Email Marketing Funnel: Creating a perfect customer journey
Acquiring new customers and retaining them over the long term is probably the most essential goal of every business. However, achieving it is difficult as most potential customers tend to pull themselves out before turning into paying customers. To address this problem, there is an email marketing sales funnel. It helps in driving prospects towards conversion.
What is an email marketing funnel?
An email marketing funnel refers to an email sequence which one sends to leads to convert them into customers. It takes prospects on a journey to convert them into customers.
Email is an effective marketing channel for your business. Do you want to know how? You will get your answer when you look at the stats below.
- The ROI that email marketing offers is a whopping 4200% and 59% of B2B marketers prefer using email for generating leads.
- Marketing emails influence the buying decision of one half of the customers.
- According to 40% marketers, sending email newsletters forms the centre of their marketing strategy.
Now that you know the importance of email marketing for your company’s growth let’s move ahead with the email marketing funnel.
Stages of email marketing funnel
As already seen above, an email marketing funnel represents how a prospect turns into a customer through educational and promotional emails.
The marketing funnels depict the 4-stage life cycle of a customer that is,
- Awareness – The moment someone registers to your mailing list, they cross the awareness stage and know about your company and the solutions you offer.
- Interest – At this stage prospects open your emails and want to hear from you. They wish to know about your solutions.
- Consideration – When prospects reach this stage, they get interested in knowing about the options they have to solve their pain points. At this juncture, you can present your product or service.
- Conversion – At this stage, the prospect becomes a customer.
How to create an email marketing funnel?
The email marketing funnel has the following flow of emails in it.
- Email to nurture prospects
You promised to send newsletters to those who signed up and you have to fulfill it. Also send content that helps you in posing as an expert in your field.
- Email to address the problem and offer solution
You have to address the problem your prospect faces and how your product or service can resolve it. You may mention a problem that people are not even aware of but requires attention. Don’t just stop with that as you must offer your product or service as a solution to that problem.
- Email to pitch your product/service
The email in which you pitch the product or service has to be clear and simple. Try to mention the features of your offering in bullet points. Add a CTA and keep it easy to follow. Most often, it is best to add a CTA that makes the prospect purchase your product or service.
Be clear about what your solution can do for customers and try to reiterate it in different ways in the email. However, as you are here to convince the recipient about your product/service, steer clear of overloading it with testimonials, ratings and other such stuff.
- Email to remind
If the prospect doesn’t purchase your product, it is okay. You should not get disappointed about it. Give the other person some time to decide. From your end, send a reminder telling them how valuable your product or service is for them. You can keep it simple and don’t forget to give some value to the prospect along with a little about your product or service. It would be better if the CTA takes the prospect to the sales page.
- Email to provide social proof
In this email, add case studies and testimonials, so that prospects find out who all have benefited from your product previously. In addition, you can mention the awards and recognition that your company got so that the prospect starts trusting you. Again the CTA that takes the prospect to the sales page is the best. This will enable the prospect to read more reviews as well.
- Email to counter objection
After so many emails, it is likely that some prospects would want to try your product but are not able to decide. They may have certain doubts about your offering and you must put in effort to address all the objections prospects have. You can have a Q&A style email to handle objections.
- Email to close
By now, the prospect would have all the details about your product or service. You only have to nudge the prospect to make the purchase. In this email closing, you can bring the product features and testimonials together along with other catchy stuff like the product guarantee you are offering. You can use the FOMO or Fear of missing out tactic by mentioning what the prospects would lose by not investing in your product or service.
- Email to make the last call
In this last email, you can remind the prospect about your product or service. As they already know all the facts, you can use the last email to convince them to take action. Using the 3-point close formula will work here wherein you give the recipient 3 important things to think about, Also, use the opportunity to create a sense of urgency by using phrases like ‘You have only 11 hours le ft’.
Stay in touch
Even after making the sale, you can make use of the funnel to upsell to your existing customers. You should also engage customers by sending valuable content to them and asking them for feedback. Thank them for buying from you and find ways to stay in touch with them on social media.
There are many other benefits of keeping in touch with existing customers including getting referrals. Also, even if the prospect doesn’t close the deal, it is not the end as you can send reminders to them to focus on what they are missing out on. There is still a chance of them turning into a paying customer.
The Final Takeaway
With the help of email marketing, it is possible to hit the sales target more effectively. Using the email marketing funnel and the email sequences mentioned above, you can reach out to prospects and turn them into loyal customers. Even after they purchase your product, it is a good idea to stay in touch so that you can approach them for upsells and ask for referrals.
