Building a high-quality email list is only the first step to running successful email marketing campaigns. You still need to turn that list into a stream of loyal customers.
That’s where your email marketing funnel comes in. A high-impact funnel is at the heart of every successful email marketing campaign. You need to know how to build one if you want those conversions.
So, how do you build one?
This article will break down what you need to do to create an email marketing funnel that engages and converts your leads into customers. Let’s start with the basics.
What is an email marketing funnel?
An email marketing funnel is a strategic framework designed to guide prospects from one stage of the buyer’s journey to the next. With email marketing, this is typically from the moment they sign up for your email list until they make a purchase—or even beyond (post-purchase engagement).
Think of it as a roadmap that ensures each email in your campaigns grabs the target audience’s attention and moves them to take your desired action.
Steps for creating a high-converting email marketing funnel
Here are essential steps to follow to create a high-converting funnel:
1. Define your goals and audience
Creating a successful email marketing funnel starts with a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and whom you’re trying to reach. With this foundation, you can ensure that your email marketing efforts are aligned with your business goals and your audience’s needs.
Start by defining your goals. Your goals will set the direction for your entire email marketing strategy. They will determine the type of content you create, the tone of your emails, and the metrics you’ll track to measure success.
So ask yourself: What are you trying to achieve with your funnel? Are you looking to increase product sales, build trust and engagement with existing subscribers, promote an event, or nurture leads for a specific product or service?
Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. So instead of having a vague goal like “increase sales,” aim for something more detailed like “boost product sales by 20% over the next quarter.”
Once your goals are defined, go ahead and identify your ideal audience. When you know your target audience, you can tailor your email marketing funnel to their unique needs, preferences, and pain points. As a result, you can keep them engaged and seamlessly move them down the funnel.
So, how do you identify your ideal audience?
- Analyze current data: You can use a powerful tool like Breadcrumbs Reveal to analyze your existing marketing, sales and product data to pinpoint your ideal customer.
Through machine learning, the tool can unravel the attributes and actions that serve as the most reliable predictors of revenue for your business.
- Ask them directly: Customer feedback can provide even more valuable insights. Once you know the characteristics of your ideal customer, you can send out surveys or conduct interviews to learn more about their challenges and goals.
Use the customer information you collect to create a detailed buyer persona. This can help you visualize your target potential customers. Here’s an example.
The more detailed your persona is, the more targeted your funnel will be, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.
2. Segment your audience
Not all your email subscribers will have the same needs or be in the same stage of the buyer journey. So, leverage audience segmentation and divide your subscribers into smaller groups. With this more specific categorization, you can send tailored content that resonates with every segment.
Here are key segmentation criteria for B2B brands:
- Firmographic data: Segment your audience based on their industry, company size, and geographic location.
- Job title or department: You can also segment your email list by the job titles or roles of your contacts and their departments (sales, marketing, IT, or HR).
- Behavioral data: Divide your audience based on how they engage with your emails or website. Consider their purchase history and past interactions.
- Customer lifecycle stage: Differentiate between new leads, warm leads, sales-qualified leads, and long-term customers. This will enable you to keep each group engaged based on where they are in their journey with your brand.
You can use email marketing tools for your audience segmentation. Many of them offer advanced features that allow you, not just to create, but also manage segments based on set criteria.
3. Design your funnel stages
An email marketing funnel is structured into different stages to cover the different stages of a buyer’s journey.
Although the number of stages can slightly vary from one brand to another, we’ll explore six core stages in this article. Each stage has unique goals and content strategies that cater to the evolving needs of your audience. Let’s dive in:
Awareness
In the awareness stage, your audience doesn’t know much about your brand or product offering. Your goal is to introduce your brand and establish a connection with potential leads. Avoid overly-promotional emails and focus on building brand credibility.
Welcome emails are the most ideal emails to send leads at this stage. Send a series of emails to new subscribers that introduce your brand, highlight your mission, and outline what they can expect.
For instance, MarketingProfs sends new subscribers a 3-email welcome series.
It’s imperative for emails that introduce a brand to be perfect (or near-perfect). After all, first impressions count.
So, your emails at this stage should have even more exceptional copy and visuals than your ordinary emails. They should also come with a good email signature that incorporates your e-business card. A virtual card is a powerful tool for bolstering brand recognition since it showcases your branding effectively.
This groundbreaking technology also gives your potential clients access to your brand’s social profiles, website, and contact details in one click.
Overall, e-cards are an excellent way to encourage recipients to engage with your brand further while helping you leave a lasting impression that’s key to brand awareness.
Interest/engagement
Your leads are now familiar with your brand and are interested in learning more. The goal at this stage is to deepen this connection by providing content that keeps them interested and engaged.
Send emails that share exclusive industry reports, educational content with actionable advice, or expert interviews. See the example below.
You can also use quizzes, surveys, or interactive infographics to engage your audience and learn more about their needs and preferences.
Consideration
The leads in this stage are now fully aware your product can help solve their problem. However, they are still weighing multiple solutions. The goal here is to prove to them that you are the best option.
Share marketing emails with relevant and authentic real-life social proof. Success stories, for instance, can highlight how your product or service has benefited your existing customers. See how this email does this.
Also, include detailed information about your product features, benefits, unique value proposition, and why your product stands out from the competition.
Conversion/purchase
In the conversion stage, your leads are ready to make a decision. They’ve done their research and are looking for the final push to choose your solution over others.
Send emails offering limited-time offers, discount codes, or any other incentives that add a sense of urgency. See how Weave entices subscribers to schedule a product demo in exchange for a DoorDash gift card.
You can also include personalized recommendations in your conversion emails, based on the subscribers’ recent interactions. This may entice your leads to take immediate action.
Retention
The goal at the retention stage is to ensure your customers continue to see value in your product or service and remain loyal to your brand.
Send a series of onboarding emails to help new customers get started with your product. Include tutorials, best practices, and tips to make the most of your product’s features. Here’s an example.
Leverage product launch emails and keep customers notified of new features as well.
Additionally, you can share how other customers are using your product to educate the recipients on new ways to leverage your solution.
Advocacy
In this stage, you leverage the positive experiences of your satisfied customers to turn them into brand advocates. The main goal is to build customer loyalty while further boosting brand awareness.
Send referral program emails that encourage customers to refer others to your brand. Include special offers like discounts, free services, or early access in exchange for successful referrals, as shown below.
You can reward loyal customers with exclusive offers or relevant content. Also, request customer reviews, testimonials, or user-generated content that you can use as social proof.
4. Create and automate your email campaigns
Once you’ve mapped out your funnel stages, it’s time to craft your email campaigns. Each email should have compelling subject lines, well-structured and valuable content, and strong calls-to-action (CTAs) to encourage subscribers to take the desired action.
Also, personalize your email campaigns to encourage engagement. Besides using recipients’ names, you can use dynamic content blocks to show relevant information to different segments.
Before sending, you can leverage AI to predict the likelihood of each email’s effectiveness. Tools like AI Studio can help you create an app that can analyze each email using your company’s historical content engagement data as a barometer. The app can even make recommendations on how to improve the email content to increase the likelihood of a conversion.
You’ll need to leverage email automation once you have your final emails. Almost 60% of marketing leaders report they use automation in their email marketing efforts. That’s because it helps ensure email campaigns always reach the right segment audience at the right time.
Just use your email marketing platform’s automation features to set up automated email sequences.
5. Analyze and optimize
Building an email marketing funnel is not a one-and-done process. You need to continually analyze your email engagement metrics and optimize for better performance.
Pay attention to key performance metrics like open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, and conversion rates. These will help you identify any weak points in your funnel where leads are dropping off.
You can then use the insights gained to update your email content, segmentation criteria, and automation workflows to match evolving audience needs.
The more you refine and optimize, the more effective your email marketing sales funnel will be.
Conclusion
A well-designed email marketing funnel not only increases conversion rates but also helps you nurture strong customer relationships along the way.
Are you looking to build an effective email funnel?
Start by defining your goals and target audience. Then segment your audience, design your funnel stages, and create and automate your email campaigns. Don’t forget to continually optimize your email marketing funnel. You’ll need to do that to ensure you retain high email engagement rates.
Build an effective email marketing funnel today and transform your email campaigns into powerful tools that drive sustainable business growth.
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