At times, clients who are eager to get their email marketing campaigns launched will ask us how quickly we get things rolling. Here are the 5 greatest things about our company you can talk about – how quick can you draft up those emails? What’s the turnaround time on buying a list of emails based on these parameters? Can we get this moving in a few weeks? Well, yes, we could. But, as with most things in life – your results will be correlated to the amount of time you’ve invested in the initiative. If you’re undertaking a prospecting email campaign to bring your company name to new or lapsed individuals, there are two components that are critical to success. Unfortunately, they’re not always quick. But, without them, you’re taking a gamble for a much less successful campaign. Your two must haves for any new email campaign are:
- Good List Quality
- Great Content
Good List Quality
Buying a list? Be prepared for old data, and a lot of bounces. As a general rule of thumb, at TribalVision we always recommend running a purchased list through an email cleaning service like datavalidation.com to remove email addresses that have a low validity score. (Most list services worth their salt will reimburse you in credits for any email addresses that are deemed “undeliverable”.) But, even still, lists are often not a great fit for what you’re looking for – either SIC codes (used to identify industries) are only partially relevant since companies self-select their codes, or job titles don’t match with the decision-making or job responsibilities from one company to another.
A better alternative? Use your team’s existing lists of prospects, such as individuals they haven’t had time to follow-up with on a regular basis. Alternatively, bring in an intern or admin support to build your own lists using your own list of prospect companies and email-mining platforms like Hunter.io or LeadIQ. It’s more time consuming, but you’ll see the benefits through a list that’s a better fit, with fewer bounces and “this has nothing to do with me” responses.
Great Content
It’s not rocket science — good content drives results. In fact, for email campaigns catered to cold prospects or those towards the top of your funnel, your strategy must include content that’s digestible, relevant, and valuable. Until you’ve proven yourself by providing clear value, expertise, or unique solutions for your prospects’ needs, there’s little incentive for them to respond to your emails unless you happen to catch them at a time when they’re sourcing new partners. Don’t rely on the stars aligning — provide content that prospects want to read regardless of whether they’re assessing their vendor options.
Think through your customer journey to determine what kind of content prospects should receive at their stage of the funnel. At the awareness stage (top-funnel), short content like blogs and infographics, or more interactive content like video or webinars are a great bet. (This kind of content also tends to perform well for form-based ads, like those found on LinkedIn and Facebook). As prospects move through the funnel, begin adding in more long-form content and start introducing some comparative information, such as case studies, how-tos, and white papers.
Is it time consuming to build lists and email content this way? Yes. Does it require more investment from your team? Yes. But is it worth it for the level of engagement you’ll get as a result? Absolutely.
