Growing Your Business: A Beginner's Guide to Email Nurture Campaigns

So, you've heard the term “email nurture campaign” tossed around in marketing circles. If you’re new to email marketing, you're probably thinking, "What on earth is that?” Followed quickly by, “...and do I need one?"

If so, you’re in the right place. Let’s use an analogy.

Imagine you're a gardener, and you've just bought a packet of sunflower seeds. What's the first thing you're going to do with those seeds? Just throw them on the ground and hope for the best?

Of course not!

These seeds, much like the leads for your business, are full of potential! They could grow into towering sunflowers, reaching for the sky in a burst of yellow radiance that lights up your entire garden. But to get them there, you need to nurture them.

Just as you'd plant your seeds in fertile soil, give them the right amount of sunlight, water them regularly, and maybe even talk to them (plants have feelings too, right?), an email nurture campaign works to take your leads–your seeds–and provides them with the right conditions to flourish into beautiful sunflowers–or, in business terms, into loyal customers.

Sounds pretty cool, right? But how do you create these perfect conditions? What sort of 'soil' should you plant your seeds in? How much 'sunlight' and 'water' do they need? And how on earth do you talk to a lead?

Stick with me, together, we'll discover how to cultivate your garden of leads, transforming your humble seeds into a vibrant field of sunflowers. By the end of this article, you'll be ready to put on your gardening gloves and get to work on your very own email nurture campaign.

Are you ready to get your hands a little dirty and dive into the world of email nurturing? Let's get started!

What Is an Email Nurture Campaign?

An email nurture campaign is a series of automated emails that are sent out to prospective customers (or leads) to engage them, build a relationship, and gradually guide them down the sales funnel to make a purchase.

To get back to our analogy, imagine a seed. To make it grow into a plant, you need to nurture it with the right amount of water, sunlight, and nutrients over time. Similarly, an email nurture campaign involves nurturing your leads (the 'seeds') by providing them with valuable and relevant content ('water, sunlight, and nutrients') over a period of time until they're ready to become customers (the 'plants').

Email nurture campaigns are typically triggered by a specific action, such as when a person signs up for a newsletter, downloads a resource, or fills out a form on a website. From there, the campaign sends out a series of emails based on a predetermined schedule or user behaviors.

The aim of a nurture campaign is to keep the company or product in the mind of the lead, provide valuable information, build trust, and make a sale. Because they're automated and scalable, nurture campaigns are a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes.

How Do I Start a Nurture Email Campaign?

Glad you asked! Let’s walk through it together, step-by-step, with some helpful FAQs and examples.

Step 1: Understanding Your Target Audience

Just like in gardening, the first step in launching a successful email nurture campaign is to understand who you're planting for. In marketing terms, this is your 'target audience'. These are the people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service – the ones who are most likely to turn from seeds (leads) into glorious sunflowers (customers).

So how do you get to know your target audience?

It's all about doing your homework. You may need to dig deep into the soil to understand what your audience needs and wants. What are their challenges and pain points? What kind of content do they consume? What motivates them to make a purchase?

This is where audience segmentation comes into play. It's like understanding that some of your plants might need a bit more water, some might thrive in less sunlight, and some might need extra fertilizer. By segmenting your audience, you can personalize your approach and create email content that is as irresistible to them as a sunny day is to a sunflower.

Remember, the better you know your audience, the better you can cater to their needs. Just like the right amount of sun, water, and care can allow a sunflower to bloom, understanding your target audience can allow your leads to blossom into customers.

Step 2: Identify Your Campaign Goals

Now that you’ve identified your seeds and understand what they need to thrive, it's time to decide what kind of garden you want to grow. In the world of email nurture campaigns, this means determining your email marketing goals.

Imagine this: you're standing in front of a plot of land, seeds in hand, sun hat on head. What do you see? A small, tidy garden with a few tall sunflowers? Or a sprawling field, golden with blooms as far as the eye can see?

Your vision for your email nurture campaign should be clear from the outset. This is where setting SMART goals comes in.

Do you want to increase your email open rates? Convert more leads into customers? Engage with your existing customer base more effectively? By setting SMART goals, you can make sure your nurture campaign is on the right track.

How Do You Write a Nurture Email?

Alright! We've got our hands dirty and our seeds are ready to be planted. Now, the real nurturing begins. Let's get to work on crafting our email nurture sequence.

Step 3: Crafting Your Email Nurture Sequence

In the world of email marketing, this sequence is a series of emails that you send to your leads over time. Each email serves a purpose, just like each step in caring for your sunflowers. You might start by introducing your business (planting the seed), then provide valuable content (watering and providing sunlight), and finally make a sales pitch (harvest time).

But remember, just like in gardening, timing and consistency are key. You can't rush the growth of a sunflower, and you can't rush a lead into becoming a customer. It's all about providing the right content, at the right time, and at the right pace.

How Many Emails for a Nurture Campaign?

The number of emails in a nurture campaign can vary significantly. Your product or service, the complexity of your sales process, and your target audience’s behavior will all play a role. However, a good place to start is with a series of four to six emails.

Step 4: Personalizing Your Emails

Now, here's where our gardening metaphor really hits home. Just like no two sunflowers are exactly alike, no two leads are the same. And that's where personalization comes into play.

There are a ton of personalization options–addressing each lead by their name, referencing their specific interests, or providing recommendations based on their previous behavior are great places to start. That way, you can make each email feel like it's uniquely crafted for them.

The result? Your leads feel valued and understood, much like a well-tended sunflower. And just as that sunflower is more likely to bloom, a well-nurtured lead is more likely to become a loyal customer.

Step 5: Measuring Success

The careful gardener measures the growth of their plants, checks the quality of their blooms, and keeps an eye out for any signs of distress. In our email nurture campaign, this translates to tracking key metrics and measuring the success of your efforts.

Are your emails being opened? Are your leads clicking on the links inside? Are they interacting with your content, and, most importantly, are they converting into customers? These are your key metrics - your signs of a healthy, thriving garden.

Email marketing software like beehiiv can help you track these metrics, just like a ruler or a gardening journal can help monitor plant growth. For optimal monitoring, you’ll find beehiiv’s 3D analytics feature is pretty impressive.

By keeping a close eye on your campaign's performance, you can understand what's working, and what isn't, then make adjustments as necessary - ensuring your garden of leads continues to flourish.

Step 6: Optimization

Now that you’ve got some metrics to work with, you may have questions. Is this subject line effective? Does this call-to-action work?

This is where A/B testing comes into play. A/B testing in email marketing means comparing two versions of an email to see which performs better.

You could test different subject lines, email layouts, images, calls-to-action (CTAs), and more. The goal is to understand what resonates most with your audience.

Just as a gardener uses the results of their experiments to improve their gardening practices, you can use the insights from your A/B tests to optimize your email nurture campaign and ensure it's as effective as possible.

Email Nurture Campaign Examples

Still feeling a little lost? Here are examples of some of the most common emails to include in your campaign.

Welcome Email

This email thanks the lead for signing up, downloading your lead magnet, scheduling a consult, or otherwise showing interest in your business.

This welcome email from Getaway, an up-and-coming company in the vacation space, automatically comes after signing up on their website. They welcome readers with gorgeous images, a discount, and a short snippet about the company. Notice how they also set readers up for the sequence. Promising to follow up with more detail makes it that much more likely that readers will be on the lookout for the next email and (more importantly) will open it.

Educational Email

The second email should provide value to your leads–educational content, tips, resources, or anything that your leads may find useful and relevant. Depending on your sales cycle, you might want to send 2-3 educational emails, each one providing additional value and subtly introducing your product or service as a solution.

The HOTH is a popular marketing company that offers free tools for marketing DIYers, as well as one-time and recurring marketing services. They do educational emails well in this example by sharing an “important lesson” followed by free tools readers can use to act on that lesson right away. Once readers start using those free tools, they may decide to hire The HOTH to take it off their hands - but this email is the first foot in the door.

Case Study/Testimonial Email

Share success stories of customers who have benefited from your product or service. This builds credibility and trust.

In this example from copywriting company Crowd Content, they embedded an image stating how they helped Pyro Strategic Solutions increase turnaround time by 250%. That image links to the full case study on their site.

Sales Pitch Email

Now that you've nurtured your leads with value and built trust, you can make your sales pitch. Highlight the benefits of your product or service, and encourage leads to make a purchase.

Take this one by Bird, a scooter rental service. They decided to keep it short and simple, highlighting the primary benefit (having a quick ride for your commute) and encouraging leads to make a purchase by providing a discount link. Notice how they also added some urgency (this sale may end at any time without notice) for extra oomph.

Follow-up Email

If your leads haven't converted yet, send a follow-up email. This could include a special offer, a reminder, or a personalized message encouraging them to take action.

This email from Productize & Scale, a b2b company that helps business owners turn services into easily repeatable “productized services,” is a great example of a subtle follow-up email. The only ask here is that readers follow up by replying with questions, updates, or requests for help and information - an easy thing for someone who’s on the fence about a purchase to agree to. From there, they can start a conversation that (potentially) leads to a sale.

Email Nurture Campaigns (Closing Thoughts)

And there you have it! With constant nurturing and iteration, you're well on your way to growing a thriving field of sunflowers–or rather, a successful email nurture campaign.

But remember, your campaign will require regular reviews and updates. Are your lead magnets still attracting leads? Is your email content still resonating with your audience? Are your personalized emails effectively engaging your leads? It's important to revisit each stage of your nurture campaign regularly and make changes as necessary. A successful email marketer needs to be agile, always ready to learn from their results and try new strategies.

Ready to keep growing?

Let's continue our gardening journey together on beehiiv!