How to Setup a Successful Lead Nurturing Campaign

Here’s a shocking stat.

According to Marketo, 96% of visitors who come to your website aren’t ready to buy (not yet, at least).

Nope.

They’re browsing. They’re trying to learn about your brand and what you have to offer. They’re looking to see if your company is trustworthy… or if your products/services fit their needs.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that, with the right lead nurture campaign, you can turn those visitors into leads and then into customers… systematically.

We’re going to show you how — in 9 steps.

First, a definition.

What is a lead nurturing campaign?

A lead nurturing campaign is a marketing effort to teach leads (i.e. your email list) about your brand, your products/services, to build trust, and to ultimately make sales.

Here’s an example of what this looks like…

Someone joins your email list via a lead magnet.
They are entered into your automated lead-nurture sequence (maybe this consists of 5 emails sent over a week).
That sequence ends with a relevant product/service offer based on the lead magnet they opted into.
Whether they buy or not, they are then added to your ongoing email nurture efforts (these emails could be sent daily, weekly, or biweekly), which consistently build trust, provide free value, and promote your products/services.

So… why nurture your leads?

According to Invespcro, nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads — because they trust your business and understand the value it offers.

That’s why nurturing leads is important.

Now let’s walk through 7 steps to setting up a successful lead nurturing campaign.

P.S. If you want help with generating leads, then check out this lead-gen guide we put together for you.

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Step 1. Understand Your Dream Customers

Before you set up your lead nurture campaign, you’ve got to understand the people you serve.

Answer the following questions about your dream customers — the people who you’d most love to buy your products/services…

What’s their demographic?
How much money do they make?
What do they wish they could change about their lives?
What’s the main problem they’re facing right now?
What objections do they have to your products/services?

Better yet, write down your answers and collaborate with your team to make sure you’re all on the same page about the people you’re serving.

You can use a graphic like the one below to personify your dream customer.

Also, keep in mind that you might have multiple different customer personas that you serve.

At ClickFunnels, for example, we serve stay-at-home moms who want to start an online business — we also serve new college grads who want to start on their entrepreneurial journey as well as 50 year-olds who are trying to modernize their businesses.

Create customer personas for all of the different types of people your business serves.

This will help you create a lead nurture campaign that touches the heart and soul of your prospects.

Step 2. Create a Soap Opera Sequence

Okay — you’ve got a pretty clear idea of who your dream customers are.

Let’s assume that you’re already generating leads consistently — if not, check out our how-to guide over here.

Someone opts into your email list through a lead magnet on your website.

Maybe something like what’s on this very page…

Then what?

After you’ve delivered the thing you promised, the person should be added to a 5-7 day email sequence that introduces your business, builds trust, and ends by offering your products/services.

We’ve lovingly dubbed this strategy the “soap opera sequence”.

Because, like a soap opera, the emails guide the visitor irresistibly from one “episode” (email) to the next… and eventually to buying your products/services.

Here’s a great breakdown of how this email sequence works from Ryan Wegner…

The soap opera sequence basically consists of 5 emails sent over 5 days (one a day).

You set the stage, create high drama, share your epiphany, discuss hidden benefits, and then use urgency to push the lead over the fence.

If you want a more detailed explanation of how this works, get a free copy of Russell Brunson’s bestselling book, DotCom Secrets ← just pay shipping.

Step 3. Create Flows

We’ve already talked about creating a soap opera sequence to guide new leads toward conversion over a 5-day period.

But here’s a question…

If you offer lots of different products/services/solutions… and if you serve customers with different personas… should you use the same soap opera sequence for everyone?

Probably not.

You want to send email sequences that are relevant to the recipient’s problems, desires, and needs.

So… how?

Start by creating a lead magnet that’s intended to attract each of your businesses’ customer personas.

Here’s an example using our ClickFunnels lead magnets…

Brick & Mortar Entrepreneurs —> Brick & Mortar Funnels Summit

Beginner Sales Funnel Builders —> One Funnel Away Challenge

High-Ticket Sellers —> High Ticket Secrets Video Series

Once you have a lead magnet for each customer persona, you can then craft soap opera sequences that…

Appeal to that specific segment of your customer base
Tell relevant stories.
Address relevant objections
Offer relevant products/services/solutions

Fortunately, building out this sort of automation — where specific soap opera sequence emails are triggered by specific lead magnet opt-ins — is super easy and supported by virtually every ESP on the market.

(You can even build this automation using ClickFunnels!)

Naturally, you’ll get better results when your emails match the lead’s pain points, desires, and needs — in fact, targeting users with content relevant to their position along the sales funnel yields 73% higher conversion rates, according to Ascend2.

Don’t leave money on the table.

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Step 4. Encourage Engagement

If you’ve crafted your soap opera sequence correctly, it should be a highly personal experience.

You’re telling stories that are real and visceral. The receiver is reading it. It’s resonating with them. And they’re learning to trust your brand.

One of the worst things you can do during that process — during the entire lead nurture process — discourages them from personally engaging with your emails.

Let me show you what I mean.

What’s wrong with this email from Spotify?

In case you can’t read it, it says…

Get all-day music for less than the price of bubble tea. Spotify Premium Mini lets you stream the sweetest music hits for a low price per day.

In other words, it’s trying to convince me to take action and sign up for Spotify Premium.

But the error doesn’t lie within that text.

It lies up and to the left…

This email was sent from a “no-reply” email address…

What if I have questions about Spotify Premium? What if I want to engage with their brand by pointing out a funny anecdote? What if I want to tell them how much I appreciate their emails?

Nope — can’t do.

Because it was sent from a “no-reply” email address.

That’s a mistake on Spotify’s part.

Let’s create some contrast…

Not only is this email far more personal (and thus impactful), but it’s also sent from “rachel@rachelpedersen.com” and the best part is… you actually get a response when you reply.

Allowing people to engage with your emails — and responding to their engagement — is probably one of the easiest ways to build trust with leads.

So don’t miss out on this opportunity as you’re setting up your lead nurture campaign.

Step 5. Use Seinfeld Emails

Once someone has finished going through a soap opera sequence… what’s next?

Whether they buy or not, you shouldn’t stop emailing them.

After all, just because someone didn’t buy five days after they signed up for your email list certainly doesn’t mean they’ll never buy.

49% of businesses say that most of their leads require “long cycle” nurturing, according to Ascend2.

So it’s worth your time to keep emailing people who’ve bought before… and people who’ve never bought.

But… what do you send?

Daily Seinfeld emails — check out the video below!

Basically, Seinfeld emails are just daily emails that catch the recipient’s attention, tell a story, and make an offer relevant to the story that was told.

Now you might be nervous about emailing every day, but you could use the same strategy and email just a few times a week or even once a week.

The important thing is to stay in contact with your entire list — to continue building authority, and to continue making them offers.

Once you get in the habit, writing these emails should just take 15 minutes or so every morning — you can use the hook-story-offer format to write them…

Hook — Get the recipient’s attention with a curiosity-inducing subject line.
Story — Tell a compelling and interesting story.
Offer — Offer a product or service that’s related to the story you told.

Here’s an example…

And here’s another example…

Russell Brunson (and many other online marketers) have found that you can make about $1 per subscriber per month… and that number increases when you email more often.

Seinfeld emails are a great way to nurture your leads, build trust, and keep your email list actively buying.

You can learn more about Seinfeld emails in Russell Brunson’s bestselling book, DotCom Secrets ← use that link to get it for free.

Step 6. Build a Lead Nurture Chart

For the sake of your sanity, it’s worth creating a chart that maps out the different lead-nurture paths that your leads can travel along.

It should include…

Lead Magnets —> Soap Opera Sequences —> Segments

We’ve already talked about how specific lead magnets should lead into specific soap opera sequences with relevant offers.

But once a lead exits the soap opera sequence, consider tagging and segmenting them in a way that’ll help you send them relevant content and offers.

Here are some examples…

If they bought during the soap opera sequence, tag with “purchased [product]”
If they didn’t buy during the soap opera sequence, tag with “did not purchase [product]”
Depending on the lead magnet they opted into, keep them tagged as “opted into [lead magnet]”

You can also create segments based on people’s engagement (open rate, click-through rate, or even response rate).

When you’re crafting Seinfeld emails or other promotions, having these segments in place will help you send the right emails to the right people at the right time.

Step 7. A/B Test Everything

Every email you send, every landing page you create, every sales funnel you use… they all should have an A/B test running at all times.

Obviously, your business is unique.

And even though the advice in this article will be applicable in just about every industry and for every type of business…

The specifics can still get a little fuzzy.

What subject lines get the best open rates?
What offers get the most interest?
What lead magnets convert the most visitors?
What sales funnels make the most sales?

The only way to answer those questions is by running tests.

You can use ClickFunnels to craft sales funnels, landing pages, and emails — and you can use ClickFunnels to test all of those assets.

Test, iterate based on results, keep testing, keep improving.

This is the way.

Final Thoughts

People don’t want to buy from brands they’re unfamiliar with.

And so the marketing funnel rarely goes straight from lead-gen to conversion — there’s a no-man’s-land in between that requires nurturing.

By understanding your dream customers, building sales funnels, creating a soap opera sequence, and sending Seinfeld emails, you can gracefully guide your customer through the gap in between awareness and conversion.

All that’s left is action.

Click below if you want to get our bare-bones sales funnel that generated over 100,000 leads for our business (it’s free and it’s mind-blowing).

Get the Bare-Bones Funnel That Generated 185,372 Leads for our Business (Free)

Mike Blankenship