5 Steps to Building the Lead Nurturing Email Workflow of Your Dreams

Lead Nurturing is a time-consuming process, but worth every second. A happy and loyal customer is a key factor in the success of any business, which means it is crucial that you nurture every lead you have. Read on to explore 5 tips to streamline your email lead nurturing workflow.

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STEP 1: CREATE YOUR STRATEGY

Lead nurturing can be defined as the process of developing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel and through every step of the buyer’s journey. It focuses marketing and communication efforts on listening to the needs of prospects and providing the information and answers they need.

For many companies, inbound marketing is a new way of executing lead nurturing. This is due in part to the amount of education and understanding it takes to see the potential inbound marketing has, and how it can fundamentally change the way a company looks at marketing. If you’re having trouble nailing down what your strategy should be, there’s tons of great inspiration on the internet:

• 7 Effective Lead Nurturing Tactics on Hubspot
• Over 20 Tips for Video from Content Marketing Institute
• Content Marketing and Editorial Calendar Templates
• B2B Marketing by SalesHub

Once you’ve developed your knowledge of inbound lead nurturing, it’s time to research your target market to ensure your strategy is being implemented effectively. There are a number of ways to create your target market including customer surveys, internal surveys, and market research to name a few.

STEP 2: IMPLEMENT EMAIL WORKFLOW

There are a number of ways to execute lead nurturing, but the most basic and time-effective strategy is through email workflows.

An email workflow is a series of automated emails that will be sent based on a person’s behavior or contact information, designed to assist the individual through their purchase journey.

With workflows, you can trigger actions based on any information you have about your leads, allowing you to send the right message to the right person at the right time. If you’re currently sending the same email to your entire list, or you’re not targeting your offers and message based on the needs of your lead, implementing email workflows is exactly what you need. Below are three examples of essential email workflows you can implement today.

• Welcome Emails. Vertical Response gives us some great examples!
• Order Follow-Up Emails. YesWare has compiled an entire list of inspiration.  
• Reactivation Emails. SmartInsights shows you how!

STEP 3: CAPTURE THEIR ATTENTION

Attention is the most valuable asset of the digital era, and capitalizing on the attention of your leads will ensure you don’t lose them somewhere in the marketing funnel. The goal of capturing the attention of your audience is to keep people coming back for more of your great content. The best way to achieve this is through calls to action. Below are three great examples, and here are even more.

A call to action can include anything from a ‘Subscribe Now’ button to filling out a contact form or signing up for a webinar. It’s important to include at least one call to action on each page of your website to guarantee your leads have an outlet where they can continue following your content.

STEP 4: UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS

Every lead is not at the same point in the buying cycle. Leads that are in the beginning stages of research might just want to subscribe to your blog to learn more. That’s Top of the Funnel or TOFU.

Another lead might have already subscribed to your blog and has done additional research and is ready to get some answers to specific questions that will be covered on one of your upcoming webinars. They’re in the Middle of the Funnel, or MOFU.

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) offers are for those prospects that have already done their research, had most of their questions answers and moved through the buying cycle. They are now ready to consider specific services or pricing.

The only place they have to go from here is the customer list, lost lead, or put back into the funnel for additional nurturing in order to provide them with additional information that might change their decision-making process this time through the funnel.

STEP 5: ANALYZE

One of the greatest feelings for any marketer is when leads start converting to sales, especially when this is because of the lead nurturing that took place during the email workflow. Listed below are 3 metrics to analyze so you can continually optimize your process for email workflow.

1. Overall Traffic
2. Conversion Rates
3. Page Performance

Analyzing your performance on a monthly basis and making changes can only improve the quality of your content, user experience, and ultimately the number of leads you are receiving. Below are a few industry statistics to help you analyze the competition and enhance your strategy.

• 65% of B2B marketers have NOT established lead nurturing.
• Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.
• According to Forrester Research, companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales leads at 33% lower cost per lead.

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