Email follow-up templates can help you navigate the sometimes tricky lead nurturing process by recognizing and systemizing the different modes of contact in the seller/buyer interchange.
Yes, it would be so much simpler if all your leads followed the same path at the same time like an assembly line, but the truth is, making a sale is a lot trickier than that. A customer may swoop in, leave their contact info, go over your materials, feel energized, but then get busy and forget while another may go from lead to buyer in short order.
All these leads need to be nurtured before, during, and after the sale to maximize value. That said, when building out your email follow-up templates, you should deconstruct each process individually.
Some examples:
- You leave a voice mail thanking the customer for their interest and seeing if you can schedule an in-person meeting in the next week or so.
- You have the meeting and follow up a few days later to thank them for their time and see if there are any more questions you can answer.
- You tell them you’ll be in touch by a certain day after the meeting. That day comes, and you reach out. (This is sometimes called a “trigger event,” i.e. “I’ll check back after the holidays,” then send a follow up on Jan. 2.)
- You meet at a trade show, conference, or networking event and send a follow-up thanking them for the conversation and seeing if there is any way you can help.
- You follow up to a follow-up email. (Yes, that will happen quite often.)
- You follow up with a sense of urgency. (“This is the last time I’ll reach out on this matter. Please let me know if I can help.”)
These examples are a great way for you to build a system that keeps you relevant in the lead or prospect’s eyes without overdoing it. They all address a different facet of how you know/met the person and what you intend to accomplish with your outreach. Differences aside, however, they should share certain qualities like the following:
Short subject lines
If your subject line is so long that it cuts off on the person’s email client before they have any sense of what the message is about, it is pretty much guaranteed that message isn’t getting opened.
Go to your own inbox. Review some of the messages that are still hanging around. Look at how much room the subject line takes up. When you get ready to write your own, try to stay within a certain character count. We recommend 40-50 (including spaces).
Good: Checking back, have you decided? (32 characters, catchy, doesn’t give too much away, but elicits a response.)
Bad: I just wanted to check back on the things that we talked about at the XYZ Conference. (85 characters, too wordy, would probably be clipped halfway through by email client; most would not be intrigued enough to actually open the email unless they recognize your name and you are someone they communicate with on a more personal basis.)
Brevity of content
All emails should be short. We recommend no longer than 150 words. Email is still something of a sacred space, and people do not like having their time wasted. Just get to the point. Remind the person what your connection is; share something of value; transition into a call-to-action that is relevant to the connection (more on that at the end).
Personalization — as much as humanly possible
Part of why you will want to consider multiple email drip campaigns is that your prospects and leads are at different places in the buying cycle, and generic language or throwing everyone into one general campaign that doesn’t address their specific situation is a sure way to get deleted or, worse, never opened.
By fragmenting your campaigns, you can create multiple email drips that are more personalized and relevant. When you have 10,000 or 25,000 subscribers, you probably don’t want to go through each one and add a little personal flare, though you certainly could and it would only help your chances. But even if you don’t, fragmenting and getting as specific as possible to the lead/prospect’s situation will help out tremendously with callbacks and conversions.
A Call to Action
Finally, really take the time to craft a specific and meaningful call-to-action.
Don’t just say, “Let me know how I can help,” if you can instead say something more specific like, “If you’re ready to add your son to your auto insurance policy, let’s schedule something this week. When are you available?” Specificity means so much more than regurgitated marketing speak.
In closing
Your email follow-up templates will help you save hours upon hours of time while also giving your leads and prospects a more personalized experience. If done well, they will guarantee you higher conversion rates at an affordable cost.
Now that you’re an email follow-up template expert, it’s time to act with Hometown Quotes’ most productive leads. Give us a call at 1-888-808-6007 or click here to receive more information about how you can grow your business.
0 Comments