How to do automated lead generation successfully?
When you think of automated lead-generation, you probably think of all those random unsolicited emails you receive daily that get immediately ignored. That was my take on this too. Nasty!
But when done properly to my surprise you can get response rates of 3%+. In my case it was 9% when I used automated lead generation successfully.
> How did I create a successful lead generation campaign? I’m going to lift the lid on this game changing solution.
1. First you need to build your own highly targeted email list. See my article on ‘How to build your bespoke lead list in days?’.
2. You then need to work on the text you will use in your outreach email. This should be as short as possible, professional, establish credibility, contain a proposition of interest to the recipient, have a call to action and ability for the recipient to unsubscribe.
3. Don’t forget to personalise your email – as a minimum the salutation at the beginning of the email should be personalised.
4. Write a subject line that creates curiosity – I like ones asking a question – for example ‘An opportunity to work together?’ You can see below the lead generation email I used to get a successful 9% response rate.
5. Set up the campaign using a lead generation tool. I’ve researched and tested many but my favourite is Hunter.
6. Remember to set up follow up emails. Recipients rarely reply to your first email. Recipients are busy and generally, even if they liked it, don’t reply to your first email. The second email can be a one line ‘Just following up on my previous email’ with the last email being ‘This is a final gentle reminder – if you would like to have a quick call about X please reply’. This last email usually is the one that gets the response. I usually leave 3 working days between each email.
7. I recommend setting up a new domain – very similar to your existing – e.g. if your domain is abc.co.uk may be buy abc.co. It’s just best not to send through your main domain, just in case, in the unlikely absolute worst case, your email get blacklisted your main domain remains unaffected.
8. You then need to connect this email to your campaign
9. Send a test email to yourself and check if it’s ended up in your spamfilter. If it does check the words you have used in the email – and remove any potentially spammy ones.
10. Upload your email lists and check they look right
11. Check the settings for sending out the campaign. Usually I set up to send out Monday to Fridays 10-4pm.
12. Make sure the new email is set up on your email system so you can see any replies.
13. Once everything looks correct then press send! You can then track your statistics within your campaign. Any recorded open rates over 20%, bounces less than 5% and replies over 2% is good!
Below are the stats from my own campaign than generated a 9% response rate. The open and reply rates are stunning, while the overall bounce rate 4% is acceptable.
> Start with a trial of 100 recipients
My tip would be to trial this approach by sending out 100 emails to prospects. This trial should give you a good idea if the approach is right for you. Remember it’s only through testing approaches like these that you know how well it work.
> You can do this yourself or get our help?
There is some time involved in learning and setting up these campaigns. You might want to do it yourself but if you prefer to use an expert then please get in contact. I’m here to help if you need me.
Also, check out my Bespoke Web Development Service page.
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