You have a lot of compelling content that has helped your business get found and generate leads. Now, you want to use the content to generate new leads and teach your customers some new best practices. What’s the most effective way to do this?
Email marketing, of course! A recent ExactTarget study found that 75% of consumers would prefer to receive permission-based promotions through email, and 93% of online consumers have provided companies with permission to send them information through email.
I’ve broken down email marketing into five types of email. Your goal is to find areas that you’re not using email marketing effectively and to send your segmented lists relevant content and information.
Most emails you send should direct recipients to your website for them to take some type of action.
1. Educational Emails:
My favorite type of email, which should help answer a question or solve a problem for the people receiving the email. You should send educational emails when you have a new piece of content, a popular blog article, a series of blog articles from the last quarter, or any type of educational-based content.
2. Informational Emails:
Informational emails are short and don’t usually require a lot of action by the recipient. The email’s subject line might convey everything that is needed from the recipient. Examples of informational emails are webinar reminders, why someone should follow your company on twitter, or a "happy holiday" email.
3. Promotional Emails:
This type of email is my least favorite, but is still important. Promotional emails try to get the recipient to take some action around a new product, service, event, or special deal. These emails usually don’t have a lot content associated with them.
4. Lead Nurturing Emails:
It can take a lot of time and effort to move a lead through your sales cycle. Lead nurturing emails are here to help you do this without taking up a lot of your time. In HubSpot, you can set up eight lead nurturing emails per campaign and schedule them out for 90 days (60 business days). They should be short emails that are content-rich and try to get leads to take action on your website.
5. Newsletter Emails:
Newsletter emails are usually sent once per month and include three or four pieces of content you published over the course of the last month. Content can include blog articles, videos, or any of the 13 pieces of content outlined in our 13 Ways to Create New Content Offers Guide.
What type of email do you like to send? Did I forget any categories?
To learn more about how to send great emails, register for our free Email Marketing Certification course.