To the surprise of some marketers, we tend to steer our clients away from spending time and money on creating graphic-rich HTML e-mails to integrate into their telemarketing nurturing strategy. Here’s why:
By definition, a lead nurturing strategy is based on a relationship-building approach. Therefore, the best way to integrate e-mail to your existing telemarketing strategy is to develop plain-text e-mail templates that can be quickly customized and sent. It is important that your e-mails are perceived as relevant one-to-one communications and do not come across as mass marketing or advertising pieces. The most effective nurturing e-mails are personalized, tie to a business issue that the prospect has previously communicated, and include an invitation to respond. When it comes to lead nurturing, it is very important to keep the text short and relevant – making it readable from the preview window.
In terms of timing, there are four keys ways to integrate e-mail with telemarketing in order to help generate sales leads:
- One-to-one follow-up immediately after a conversation
- Informational emails prior to a scheduled call (acts as a good reminder too!)
- Scheduled one-to-one e-mails between phone conversations (especially effective when the time between calls is greater than six weeks)
- One-to-many messages delivered to strategic groups based on business issues
Utilizing these tips will positively impact your lead nurturing initiative and assist your team in generating sales-ready leads.