Topic-Segmented Email Nurturing Workflows

Objective: Increase retention within your email list, while also increasing the volume of traffic to your website from email.

How: I'm subscribed to less than a handful of email lists in total. The reason for this is that most emails I receive either aren't relevant to me or they don't add any value. If that's the case, why would I stay subscribed?

I see hundreds of articles being published every day around "how to grow your email list", which is great, but barely anyone is thinking about what to do to keep those subscribers happy and engaged - both of which go hand-in-hand.

The key to achieving this is a combination of matching the expectation of your subscriber and also delivering enough value to them via email for them to want to stay on board.

The way that I approach this is that the subscriber should get unique value from being on your list. This is why I create whole blog posts that will only be sent to my email subscriber (they're not published anywhere else) so that you literally have to be a subscriber to view it. This adds a lot of value, and most of the feedback I get from long-time subscribers is around this fact.

Matthew Barby Email Campaign Stats

This is why I consistently get a high open and click rate on my emails (see above).

Expectation-matching is another core part towards achieving this. I ensure that all of my subscribers are segmented based on the kind of topics they like to learn about. For example, if someone downloads my SEO Tactic Checklist then I know they want to learn more around SEO, so they're segmented into that bucket of subscribers and have a separate workflow of emails sent to them.

Finally, you need to get the right balance of giving and extracting value.

The typical workflow that many companies will use when they bring on a new subscriber is as follows:

Email #1: Welcome email.
Email #2: Share useful content.
Email #3: CTA to convert into customer.

In the above example, there's not a huge amount of value being given before something is being asked of the subscriber. I actually have 8 individual emails that are sent to subscribers that add a bunch of value before I ask for anything in return. Those that reach the next email are highly engaged and will be much more likely to give me something back in return.

I'm not saying you need to have 9 emails in all of your workflows for this to work, but you can see where I'm going with this.

Here's the process you can take to start mapping this out:

  1. For every entry point into your list, add some kind of segmentation rule. For example, if someone downloads an ebook on a specific topic, tag them with that topic in your list.
  2. Build out a simple workflow for each topic segment you have (3-4 will be more than enough) that adds value outside of your website and other web properties.
  3. Add some kind of feedback loop into your workflow. This could be a short survey you ask people to take so that you can better understand what they want (make sure you've added enough value before you start asking for this).
  4. Add in a CTA to convert only when you've added significant value to your subscriber.
  5. Don't stop once they've converted. Email is a great retention tool - use it!



6.4
Implementation: 10 hours
Effectiveness: 4/5
Difficulty: 6/10
TAGS
#email