When you look at your marketing funnel, there are many ways to engage with your prospects along their journey. How are you leveraging email in each step? Are you using the email addresses you’ve painstakingly collected to nurture a lead from the top of the funnel to a final sale?
Let’s look at some ways to build out and support your marketing funnel with email.
TOP OF MARKETING FUNNEL: GENERATE LEADS
Email opt-ins can be embedded throughout your website and in blog posts to collect names and email addresses. Use these addresses to send regular touchpoint emails (like newsletters) to keep your subscribers engaged and your brand in mind.
You can also use landing pages to build your list. These pages are typically dedicated to one lead magnet—such as an email course or a free trial—and educate the user enough to enter your sales cycle. Landing pages can also demonstrate the value of your content and give users a preview of the information they’ll get from your email newsletters and other communications.
MIDDLE OF FUNNEL: NURTURE SUBSCRIBERS
Now is the time to think carefully about each phase of the funnel and what action you want your content consumer to take. Every piece should have a goal—even in the awareness phase. For example, if the purpose of your blog is to build awareness around your product, you may set a goal of having blog visitors click through to another page on your website. In that case, there may not be a traditional call to action button at the bottom of the blog post asking readers to sign up for your email list (or whatever your otherwise preferred call to action may be).
When it comes to consideration, you may want to set goals more specific to guiding the buyer further down the funnel, such as signing up to get a white paper or joining your email list. As the reader moves down the funnel, the stronger and more specific the call to action will be for your piece.
BOTTOM OF FUNNEL: CONVERT LEADS INTO CUSTOMERS
Now for the dirty work: turning those contacts into customers. There are a couple of ways to use email to achieve that goal, including:
Abandoned cart emails. They were so close! But they left your site without sealing the deal. An abandoned cart email will remind and encourage them to take that final step.
Time-sensitive offers like coupons or birthday offers. Give folks the extra push they need with a limited-time coupon offer. Set an aggressive expiration date to get them to act soon.
Onboarding. If you’re offering a free trial period, an onboarding series highlighting full version features will pique their interest. Use this tactic to get them excited about what they’ll get when they convert to the paid version.
RETENTION & ADVOCACY: REPEAT CUSTOMERS & REFERRALS
The best customer (and the cheapest to acquire) is a returning customer. Use email to keep folks engaged and excited about your product or service. Weekly or monthly updates on new features, company changes, or new offerings are all great ways to keep top of mind.
And since you’re helpful, you can offer additional products or services based on their purchases. What else will make their lives easier? What other problems can you solve for them? Tell them about it!
Finally, loyalty programs allow customers to earn rewards for repeat purchases and can even be used to collect reviews and testimonials and encourage customers to share their experiences on social media. If you don’t have one in place, now is the time to get it set up.
Email is an excellent tool for every part of the marketing funnel. Use some of these tactics to support your other sales efforts, but don’t forget to set goals and measure your results. Need help with data collection? Our digital marketing agency can help you get the data that matters so you can make educated decisions about your email campaigns and other marketing efforts.
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