Email Nurtures: Why On-Demand Campaigns Are Better

The Cognism marketing team has been doing a lot of talking about email nurtures on demand.

But what is an email nurture on demand?

It’s a new marketing strategy we’ve implemented, and it’s a little different.

In this article, we’ll explain how it differs from a traditional email nurture, why we switched strategy, and how you can do the same - all without your revenue taking a hit!

Sounds good, right? Let’s begin 👇

What is an email nurture campaign?

Email nurture campaigns help guide new email subscribers towards becoming customers by building a connection and fostering a productive relationship. 

They usually consist of a series of emails (also known as an email sequence) that guide new customers through the buying process by introducing them to your products and services, providing helpful information, and highlighting why they should choose your business.

More benefits of email nurturing are: 

Product selling

Nurture email campaigns benefit businesses that sell products or services requiring substantial research before purchase. You can help customers make an informed decision by offering educational content and product demos.

Strengthen relationships

Sales and marketing teams can use email nurture campaigns to strengthen relationships with existing customers. They are an excellent way to keep your customers in the loop about new products and services, send them reminders about upcoming events or sales, and engage them with content tailored to their interests.

Streamlining workflows

Creating an automated email nurture campaign ensures customers receive regular emails with relevant information. This will help you build stronger relationships and nurture leads into sales.

But here’s the thing:

At Cognism, we believe email nurturing on demand can be more effective and less disruptive to your potential buyers’ time. 

Here’s why 👇

Why traditional nurture emails no longer work

How many times a day are you ready to read a nurture email?

One? Maybe two? 

Most of the time at work, you’re pretty busy. That’s kind of the point. So when a nurture email lands in your inbox, you’ll ignore it or find it annoying. The things you’re working on are more important.

So you miss a nurture email. Big deal; it’s still in your inbox. You can get back to it when you’re ready. Right?

Be honest; how often have you scrolled through old emails to find an email nurture sequence you missed?

Maybe for a newsletter. Not a nurture.

Every time you send a nurture email, you gamble that the recipient is ready to read your content. Even after you’ve researched the best times to send an email, more often than not, it’s a bet you’ll lose.

That’s problem one.

Problem two is that the story you think your email nurture campaign tells is often lost.

If you’re drip-feeding information to a recipient over the course of a month, they’re (probably) not waiting with bated breath between emails.

Even though we’re sure they’re really good...

The recipient is losing a lot of the value your nurture email campaigns deliver. That’s because they’re waiting too long between them and missing important steps.

The time and effort spent creating a masterpiece of a nurture sequence is often for nothing. They haven’t seen the full picture.

Email nurture vs. on-demand nurture

A traditional nurture email sequence is sent to a prospect’s inbox at varying intervals, while nurtures on demand are entire email nurture sequences you host on your website.

This means the prospect can access the entire nurture simultaneously rather than waiting for your drip emails to arrive in their inbox.

Sounds like a blog page, right?

It’s not. Nurture campaigns, when done right, tell a story. They take the reader through a well-designed journey. Providing the perfect content to fill knowledge gaps and share information about your product.

And when done right, they can be content masterpieces.

We love email nurture campaigns. If you’re reading this article thinking it’s a call to stop running email nurtures, you’re wrong! They’re an opportunity for marketers to really flex their creative muscles, and they can be a joy to consume.

Check out our sales email templates for some email nurture examples.

We don’t take issue with email nurtures. In a customer-centric marketing model, we think the traditional email nurture campaign needs some work.

The traditional nurture email is a key part of the lead generation marketing model.

B2B marketers use them to:

• Discover potential customers through gated content, sponsored events, e-blasts, etc.
• Attempt to turn leads into customers with an email nurture sequence template.
• Encourage conversions by ending the email series with a demo offer.

By using this email marketing strategy, everything can be tracked, reported on, and optimised.

But it forgets a vital aspect of marketing - the customer experience.

Lead gen marketing teams will generate a huge number of demos and will convert a tiny number of them. Prospective customers get rushed into demos they’re not ready for.

At Cognism, We’re happy to generate fewer leads and convert them at a higher rate.

We’d rather create an awesome customer experience. This means ungating our content, offering nurtures on demand, and putting the customer first.

Saving us, and them, from B2B boredom.

Why do email nurtures on-demand work?

We choose to make fewer assumptions about our audience. We don’t assume they’re ready to read our nurturing emails or that they’ll read every single one.

We also choose to treat our prospects like people rather than numbers. We’re happy to lose people from the marketing funnel as long as we provide a great experience to our engaged audience.

If it’s not for them, then they’re not for us. If it is, we’re going to leave a great impression.

We still send nurture emails but include a link to our nurtures on-demand page. At any point, readers can access the emails they missed and the content they haven’t seen yet.

Listen to Demandism ep. 7 below for more advice on creating a killer demand gen strategy.

On-demand nurture Campaign examples

Our on-demand nurture emails are all set up as a web page with a menu on the side to skip to the email content that interests our ideal customers the most: 

Here’s a link to this on-demand email nurture example. 

We’re not alone in using this model. Here are three examples of on-demand nurture campaigns from around the web.

1. Intercom

Intercom builds relationships with its customers by creating a library of resources for them to access anytime. Each resource is tailored to a certain stage of the customer journey and can be accessed whenever ready.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot’s onboarding emails provide prospects with valuable information, but they also offer an option to “skip the email sequence and go straight to the product”. This allows people who already know what they want to quickly access the content without waiting for each email in the sequence.

3. Drift

Drift uses on-demand nurtures to allow people to access the content they need when needed – without having to wade through a long sequence of emails. Instead, prospects can quickly scan the list of available resources, pick one that appeals to them, and dive in.

Tips for creating an email nurture 

You’ll need to follow some nurture email best practices for the best conversion rates and higher-quality leads. Here are five from our experts: 

1. Start with a great subject line: 

Your email nurture needs to catch your reader’s attention, so make sure your email subject lines stand out and clearly communicate the purpose of your B2B email nurture.

2. Personalise your emails: 

Personalising emails is one of the best ways to engage with prospects and customers, so use their names, company names, and other details to make your emails feel more personal.

3. Segment your list: 

Segmenting your email list to send relevant messages to different types of prospects is essential. This will help you avoid sending generic emails that don’t resonate with people.

4. Focus on customer value: 

Your focus should always be on providing value to your customers, so ensure you fill your emails with helpful content that will benefit them.

5. Stay up to date: 

Ensure you’re staying up-to-date on the latest trends in email marketing. New ideas and approaches are constantly being developed, so staying abreast of these changes is vital to ensure you deliver the best possible content to your audience.

Are you afraid to offer your email nurtures on demand?

If so, it’s probably because your marketing model values MQL targets too much, which we understand. MQLs make marketing look good.

But there’s a path away from them.

Find a new way to generate high-quality leads and have marketing take on a revenue number. This simple change will move your marketing goal from the volume of leads generated to the quality of leads generated.

Better quality sales calls, less time wasted on bad-fit prospects, and a better reputation.

That’s a trade-off we’ll take any day.

So, how do you get lead generation taken care of?

Invest in one of the best lead generation providers - Cognism!

Speak to an expert today 👇