The lead nurturing funnel is one of the best ways to get your business (or product) in front of your audience. Whether you’re an affiliate marketer, or run your own business, a lead nurturing funnel is a “must” for any business.
By collecting your subscribers information (usually an email), you can keep them informed of business changes, and build long term relationships. On a website, a visitor only has a short time to make a buying decision. After that they are long gone, usually never to return. But if you can collect their email, you can extend this time period to days, weeks and even years and decades.
Lead Nurturing Funnel – The Email Capture
The lead nurturing funnel starts with an “email capture” page. An autoresponder can then be used to follow up with an email series. Depending on your business or product, this can be tailor made to suit your own personal needs and those of your potential customers. On this website, you’ll see an email capture too. You might have even seen that annoying pop-up! This is where the lead nurturing funnel begins!
The email capture must have an enticing “hook” which offers to give your website visitors something in exchange for them giving up their details. This is the “legitimate bribe” you can offer your website visitors.
Once in your funnel your subscribers will receive a series of email follow ups to “nurture” the relationship. You should offer real value to your subscribers through your email series.
Then, you’ll increase the chances of them staying on your list. If you only spam them with emails which attempt to sell them something, they may see through your emails. Offer value first and you’re more likely to build a real relationship with your subscribers. Once they know like and trust you, they’re more likely to keep their subscription and purchase from you in the future.
Lead Nurturing Funnel – Marketing
Of course the lead nurturing funnel doesn’t actually start at the email capture page. It starts before with your marketing. Without marketing you won’t be able to get people to sign up to your email list. A website, an advertising campaign, flyers, banners or even a business card can be said to be marketing. All these marketing strategies should aim to get people on to your email list.
A business card can be discarded. A flyer will end up in the rubbish too. But once you have people’s email addresses, you can keep them “in the loop” of your business for years to come. Often online marketers will use a landing page to collect email subscribers. A landing page is a specific web page designed specifically for generating email leads.
On a website, the visitor has many options. They can browse through your posts and have a look around. A landing page is designed specifically with one aim in mind; to get your visitors to subscribe. They only have two options on a landing page: sign up or leave. A landing page will usually get more people to opt in than a website will. So if you’re spending money driving people to a website, it can pay to send them to a landing page instead.
Setting Up Your Marketing Funnel
Every business is different but the goal of an email marketing funnel should be to build long term relationships with your potential customers. When your subscribers know, like and trust you, they are more likely to purchase something you recommend.
Many businesses offer discounts through their email marketing, or update their audience on their latest products. For affiliate products, especially complicated ones, your email series can offer more detail and explanation into the product, or service which you’re offering.
Ideally, have at least 10 email follow ups which can be automated and help your subscribers know about you and your service. Some marketers will build email lists which have thousands of follow up emails. Subscribers may even purchase a product years after signing up to your list.
Some business owners will send out daily email broadcasts too. This can be more beneficial because it shows a consistency and relevancy which cannot always be replicated with a completely automated email series. This obviously takes more work and commitment however, as the business owner.
Lead Nurturing Funnel – Building Relationships
Ideally you will want to build relationships with your subscribers; particularly if you’re building an affiliate business and will be working closely with your customers.
To build the relationships you want in your business takes time. It pays to have a congruent message which is authentic to you. If you try to please everyone, you may attract the wrong kinds of customers. This is fine for some businesses and if you’re selling an obvious physical product, for example. But for online business training, for example, you need to find the right customers. This means speaking directly to your customer avatar. Your customer avatar is your perfect customer. They want what you have to offer.
Not all the subscribers to your email list will end up purchasing from you. So it’s important to qualify your leads as you get them. You can also do this through the follow up process. As your list of leads grows, you’ll likely be spending more more to maintain that list. This depends on your autoresponder service of course.
Qualifying Leads & Pruning Subscribers
To qualify leads before they subscribe to your list is a very good idea. If anyone can subscribe to your list, it also means you’ll get a lot of non-buying subscribers. If your email autoresponder service charges according to your list size, this can get expensive. So trimming out your non active subscribers and qualifying your leads are two good ways to keep your list active and your costs down.
Pruning non-active subscribers is good list management and involves deleting those subscribers who never open an email in several months or years. This depends on your list size of course too. Non active subscribers can affect your deliverability rate too and your emails can end up in promotions tabs and even spam filters if they appear too spammy.
You can qualify your leads through your marketing messages but initially you should do this on your landing page/opt-in page. Having a congruent giveaway on a relevant website is a good idea. Don’t offer a freebie which isn’t very aligned with your product range. Otherwise you’ll get the wrong type of subscribers. You want subscribers to be very targeted and focused on your product/service.
Value First, Sell Later..
Giving value is pretty important for affiliate marketers and business owners in general. It’s an obvious mistake to put the money before the value. But the customer cares about WIIFM – “What’s in it for me”. That’s the value!
They don’t care to line your pockets! With the many email marketing business owners around, it’s an obvious see those who simply want you to click on their link and buy something. It comes across as obvious that it’s what many marketers are doing.
So if you are genuinely looking for people who value you, and what you offer, you will shine out above the rest! Give value to your list and genuinely help your subscribers. Connect with them and encourage them to reply to your messages. Once you get a dialogue going and you are doing more for them than spamming them a link, they’ll see you’re real and genuine.
If your emails only say “click here” “buy this”, you’re not offer any value and it’s obvious to most that you’re only in it for you!