A finely-tuned email funnel will generate leads, drive demand, and create brand loyalty. Whether you’re a freelancer boostrapping your business or a small business with 25 employees, a well-developed email funnel strategy deserves a prominent place in your marketing plan.
Email Funnel FAQ
Top of the Funnel Email Strategy
Mid-Funnel Email
Strategy
Bottom of the Funnel Email
Strategy
As a business owner or marketing direcctor, there are three types of email funnels to use in your marketing plan:
- Top of the Funnel
- Mid-Funnel
- Bottom of the Funnel
When used with the overall marketing plan and sales objectives in mind, an email funnel can be the cornertstone of your customer journey.
To help you in your marketing efforts, we’ve provided a few free resources here for you.
Need help with your email funnels?
View email funnel prices and contact Matt on Fiverr >>
Email Funnel FAQ
An email funnel can attract new traffic to your brand, allow you to repurpose content, and drive conversions for your bottom line, but what is an email marketing funnel?
Here are three common questions that deserve answers:
What is an email marketing funnel?
An email funnel refers to how your customer moves through a sales pitch. This is often crafted by business owners to sell a product or service through educational content and persuasive selling.
Email marketing funnels also have the objective of intensifying the relationship between a brand and it’s audience.
Is email marketing a sales funnel?
No, but it can be. A sales funnel is the overall tactic of moving your audience from casual observer to raving fan! An email funnel is a crucial part of your overall sales strategy.
To explain it better, we can say, it is the set of emails a marketer sends out to move a customer forward in a customer journey.
Do email funnels really work?
Email funnels are a big deal in the marketing world because they work… really, really well. People are still tuned into their inboxes, check out these statistics from OptinMonster: 99% of email users check their email every day.
The problem is not do they work, the problem is do you know how to monitor your email funnel. A recent study showed 68% of companies don’t know how or what to measure in their email funnels.
What tools will I need to send emails?
You will need a email service provider (ESP), and usually this comes in the form of a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Small businesses should consider Mailchimp for their ESP and their CRM platform.
What benefit is a CRM to my lead funnel?
It can boost productivity by simplifying how you track contact information and sales activities, and by integrating with other tools like email, calendar and social media .
It can improve targeting and segmentation by collecting and analyzing customer data, by sending emails from a trustworthy server, and by creating personalized campaigns and offers based on customer segments.
How does a CRM help the sales process?
It can increase sales by streamlining the sales process and automating tasks like lead generation, follow-up and closing .
It can boost customer retention by increasing customer satisfaction, engagement and loyalty, and by reducing churn and attrition rates .
Top of the Funnel Email Strategy
At the top of your marketing funnel, you’re focused on increasing your brand awareness and reach. The same is true in a top-of-the-funnel email sequence. But the first step is to gather contact information. Less is more at this point, because contact information is valuable. At the top of the funnel, you’re only asking for first names and one piece of contact information (email, social media messaging access, or SMS number).Enter your text here…
1
Increase Reach and Traffic
The purpose at the top of the funnel is to increase brand awareness by reaching a broader audience and generating traffic to your website, shop, app, or storefront.
2
Top-of-the-Funnel Ideas
Use short email sequences to get quick conversions on low-level offers. Also focus on driving traffic back to your website to help prospective customers move further along the customer journey.
Great content to provide in these emails are inforgraphics, questions that link to landing pages or free offers, or checklists. Think about the kinds of quick, but valuable content your can provide to create a sense of reciprocity with your prospects.
Mid-Funnel Email Strategy
The middle of the funnel is where you bridge the gap between the top-of-the-funnel (awareness) and the bottom (decision). Depending on the product or service you provide, the customer journey can branch into many directions here. Regardless of your business niche, the objective is the same: build engagement.
Leads at this stage of the journey are in the consideration phase. They are aware of your brand and are contemplating the solutions you provide. They’re evaluating their own problems/needs and viewing your product or service as a potential fit.
The goal behind your email marketing is to build trust, position yourself as an authority, and add value. If you’re products/services are truly a solution, then the trust, authority, and value combination will result in revenue.
Trust + Authority + Value = Revenue
Top Content for Mid-Funnel Emails
- How-To Guides
- Product Overviews (Think Video!)
- Case Studies
Metrics for Mid-Funnel Emails
- Email Open Rates
- Email Engagement Rates
- Contact Ratings
- Traffic to Landing Pages
Objectives for Mid-Funnel Emails
- Audience Segmentation
- Increase Email Deliverability
- Website Traffic
- Increased Social Media Engagement
Bottom of the Funnel Email Strategy
Bottom-of-the-funnel marketing is typically about conversions, but that doesn’t only mean short-term revenue. Sales conversion is a central part of your email strategy here. However, an oft-forgotten strategy is lifetime value. Think of using email in the bottom-of-the-funnel as a way to create raving fans and a blossoming community.
1
Creating Fans
Insider perks, exclusive sales, engaging events, and other community-building tactics should be communicated in your bottom-of-the-funnel email strategies.
2
Email Ideas
- Content to Promote: Use email campaigns to promote behind-the-scenes videos, share success stories, hold VIP live/online events, and build community by asking for input and feedback.
- Metrics to Watch: Email click rates, converstion rates, number of payments, lifetime customer value, email replies, event signups.
Breaking Down a Sample Email Funnel
Step 1
Caleb gives us his name and email after landing on a webpage.
Step 2
Instantly, Caleb receives an automated email and clicks a confirmation link, which takes him to a free download.
Step 3
Caleb contact information is tagged “name_of_free_download”.
Step 4
One Day Later, Caleb receives an email asking for his thoughts on the download. He clicks the link in the email.
Step 5
Caleb clicks to a landing page where we introduce our brand in a 30 second video and ask for a comment on a thread of other people like Caleb talking about the free download.
Step 6
Two Days Later, We responded to Caleb’s comment online, and now he receives an email leading to a high-performing blog post.
Step 7
Caleb clicks to the blog post and sees valuable content that has been finely tuned for sales conversions.
Step 8
Caleb contact information is tagged “name_of_customer_profile”.
Step 9
Two Days Later, Caleb moves into a mid-level email funnel segmented based on his new customer profile.
Need help with your email funnels?
View email funnel prices and contact Matt on Fiverr >>