In the first two parts of this series on digital marketing, we discussed changes you can make to your website, and to the content you share online. Today, in part three, we’ll talk about nurturing leads through email campaigns.
Nurturing leads is an important step in the marketing process. Statistically, most visitors to your site will not eventually end up making a purchase, but of those who might, about half aren’t ready to buy right away. This is why it’s essential to develop those relationships, and make sure you’re giving your customers what they need in order to make an informed decision.
Here’s where email campaigns come into the picture. Staying in regular contact with
your leads and letting them know that you have what they’re looking for can be the key to making sure that they come straight to you when they’re finally ready to buy. Here are a few key things to remember:
your leads and letting them know that you have what they’re looking for can be the key to making sure that they come straight to you when they’re finally ready to buy. Here are a few key things to remember:Strategize. The planning phase of an email campaign is arguably the most important. Email blasting is no longer an effective strategy, so you’ve got to be targeted and precise with your campaigns. This involves understanding your audience demographics, and showing each segment that you know which content is specifically relevant to them.
Coordinate. Email campaigns don’t work well in a vacuum, and should instead be one part of a larger coordinated plan that includes appropriate website content and social media channels. At any given moment, you want your leads to be reminded at every turn that you have something they need. Through targeting, your email campaigns are a great way to go deeper and personalize the info that you’re putting out in a more general way on social media and your website.
Test, test, test. It’s unlikely that your first couple of attempts at email campaigns are going to knock it out of the park. The idea is that you test some versions of your campaigns, see what works or doesn’t work with various segments of your audience, and then refine your approach before trying again. This testing process can be frustrating at times, but it’s incredibly rewarding (and profitable) when you finally make the changes that lead to increased sales.
Far from email being dead, it remains one of the best ways to speak directly to your customers and build your relationship with them. With an impressive %4400 ROI, it’s easy to see why it’s so important to keep that email communication line flowing. Any marketing tool that delivers such a high rate of return deserves your full effort and attention, so don’t be shy about diving in.
Next time, in the final segment of this series, we’re going to talk about retargeting your efforts through paid advertising.
It’s no secret that where modern marketing is concerned, digital is where it’s at. Over the past twenty years or so, companies have slowly shed their traditional marketing tactics in favour of email, web advertising, and more recently, social media.
That said, enough time has passed since the dawn of digital marking that it is no longer a “new and different” offshoot of traditional strategies. Digital has now been around long enough that it is actually the center of what marketing is all about, the default of what we mean when we’re talking about reaching customers and building relationships.
This is why it’s time to stop thinking about strategies in terms of “digital” as a separate thing, and just focus on the most effective marketing techniques that will help you find the customers who need you, and who can help you grow your business. The digital part is now a given.
You can already see this mental shift happening in the way that search engines are prioritizing results. Gone are the days when you could use coding tricks and workarounds to fool the system into ranking your page higher than your competitors. Now, the search engine algorithms are smart enough to understand what quality content is, and to reward those who provide real value rather than those who simply try to plug in some kind of magic formula.
Internet users are becoming more savvy, as well. Today’s online consumers are smart, and they see through blatant attempts to have products and services pushed on them. What they actually want and need are for companies to step up and provide comprehensive information, opportunities to communicate, and products that help them solve problems in their daily lives.
The good news is, this provides an opening for smart marketers to stop worrying so much about the digital aspects of marketing, and start honing in on raising the value of the content they’re providing for their audiences.
That’s not to say that the technical factors of marketing aren’t important – of course you need to pay attention to your analytics tools to make sure you’re on the right track. But that’s just what they are: tools to assist you in your marketing journey, the goal of which is to make real, human connections that lead to customer relationships. It’s a means to an end rather than the end itself.
Digital marketing is no longer the new kid on the block. It is now firmly established as the norm, and it’s time to start thinking of it as such. Just as with any other type of marketing, focus your energy on helping your target customers, get your knowledge and expertise out there, and provide the best products and services that you possibly can.
COGO Interactive is an award-winning digital marketing agency specializing in online marketing strategy, web design, SEO and social media marketing. We work with clients in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC and across the nation.
