Last month, during a free trial for an exciting new online service, something unexpected happened: I received an email every day related to the service.

At first, this seemed downright overwhelming. All I wanted was a chance to explore the service on my terms. What I discovered, however, was the emails helped me get to know the service better, gave me ideas about how I could use the service, and – in the end – were the reason I decided to become a customer officially.

Pretty effective marketing if you ask me.

As a result of that experience, I wanted to explore ways businesses could use email marketing to increase their conversions.  

Want to promote a product or service? Learn advanced marketing strategies using emails with the Advanced Email Marketing Course. Enroll now!

Here are a few email marketing tips for nurturing your prospects. They can be used in a B2B or B2C setting, as long as you adjust for specific timelines, goals, and expectations that make sense for your business.

Set Your Goals

Do you want to increase sign-ups for your service? Are you looking to sell more products? Does your organization need more donors? Determine your specific goals first, so that your email messaging nurtures prospects toward the end goal.

Without goals, you are just creating emails to create emails. By setting goals, every email has a purpose, and it gives readers clues on what to do next.    

Determine a Timeline to Reach Your Goals 

How often you send emails to meet your goals depends on your audience. For example, it typically takes longer to convert a B2B customer than it does for B2C. Therefore, a B2B email timeline could be longer than one for B2C prospects.

This is also the point where you should think about the frequency of your emails. In a typical B2B timeline, you might send 2-3 emails during a 30-day lead nurturing campaign. However, if you are reaching B2C consumers, you may choose to send more frequently since the time to conversion is usually shorter.

Advanced Email Marketing Certification Training

Master the advanced techniques and strategiesExplore Course
Advanced Email Marketing Certification Training

Brainstorm How Emails Can Help Customers

Prospects do not want to be hit over the head with your sales pitch. Instead, think of ways your emails can be of value to them.

For example, can you create a how-to video that explains different ways to use your product or service? Can you highlight a testimonial that helps readers feel more confident in your organization? What about sending them a helpful article that talks about a solution to their problem?

Personalized email marketing helps you connect with prospects in ways they enjoy, and it increases engagement with your business – keeping in mind your end goals, of course.

Optimize and Test Your Emails 

Once you have goals and timelines in place, and you’ve determined the helpful messaging you want to send prospects, you’ll want to carve out time for optimizing and testing those email campaigns. 

For example, you might try different calls-to-action or switch up the offers you send customers, then comparing the results of these separate emails. Did Offer A or Offer B seem more compelling to your recipients?

Thankfully, we have lots of data available to us, so you can monitor the effectiveness of your emails and respond accordingly.

Do you think that your emailing skills are top-notch? Try answering these Email Marketing Practice Test Questions and find out yourself!

Conclusion

Email marketing is an active channel for nurturing prospects toward our intended purposes. As long as we define our goals, timelines, and messaging, and then continually refine the campaigns, we can create more engaging, personalized experiences for leads, we want to become life-long customers.

Learn More About Email Marketing from Experts

Do you wish you knew more about how to use email marketing? Simplilearn’s Advanced Email Marketing Certification Training Course is a highly-rated, online course that helps you master advanced email marketing strategies. You’ll develop expertise in creating effective advertisements to promote products and services, create brand awareness, and build loyalty and trust.

Check out the key features of this popular digital marketing program.

About the Author

Rob SandersRob Sanders

Rob Sanders is a digital marketing veteran with over 20 years of experience. During that time, Rob has helped a wide range of companies utilize new and emerging technologies to increase sales and profitability. As founder of RSO Consulting, Rob helps clients maximize their digital marketing efforts via SEO, SEM, SMO, and Web Analytics. He is responsible for many facets of the web analytics value chain, from identifying business goals and objectives to developing strategies and translating those into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Rob also teaches digital marketing and analytics classes throughout the U.S. and abroad. As a contributor for Simplilearn, Rob creates expert thought leadership content on a variety of digital marketing and analytics topics.

View More
  • Disclaimer
  • PMP, PMI, PMBOK, CAPM, PgMP, PfMP, ACP, PBA, RMP, SP, and OPM3 are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.