Are you ready to generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost? Because you are almost there! This is the last step of our three-post blog series: Lead Nurturing – Easy as PIE. The first step was Planning, the next was Implementing, and in this post we are looking at Extending your nurturing sequence.
Our very own Kim Albee and Margaret Johnson have been sharing a process will produce results and increase your sales-ready leads. So let’s finish up this process with Step 3 – Extending Nurturing Sequences!
Add on Second and Third Sequences
Let’s start off by looking back at the first sequence you created – a series of three emails, off of one of the three topics/actions you’ve mapped out in a broadcast email. Now, let’s focus on those other two topics/actions and build nurturing sequences to back them up.
In our example, each sequence has three nurturing emails that are triggered by the action you want your lead to take. In many cases, when your leads fulfill that action, the sequence would then be suspended and stopped, so your leads won’t get annoyed by emails requesting that they take an action they already have.
Remember: Relevance is essential! You aren’t going to have successful nurturing sequences if you aren’t providing relevant information to your leads. Remember Margaret’s favorite saying, “Selling without selling is what works best.”
Sequences on Sequences…
Now, going back to what I just said about suspending the sequence, something you can do to continue to nurture your leads is put them into another sequence after they fulfill the action.
Just because one nurturing sequence is complete/fulfilled, doesn’t mean you have to stop there. Imagine the first nurturing sequence being related to WordPress, as it was in our example. The action you want them to take is to let you know that they use WordPress as their CMS. So they fill out the form, and now your lead record is updated. This is when you can trigger a new sequence with information telling them how they can utilize all different aspects of WordPress.
Now Let’s Talk about Guiding Your Leads
When thinking about your topics/actions, pay close attention to what your leads will do next. If you link them to a YouTube video, think about the sidebar that you see on YouTube. What will show up? Other videos, from other people and maybe even your competitors. So what will your lead do next? You have no idea, and you have no control. This is not ideal.
What do you want them to do?
You want them to check out more of your content, right? Why not link them to a landing page you have created, with the YouTube video embedded, and with a sidebar you control – with CTAs and links to more of your content. This will keep your leads involved with you, not your competition, and not funny cat videos. And, as a bonus you can track every thing they do and every click they make. Doesn’t that sound better?
Linking to a website you don’t control
What if you have some great information for your leads, and you are focusing on using the informative theme (we mentioned in the Plan Your Nurturing Sequence session), but you don’t control that website? Well, an easy way to track your leads and get their information in this scenario would be to link them to YOUR landing page/blog post on the subject – with an opt-in gate and THEN deliver them to the third party’s website. You can do this through a confirmation email, or just have it be the confirmation page for filling out the form. Either way, you are still able to generate some information and lead scoring points from this action.
Directly linking to a PDF?
This practice is not recommended. What happens when you give someone access to a PDF straight in the browser? Forwarded emails containing that link may cause more downloads, but you will get ZERO new leads.
The recommended practice is to link them to a “squeeze” page and then provide the link via email once the form is submitted. This allows you to gain new leads whenever somebody wants to download your PDF. Squeeze pages are very well designed, and easy to implement. If you would like an example of a squeeze page, check out our Scoops:
The Single Biggest Reason Your Emails Don’t Get Read
Email Marketing: List or List-ening
Weaving it all together
Sequence emails can lead to other sequences. Someone in a nurturing sequence could download something from your website and enroll themselves in a brand new series of emails. A lead may have taken a second offer, but you want to make sure they get your first offer. Your diagram is filled with arrows – and this is good! You’re building an engine that will run for you, for the long term.
Don’t forget to score your leads’ actions, or you won’t be able to know when your leads become sales qualified.
Continue to build and improve your nurturing sequences. Analyze the metrics to figure out what is working, and what you need to change. Then you can launch new sequences, deliver new content, and gain even more leads! Plan your progressions, and consider all of the entry points that people could come in through.
There we have it! A fully planned, implemented, and now extended nurturing sequence to improve your results with your email marketing. We have more webinars coming up; please take a look at contentzap.com/events to register for our next webinar.