Email Marketing Tips for Connecting With Prospects

An outbound marketing strategy can help raise brand awareness, cultivate new leads, and connect you with your consumers at various stages of the marketing funnel. Picture this: your company has a robust marketing strategy that includes regular posting on social media channels, optimized landing pages, and email nurturing campaigns that follow up with new business leads. But, you may be thinking, "What's next? How can I grow my business and take it to the next level?" The answer is simple. It's time to create an outbound marketing program. An outbound marketing program consists of emails that engage the potential customer to initiate a business transaction, partner with your company, buy a specific product, etc.

Not sure where to start? Check out these tips on how to create a successful outbound marketing program.

Create a Plan

First, you'll need to decide what contacts you want to engage in the outbound marketing program. For example, do you have a list of people you haven't talked to in a year or so and want to re-engage them in a campaign? Or are you going to a trade show and want to add your leads to the automation to talk to them about topics relevant to the show? 

After you decide who you're putting through the email automation, it's time to think about how many emails you want them to receive. We recommend anywhere between four to eight emails over three months. If you decide to go with eight, it’s roughly an email once every two weeks.

Develop Content for the Emails

Developing content for your outbound marketing program doesn't have to be overwhelming. Start by outlining what each email will talk about. Do you have success stories relevant to the audience you are trying to reach? Is there a new product or feature that appeals to your target audience? 

Once you have outlined how many emails you are sending and their topics, it's time to create engaging subject lines. Today, our inbox gets flooded with tons of emails. So how can you make sure yours gets opened? That's easy. 

• Make it personalized – You can incorporate their first name or personalize it based on what you know about your audience. For example, if you connected with people you spoke to at a trade show, include that in the subject line. 
• Keep it short and sweet – The majority of email opens occur on a mobile device. Therefore, the recommended character limit for a subject line is around 43. That way, it doesn't get truncated and cut off.  
• Tell a Story Through Numbers  – Adding a number in the subject line can increase open rates because, as consumers, we are naturally drawn to numbers because they immediately aid us in making logical decisions.
• Pique their curiosity – Society is drawn to something we may not understand, thus creating a curiosity gap. Having a curiosity gap in the subject line increases the chances of an open. For example: "What does decarbonization mean for HVAC systems?" may entice a mechanical audience to open the email because that is a topic relevant to that audience.

After your content is finalized, it's time to create and test the automation. Utilizing an email marketing automation platform like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or Active Campaign will alleviate the stress of remembering to deploy an email every few weeks.  

Test and Deploy

Now that you've created your email automation, you should test it internally before deploying. A thorough run-through will make sure the final automation runs smoothly. Be sure to note what day and time your final emails deploy so you can pop in to make sure things continue to run smoothly. In between email deployment, be sure to check user engagement. How many people are opening the email? Are there any bounces or unsubscribes? This information will be helpful after the outbound marketing program has run its course. You'll have all the information to see what worked and what didn't to optimize and start a new campaign.

Are you looking to start an outbound marketing program? True would love to collaborate with you to grow your business and increase brand awareness. Contact us today!