How should you be using email sequences?

Everyone has their own idea of what an email sequence is.

For some it’s probably just a simple sales sequence, like this:

Technically of course, it is an email sequence; a common sales technique that uses emails to nurture leads. These sequences can be disconnected and unconnected, depending on the way the person using them works. Often there’s just the one template for each message and they get sent when the salesperson remembers to send them.

For others, they might have a marketing to landing page sequence in mind, like this:

This one is definitely not an email sequence, despite following best practice of a CTA to a landing page. It doesn’t have any back ups in the case of a prospective buyer opening the email but not clicking…or not opening the email at all. And, even if the customer does click through successfully, everything stops at the landing page – what happens next? How are you going to ensure they get nudged over the line?

How to get more out of your email marketing efforts

Imagine a world where every email sent to every customer led to a conversion. That’s unlikely, of course, but there are many ways you can get more out of your email marketing efforts. Our approach not only follows best practice but also ensures leads are not lost in a “leaky funnel”.

How does it work?

First up you need to be creating an automated sequence with a workflow design to determine what happens at each stage. And don’t forget how your tone of voice fits in with each stage – well written emails are vital to any campaign plan, but the best practice for an email sequence should consider each of the options available at each stage and then give careful consideration to how your message will be received by potential customers.

On top of that, when designing your email workflow it’s hugely helpful to think to yourself “and then what…” at every stage – that way you won’t miss any of the possible outcomes.

Here’s what such an email workflow might look like now:

What else do I need to consider?

When creating the brief for this sort of campaign, each item will have several attributes – and you need to make sure you don’t overlook any of them:

• Who is my audience?
• How long has it been since the last email sent?
• What’s the content? – both copy-wise and design-wise
• What is my Call To Action, and where will it take the customer?
• And what is my process action – for example, are you putting leads in a new segment depending on their response?

Don’t forget about landing pages!

Once you’ve pinned down your email and workflow sequences, don’t forget about landing pages. It’s worth layering your sequence with multiple landing pages, and then the onward “buyer journey” from the landing page into your main site.

Best practice would be to aim for 10 to 15 core landing pages with variations within each sequence for each product you are promoting. It goes without saying that you should align this to the buyer journey so that there is a spread of campaigns against different stages of the buyer journey, each addressing a different need.

And there you have it: your multi-layered full funnel marketing programme.

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If you want to make your email efforts work harder for you and make better use of all those important contacts that you have paid and earned your right to communicate to, then feel free to get in touch with one of the Everything Connected team here