You can attest to having contacts in your database that once looked like great leads but became unresponsive overtime. While this could mean loss of prospective business, you don’t have to give up on the prospects. You could always find ways to bring the leads back to your site.
Your marketing or sales team can work on this by using re-engagement emails. If they’re well structured, these types of emails could convert cold leads into sales.
Defining a Re-Engagement Email
A re-engagement email is sent to a list of strategically chosen contacts, aiming to gently nudge them into communication. These could be contacts that have recently gone cold on your brand or those you haven’t heard from in a long while. It could be that your product wasn’t a good fit for them then, but circumstances have since changed, and you could do business together.
The overall goal of re-engagement emails is to have a prospect say that they’re interested in your product or service. In the best scenario, it could lead them to speak to the sales team about a purchase they need to make.
One of the crucial factors in re-engagement emails is segmentation. The email should be targeted or as customized as possible for the target audience. Not all cold leads are the same, and breaking down the list into smaller segments will help you achieve better results.
For example, a “we miss you” email to contacts that have never engaged with your brand may be awkward. Read along for the types of re-engagement emails you can use to come up with a situation-specific strategy.
1.We Haven’t Seen You in a While
This type of re-engagement email is believed to be the most classic. It targets prospects that have previously interacted with your brand but went silent for some reason. This type of email will pique their interest again.
The secret here is to keep it short, sweet, and honest without making it come off as a sales pitch. Grab their attention by pointing out that you’ve noticed their lack of interaction with your brand.
Additionally, you can add some links and resources they can use for their next step. Don’t pigeon hole them if you’re not sure of their current interests.
Related: Email Outreach for Sales and Marketing Best Practices
2.Latest Offer
With this kind of email, you should target cold leads that have previously shown interest and have buying potential. Its flexibility lies in the fact that it promotes a new or the latest offer from the company. This could be a webinar, e-book, or annual report recently launched by the company.
These kinds of emails are promotional, and you shouldn’t be afraid to showcase them as such. Through the email, you can tell the reader how the offer will benefit them and why they should sign up. To spark their interest, consider using an image relevant to the offer in the email.
3.Closed-Lost
When structuring your re-engagement emails, please don’t do it for the prospects at the bottom of the funnel only (BoFu). Incorporate those at the top and middle of the funnel, too (ToFu and MoFu, respectively.)
In the closed-lost type of email, your aim is to target the opportunities that were closed-lost by the sales team. The elements are closely similar to those in the “we haven’t seen you in a while” type of email. The aim is to understand the prospect better and create content that best serves their needs.
It’s best first to acknowledge that you have some history with the contact. Focus on having an honest conversation to incite a positive response as opposed to increasing your click-through rate.
4.Soft Touch
One of the factors of a good re-engagement email is that it doesn’t have to announce itself when it arrives. From your end, you know that the goal is to get the prospect to engage again. However, the email doesn’t have to say so explicitly.
One approach is to recommend a blog post that resonates with the reader’s interest. Do this in a simple way without coming across as being too aggressive.
With all these types of re-engagement emails, remember to keep it short and straightforward. You could also refer to a challenge or goal the prospect has, to connect with them.
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Takeaway
Sometimes, you need to open up conversations with prospects that went quiet on you. What you think are cold leads could turn out to be your biggest customers.
One way to approach them is through re-engagement emails. These take different approaches, but whichever you choose, keep your reader as your top priority.
Send them offers that benefit them and who they are as a buyer. Most importantly, meet them where they are at in their journey and avoid coming across as though you’re trying too hard to sell.