Emailing, the best lead generation tool

The time for brutal and intrusive marketing is over! To attract your prospects and convert them into customers, you must now capture their attention by offering them content adapted to their needs and accompany them smoothly through to the act of purchase.

In addition to good visibility on search engines and social networks, email remains an essential tool to deliver a personalized message to your target. Inexpensive and easily automated, sendingemail marketing allows the generation of qualified leads with an excellent return on investment.

What is lead generation?

A targeted and BtoB-oriented prospecting technique...

The term "lead" is an Anglicism used in marketing to designate a more or less qualified commercial contact who is likely to become a customer. Lead generation (sometimes abbreviated to "leadgen") consists of attracting the attention of potential prospects and obtaining the necessary information (surname, first name, e-mail address, etc.) to contact them directly. This targeted marketing can be done via traditional communication channels (trade shows, postal mail, etc.) or digital channels (emails, social media, advertisements, etc.).

Implementinga lead generation strategy is essential to enable your sales people to do their job as efficiently as possible. Rather reserved for the BtoB marketing field, this concept also applies to the BtoC sector with a long sales track record (automotive, interior design work, etc.). A recent study shows that lead generation is 62% cheaper than traditional marketing methods such as TV campaigns. Finally, it allows a precise measurement of the conversion rate and therefore of your return on investment (ROI).

... at the heart of inbound marketing strategy

Lead generation is part ofinbound marketing. This marketing focused on the user experience consists of naturally attracting prospects to your products and services thanks to relevant and quality content, broadcast on your website and social networks. This strategy is opposed to outbound marketing, which seeks out the customer via traditional techniques (advertising, paid referencing, etc.), often perceived as more aggressive and intrusive.

Beyond a simple advertising contact, a lead is characterised by a more or less thorough identification and qualification. We speak of a cold lead if the person has communicated his or her data without expressing interest in a particular product or service, for example by subscribing to a newsletter. Otherwise, it is a hot lead, which is obviously more likely to be transformed into a customer.

What are the advantages of email marketing for lead generation?

An instant and universal means of communication

Email marketing is a powerful digital tool for BtoB or BtoC lead generation. The figures speak for themselves: several hundred billion emails are sent daily! The number of email users worldwide was 3.8 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach 4.2 billion by 2022. According to statistics, 95% of French Internet users consult their mailboxes several times a day.

Fast and direct, e-mail is popular with businesses and customers. According to a study, 72% of B2B buyers prefer to exchange information by email, and 40% of B2B marketing professionals believe that leads obtained by emailing are of better quality. Estimated at 20% in 2017 at the Email Evolution Conference, the impact of email marketing on business revenues is steadily increasing.

An effective marketing tool to acquire, retain and convert your customers

Emailing is a direct marketing operation that consists of sending bulk emails to your contact lists. Inexpensive, it offers an excellent return on investment. There are different types ofemail marketing depending on the level of qualification of the target and the objective sought:

• Cold email is a prospecting email sent to professionals "cold", without prior interaction. This practice only concerns BtoB marketing, as French legislation prohibits the use of an individual's email address without his prior consent via an opt-in.
• The newsletter or e-newsletter allows you to regularly share with your audience free informative content corresponding to their interests, in order to build a deep and lasting customer relationship. This " lead nurturing " approach aims to gradually bring your prospects to the buying decision.
• Thecommercial offer is aimed at leads that have reached a sufficient degree of maturity thanks to the previous steps. It should encourage your future client to act quickly by inserting call-to-action (CTA: calls to action) and links to your website or landing page.

How to generate qualified leads through emailing?

Implementing a targeted and adapted communication strategy

Email marketing allows to maintain the interest of prospects until they are ready to make a purchase. To send the right message at the right time, it is essential to segment your leads according to their profile: demographics, behaviour, degree of progress in the sales tunnel, etc. Pay particular attention to the following elements:

• Takecare of the subject of your email to maximize its opening rate and deliverability. Exclamation marks and catchy terms are to be avoided at the risk of ending up in your recipient's spam!
• Customize the content to suit your target audience. Marketing automation allows the automatic sending of emails triggered by specific user actions (welcome message, reminder in case of abandoned shopping cart, etc.).
• Insert visible and striking CTAs to encourage the prospect to click: promotions, downloading of free content (ebook, white paper, etc.). Landing pages must be responsive, as emails are increasingly consulted from a smartphone.

You then have the possibility toanalyse the performance of your email campaigns. Thanks to the monitoring of indicators (deliverability, opening and click rates, device used, etc.), you can score prospects(lead scoring) and optimise your strategy accordingly.

Calling on a specialised agency to manage your emailing campaign

Content production, database management, parameterization of mailings, analysis of indicators... All these steps require time and expertise. To generate more leads while focusing on your core business, you can rely on the skills of a professional.

Autour del'Image takes care of the creation and management of your email marketing campaigns from A to Z onyour behalf:

• definition of the digital strategy and the editorial line;
• opening and setting up a personalised space on the Sendethic platform;
• creation of the message and preparation of the sending ;
• campaign follow-up (leads generated, statistical indicators, etc.).

Contact us to set up efficient and profitable marketing campaigns!