How To Use Emails to Convert Customers & Close Leads

Image from Mailchimp.

In one of our previous posts, we shared our experience with email marketing and how it has worked for many of our clients as they build strong relationships with their customers contributing to growth in their business. In fact, we highly recommend it as a foundational element to your marketing plan, as email marketing has the potential to completely change your business.

As marketers, we often review the customer journey, and how to bring leads into the top of the funnel through awareness campaigns as well as close and nurture customers towards the bottom of the funnel. Mailchimp, our favorite email automation tool, outlines some creative ways your business should be using email marketing to close leads or convert customers and boost sales.

To Help Close

• Abandoned Cart Emails: If you are selling anything online, an automated abandoned cart series of emails is a must! This customer is one step away from conversion and reminding them of what they are already considering can help increase orders per recipient by a factor of 30 or more.
   
• Retargeting Emails: If the customer has been to your site but hasn’t put anything in their cart, send a retargeting email to remind them of what they were looking for and make it easy to get back to the site to purchase. You can also offer a discount to create urgency for them to buy sooner rather than later.
   
• Specific Product or Category Follow-Ups: Automated emails describing complementary products to a product that was recently purchased could help close the deal on these other products and turn a one time customer into a repeat customer.

To Nurture & Boost Loyalty

One of the most important things you can do is segment your audience and send specific messages based on their customer lifecycle or purchasing frequency- or in the case of service businesses, specific services a person is looking for based on their customer info. Some examples are:

• Welcome Series: If a person has recently become a contact or lead, dripping 1-3 emails within their first 30 days can increase the chances of an order by a factor of 5. Remember to be useful and authentic versus too salesy.
   
• First & Best Customers: Segmenting into buckets such as “best” and “first” allows you to be so specific with your messaging to build a better relationship with your customer. The more you customize their experience, the more they will come back.
   
• Referral & Review Requests: In the service industry? This one is for you! Clients and customers who are referred have a 50%+ close rate and tend to spend more, be less price-sensitive, have fewer objections and be less risky. Don’t be nervous to reach out to your loyal customers and clients. Here are some templates to get started.

Stop thinking people don’t read emails anymore. Stop “blasting” aimlessly. Get strategic about email communication and you’re sure to convert more customers. Whether you're a consumer e-commerce site, a business looking for leads or a brand looking to stay top of mind, get in touch so we can help you craft just the right email communication plan.