If you’ve been using email newsletters in your marketing campaign, you’re likely familiar with the drip campaign.
Nurture campaigns are time-based emails that are sent out to your audience in order to inform them of an offer and, over time, motivate them to take some sort of action, like taking advantage of your offer.
A nurture campaign is similar, but not exactly the same. Both are important, so you need to know when and how to incorporate lead nurturing emails into your marketing plan.
What is a nurture campaign and why do you need one?
A drip campaign and lead nurture campaign are similar in that you send a series of email newsletters to your audience.
However, a drip campaign is simply time-based, whereas lead nurturing emails are considered emotionally-based campaigns.
Nurture customers as a parent would a child. A parent could simply give their child food and water at specified times during the day to keep the child physically healthy.
However, that type of care is not going to make the child thrive. For that, they need to be nurtured emotionally. Spending time with them, listening to them, learning all you can about them—that is how you nurture a child’s soul.
The same is true of customers on your email list.
There will be times when a drip campaign is warranted. At other times, though, you’ll need to utilize your email newsletters in such as way as to nurture your list.
As with a child, you don’t just want to keep your email list alive; you want it to thrive. You want potential customers to turn into loyal, long-term customers that will recommend you to those they know.
You won’t get that type of response if you just use a drip campaign. Spend time getting to know your audience and create content that really speaks to their needs and desires. That’s how you will get your list to thrive.
How to measure the success of your nurture campaign
The success of your nurture campaign can be seen in how engaged your audience is and whether it grows or not.
If you’re getting a lot of unsubscribes and have low click-through rates, you’ll most likely need to make your content more personalized. How can you do this?
Find out where your customers are in their journey
Source: Text Request
When you know where customers are in their purchasing journey, you are better able to speak to their needs. Someone who isn’t even close to buying won’t have the same needs as someone who is about to enter their credit card information onto your site.
Getting to know those needs will help you determine whether it’s the best time for a direct offer or if you need to utilize informational/educational content or even storytelling content.
Source: Content Marketing Institute
Learn about what your customer needs and then write email content that fits those needs, and you’re one step closer to a thriving email customer list.
Does it really matter?
Ultimately, nurturing your audience means that you’ll put their needs ahead of your own. That might seem counterintuitive since you have a business to run. You need to think about your goals and implement strategies that are going to get the results you want.
Marketing goals are vital to your business. However, one of those goals should be to cater to the needs of your customers. If you don’t do this, you run the risk of losing your customer base.
You’ll be able to nurture your relationship with your audience by taking the time to get to know them and finding out where they are in the buying process. From there, you can create content that speaks to their needs, which will lead to a thriving email list and improved sales.
What now?
A nurture campaign is only one piece of the puzzle. You also need to utilize A/B testing, segmentation, automation, and more.
Follow the strategies in our guide to creating your most successful email marketing campaign and you’ll be well on your way to making this year your best one yet.