What’s an email nurture sequence? That may very well be the first question. It’s a string of emails that you set up to send automatically, over a period of time, to people who’ve signed up to your mailing list. The idea is that you ‘nurture’ new sign-ups from just giving you their email address, to giving you money for whatever product or service you offer.
You’ve probably received a mountain of them yourself from businesses big and small, and so you’ll know when they’re good and get your attention, and when they annoy you to the point of ignoring them – or even unsubscribing. I’ve collected some of the worst email nurture sequence mistakes that some businesses make – so we can try to avoid making them ourselves…
1 – Content They Don’t Want – Yet
Your email nurture sequence should be specifically designed for a person who’s just signed up with you, so the content needs to be appropriate for where they are in their experience with you. In the early days, it’s no good sending them the same things your seasoned customers get. They need a series of emails that’s designed to warm them up.
2 – Just Too Many
Bombarding your new leads with too many emails in a short period is a big mistake – they may not have decided what sort of commitment they want to make to you yet. Filling their inbox is definitely not a risk you want to take, and probably not what they were looking for when they signed up.
3 – Too Much Selling
This is linked to the Content one, but it’s worth emphasising that people don’t want a stream of hard-sell emails. All they’ve done is decided they’d like to hear more from you, and you probably don’t have them opening their virtual wallets yet. So make sure your selling information isn’t at the forefront in every email – you need to build a relationship first.
4 – Too Long, Did Not Read
Give some thought to the emails you yourself are happy to spend time opening and reading. They probably have a good mix of images and text, and aren’t too heavy on the wordage. If there’s too much reading to get through, or if it’s littered with technical terms, you’re not going to keep them engaged to the end – and run the risk of them not even opening your next one.
5 – Ignoring Unsubscribes
Perhaps they wanted your free download, and don’t want to hear from you again – that’s OK, and it’s their right to unsubscribe. But the worst mistake you can make here is to ignore the unsubscribe, and keep on sending regardless, because it’s almost guaranteed to annoy them. At least if you honour the unsubscribe, they’re more likely to come back when they realise how brilliant your freebie was.
6 – Inconsistency
Keep your language, tone and content in line with your brand everywhere else. Changing these thigns is confusing, and readers won’t know which pigeonhole to put you in – and they definitely won’t feel confident to buy from you.
7 – Not Optimised for Mobiles
This is just annoying, isn’t it? When you have to zoom in and scroll across to read a whole line…and the chances are the full email won’t get read on phones, and neither will your future ones. It’s such a simple thing, and so important – so make sure your emails look good and are easy to read on mobile as well as a laptop screen.
So What’s a Good Email Nurture Sequence?
A successful email nurture sequence requires careful planning, personalisation, relevance, and a focus on building those relationships with the people who’ve signed up with you. And as luck would have it, that’s exactly what we’re talking about in my February Masterclass!
On 13 February, my Writing Club members and I will be joined by Ann Little, a business manager with many years’ experience in business goals and growth, most recently through her own business, Strive4. She’s also an expert in marketing tools and setting up the infrastructure you need to turn new contacts into customers.
She’s going to talk us through the whole nuture process: from the point you sign them up, to the action you want them to take.
My Masterclasses are free to members (and there’s a special joining offer of £19 per month on right now!), or £20 per ticket for non-members. Find out more here… https://rlcwords.co.uk/product/creating-an-email-nurture-sequence/
