Mastering lead nurturing emails: Strategies to convert more prospects

Do you miss out on a way to generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a lower cost? That’s what proper lead nurturing strategies can bring your business. However, when there’s an opportunity, there’s always competition. Besides, keeping up with the trends isn’t an easy task. Each industry has its own peculiarities, and considering them all takes time marketing teams don’t have. 

So, how do you approach the topic and create lead nurturing emails that convert? We are about to find out.

About the lead nurturing process

Lead nurturing is a process of building and maintaining relationships with prospective customers at each stage of the sales funnel. Think of it as step-by-step guidance towards conversion — a lead nurturing campaign.

How? By providing potential leads with relevant information, engaging them, and addressing their pain points, you foster trust and increase the chances of turning them into loyal customers.

The goal of lead nurturing emails

A positive impact on trust and conversion are the basic goals of a lead nurturing email campaign. Let’s dig deeper and see how else it can benefit your business growth, according to Invesp:

• 82% of lead nurturing emails see an increase in opportunities entering the pipeline as their objective;
• 42% of nurturing emails target response rate improvement;
• 33% of email nurture campaigns aim to gain a higher acceptance of leads from sales.

A clear goal is a foundation of effective lead nurturing. It shapes your campaign and content and provides an understanding of the direction. Regardless of your target, nurturing emails can strengthen relationships during all customer journey stages. How? With a proper strategy.

5 strategies to improve lead nurturing email campaigns

A good strategy that adjusts to the industry is what separates effective lead nurturing emails from those that get lost in inboxes. I suggest that we review six strategies for three different spheres — B2B, eCommerce, and travel — so you know how to nurture leads towards conversion.

Create effective lead magnets

A lead magnet is a tool that provides potential customers with services or information in exchange for their personal data — email address, first and last name, etc. However, the right lead magnet not only attracts new leads but smoothly moves them into relevant sequences.

Let’s review ideas for lead magnets in the chosen industries:

• SaaS: Whitepapers, reports, eBooks, or free trials are great examples of common lead magnets. These highlight expertise and foster trust between the audience and the business;
  
  
• eCommerce: First-time purchase discounts, free shipping, or gifts for the first order are ways to attract leads in eCommerce. Here, the focus shifts to the immediate value, thus catchy sales and conditions;
  
  

  
  (Source: NYX)

• travel: Expert travel tips, discounts, and promotions for email subscribers help marketers get more customer data and start lead nurturing.
  
  

  
  (Source: KLR Bus)

Once you have customers’ contact information, you can move to the next step — segmentation.

Segment beyond demographics

How about taking a further step in segmentation? I am talking about behavioral segmentation, which is key to delivering relevant content to high-quality leads. 

The main difference lies in approaches — instead of relying on demographics, behavioral segmentation focuses on customer interactions. Let’s review how this strategy can help you nurture leads more effectively:

• SaaS: Customer usage segmentation could be handy in SaaS companies. For example, marketers can adjust nurturing emails for prospects who actively use their trial or feature or not use them at all;
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from Stripo)

• eCommerce: Businesses can use segmentation to group leads by their interests and include targeted content that speaks directly to their preferences;
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from NYX)

• travel: Companies can use benefit-sought segmentation to offer better-suited services for leads with different goals. For example, some prefer short-budget trips, while some want extended luxury stays. Considering these nuances brings value to nurturing email and makes them irresistible.
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from KLR Bus)

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Behavioral segmentation in email marketing: Effective strategies and examples

Implement hyper-personalization

Have you come across Netflix recommendations? It feels like the platform knows you too well, and that’s hyper-personalization in action. The distinguishing feature is the usage of real-time customer data and predictive analytics. 

As a result, you get an effective lead nurturing campaign that offers leads products or services they cannot say “No” to. The key helpers here are marketing automation tools, which let marketers scale.

Here is how you can benefit from hyper-personalization in different industries:

• SaaS: Based on features a prospect interacts with most, you may suggest guides, comparisons, product courses, and overviews;
• eCommerce: eCommerce businesses can send timely recommendations based on lead’s interests or provide discounts on the items a person favors;
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from NYX)

• travel: Recently checked destinations, tours, or accommodation types are a good foundation for personalized suggestions. 
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from KLR Bus)

Gamify emails

A good game not only brings fun to email marketing but can also turn passive email subscribers into engaged ones. If you are still in two minds about the power of gamification, here are some numbers:

Now that the doubts are off the table, we can check how gamification can improve lead nurturing emails:

• SaaS: Surveys, trivia games, spin-the-wheels, and star ratings can find their implementation in SaaS content marketing;
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from Stripo)

• eCommerce: Star ratings or NPS games, scratch cards, surveys, or creative games are a great addition to lead nurturing campaigns;
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from Stripo)

• travel: Quizzes, discovery games, and questionnaires could spice up nurturing emails and increase engagement. 
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from KLR Bus)

The key to successful lead nurturing is to encourage email subscribers to engage — the more time they dedicate and interact with the brand, the more likely they will convert.

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Try user-generated content

Would you trust a brand right on the spot? Personally, I would not. I’d start by browsing reviews and feedback and interacting with user-generated content (UGC) — the topic this section is about to explore. 

UGC is a way to win over skeptics and make lead nurturing effective. How does it work? People tend to believe people, not brands, at the beginning of the sales funnel, making this content irresistible. Let’s check how different industries can use UGC:

• SaaS: Customer success stories, testimonials, and feature reviews on platforms such as G2 or Trustpilot build trust and credibility over time;
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from Stripo)

• eCommerce: Unboxing videos, feedback from influencers, and product reviews ease the conversion for first-time potential customers;
  
  

  
  (Source: Email from NYX)

• travel: Those who plan trips themselves know that it is challenging, and trusting your journey impressions takes a lot of consideration. Adding tour reviews and feedback from existing customers makes the process less stressful.

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User-generated content: tips and examples

Main lead nurturing challenges

Equipped with recommendations, you can now glimpse the challenges that proper strategies can solve. Here are some recent findings:

• 82% of email marketers find it challenging to get responses to their lead nurturing sequences;
• 32% of marketing specialists mention leads going silent as one of the recent challenges;
• 63% of B2B prospects do not convert for at least three months, meaning once again longer cycles;
• 19% of buyers spend more time researching the company than they used to, thus have more doubts;
• 27% of the purchasers involve more people in the decision-making process, which means conversion takes more time.

What does it mean? For email marketers, it means that lead nurturing messages need to be more valuable. Ideally, nurturing campaigns should gradually introduce prospects to the product’s perks and focus on offering a solution rather than selling another product.

3 inspiring lead nurturing email examples

Let’s get you inspired. Below are catchy lead nurturing examples that may give you some ideas for the next campaigns.

SaaS lead nurturing example

The first email template on our list is a good addition to the SaaS nurturing campaign — elements of UGC make the email more convincing, thus increasing the chances of the prospect’s conversion.

(Source: Stripo template)

eCommerce lead nurturing example

How about adding an element of fun to eCommerce nurturing emails? This template has a visually appealing design, a personalized note, and a call to action.

(Source: Stripo template)

Travel lead nurturing example

The last example of a lead nurturing email is perfect for the travel industry. It mentions a discount, alternatives, and a call-to-action button, encouraging prospects to act.

(Source: Stripo template)

Wrapping up

Campaigns win over hearts when lead nurturing emails focus on prospects, their interests, and needs. The key to conversion lies in understanding the audience and sending the right message at the right time. With this approach, your emails gain more value and become appealing to the subscribers.

I hope this guide has inspired you to try new approaches in your nurturing sequence. Good luck!