Are you looking to connect with customers, grow sales, or increase brand awareness? Strategic email marketing is your answer. Successful email drip campaigns, or sequences, can help you achieve these goals. In this article, we break down the process into easy-to-follow steps so you can connect with your audience and drive results.
The Power of Email Marketing
One of the most powerful tools for connecting with your customers and driving business growth is email marketing. Email allows for one-on-one personal conversations with your audience. Through a series of strategic, personalized emails, you can engage, educate, and build trust with your subscribers in a way that truly resonates with them.
By creating content that specifically addresses your audience’s pain points, interests, and goals, you build a relationship that keeps them interested and encourages them to take action.
But with so many businesses competing for attention in crowded inboxes, how can you make sure your messages stand out and resonate with your audience?
What is an Email Sequence?
First, let’s talk about what an email sequence is. Also known as a drip campaign, and email sequence is a series of pre-written emails sent automatically to subscribers based on specific triggers or timelines. These emails are designed to nurture relationships, guide subscribers through the sales funnel, and achieve specific goals, such as promoting a product, re-engaging inactive customers, or building brand loyalty.
Each email in the sequence builds on the previous one, creating a cohesive journey that keeps your audience engaged and moving toward a desired action.
Steps to Building Email Sequences That Convert
Step 1: Set Your Goals
Before creating your email sequence, setting clear goals is essential. Whether you’re re-engaging dormant customers, nurturing new leads, or cross-selling to existing clients, align your email content with your desired outcome. Reflect on the actions you want your readers to take and consider these goals:
- Reengaging Dormant Customers: Focus on promoting exclusive “Welcome Back” offers, highlighting recent product updates, or sharing customer success stories.
- Nurturing Leads: Promote educational resources, personalized onboarding experiences, or positive case studies.
- Increasing Brand Awareness: Share engaging brand storytelling content, thought leadership pieces, or user-generated content.
Segmenting your email list based on actions, pain points, goals, and interests allows you to target the right audience with the right message.
Ask yourself:
- What action did the audience take to find themselves in this email campaign?
- What will grab their attention during a busy workday?
- Why might they delete an email from this campaign?
- What do I hope the audience will do after reading these emails?
Avoid generic emails by asking these questions to develop targeted communication with your audience.
Step 2: Choose a Drip Campaign Software
To create and send an email sequence, you’ll need a marketing automation tool that allows you to schedule emails in advance, target different segments, and integrate with your CRM system. The right email marketing tool can save you time and effort. Platforms like Keap or ConvertKit offer features that simplify creating and tracking your email sequences.
Keap is an all-in-one sales and marketing platform with a CRM, email marketing, and automation that allows you to convert leads with customers professional emails, text messaging follow-up and even payment options.
ConvertKit is a simpler, more affordable option that is solely focused on email marketing.
They are both powerful email marketing tools. The choice ultimately depends on your marketing needs and budget.
Step 3: Structuring Your Email Sequence
Creating an effective email sequence requires a balance of valuable content, strategic timing, and engaging messaging. Here are some key tips to get started:
- Decide the Length: Aim for a sequence of five to eight emails over 18 to 28 days. This strikes a good balance between staying top-of-mind and not overwhelming your subscribers.
- Email Frequency: Send emails every 4, 7, or 14 days. Test different intervals to see what works best for your audience.
- Promotional Dates: Incorporate dates for limited-time offers, special deadlines, and cart open/close dates (if this applies) to build excitement and urgency.
- Optimal Send Days: Research and testing show that Tuesdays and Fridays are often the best days to send emails, however it’s important to test days and times. Some platforms provide the “send optimization feature” and will select a time for you based on your audience’s engagement.
- Tag Your Leads: Use tagging to segment your audience and include them in future campaigns. This helps with targeted communication and reporting.
- Track Metrics: Monitor open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and click-to-open rates (CTOP) to gauge performance and make necessary adjustments.
- Gather Feedback: If your campaign doesn’t perform as expected, seek feedback using platforms like Typeform, Google Forms, or SurveyMonkey to understand what worked and what didn’t.
Step 4: Writing Your Emails
The heart of your sequence is the emails themselves. Focus on delivering value while keeping your messages concise and engaging.
Blend promotional content with helpful information, trust-building narratives, and actionable advice to resonate with your audience.
Here’s how:
- Be Informative but Concise: Provide valuable information in a clear, concise manner.
- High-Quality Content: Write high-quality emails using a mix of these categories:
- Sell: Discuss the offering, objections, FAQs, and how it works. Subtly highlight the benefits of your offerings without overwhelming your audience with a hard sales pitch.
- Remind: Highlight doors open/close dates, early-bird offers, and special discounts.
- Build Trust: Weave in authentic stories, testimonials, or behind-the-scenes glimpses to connect with your audience, showcase your experience, and explain how you can solve their problems.
- Add Value: Offer tips, how-tos, industry news, or exclusive content with each email in addition to free resources relevant to your paid offering.
- Clear CTA: Include a clear call to action (CTA) in every email, whether it’s for a phone call, demo, trial, or purchase.
- Use “Bumpers”: Add a P.S. (what we call a bumper) in your Trust-Building and Value-Add emails about the paid offering and creatively hyperlink your paid offering within the email content.
- A/B Test Send Times: Experiment with different send times to see what works best for your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.
By following this step-by-step process, you can start to create targeted email sequences that help you connect with your audience and get real results. Tailor your content to your audience’s specific needs and preferences, providing valuable information and strategically timed calls to action to turn passive subscribers into loyal customers. Ultimately, it’s all about understanding your audience’s preferences, so testing, monitoring, and adjusting are important.
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