How to Stay in Contact With Prospects Using These Simple Email Hacks

Once you have your marketing strategy laid out and leads start to come in from your website, you’ll notice that not everyone will be ready to make a purchase straight away. Some will be exploring their options and weighing up costs whilst others will be “ready to buy next year.”

It’s important, however, that you treat these prospects just as well as you treat those who make an instant purchase. Make time for them and help them as much as you can so when they are ready, they’ll come back to you over the competition.

Many businesses make the mistake of thinking these prospects are dead in the water and won’t amount to much. However, they’ve already shown an interest in your business, making them a warm lead. It’s therefore important that you keep in touch with these potential customers.

So, how do you do this without coming across annoying? Here’s our tips.

1. Always collect their details

Obvious, yet important and something many people forget when a lead goes cold. If someone “isn’t ready to buy just yet”, it’s important to remember that they might be “ready” at some point. If you don’t have their details, how will you spark their memory further down the line about the product or service they were once interested in?

Therefore, when a lead goes cold, always to sure to make a note of their email address so you can touch base again with them in future. When you are taking their details, be sure to make a note of the service or item they were interested in as well. This will enable you to target future emails far more effectively.

With the upcoming changes related to GDPR, it is important however, that you have full consent to contact any prospects in future. If you're unsure of how the new guidelines will impact your business, check out this website or the fantastic guide that 5th Utility put together about it.

2. Keep it relevant

A sure fire way of ensuring those prospects never shop with you is by sending them irrelevant rubbish. They won’t read it and they’ll hit that unsubscribe button as fast as they subscribed in the first place - which nobody wants.

So, to ensure that old prospect continues to see value in your brand, you must share relevant information. Each time you email an individual lead, you have to see it as an important opportunity. Therefore, think about what they are going to be interested in and what’s going to reignite their interest in your business.

How to Stay in Contact With Prospects Using These Simple Email Hacks

3. Keep it conversational

When sending your email, think of it like a conversation between two people. Don’t overshare and bombard them with information. Keep it succinct and mention a few relevant points that the recipient will have an interest in.

By undersharing, you will spark their natural instinct of wanting to know more. It’s human nature after all and if you’ve thought out the email well, then they should have an interest in what you’re sharing. By keeping your email succinct you’ll also increase the likelihood of them actually reading it and responding.

4. Think about your subject line

Hubspot reported that 33% of people open emails based only on the subject line. Quite a vast proportion right? Therefore, if you are going to successfully reignite your relationship (however brief) with a past prospect, you must get the subject line right.

Anything looking remotely spammy will not stand a good chance in an already crowded inbox. So, avoid capital letters, “FREE” and “YOU’VE Won.” Most people won’t even open this type of email through fear of unleashing some form of devastating virus. Therefore, keep your email subject lines specific, succinct and try to show value. Again, put yourself in the recipient’s shoes and think about what’s going to compel them to click.

To help come up with something catchy, here’s 16 email subject lines ‘you’ll probably want to click.’

5. Be personal

You have the added benefit of meeting or speaking to this prospect in the past. This alone will help you to ensure your message is far more personal than a completely cold email. You could base your email on the original product they were interested in or their own hobbies and interests (if your initial conversation went that far).

This will enable you to really speak to the recipient and offer some real value. Whether you’re trying to make their life easier, offer a specific discount or simply tell them about the latest version of the product they were interested in. Taking this approach will hopefully enable you to get that dialogue flowing again and show that you are genuinely interested in them.

6. Start a newsletter

Sending a newsletter is another great way to connect with past contacts. It also provides the ideal platform for you to share you blog and other content. Just be sure to have a clear structure before starting. You’ll need to know how often you’re going to send the newsletter and what is going to be included. Consistency is key with this one so don’t let things slip once you go live.

How to Stay in Contact With Prospects Using These Simple Email Hacks

Conclusion

Emailing past prospects is all about keeping it relevant and personal. You have their details so be sure to use them well. Anything that looks remotely like an irrelevant blanket send will be headed straight for the bin.

Remember to make a clear note of each contact, what they were interested in originally and any other key attributes to note. This will help ensure your emails are targeted effectively and that everything you send is relevant.

Prospecting is a hugely important tactic within SEO. Unfortunately, not many people know how to do it correctly to make it work for their business. Luckily, the team at Imaginaire Digital are experts in digital marketing and prospecting and cover Nottingham, Derby and Mansfield.