In a report released by Econsultancy, Advertisers where asked whether they nurtured their leads as part of a relationship-building process, or if they were solely focused on an initial sale. More than a third of advertisers (37%) said they were "focused on the initial sale rather than building relationships". More than half of responding companies (58%) said they nurtured their leads and tried to build relationships. In this month's ask the experts article Barney Willis, Director Media UK at eCircle and an expert in online lead generation, takes a look at the basic steps to ensure ROI as well as customer loyalty after a successful lead generation campaign.

Best Practice Article

A lead is for life not just for Christmas – Basic steps to ensure continual ROI from your lead generation campaign

After you have generated opted in targeted leads and before beginning an email marketing program, you need to think about the best tactics for converting these leads into customers.  Make sure you differentiate your email marketing programmes between existing customers and new subscribers. The four basic steps to test and get it right are; the welcome email, data segmentation, content and frequency.

Say hello
Your lead generation supplier should offer you the chance to send a welcome email on your behalf once the consumer has opted into your service. If this is not an option make sure you set a live feed that can be triggered and automated upon registering. The welcome mail should be sent as soon as the consumer has asked to hear from you. This will give you the opportunity to start the first initial conversation when the recipient is very receptive to your brand.

You should start the communication by saying 'thank you'. This can be communicated in the subject line as well as the main body of the message. This initial positive response will help to set the tone for the rest of your relationship. You could also include a gift to reward the new subscriber which will lead to further engagement with your brand or even a first purchase. Try including a voucher offering them 10% off their next purchase or free shipping on their first order.

Be data smart
The welcome message has been sent, you may have qualified your leads and some recipients may have already purchased. It's important to plan your email campaign around your new database. Remember customers and prospects need to be treated differently.

There are many different database segmentation options. The best place to start is to determine which makes the most sense for marketing your product or service. There are 2 main types of segmentation: Profile based and Behavioural based.  Profile based segmentation is based on demographic information collected through profile data (age, gender, geographic location etc) and will be one of the simplest and most effective ways of targeting your data base with the right message. Most of this data will have been collected in the data capture stage of your lead generation campaign. Behavioural based segmentation is more complex and focuses on analysing click and browsing behaviour or purchase history from a customer. This highly valuable information allows you to understand your customers on a deeper level, making it possible to tailor and personalise messages to each individual.

Content is key
Once you have segmented your data you will need to integrate it into your email creative. The key to successful email design is understanding the basics and keeping it simple while staying true to your brand. Unlike print media, where your communication design will appear in the same way to all of your audience, you have the opportunity to tailor what and how your recipients are viewing your messages. With recent research showing a growing number of people accessing emails from hand held devices and many different email clients rendering emails differently, these factors need to be taken in to consideration as they will change the way your email is viewed. You must always take into account the message and the aim of the campaign. Good copy writing is essential, if the content doesn't make sense or the copy is too long you may lose the attention of the reader. A clear call to action (CTA) is key in increasing the click through rate (CTR) of your campaign.

And finally not too little, not too often!
It is increasingly hard to define how little or often you should send your communications out. This really depends on your product offering and your recipients. In the initial stages try sending relevant offers and information that is engaging to your new database. If you are sending the right message to the right recipients i.e it is personalised and relevant, you will be able to profile your data and start using behavioural targeting. Remember your data base is ever evolving and shouldn’t be treated as one unit once the lead has set sail on its journey through the email customer lifecycle.

This article is a summary of eCircle's newsletter "Inside Digital Marketing". If this article was forwarded to you as a recommendation and you wish to receive further news from the email marketing sector yourself you can subscribe here