Many digital marketing conversations focus on generating leads, but what are you doing once you have them? Think automated email follow-ups.
If you’re emailing manually, consider that the average email response rate (which can vary widely) can be about 5 percent. So, when sending 100 emails, for example, you may only hear back from five recipients. The payoff of manual follow-ups then can be more of a bottleneck than a success, especially since it can take several follow-ups to convert to a sale.
Marketing automation tools, such as DailyStory, can help you efficiently follow up with your leads at key times to optimize the potential of converting them into a customer. And this only requires some effort up front. Then, you can focus on the rest of the business moving forward.
Automated email follow-ups are about doing more with less to help convert leads into paying customers. The following are five tips for automated email follow-ups that lead to conversions.
Don’t stop with one follow-up
Oftentimes, marketers and/or salespeople may follow up one time and then take a non-response as a “no.” But that’s not the case.
It can take several follow-ups to spark a response from your lead. Consumers are busy and distracted, so a non-response definitely does not equal a “no.”
However, you should do no more than six or seven direct attempts overall. After that, only a very occasional check-in should happen, such as after three months, six months, one year, etc. This can all be scheduled appropriately in your automated email follow-up system. Remember that it’s more important to get clarity from your lead than to be liked. Ultimately, your goal is to determine whether any given lead is someone who is actually interested or not.
Sales grow your business, not simply being liked. In other words, out of 10 people, it’s better for seven not to like you but three doing business with you, than all 10 people liking you but no one doing business with you.
And keep in mind that receiving an actual “no” is not a failure. It just directs your energies back to those who may say yes. If a lead is not interested, it’s a win to know that.
Understand pacing
Timing is critical to automated email follow-ups. You should start off strong and then decrease that frequency over time.
You can consider the following outline as inspiration for your own pacing:
- First email follow-up on Day 1.
- Second email follow-up on Day 3.
- Third email follow-up on Day 7.
- Fourth email follow-up on Day 14.
- Fifth email follow-up on Day 25.
- After that, email follow-ups can go monthly and then potentially less frequently after a few months (such as quarterly and then biannually and so on).
Think about your audience when setting up the frequency of follow-ups in your automated workflow.
Craft concise yet compelling automated email follow-up content
You don’t want to waste your time or your lead’s time. While you are likely passionate about the service or product you’re offering, some restraint is key.
Many consumers are not going to read a lengthy email, and by seeing a long email, you might lose them forever. In other words, don’t get lost in your pitch and end up with several robust paragraphs. Get to the point quickly.
On the flip side, you also want to weave in a bit of personality, friendliness, and possibly even humor. (Just make sure you’re actually being funny and not offensive.) The right graphic, image, GIF, or meme could do the trick. Get creative, and don’t be afraid to experiment.
Remember that every automated email follow-up is a new opportunity to build a trusting relationship with your leads. Any personalization you can incorporate will deepen this relationship more.
Include a strong call-to-action
Just like any other digital marketing tactic, you must include a strong call-to-action that compels your leads to take the action you want.
When it comes to automated email follow-ups, think through the goal of your follow-up. Is it simply responding? Downloading a new eBook? Booking a meeting with you on your calendar? Joining your Facebook group?
When you know the goal, you should communicate it directly. Be clear and use action verbs to spur leads to act.
Think beyond email
Automated email follow-ups can be powerful, but that doesn’t mean you should only email. Especially when using an automated marketing tool like DailyStory, you can incorporate other tactics (such as SMS text messages) into the workflow.
Beyond email, which can feel like the safe and reliable option, you can consider:
- SMS text messages, which can grab your lead’s attention quicker and more effectively. You’ll just need to make sure you write an extremely concise message (ideally fewer than 160 characters) that compels them to act.
- Phone calls, which can’t really be effectively worked into an automated workflow officially, but you can use alerts in DailyStory’s automations to remind you or your team to personally reach out with a phone call as desired. (Calling can also be outsourced, but you want to make sure you’re outsourcing to a credible company that can represent your business well.) It is a personal touch that can yield results as long as you’re not calling too often.
- Social media, which can feel a little impersonal with public posts but can be very personal with direct messaging, whether that’s on LinkedIn, Facebook or another platform. Chatbots can be used initially in many conversations, but keep in mind that a human may need to enter the conversation at some point. Also know that liking and commenting on your lead’s posts (when it makes sense to do so) can be a form of social media follow-up.
- Handwritten notes, which is not a digital marketing tactic but can help you stand out in the sea of noisy inboxes. While this tactic can seem very time-consuming and manual, there are services like Maillift that integrate with Zapier, which means it can be incorporated into your DailyStory automated workflow.
In conclusion
Simply following up will get you more sales conversions, but following up with an automated email follow-up strategy will generate even more sales. Think through your content throughout the automated messages so that you’re building a relationship, not just repeating yourself. And make sure that the automated process ends when the lead either converts or opts-out.
