Anyone who has an email address is familiar with junk mail. It fills up your inbox, distracting you from the emails that are important. Although you can create an impression by flooding someone’s inbox with emails, it won’t be a good one. The question, then, is how do you use email marketing to create impressions (and generate leads) without the appearance of sending junk mail? The short answer is “don’t sent junk.” The longer answer is, content marketing – send educational content your prospects can benefit from reading, things that pass the critical “what’s in it for me?” litmus test.
Think about Your Audience
Before you start creating content, you need to consider what your target audience wants to see, read and view. If you want to pass the “what’s in it for me,” test, you need to keep them in mind at all points of the content creation process.
Consider the following questions.
- What does your target audience want to learn?
- How can your company provide them that knowledge?
- What is the best medium to deliver the content?
If you can deliver the right content in the right medium, your target audience will begin to see you as a problem solver.
Generate Leads
Sending content and creating positive impressions is only the first step, however. You also need to find a way to turn those positive impressions into leads. When you send your content, include calls to action to help draw out interested parties and invite further conversation with your sales team. There are a few simple ways to do this.
- Ask them to send you an email if they are interested in discussing more ways you can solve their problems.
- Ask them to fill out a contact form on a website that will provide some of their contact information and what service they would like from you.
- If you are able to track specific visitors from emails to your website, simply directing traffic from emails to your site will help you collect more information about your audience. From this information, you can determine which email readers are more likely to make a purchase.
Be Patient
No matter how you do it, email marketing is not a one-and-done exercise. No matter how good your content, it will likely take time to build relationships and gain the trust of your target audience. The best advice is to stick with it. If you can provide useful content to your target audience and include calls to action in your emails, you will eventually see results.
For more information on lead generation and content marketing, read the following:
Lead Gen: Marketing that Sells
4 Building Blocks to Effective Lead Generation Marketing
The Stages of Marketing Engagement: Why One Size Fits All Marketing Does Not Work
