If you’re a Dubsado user, you’ve likely started embedding a few of their forms on your website.
On your Contact page for example…
Or on your Work With Us page…
Or on page describing a specific service…
...and of course, all of the leads generated through these forms get plugged straight into Dubsado. Does it get much better than that? I don’t think so!
Now, before I move on to what you should be doing to nurture these leads, I’m going to give you two specific recommendations:
-- one that caters more towards the “browsers” who aren’t quite ready to start the inquiry process but want to learn more about you and what you offer. These types of individuals are typically earlier on in the buying process and will take longer to convert into customers, but you still want to capture their contact information.
Why? So you can nurture them until they are ready to buy, so that they choose to work with you over your competitors!
And how do you do this? By using a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is essentially a free incentive that you give an individual in exchange for receiving their email address.
Lead magnets can come in a variety of forms, including, but not limited to:
Your lead magnet can then be promoted in a variety of ways:
The beauty of a compelling lead magnet is that once it’s set up, it basically runs on autopilot. Every time you send traffic to your site, you’ll see your email list (aka your list of leads) grow exponentially.
Now, there’s a very important reason why I want you to nurture leads through your email marketing service, instead of through a Dubsado workflow.
Long story short, this will impact the deliverability of your future email marketing campaigns.
Without going to deep down the rabbit hole of the complexities of inbox placement, the more your emails get opened and clicked, the more likely your email campaigns will end up in the actual inbox (instead of the spam or Google Promotions folder).
Your email marketing service will send from a different IP address than Dubsado. And, those initial emails often have the most engagement. So, if they send from Dubsado and your marketing campaigns send from your email marketing provider, well, all that positive email engagement doesn’t then transfer to your ongoing marketing campaigns from ConvertKit, Drip, AWeber, Mailchimp, MailerLite, etc.
Make sense?
Ok, let’s move on to the actual nurturing process.
Now, you want to treat each type of lead differently. For example, a lead that comes in through a Dubsado form on your Work With Me page is likely to be more ready to buy than one that requests your lead magnet.
So, you may need to create 1-3 different automated email sequences. Nonetheless, the intent is the same. You want to immediately respond to every lead for two reasons:
Here’s what this might look like in real life:
See how simple that is? It’s nothing fancy, but to your potential customer, it will speak volumes (in a good way) about the way you do business. Plus, because you’ve addressed them right away and given them a way to book time in your calendar, the email is more likely to get both opened and clicked.
This automated email campaign may be very similar to the Contact page form. Or, it may include a lot more details related to the specific service the lead has inquired about.
Now this lead is a little bit different. They likely are still in the research phase of the buying process and need a little bit more information to convince them to pull out your wallet and work with you. So how are you going to do that: By creating an automated, lead-nurturing welcome series.
What would that look like exactly? Well typically I like to do a 5-series email sequence delivered over 5 days. It should include:
The main goal is to (1) provide A TON of value, (2) demonstrate your expertise and (3) encourage them to move forward with you by linking to your products, services or a way to take the next steps with your business.
And that’s it! That’s all you need in terms of automated email sequences to nurture new leads coming through your site. Easier than you thought, right?
Ok, so you’ve got all your automated nurturing set up, what’s next? Well, the truth of the matter is, many of those new leads you receive will not become buyers right away. Why? Well, the reasons can vary, but most of the time it just boils down to the fact that they aren’t quite ready yet. That doesn’t mean you should give up! In fact, it’s important to keep your nurturing process going. At some time or another, these leads eventually will make a purchase. And, you want it to be from you instead of someone else. If you stay top of mind and consistently add value, you’ll win the job over all your competitors.
And how exactly do you do this? Through ongoing educational email campaigns, between 2-4 times a month. I promise you, this is not as difficult as you might think. Where most people get stuck is (1) coming up with compelling content ideas and (2) feeling like they’re going to bombard their email list.
Let me dispel #2 first. This is, quite frankly, just a mindset thing that you need to get over. If you offer a lot of value, your subscribers won’t feel spammed. And, if they don’t like what you have to say, well, they can get off your email list. After all, you’re giving away your knowledge for free. They didn’t pay to be on there.
Back to #1. I’m going to show you a super neat trick that I like to teach to all of my clients. It takes A LOT of the guesswork out of content creation...whether it’s for your emails, blog posts, website, social media, etc.
Take a look at the video below. By using the free tool I mention and spending just 10 minutes on it, you’ll have a list of 100s of content ideas in no time.
Once you have all your ideas written down, you can plan out your email content for the next 1-3 months. Batching it in this way ensures (1) it gets done and (2) that you have a cohesive and coherent story from email to email. And don’t get hung up on on creating “the perfect” email. Consistency is better than perfection. And if you don’t feel like you’re a good writer, that’s ok. You’re an expert in your field and that’s what matters. Plus, you can always “record” your thoughts and get them transcribed by your VA or through a service like Rev.com.
Or you can create a video that you then email out to your subscribers if you’re more of an on-camera person. (I’ve had one client try this out and it turned out to be her most popular email ever. Moral of the story? Don’t be afraid to experiment.)
Now, this might sound like a lot of work, but I promise you it will pay off. Plus, a lot of it is a one-time effort only.
The truth of the matter is, your biggest revenue generator when it comes to marketing, should be email. If it isn’t, it’s either because you’re not doing it at all or your email marketing has some room for improvement.
Plus, when you layer this on top of other marketing efforts, like social media or paid advertising, you’ll find you get far better results across the board. Who doesn’t want that?
Lauren Pawell, MBA, helps entrepreneurs generate (and nurture) more leads through their websites. Through her company, Bixa Media, she offers one-on-one consulting as well as done-for-you services.
She firmly believes in getting business owners to focus on high-impact marketing efforts, so they don’t waste any time or money spinning their wheels on tactics that won’t drive real results. Case in point? That time she generated $262,822.58 in sales for a client using only 9 email campaigns.
As an online marketing strategist, Lauren has been featured in Copyblogger and Videofruit, appeared as a guest expert on Highbrow, The Office Talk Podcast, Live In The Feast, The Food Entrepreneur Summit, Teach What You Do, Nail Your Brand Camp, and Blissful Bites and has taught as guest faculty at the Laguna College of Art and Design.
