Nurturing campaigns are essentially how you follow up a lead magnet campaign. Lead magnets are an established and acclaimed marketing tactic, used for capturing someone’s email address to add them to a database for later use. However, that person may not be ready to buy yet, so you then need to employ the tactic of a nurturing campaign; something to nudge that person closer to becoming a paying customer.
“Nurturing is not complex. It’s simply being tuned into the thing or person before you and offering small gestures toward what it needs at that time.” Mary Anne Radmacher
Let’s look at how to achieve that…
A simple nurturing campaign in more detail
So, your lead magnet is in place and performing well. Let’s say you have a beautifully designed brochure detailing all the best hotels in the Cotswolds. You hope people will download the information, in return leaving you with their email address and mobile phone number. The ultimate goal is for them to contact you to arrange their Cotswold holiday and organise the chauffeur service and day trips.
The data they have given you is far too valuable to your business to leave it there. What else can you now share with those people after they have downloaded the brochure, to offer even more value?
The idea is to prove that you are well positioned as the expert in your field, to demonstrate your customer care, and to gain trust that when they book with you, they will have the best experience.
Thank you for downloading
The first thing you should say is thank you. Again, you shouldn’t leave it with that as this is an ideal opportunity to introduce your services or team in greater detail. You should also give them the option to opt out of further emails at this point.
Share tips
Your potential customer has seen the hotels and understand from your first follow up email that you offer a chauffeur service from the airport to their accommodation. They also know you organise luxury day trips around the region using your chauffeur service. So, the next email could be a great chance to talk about some of the excursions and activities on offer – highlight your favourites, and include a testimonial…
How-to guide
What if your potential customer isn’t looking for a chauffeur or luxury holiday experience, but could still use you to book the hotel and show around the area? You could send them a guide on getting around the Cotswolds using public transport. Or perhaps, send them a guide to activities in the region.
FAQs
People booking holidays in a place they’ve never visited, possibly from another country may need to know things like, what currency is acceptable, is there Uber and so on. Find the most appropriate FAQs from your website, consider your recent customer interactions for fresh content and look through social media groups to see what others are asking.
Call to action
Finally, after you have given as much helpful information as possible within this campaign you can ask your potential customer to take another action – book a meeting or make a call to have a no obligation discussion about your next visit to the Cotswolds, for example. And if they don’t take you up on that offer, or unsubscribe, you can move their email address onto a new list – the regular monthly update.
What nurturing campaigns are not
A nurturing campaign is not an opportunity to fill your email list, and it is certainly not a chance to spam people with sales messages.
Remember, they bought into your specific messaging about one thing – hotels in the Cotswolds. Any follow up should relate to that person’s specific needs.
Neither are nurturing campaigns a way to collect data for selling on later. Data is very valuable to people, and it’s entrusted to you because they want or need your help and advice. Your terms and conditions and privacy policy should be honest, freely available to your audience and easy to understand. And they should be able to opt out of email marketing simply and effectively.
Treat it like any other marketing campaign
For a really comprehensive nurturing campaign, you could consider what other platforms it could work on. How about running a social media ad campaign at the same time, capturing emails from those leads, whilst raising awareness and growing your following, or maybe even a Google Ad to find those people who are motivated to buy Cotswold holidays?
Additionally, look to mix up your communication platforms and styles. Don’t just rely on emails. What about text messages, WhatsApp, video?
And a final note on nurturing campaigns… Treat it like any other marketing campaign by setting SMART goals and sticking to them. Keep it specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound.
You can listen to my thoughts on nurturing campaigns in my YouTube snippet. Then if you’d like to talk about whether a lead magnet or nurturing campaign is right for your business right now, I’d be happy to book some time for a free ‘sound boarding session’. Visit my contact page to see how I can help.