While getting your paid social media posts and search advertisements seen by potential customers is beneficial, reaching their email inbox is far more valuable. Unlike impulsive B2C purchases, B2B sales cycles are longer, making email marketing particularly effective. When your message lands in the inboxes of your target audience, you can foster lasting relationships by tailoring content, monitoring each lead’s journey, and automating personalized follow-ups. This explains why respondents to eConsultancy’s 2016 Email Marketing Industry Census were almost two times as likely to rate their email marketing ROI as “excellent” compared to their PPC activity ROI.
Why, then, doesn’t everyone abandon PPC ads in favor of email marketing? The answer is straightforward: accessibility. Ethical and effective email marketing relies on permission, and people are hesitant to grant access to their inboxes. This is precisely why it’s so impactful when you do have permission. Reaching unfamiliar audiences through ads is significantly easier than through email.
Getting Consent to Nurture
According to one tally (pdf), over 203 billion emails are sent and received daily, with projections indicating a yearly growth of over 4% for the next four years, reaching almost 258 billion daily by the close of 2020. Approximately 43% of U.S. adults admit that half of their email is from marketers, so securing opt-ins and standing out from the crowd will be both crucial and challenging. Many website visitors are hesitant to complete signup forms due to spam concerns. It’s a classic top-of-the-funnel paradox. One way to address this is by explicitly stating your commitment to email privacy and clearly outlining how you intend to use their contact information. Since they might also be concerned about the handling of their personal data, initially request only their email address and name.
Image source As trust builds, they’ll be more likely to share sensitive information like their physical address, phone number, and payment details. Requesting a credit card for a free trial early on might deter signups due to lack of trust. This falls under lead capture conversion optimization, relevant only when your target audience is already on your website. Even with maximized website conversions, you’ll only obtain contact details from a small percentage of visitors. If you’re paying Google, Facebook, or any other platform to direct traffic to your site, it’s essential to have a plan for their arrival. If nurturing relationships through email isn’t a priority for your customer acquisition, then focusing on ads that direct traffic to your content is perfectly acceptable. However, for everyone else, there are effective strategies to leverage pay-per-click advertising for gaining access to prospects’ inboxes. Let’s explore three such methods.
1. Utilize Gmail Ads
Also known as Gmail Sponsored Promotions (GSP), this method secures ad placement at the top or in the right-hand sidebar of prospects’ inboxes. Technically part of the Google Display Network (GDN), you’ll find this media buy within your AdWords dashboard. Here’s how Gmail ads appear to the audience:
Being GDN-powered, you can utilize all of GDN’s targeting capabilities for your GSP campaigns. This includes keyword-based targeting (analyzing email content for specific words), segmentation by demographics like gender, age, and parental status, and even retargeting lists. To utilize this feature, you’ll need to execute an “All features” AdWords campaign, which allows you to select Gmail ads using custom options from the ad gallery. With this type of ad, you’re only charged for clicks on the initial, collapsed ad displayed in the Gmail inbox. Expanding the ad makes subsequent clicks on its content free. However, it’s important to note that not all Gmail users have this feature enabled. While it’s a default setting, users can choose to turn it off. Furthermore, Gmail ads only reach users on the Gmail platform, excluding those on other email providers. Additionally, GSP, despite appearing in the inbox, isn’t technically an email, limiting your ability to nurture leads over time through automated sequences.
2. Leverage Sales Intelligence Tools
These tools reveal the companies your anonymous website visitors are associated with. You can then use platforms like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to send targeted InMail messages to potential buyers within those companies. This approach necessitates careful messaging to avoid appearing spammy or intrusive. A simple message inquiring about their need for solutions in your area of expertise or informing them about valuable content you’ve published might be the most effective approach. Leadfeeder, a particularly robust sales intelligence platform, integrates with your Google Analytics account and utilizes visitor IP addresses to identify their employers. The platform, compatible with numerous CRMs, logs page visits from each anonymous visitor, and allows you to navigate directly to the LinkedIn profiles of individuals within that company from your Leadfeeder dashboard.
Image source The benefits of combining sales intelligence tools with PPC are substantial. When each website visitor can be viewed as a potential lead, you can shift your focus from driving traffic to ensuring your ads direct the right audience to your most relevant content. This eliminates the need for registration forms or gated content.
3. Implement Lead Capture Ads on Facebook and Twitter
Both platforms offer highly targeted advertising options at a relatively affordable cost per click (CPC), adjustable based on the desired granularity of your campaign targeting. Facebook and Twitter constantly expand and refine their supported advertising formats. In recent times, we’ve witnessed a surge in advertisers adopting lead capture ads. These ads allow users to opt-in directly within their newsfeeds without navigating away, eliminating the need for optimized landing pages. Instead of paying for clicks, you’re directly paying for email subscribers, making it a powerful strategy. Some PPC specialists have observed higher lead acquisition at a lower cost using traditional promoted social posts with conversion tracking pixels for long-term campaign optimization. It’s worth experimenting with both methods to identify the best fit for your business. Entice opt-ins by offering premium content in exchange for their contact information. This could be anything from a video series and email courses to ebooks and interactive calculators. Regardless of the chosen lead magnet, prioritize high quality, relevance to your target audience, and most importantly, exclusivity. Emphasizing the unique value of subscribing enhances its appeal.
Lead Capture Isn’t Universal
Realistically, not everyone will subscribe to your email list, and that’s okay. Achieving 100% participation is improbable, even within a niche industry. Your goal is to attract qualified leads, so disinterest from certain individuals likely indicates they aren’t the right fit. Don’t let the concept of an imperfect or non-linear sales funnel deter you. By implementing these three methods, you’re sure to effectively reach the inboxes of numerous relevant prospects, enabling you to cultivate relationships and secure lasting business deals. Tamar Weinberg is a professional hustler and author of the bestselling social media book The New Community Rules: Marketing on The Social Web. She blogs about all things tech and social at Techipedia.