Did you know that email conversion rates are almost double that of social media conversion rates? It’s true!
So, let’s discuss how to generate more leads through email marketing so you can make the most of one of your most valuable business assets - your email list.
Lead Generation Through Email Marketing
Lead generation is a critical part of any online marketing strategy and is key to growing your business.
Lead generation is not a one-time thing.
It’s important to focus on collecting potential leads for your business and continue to deliver value over time so lead generation is something that needs to happen on a regular basis in your business. And it all starts with being clear on who your target market is.
Understand Your Target Market
Your ideal customers are those people who are perfect candidates to purchase your products, services and offers. Knowing their demographics is a great start, however understanding your target market begins with truly understanding the big problem that your ideal customers are wanting to solve, and how they want to solve it.
Once you’ve got your target market nailed, you can then use online marketing methods (such as email marketing) to reach your target audience and convert them into customers because you know:
who they are,
what they want/need, and
how your offer can solve that want/need.
Once you know this you can:
Craft an offer to meet this customer need/want
Create a lead magnet (or opt-in offer) that leads people to your main offer
Start generating leads for your offers
Lead Generation starts with your Opt-In Offer (aka Lead Magnet)
To start the lead generation process you can offer something irresistible for free so that your ideal customers (aka target market) will subscribe to your email list (also known as opt-in as they are opting in to hearing from you again via email).
Your opt-in (lead magnet) should be some valuable content that you giveaway for free in exchange for your lead’s contact details. But not just any piece of content. Your lead magnet must:
Be useful, insightful or helpful
Solve a small piece of your target market’s problem
Provide step 1 of, or the introduction to, your bigger solution/offer
Your lead magnet must also enable your new lead to:
Get to know your business and what you offer,
Easily take action and get a small win/result,
Know how to take the next step with you to get more results.
So your lead magnet might be:
An audio or video
A downloadable resource like a guide or a checklist
an eBook
Webinar registration
Free e-course
A challenge
or something else similar to this
You offer this useful piece of content in exchange for their email address and permission to regularly communicate with them via email. Then you use your email copy and email nurture sequence to turn those initial leads into active subscribers and then loyal clients.
3 steps to make lead generation via email marketing really easy
Create a lead magnet that is highly useful to your potential customer. The more applicable and useful it is, the easier it is to get leads to opt-in to your email list
Make sure it’s easy to find your list and subscribe to it (especially on a mobile device)
Have an email marketing sequence in place to enable your new lead to get to know you and what you offer
Once you have your new leads filtering in, you must not go silent on them. Regular communication keeps you and your business front of mind. Regular communication that is informative, engaging and connection building is even better! Here’s how you can do that…
Build Connection with your Subscribers
To build a connection with your subscribers I would recommend two things:
An email nurture sequence when they first join your list or sign up for a new lead magnet
Regular email newsletters
Regular newsletters can be any frequency although weekly or fortnightly is best, with monthly newsletters a minimum to stay connected with your leads and community.
What's important here is that your lead or subscriber gets really accustomed to receiving valuable information from you on a regular basis. It helps your name or brand become recognisable in their inbox, and over time you're building a personal connection with them.
Ask a Question
To build connections with your list, encourage people to actually respond to questions you ask in your emails. Often, at the beginning of an email, you might share a bit about your personal story, or something relevant or topical to that particular target market, and ask them a question. Your goal is to get them to reply to you. And, of course, when they do - be sure to reply.
This simple action of asking questions and replying builds rapport between you and your subscriber. This rapport dramatically increases the likelihood of conversion to client or referrals down the line.
Make it Shareable
You also want to make it easy for existing subscribers to forward and share your newsletters. This can be done quite easily in most email marketing platforms by just adding a link generated by the autoresponder you're using. This then acts as lead generation, as well.
Another way to make your email content shareable is to include shareable quote images, shareable text quotes, or helpful advice and insight.
Follow the Data
Another important step in using email marketing to generate more leads for your business is to analyse your results. You need to understand what actions people take when they receive your emails so you can identify what is actually a priority for them.
For instance, did they:
Open particular emails more than others?
Click certain links?
Answer a survey?
Click through to read more about a blog?
Reply to your email?
Open more on certain days or at certain times?
Knowing these answers helps you strengthen your connection with your leads and improve their experience with your brand as you will be able to improve your emails and email nurture sequence to better serve them.
That’s why using email marketing to generate more leads for your business is ideal. Because you can get to know them and understand what they really want from you. All while you gently nurture them through their journey from lead to client (so you can make money in your business).
How to generate more leads through Email Marketing
Investing time and effort into making email marketing work for you is a great way to boost your income, grow your business, and obviously make money. After all, that's why we are in business.
If you’ve been putting off getting started with email marketing, I encourage you to jump in right now, so you can enjoy the benefits of an engaged email list, including:
Lead generation through email marketing
Understanding your target market
Building connection with subscribers
Making offers via email
For more information about getting started with email marketing for your business, check out my free email marketing training Fabulous First Opt-ins right here.
