How to Plan Inbound Marketing Campaign Emails

)

In the Elements of an Inbound Marketing Campaign, we covered:

• A checklist for the technical aspects of an inbound marketing campaign, including landing pages, thank you pages, follow-up emails and workflows.
• Ways to drive traffic to your offers via additional types of content such as blog and social media posts, as well as emails.
• And the kind of skill sets you’ll need to make it all happen, including a designer, web developer, writer and a Google SEO specialist.

With all of those basics laid out, we wanted to delve deeper into the email marketing portion. Although many businesses (maybe even yours) may dismiss email as simple one-on-one digital communication that doesn't require strategy, it is actually a powerful tool that too many businesses miss out on because they don't understand how it can be used for so much more.

Why Plan Campaign Emails?

If you have a list of subscribers that you intend to send emails to, you really need to plan out your emails. Subscribers want value, and if they don't get it, they unsubscribe.

Focus on producing quality emails that people actually want to read and market to people the way YOU would want to be marketed to. Use segmentation for a more personalized user experience, personalization to encourage a sense of trust and familiarity, and compelling subject lines to entice subscribers to open in the first place.

Your emails are going to real people doing real things in the real world. Treat them as such! Don't allow your emails to be just another piece of junk mail in their inbox. 

An effective email campaign offers valuable content to potential customers, nurtures leads through the buyer's journey and can serve as reliable automated communication.

Kinds of Emails to Include in Your Campaign

There are three specific types of emails to include in your campaign, and each serves an important role.

Marketing Emails

An effective marketing email lets your subscribers know that you have something valuable to share with them. This can include a call-to-action (CTA) that points to a blog, gated content (requires them to fill out a form to get the content), to inform them of an upcoming event, etc. It is meant to be purely informative and to offer something subscribers would find valuable. It is of value to you, as a company, because it is nurturing leads to take next steps with you. It's putting your brand in front of their eyes and subtly encouraging them to engage with you. 

One thing that is key to success in marketing email sends is segmentation. It prevents you from sending all of the same emails to one big, unbroken list (a big NO, by the way), and allows you to send more targeted content based on people's unique characteristics. Segmenting your email lists helps you to be selective when it comes to marketing emails. In our blog, 10 Email Marketing List Segments for Successful Sends, we cover ten valuable segments:

1. Geography
2. Age
3. Stage in the Buyer's Journey
4. Buyer Persona
5. Organization Type
6. Industry
7. Job Function
8. Education Level
9. Past Purchases
10. Interests in Products, Services, or Topics

If someone subscribed to updates about your events, send them information about upcoming events. If they have expressed interest in something you offer by visiting a page on your website, send them content on the same topic (if they have given you their email).

Notification Emails

The purpose of notification emails is pretty straight-forward, and they can be internal or external. A tip I recommend for these is to automate them as much as possible. This is a capability made possible by workflows and it saves your team time and energy, allowing them to focus on more important matters. Think of email workflows as a well-oiled machine working for you in the background that contributes to better organization, communication, and can even prime your leads until they're ready to take steps to do business with you.

Let's look at a simple example of a notification email in action. Say someone registers for your event; you probably want someone in your company to know and plan accordingly, and you also want to send the person who registered a confirmation email with all of the event details. This is where notification emails come in. With HubSpot software, you can setup workflows that send the recipients of choice automated notification emails when a specific action is performed. There’s no need your personnel to go back and constantly check lists to see if someone registered, or worry if they got a confirmation email. A notification is already waiting in the correct internal personnels inbox, and the individual who registered has the confirmation already sitting in their inbox as well! You can even choose to have a little delay after the confirmation was sent and then send reminder emails out to those who registered whenever you choose. It's all in the workflows. All you have to do is create the emails, setup the workflows to do what you want and when, and then you won't have to think about it. You can kiss repetitive email creation and sending goodbye.

Nurturing Emails

These are perhaps some of the most important emails. You never want to let an opportunity go to waste, but rather capitalize on what you already know about the people you want to nurture into doing business with you.

If someone downloaded content from you about a specific subject, and you have reason to believe that they will find another offer valuable, send it to them. This can be done through a series of emails (via workflows is best) that guide them to other content and campaigns. The goal is to keep your company on the lead's radar by continually offering them content that takes them further along the buyer’s journey.

Always ask yourself: “Should I be sending a follow-up email to users who took me up on this offer to guide them to additional content or events they would enjoy?” The likely answer will be: Yes! Then, when the sales team thinks the timing is appropriate (or the lead has reached out about doing business with you), they can take things from there.