There are many ways to increase sales and generate leads, but the email marketing strategy remains the most effective option available. A study shows that every dollar invested in email marketing brings an ROI of up to $42, which shows that email marketing is an effective strategy.
In this article, you will find everything about lead generation, email marketing strategy, the steps to generating leads with an email marketing strategy, and some of the best practices that you should know.
What is Email Lead Generation?
Before we explain email lead generation, it’s important you know email leads. Email leads are used to describe the people you share their contact information with, including email addresses and names with you. They do this by utilizing an opt-in form that is provided in exchange for a free gift, a discount, or an eBook.
After getting these leads, the next thing is to nurture the leads with your email marketing strategy. It’s worth noting that these leads are the foundation you need for your email marketing campaign. You might be wondering why you should go through the process of gathering these emails manually when you can simply buy them.
There are many people that have tried this approach, only to realize that it’s the worst decision for their business. This is because of the risks involved, which you wouldn’t want to be caught up in. Here are some of the risks you’ll face when you buy email lists for your email marketing strategy:
- You won’t make sales from the list you buy
- The people won’t know your business and will eventually opt out, which leaves you with no list at all.
- These people didn’t opt-in to your email list themselves, and as such, they will most likely mark your email as spam. With this, you will only end up with a low sender score because your deliverability rates will reduce.
- There are a couple of laws against buying an email list, and examples are GDPR and CAN-SPAM. You risk having your ISP blocked when you buy an email list, and this will cause you to be prohibited from sending email lists at all.
With that said, we can continue with email lead generation. This is basically the process involved when email leads are gathered from different opt-in forms. Basically, these processes include steps aimed at collecting information about customers and potential customers. The most important information includes their names and email address.
It’s worth noting that the email lead generation strategy is not restricted to only getting email leads. There are also other processes involved, and this includes nurturing the email leads you to collect and also converting these leads to customers. Another thing to note is that when you do email lead generation properly, you will drive higher sales and also increase your customer engagement.
The Importance of Having a Lead Generation Strategy
There are many reasons to have a lead generation strategy and also an email marketing strategy. Amongst these includes boosting sales and growing an eCommerce business. However, these benefits will only be there when you have an effective strategy. Without an effective strategy, you will only find it different to grow your revenue and engage customers.
Research shows that more than 50% of markets think email marketing remains an effective strategy for generating leads and increasing sales. With a good lead generation strategy and email marketing strategy, you will enjoy the following benefits:
- Drives results fasters for more sales and more customers
- Boosts brand awareness
- Makes it easier for you to connect with your audience
Now that you understand email marketing strategy, lead generation strategy, and their importance, we can now continue with the different best practices that you should know.
Best Practices of Generating Leads Through Email Marketing
We have put up a list of 15 best practices for lead generation to guide you. With these practices, you can drive leads for your business and enjoy more customer engagement. The best practices for your email marketing strategy include the following:
1. Know your Target Audience
This is the most basic thing for everyone. Every successful email marketing strategy and lead generation campaign begins with identifying the target audience. Your target audience comprises the ideal clients you’ll do business with. If you want to identify your target audience, you’ll need to answer a few questions, including:
- The industry they work in
- Target demographic
- Where they live
- Their hobbies
- How much they earn
- How they communicate
- Where they get information from
- Problems you’re solving
After answering these questions, you’ll fully understand your target audience and will be able to implement your email marketing strategy.
2. Have an Irresistible Offer
After figuring out the problems your target audience face, the next thing is to come up with an offer that they won’t be able to resist. This offer is also known as a lead magnet, and it’s meant to solve all the problems they have. The only way to gain enough traction with your opt-in form is by ensuring that your offer is relevant and valuable.
3. Catchy Emails and Design Concise
Your email is another important aspect of your email marketing strategy and lead generation. This implies that you should take enough time to design your email in a manner that will captivate your audience. It’s important to keep your email concise and clean and avoid using excess content. Using excess content will only distract your audience from the main point.
Here are some practices to follow when designing your email:
- Choose a simple and clean template that’s appealing to the eye (Check these email signature templates)
- Use plain readable fonts
- Keep your CTA well-spaced so that it stands out
- Concise and well-spaced wording. You might want to consider highlighting certain information to catch the attention of your audience.
- Add simple vector graphics and illustrations to create movement in design and navigate your audience better in a more interesting way
4. Use Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines
The subject lines you use are also an important area for your email marketing strategy and lead generation. This is what will determine whether your subscribers will open your email or not. Therefore, you need to be able to include elements that will enhance your subject lines.
Some of the ways you can customize your subject line are by using bold and italic font and emojis. This will help you draw the attention of your users.
5. Design Click-worthy CTA
Using a CTA is important, but this doesn’t mean you should just use anything as your CTA. It’s important to ensure that it’s clear and compelling, strong, and click-worthy. This is also to ensure that it attracts your readers and encourages them to click on your CTA. Another way to ensure that your CTA is effective is by using elements that show mystery, excitement, and urgency.
6. Keep in Touch with an Automated Campaign
One way to make the most of your email marketing strategy is by including email automation in your strategy. This will allow you to schedule your emails according to your customer’s interaction and behavior. Automating emails will also make it easier for you to reach out to your subscribers immediately when they join your email list.
Other benefits of using automated campaigns are that it will make it easier for you to reach out to people who abandon their carts. You can use automated emails to reach out to them with amazing offers that will make them complete their orders.
7. Leverage Social Media
Social media is an impressive tool that you shouldn’t leave out of your marketing campaign. Statistics show that there are more than 3.2 billion people that actively use social media in different parts of the world. They also use social media for different reasons, including to run paid ads, lead magnets, and also promote offers.
The interesting thing to note about using social media in your email marketing strategy is that it will not only help you generate leads but will also allow you to gain more followers. Social media is also a great tool to use when creating your email list, and you should consider this option without hesitation.
8. Use Valuable Content to Engage Subscribers
It doesn’t end with getting your prospects to signup and sending emails to them. You need to understand that they are a potential lead and a vital part of your journey. Therefore, you’ll need to ensure that you use valuable content to keep them engaged and eventually convert them to long terms clients.
A lot of people get carried away and bore their clients with fluff content, but this is a thing to avoid. Basically, you should focus on creating content that will interest your subscribers and also make them anticipate your content.
9. Utilize Personalization to Reel them in
Another best practice for your email marketing strategy is to use personalization to engage your prospects. For this, you’ll need to be able to gather enough data about your prospects. Some of the data to collect include how they interact with your brand and their contact information. With this information, you can conveniently send them personalized emails.
10. Maintain a Clean and Updated Email List
This is the best thing to do to your email list because it will help you improve the data you have about your prospects. Your subscriber’s information is subject to change, and it’s important to ensure that the information on your email list is all updated. Another reason why you should clean your email list is so that you can easily clean spam and unwanted emails.
11. Avoid Using No-Reply Email Address
This is a mistake that most businesses make. When they send emails to their prospects, they tend to format their email with noreply@domain.com. This is an error to avoid for anyone who wants to build trust for their brand, as well as create a bond with your potential customers. With a no-reply email address, you’ll only create an impression that you cannot be reached easily.
12. Send Emails at the Right Time
Time is an important area to pay attention to when sending emails for your email marketing strategy. It’s not every day of the week that you send emails. Some consider Tuesday as the best day, while others consider Thursdays to be the best days. However, the best thing is to understand your target audiences and use a day that works for everyone, rather than follow statistics blindly.
13. Split Test to Improve Your Metrics
Performing split tests for emails is an effective way to optimize your content and strategy. You’ll be surprised to find out that there are many things that could be improved in your email. Testing different versions of your email will also make it easier for you to select the best-performing emails and improve your conversion.
14. Optimize Emails for Mobile
Research also shows that more than 53% of emails are opened with mobile devices. This shows that more people open their emails from their phones. With that said, it’s best to optimize your email and keep it readable for mobile devices so that as people go through your email, they can understand it quickly.
15. Segment your Emails According to Subscriber Behaviors
The last practice we’ll show you is using segments in your emails. This is one way to provide the best value for your prospects. You can segment your emails according to your contacts, and this can be based on brand loyalty, demographics, email engagement, and past purchase behavior.
Conclusion
We have outlined 15 best practices to guide you through your email marketing strategy. In addition to all the best practices that we have outlined, there’s one more element that you should consider including to your email marketing strategy, and that’s illustrations. This can be as a header, footer, or as part of the email itself.
There are different types of illustrations that you can use, and it depends on the type of business you run. You might be wondering where you can get these illustrations for your email marketing designs. While there are so many resources for this purpose, we strongly recommend illustAC as your number one source for all the illustrations you need for your email marketing strategy.