Email marketing has always been one of the most useful ways to generate leads. Every day more and more people are gaining familiarity with electronic communications, which tend to start with email. It’s a great way to stay in regular contact with your leads and keep them up to date.
Here are 8 techniques you can use to start generating more leads through your email marketing.
You need permission
First things first, you need permission to email your audience. We’ve all heard about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance which came into force in 2018. It was created so that personal information was better protected, meaning that you cannot use anyone’s information without their permission. While this may appear as a detriment, it does mean that the people who are on your mailing list want to be.
Asking for permission in itself is generating more leads for you and increases your engagement. You can add a form to your website, blog or landing page asking if people would be interested in being a part of your list. This way, people who are willing and interested will get added.
Offer something of value
People will open an email if they see that you’re offering something that they need or want, but you need to grab their attention from the get-go. How many times have you seen an email that could be of use but decided to leave it and go back to it later, only to never bother to look at again? This is what we’re trying to avoid. While emails are great for providing information, it can get boring. If you keep sending out the same material you’ll lose their interest, making them more likely to not open or just delete your emails in the future.
Keep it fresh! Give the people what they want!
Offer a Newsletter
Now, if you’re not in the kind of industry where you have a lot of ‘news’ to share on a weekly or monthly basis you can always use a newsletter as a way of sharing what discounts you’re currently offering, or sharing blogs if you put out your own content on a regular basis. It keeps your brand and business fresh in your leads’ minds and gives them the opportunity to keep up with your latest news, content or offers without having to search for it as you’ll already be providing them with it.
Segment your contacts
Segmenting your contacts as per the interests and behavioural patterns of your recipients is the best way to give the right information to the right people. Not everyone will be interested in your latest blog, and not everyone will find value in your new discount offer.
Segmentation of your mailing list allows you to be more relevant and useful to your audience. It will keep the interest of your readers. If you keep supplying someone with information or content that benefits them then not only will they be more likely to click-through, they’ll be excited for your next email.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is when you can send different versions of the same email to see which one works the best. Small changes in your email - like the text in your subject line and call-to-action - can make a big difference when it comes to your open and click-through rate. So, for example, if you wanted to test two different subject lines to see which one will have a higher open rate, you would send one version to 50% of your mailing list and one version to the remaining 50%.
We recommend you wait around 2-3 days after sending your emails then you’ll have your results for the better performing subject line i.e the one with the superior open rate. By A/B testing your emails you’ll be able to learn from your results and write your emails with the winning email in mind.
Personalise your emails
Personalising your emails, even just with the receiver’s first name, is a great way to not come across as an automated robot. Understandably it’s hard to be personal through a computer or phone screen, but shockingly most companies don’t even bother to try. It’s been reported that only 5% of companies personalise extensively, which begs the question of why? Humans react to humans. It's a well known fact.
It’s fairly simple to set your emails so that you can personalise with the recipient's name, company etc. One tip we think you should consider is personalising yourself and your brand. Instead of your email saying from (company name), enter who it’s actually from. You can add the sender’s name, a photograph or a signature if you wish. This will give the recipient a sense of connection with you specifically and, like I said earlier, humans react to humans.
Add Call-to-actions
So crucial, yet so many people forget. Call-to-actions are so important to your email marketing. It’s exactly what it says on the tin - a call to action. This is usually a button with a link attached which will direct the recipient of the email to your desired location, like a landing page or an area on your website. If you do not have a call-to-action in your email, what are the recipients meant to do with it? Nothing. The whole point of an email is to get some sort of response.
So whether you’re promoting a download of your new ebook or trying to get people to read your latest blog, your call-to-action should be simple like ‘Read it now’, ‘Call now’ or ‘Start my trial’. They need to be bright and attention grabbing to entice the reader to click-through, though your content should do this too.
Gate your content & link to your Landing Pages
The oldest trick in the book for finding interested leads. By gating your content you’ll be getting your leads to give you their information via a form on your landing page in exchange for content that they want. This way you’ll still be giving them an offer of free useful content but only the truly interested will fill in their details. You’ll be filtering out the time-wasters while gaining and optimising your new high-quality leads.
