How can you use email marketing to move leads through the sales funnel?

This is an important stage in the sales funnel. I remember in my previous role as Head of Strategic Communications for a government relations organisation, I developed and sent regular newsletters to keep our subscribers and stakeholders updated on our latest initiatives, news, offers and even some external news and links they found useful. We also shared lead magnets such as case studies, webinars, and industry reports to encourage subscriptions. These are valuable ways to connect to the audiences and introduce the brand.

The "awareness stage" from my experience starts before the email. The awareness stage usually starts with some type of oral form: a presentation, an honorable mention, a promotion via another successful platform, or an interview. Through these channels, drawing attention to who you are and what you have to offer in a more personable fashion is usually what drives potential customers to sign up for your email newsletter. Therefore, focusing your attention on connecting directly with target audiences is crucial. Once achieved, your email marketing schemes become effective and have the potential to spread like wildfire.

Driving interest in your product through email marketing is effective when the email is filled with useful, actionable, and unique information. As the world we are currently living in has an extremely short attention span, it is wise to include links to supportive audio and visual content too. The fewer words an email has, the better, unless the email chain has discounts and special offers to present exclusively to your loyal subscribers. That is not to say that informative emails are ineffective, just ensure that the content is broken up into small digestible bits with links that lead to more information and of course, a sale.

After first time purchase, the goal should be to make the customer a repeat buyer and increase their customer lifetime value (CLV), depending on the type of goods and services. - Leveraging Remarketing strategies to target customers who have previously purchased items. - Help them build loyalty points after each purchase to make them come back or referral points to refer customers - Encourage customers to leave positive reviews for incentives or points. - Send them messages about new products, birthday messages etc. to help them keep you top of mind.