Nurturing Your List
This article is the fourth and last in our series of e-mail marketing tips and it cover seven key strategies to effectively nurture your email database:

1. Don’t underestimate the potential for revenue
The worst mistake you can make when nurturing your database is to underestimate the potential sales from your list of contacts. Regardless of how close or how far away they are from making a purchase, you need to see every contact in your database as potential revenue. You will find that some of your contacts will take a little more nurturing than others but at the end of the day the stronger your relationship with your database, the more valuable it becomes to your business.

2. Create a library of database nurturing content
In order to effectively nurture your database of contacts you need to have content to nurture them with. This content can make further use of existing materials perhaps used in other marketing campaigns such as how to guides, offers, events, articles, or whitepapers. Since effective database nurturing requires you to maintain active contact with your subscribers you need to build a library of content that you can pull from regularly. Below are some ideas on types of themes you can build your library of content around:

– Customer testimonials via product rating system, success stories and case studies
– Multimedia content such as videos and podcasts showcasing your products and services
– Invitations to events such as: exclusive shopping/offers, tradeshows, live seminars, webinars, conferences and speaking engagements
– Past archived and recorded events with email links
– FAQs and customer support channels and guidelines
– Additional methods of following your brand via social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+)
– Product launches updates or offers
– Coupons, vouchers or contests
– News about your brand

3. The shorter the better
People consume content much differently than they have in the past. As consumers we come across hundreds of marketing messages each day so we rarely have the time to print out and read an entire whitepaper, watch a 60-minute webinar or read through a full website page. We have become used to absorbing information in smaller chucks and in shorter periods of time. So when you are creating your database nurturing content make sure you keep it short and to the point. Otherwise you run the risk of the reader deleting your email before they get to your call to action.

4. Match your content to buyer profiles and purchase stages
With database nurturing, connecting with your contacts is vital to keep them from forgetting about you and why they decided to engage with you in the first place. Nurturing is a process of getting these people to know, like, and trust you more. The most effective way to do this is to organize your content and distribute what is relevant to them based on their interests, demographics, and purchase history, (essentially their customer segment). Whatever you send out should be somehow related to what they indicated they were interested in receiving from you as part of subscribing to your mailing list. Again, this is why segmenting your database is so important.

Your contacts will find content related to their preferences much more valuable than generic content. In addition, there are topics that work well based on how close a consumer is to buying. For example, thought leadership and best practices work best during the awareness stage; comparisons, reviews, and pricing information appeals during the research stage; and information about the company, support, etc. will work best at the purchase stage. In essence, relevancy is key and the more relevant your content is to your contacts, the stronger the relationship they will build with you and the more likely they will make a purchase, (or repeat purchase).

5. Use your contacts to determine what to send
When someone opts in and becomes part of your mailing list, they do it because they feel you are a leading brand in your industry and therefore an expert in the subject that you’re talking about. Use this to your advantage. Try sending out a survey that captures the questions they may have regarding the products and services you provide and then use this information in your blog posts, videos, and follow-up emails. Consumers like to have their questions answered, and if you send the answers right to their inbox without them even asking, you’ll increase your expert status in their eyes.

6. Multimedia means multi-conversions
Including multimedia elements like videos, webinars and podcasts in your emails can be very helpful where buying resistance is concerned. There is something to be said about actually seeing and hearing the brand as you go through the buying process that makes a consumer trust you more and feel more relaxed and comfortable when purchasing your product or service.

7. Timing is everything
There is no magical number when it comes to how often you should send emails to effectively nurture your database. What we can tell you is that more than once a week is too much and less than once a month is not enough. So we recommend something in between. One way to determine what your email frequency should be is to have your subscribers determine the pace themselves. When you have them subscribe to your database or update their profile in your system ask them how often they want to receive emails from you (between once a week and twice a month). Just be sure that if you ask them this and they tell you that you segment them accordingly so you don’t send them emails once a week if they asked to received them only twice a month.

Integrating Your Email Activities with Other Marketing Channels
Throughout this series of blogs we have talked about how effective email is at building and strengthening a customer’s relationship with your brand. But your consumers don’t interact with your brand just via email. They encounter your brand through all the other offline and online marketing tactics you are using as well. To ensure your consumers have a consistent brand experience with your company it is important that your email marketing campaigns aren’t conducted in a silo, apart from the rest of your marketing efforts. People coming to your website or other web properties (social media profiles, blog, and landing pages) through search engines and even offline tactics should always have the option to subscribe to your email list. This cross promotion is after all how you go about building a strong email database.

Are you thinking about running an email marketing campaign for your business? Why not give us a call for an informal chat on 0161 941 4615 or email us at info@theagencycreative.co.uk