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When it comes to inbound marketing, there are multiple marketing tactics that work together to create the lead generation machine that is your website.  Being a team member at an inbound marketing agency I’ve witnessed first-hand how all these different marketing activities work together to bring customers to you, instead of going out and searching for them yourself.  One aspect that continues to blow me me away is inbound email marketing, and how drastically email metrics increased after implementing an inbound strategy.

Here are a few necessary elements to include in your email strategy to effectively support your inbound marketing strategy.

An Effective List Building Tool

Your email marketing won’t do your business any good if you don’t have anyone to send your messages to.  (Obviously right?)  Unfortunately, many businesses overlook this aspect in their email strategy.

This can either be a pop-up that asks for an email in return for some type of valuable offer such as a piece of content or a first-time discount.  The opportunities are endless with these, and with a little creativity you can drastically increase the size of your database.

An Advanced CRM

A CRM that allows you to segment your contacts, then segment them again is extremely important for inbound email marketing.  Inbound marketing is all about delivering personalized messages to the right people at the right time, so making sure you can effectively segment your contacts to do this will make or break your email strategy.

Depending on the CRM software you have, there are multiple ways you can segment your database to deliver relevant messages to your customers.  To name a couple, some of the most effective ways to segment are by customer lifecycle stage and buyer personas.

The Welcome Email

When someone relinquishes their email address into your hands, the least you can do is welcome them into your community with open arms.  They’ve made the first move, and it’s time for you to react.  Not sending a welcome email is essentially making eye contact with someone, then looking away without saying hello.  Don’t be that person.

When users give up their email, they expect an email.  I know when I sign up for newsletters and updates from companies, I’m somewhat put off if they don’t send a welcome email.  These emails produce extremely high open and click rates, making it an effective tool to get them started on their buying journey.

The Follow-Up Email

Have you every requested information from a website and then nothing happened?  This is email marketing suicide as it shows your audience that you couldn’t care less about the actions they take on your site.  They’ve reached out and acted on the content you’ve produced, the least you can do is acknowledge them.

This is where email automation comes into your strategy.  Did someone download your latest ebook?  Send them an email.  Did they make a purchase on your site?  Send them an email.  Keep the digital conversation going and drive the value through their inbox.

Dynamic Emails

Newsletter emails are a great way to deliver news, blog posts, and any other company updates to a large portion of your contact list.  However, the last thing you want to do is send an irrelevant message to someone.  This is where dynamic emails come into your inbound email marketing strategy.

Dynamic emails are emails that show different messages to different segments of your contacts within a single email.  In order to this, you need to have a CRM that’s capable to do so, but this can boost the metrics of your email blasts through the roof. 

The Thank-You Email

Many companies use these after they’ve completed a purchase on their website, (which is awesome!) but that’s not the only reason to thank your contacts.  You can thank them for downloading your latest offer.  Thank them if they actively comment on your social or blog posts.  It doesn’t need to be big, and most people appreciate a simple thank you email.

These elements will work wonders for your inbound marketing strategy.  They empower you to send relevant messages to the right people at the right time and in turn send brand engagement through the roof.  Inbound email marketing is changing the way businesses and consumers view email.  It allows people and brands to connect in a personal way that effectively drives revenue, and it isn’t showing any signs of slowing down any time soon.