TUTORIAL: How to use the Lead Nurturing tool to create your first campaign
Now that you have a landing page set up that is collecting leads, you need to build a lead nurturing campaign to "nurture" those leads from early in the sales cycle to late in the sales cycle. This will make it more likely that your leads turn into customers. This tutorial walks you through creating the first email in a lead nurturing campaign.
Click here to see examples of lead nurturing campaigns other HubSpot customers have created >
If it's your first time setting up a Lead Nurturing campaign, you'll see a "What is Lead Nurturing?" message. Click Create a Campaign at the bottom of the screen.
On the next screen, you'll compose the first email of this Lead Nurturing campaign. First, fill out the fields above the space you have to write the email:
Then scroll down to compose your first email:
Here are some best practices you should follow when crafting your email:
You'll be composing your email as an HTML email, but you also need to be sure that your email looks good as a Plain Text version. Different contacts will have different email preferences and settings, so it's important to optimize both email formats. Note that each of your contacts will only receive ONE email; HTML OR plain text, whichever is compatible with their settings.
To optimize the plain text version, click "Plain Text Version" at the top of the custom content area:
Then click the "Copy from HTML Version" button:
The tool will then pull in the HTML version and format it as closely to the HTML version as possible. Sometimes it will be necessary for you to edit the plain text version to add line breaks or spacing, as you see fit. Additionally, the hyperlinks will appear as URLs within parenthesis. When a lead receives this email, they will be able to click right on the URL to get to your landing page. When you've finished reviewing, click "Save and Preview" at the botton of the screen.
Then in the popup window that appears, enter your email address and any other email address you'd like to send the test to. Separate these email addresses by commas. Then click "Send."
You will then receive two emails. One will be the HTML version of the email. The other will be the Plain Text version of the email. Remember: your leads will only receive ONE email. The one they receive will be dependent on their email preferences and settings. You're receiving two emails just so you can see what each version looks like.
When you've reviewed both versions of your emails, go back to the Preview and Test Your Email screen, scroll to the bottom, and click "Finish."
Then all of your leads who've filled out the form(s) you attached this campaign to will receive the emails within this Lead Nurturing campaign!
Congratulations on completing your first email! If you'd like to create another email within this campaign to send out on a different day, simply click "Create new email" and repeat the above steps for this new email.
Need help creating lead nurturing emails? Contact a HubSpot Certified Partner to create lead nurturing emails for you.
1. Understand What Lead Nurturing Is
A lead nurturing campaign is a series of emails you build that your leads automatically receive after (1) filling out a form on your landing page or (2) you import the leads into your Leads tool. Because each form is tied to a specific offer, you can target these emails to the interests of your leads. You can have up to 20 emails that go out over the course of up to 260 days after the initial conversion point.Click here to see examples of lead nurturing campaigns other HubSpot customers have created >
2. Go to Lead Nurturing Tool
You can find the Lead Nurturing tool under Convert > Lead Nurturing.
If it's your first time setting up a Lead Nurturing campaign, you'll see a "What is Lead Nurturing?" message. Click Create a Campaign at the bottom of the screen.
3. Create a Campaign
First, create the Lead Nurturing campaign that will contain all the emails (up to 20) that are part of this campaign.
- Campaign Name - This is just the name that you give to the overall campaign so you can keep track; it is not visible to your leads.
- Email Footer - This should include your company name and mailing address.
- When a lead in this campaign converts on another form - Select "Stop Campaign" to stop further lead nurturing emails to that lead, or "Continue Campaign" to have the remaining lead nurturing emails continue on their schedule.
- Leads can receive this campaign more than once - You have the option of sending leads the same lead nurturing campaign emails after a year has passed.
- What form should trigger this campaign? - By choosing a form, that means that anyone who fills out that form will be assigned to this lead nurturing campaign, and will receive all the emails within the campaign according to your settings.
4. Compose Your First Email
On the next screen, you'll compose the first email of this Lead Nurturing campaign. First, fill out the fields above the space you have to write the email:- From Name: This could be your company name, the CEO's name, your name, the marketing director's name; it's up to you.
- Reply-to email: Again, this could be a generic company email (such as noreply@company.com), your email address, or the email address of your marketing team or director.
- Email Timing: Select how many days after the lead fills out the form that they should receive this email. You have 8 recommended options to choose from, or you can select your own custom timing. Your custom timing can be up to 260 business days in the future (emails are not sent on weekends). Note that you can only send out one email per day.
- Subject Line: The subject line is the most important part of an email. Without a good subject line, your leads won't want to read the rest of your email to see what you have to say or click a link back to your website. Make sure you specify what the benefit is of reading your email, such as "Learn How to Blog to Get More Traffic & Leads" or "Save Time and Money With Our Free XYZ Toolkit"
Then scroll down to compose your first email:
Here are some best practices you should follow when crafting your email:
- Keep it Short - Your email should be around 100 words, and easy to read; the goal is to get them back to your website, not reading a novel of an email.
- Keep it Focused - Your email should be focused on one specific next step. Don't try to cram every offer on your site into one email; it will just confuse your readers.
- Includes a Call to Action (CTA) - Include CTA for the next step that links to a landing page on your site. Data shows that having two links to this landing page, one at the beginning and one at the end of your email, increases click-through rates.
- Use Bullet Points - Make it easy for your readers to decide to click a CTA by including benefits of your next offer in bullet points.
-
Personalize Your Emails - We can currently insert personalization based on three points of data on your leads. To do so, add one of the following tokens to the email.
- First name - ${firstname}
- Last name - ${lastname}
- Company name - ${company} (If left blank on the lead form, email will say "your company")
5. Create a Plain Text Version
You'll be composing your email as an HTML email, but you also need to be sure that your email looks good as a Plain Text version. Different contacts will have different email preferences and settings, so it's important to optimize both email formats. Note that each of your contacts will only receive ONE email; HTML OR plain text, whichever is compatible with their settings.To optimize the plain text version, click "Plain Text Version" at the top of the custom content area:
Then click the "Copy from HTML Version" button:
The tool will then pull in the HTML version and format it as closely to the HTML version as possible. Sometimes it will be necessary for you to edit the plain text version to add line breaks or spacing, as you see fit. Additionally, the hyperlinks will appear as URLs within parenthesis. When a lead receives this email, they will be able to click right on the URL to get to your landing page. When you've finished reviewing, click "Save and Preview" at the botton of the screen.
6. Preview and Test Your Email
On the next page, you can preview what your email looks like. To send a test email to your email address, click "Send Test Email."Then in the popup window that appears, enter your email address and any other email address you'd like to send the test to. Separate these email addresses by commas. Then click "Send."
You will then receive two emails. One will be the HTML version of the email. The other will be the Plain Text version of the email. Remember: your leads will only receive ONE email. The one they receive will be dependent on their email preferences and settings. You're receiving two emails just so you can see what each version looks like.
When you've reviewed both versions of your emails, go back to the Preview and Test Your Email screen, scroll to the bottom, and click "Finish."
7. Turn On Your First Email
The next screen is where you'll be able to see all the emails you have in your lead nurturing campaign. Right now you only have one. Click "Turn On" in the status column of this email that you've written.Then all of your leads who've filled out the form(s) you attached this campaign to will receive the emails within this Lead Nurturing campaign!
8. Create Another Email
Congratulations on completing your first email! If you'd like to create another email within this campaign to send out on a different day, simply click "Create new email" and repeat the above steps for this new email.Need help creating lead nurturing emails? Contact a HubSpot Certified Partner to create lead nurturing emails for you.
