As an agency keen on signing more clients, increasing revenue, and growing your business, an effective email marketing strategy is non-negotiable. 42% of businesses agree that email marketing remains one of the best lead-generation marketing channels.

Clients are the lifeblood of your agency. Hence, you need to have a pipeline of leads that you can convert to paying customers. Although other marketing channels will get you results when you put in the effort, email marketing is the number one channel that gives you higher returns for your spending and can be done at scale.

So, how can you use email marketing to your advantage as an agency? Read on to get the must-know email marketing tips that your agency can start using today.

The Importance of an Email List

The key to the high ROI email marketing generates for businesses is in the email list. Without an organic email list of your target audience, your email marketing campaigns may fall short even when they check all the boxes for effective marketing emails.

Your email list refers to the contacts and subscribers with whom you share information, communicate regularly, and send your marketing emails. While starting with an already-made list from third-party sources is tempting, do not take this route. Start by building your email list organically from scratch for a more engaged list of people who actually want to hear from you. 

Lead Generation: How to Build Your Agency’s Email List

Now that you know how important an organic email list is, below is a three-step approach to organically building your agency’s email list.

1. Create Lead Magnets

Develop content that your target audience will find valuable and relevant, and think about the offers you can give to your audience in exchange for their email addresses or contact information. Examples of lead magnets you can use are:

• Webinars
• Free courses
• Ebooks
• Whitepapers
• Reports
• Templates

To optimize your lead magnet for conversion, research your target audience to discover their pain points, the type of content they consume, and what kind of help they need.

2. Develop Your Opt-in Form/Landing Page

Now that your lead magnet is ready, you need to create an opt-in form that will capture the information of your prospects. Your form page acts as a gateway to the lead magnet. You can place the opt-in form on your website or create a dedicated landing page to which you will direct traffic to capture leads.

Whether using an opt-in form on your website or landing page, ensure it has the following: 

• A clear, concise instruction with an eye-catching design
• Clarification on what your target audience stands to gain from the lead magnet
• A clean and simple layout
• A bold and unambiguous CTA

Don’t forget to test your form on a regular basis to make sure that it is capturing leads as it should.

3. Promote Your Lead Magnet

The next step after developing your opt-in form/landing page is to drive targeted traffic to your lead magnet to get as many eyes on it as possible. You should start by focusing on platforms where you can find your target audience. You can employ free channels like niche forums, niche-specific Facebook groups, and guest blogging. However, if you have the budget, consider paid channels like Google AdWords, Facebook ads, and agency directories.

Lead Qualification: Qualifying Leads for Agency Email Marketing

Irrespective of the type of lead magnet you created and traffic sources, some of your captured leads will not be a fit for your agency. It is better to spot these early on before putting in the time, effort, and resources on prospects that you won’t be able to work with as an agency.

For proper lead qualification, you need to:

• Develop a methodology for the data you need to collect from prospects to determine if they are a good fit. While this will vary from one agency to another, a standard methodology is to ask for the prospect’s budget, know their decision-making authority, determine if they need your services, and assess if the need is immediate.
• Collect data from prospects using an email series along with content offers (like you did with lead magnets). Ensure your content is relevant and reflects the buyer journey stages of prospects. You can also make use of surveys for data collection.
• Evaluate collected data and qualify prospects using your defined methodology. On average, a qualified lead should be able to afford your services, be a decision-maker or be close to one, and have an immediate need for your service offerings. 

Agency Email Marketing Tips

Once you have your list, lead magnet, and data capture form all set, you can get started with planning some campaigns! Below are tips you can use to increase the effectiveness of your agency’s email communications.

• Segment your email list into different groups and categories for targeted and conversion-focused email content
• Personalize email content to each segment of your email list
• Create an email schedule and be consistent with it. That way, subscribers know when to expect emails from you and look forward to them.
• Automate email sequences and response emails to cut out repetitive tasks for improved productivity
• Focus on your email metrics and work on improving them
• Maintain your list regularly and clean off inactive and dormant subscribers
• Split test your emails to identify the high-performing emails and best content format
• Optimize your emails for mobile viewing

Mistakes to Avoid in Your Agency’s Email Marketing

Avoid the following mistakes when using email marketing for your agency:

• Sending emails to subscribers who did not opt into your email list.
• Sending emails to outdated email lists with large numbers of inactive and dormant contacts. Doing so could hurt your email deliverability and mark you as spam. 
• Not segmenting your email list. Sending out batch and blast emails will make your subscribers feel like you don’t know much about them, and it could lead to unsubscribes. 
• Doing the bare minimum of email personalization. 

You have discovered ways to grow your agency’s email list organically, how to qualify leads for your agency, how to improve the effectiveness of your email marketing, and mistakes to avoid when marketing your agency with emails. Use these tips to increase your agency’s client list and grow your revenue so you can have a successful rest of the year. 

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