Social media and ad marketing can give brand visibility. But to drive revenue, email marketing is the most successful one.
Remember, the $42 RoI per $1 investment?
Many of us believe email marketing is for sending out promotional content. But actually, it’s also an awesome lead-gen tool.
So what is email marketing lead generation? How do you generate quality leads via email marketing and some automated tool in WordPress? What are the best practices to gain more customers and conversions?
Let’s begin.
What is email marketing lead generation?
Email marketing lead generation is the process of collecting names, email addresses, and other relevant information from potential customers or leads through sign-up forms, landing pages, and lead magnets, via the email campaigns sent out by you or someone else.
So this is slightly different from lead generation wherein you acquire leads via lead magnets or forms placed on your website.
Once these email addresses are collected, businesses can use them to send targeted email campaigns that aim to nurture and convert these leads into customers.
The goal of email marketing lead generation is to build a targeted email list that is interested in a business’s products or services. This list can be used to communicate with leads and provide them with valuable content, offers, and promotions that are tailored to their interests and needs.
Email marketing lead generation can be an effective strategy for businesses of all sizes, as it allows them to reach a large audience at a relatively low cost compared to traditional advertising methods.
Three channels to generate leads via email marketing
Here’s where you can add up opt-in forms or lead magnets in the emails to generate leads.
In this case, you send out an email to people you already have on your list. Now, if these people share your engaging emails or newsletters with their friends or family members, they may opt-in for your brand emails.
Cold email marketing
Cold email marketing is also called outbound lead generation. Here, you send out emails to people you don’t know.
This is a common tactic used by businesses to fetch or buy an email list and reach out to people to promote their products.
For example, you are a ABC bank customer, but XYZ bank email reached your mailbox with some offer. You know the bank, you are not their customer, and they don’t know you but still, you get an email from them.
Email ads
You will be advertising in someone else’s email newsletter by placing a display ad, which will be sent to their audience. The ad will include a call-to-action (CTA) or a form that enables people to sign up.
However, it requires careful planning and execution to ensure that emails are sent to the right audience, with the right messaging, and at the right time, in order to maximize engagement and conversion rates.
And that’s our next section.
Best email marketing lead generation practices for more conversions
Whether you collect leads via your website or emails, these practices are relevant to convert leads into paying customers.
Use interactive content
Rather than static content, interactive content such as quizzes, polls, and surveys can boost engagement and drive more leads.
- Quizzes / Games – Create a quiz related to your product or service and embed it in your email. Encourage subscribers to take the quiz and share their results on social media. This also helps to build brand awareness and engagement.
- Surveys – Send out a survey asking subscribers for feedback on your product or service. This creates an opportunity to collect contact information for follow-up.
- Polls – This provides insights into what topics or products your audience is most interested in.
- Interactive videos – You could create a choose-your-own-adventure style video that allows viewers to make decisions that affect the outcome of the story.
Create email drip campaigns
Develop a series of emails that are sent over a period of time to help build relationships and trust with subscribers and eventually turn them into customers.
- Segment your audience – To create a successful drip campaign, it’s important to segment your audience based on their interests, behavior, and demographics. This allows you to send targeted messages that resonate with your subscribers.
- Determine the goals of your campaign – Are you trying to drive sales, build brand awareness, or promote a new product? Understanding the goals of your campaign will help you create content that is relevant and valuable to your audience.
- Choose the right frequency – The frequency of your emails will depend on the goals of your campaign and the behavior of your audience. Some campaigns may require daily emails, while others may only require weekly or monthly emails.
- Provide value in each email – Each email in your drip campaign should provide value to the subscriber. This can be in the form of educational content, exclusive offers, or helpful tips.
- Use strong calls-to-action – Every email in your drip campaign should include a strong call-to-action that encourages the subscriber to take action, whether it’s to visit your website, sign up for a free trial, or make a purchase.
- Measure and optimize – This includes tracking open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, and making changes to your content and frequency based on what works best.
Leverage user-generated content
Encourage subscribers to share their experiences and reviews with your products or services, which can increase credibility and trust.
By featuring customer reviews, testimonials, and social media posts in your emails, you can build trust with your audience, and ultimately drive more leads. This content also provides valuable social proof that can help convince potential customers to make a purchase.
Offer personalized discounts
Another strategy is to offer special deals to your customers.
By using data such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographic information, you can create targeted discount offers that resonate with your audience.
Personalized discounts can incentivize subscribers to make a purchase and can also help build customer loyalty.
Also, create a sense of urgency by using limited-time offers or exclusive promotions that are only available to your email subscribers.
Use triggered emails
Triggered emails are automated messages sent in response to a specific action or behavior, such as a new subscriber sign-up, abandoned cart, or website visit.
These emails can be personalized to the subscriber’s interests, increasing the chances of conversion and driving more leads.
Also, ensure that all your email campaigns are optimized for mobile devices, as more and more people are checking their email on smartphones and tablets.
Best tools for email marketing and lead generation
Icegram is a suite of WordPress plugins that can be used to collect leads, build lists, and create and run email marketing campaigns.
- Forms – Icegram Collect plugin provides readymade opt-in forms that can be embedded on your website to capture name and email addresses from visitors.
- Opt-ins – Using Icegram Engage, you can embed the form in pop-ups, hello bars, sidebar, messengers, inline messages and full-screen popups to capture email addresses from website visitors on landing pages. These pop-ups can be triggered by specific actions, such as when a visitor is about to leave the website or when they have been on the page for a certain amount of time.
- Lead magnets – Icegram allows you to provide lead magnets such as e-books, whitepapers, or free guides to incentivize visitors to sign up for your email list via the opt-ins.
- Email campaigns – Icegram Express plugin allows you to create and run email campaigns that can nurture leads and drive conversions. With advanced targeting options, you can send personalized content to specific segments of your audience, increasing the chances of conversion and generating more leads.
Note – Icegram plugins allow you to collect leads and embed forms on website pages, but not in emails. However, you can use your landing pages link in the email that has forms.
With Icegram Express, you can create segmented lists and send unlimited emails to users.
Conclusion
Email marketing can be a highly effective way to generate leads for your business, as long as you use the right strategies and techniques.
By building a targeted email list, segmenting your subscribers, personalizing your emails, and offering valuable content, you can engage with your audience and move them further down the sales funnel.
With Icegram tools at your end, you can test and optimize your email campaigns, effectively generate leads and turn them into loyal customers.