Regardless of how well you run your email campaigns, a certain portion of your audience will inevitably grow disengaged. They stop clicking through, or they may stop opening your emails entirely.
When your number of disengaged contacts begins to grow, it is wise for your marketing team to consider purging your list of contacts who are highly unlikely to open your emails. But before you do, you may consider deploying a re-engagement campaign to see if you can win some of them back over.
In your re-engagement emails, you may call out the fact that you haven’t heard from the contact in a while, including a special promotion or letting them know about some of the exciting additions or improvements your organization has made to its offerings in recent months. Or you may decide to let disengaged contacts know that you are planning on unsubscribing them from your list, providing an option for them to opt back in.
For some, these types of emails pique fresh interest, and they become active again. For those who ignore them, it’s best to remove them from your list.
Tailor Email Marketing Campaigns to Your Users.
Each of these email marketing campaigns will need to be tailored to the personality and particular offerings of your organization, as well as the response of your users.
While there is a certain “set it and forget it” quality to each of these campaign types, be sure to always take time to periodically re-evaluate their effectiveness, probe into what is and isn’t working, and strive to create an engaging experience for your audience.
