Updated: December 9, 2022
Turning your B2B healthcare leads from cold into warm prospects can be difficult – in fact, it can feel like pulling teeth. But there’s an easier way to get them to speak to one of your account executives and move the sales process forward. They might just need a little nurturing before they are ready to commit.
As we enter an economic downturn, businesses will need more leads to close the same number of sales.
This is where email marketing comes in.
It’s a low-cost activity that reaps incredible results while also nurturing cold leads.
In fact, research reveals:
- White-collar workers spend an average of 6.3 hours per day checking email
- 86% of business professionals prefer email
- Cold emails are 2X more effective than cold calls
- Emails are 40X more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined
- A sequence of 4-7 emails can triple your reply rate
The same research shows that 80% of prospects say no four times before they say yes, which makes the fifth email the charm. Yet, the average salesperson only sends two emails to prospects before giving up.
Perhaps even more importantly, it’s critical to follow up immediately because:
- 30-50% of sales go to the first responding vendor
- Following up on a new lead within an hour increases success rate by 700%
- Lead qualification drops 10X (400%) if you wait longer than five minutes to respond
Source: EmailAnalytics
Despite these numbers, a 2018 study found that 93% of B2B companies don’t respond to leads within the first five minutes. And over 50% don’t respond to leads AT ALL. That’s like throwing money down the toilet – something none of us can afford to do in a down economy.
With these statistics in mind, we put together some email strategies to improve your lead generation success. Let’s dive in.
Automate Your Welcome Email Campaign
When people sign up to your list, their interest in you and what you’re offering is very high at that moment. If they sign up and receive nothing from you for hours, days or even weeks, they’re quickly going to forget who you are and how you can help them.
One of the quickest and easiest ways to warm up new leads is by serving them an automated welcome email campaign. Ultimately, this should do two key things:
- Tell them more about your business and what you offer
- Tell them how you can help them
Usually, a welcome email sequence spans 5-7 emails over a period of a week or two. This means you’re regularly showing up in leads’ email lists while the iron is hot. Not only does this get them comfortable with you landing in their inbox, but it also gives you a chance to share the value of your product or services without bombarding them with information all at once.
Even if a lead doesn’t need what you’re offering right then, chances are they’ll remember your business when they have a need for it in the future.
Send Regular Newsletters
The B2B healthcare business sales cycle is long, complex and involves many decision makers. During an economic downturn, the sales cycle gets even longer and more complex. And it involves more competitors.
You can’t afford to disappear off the radar after a prospect has gone through your welcome email sequence. Instead, you should be keeping up the momentum with regular emails.
This means it’s important to be consistent and regular.
Instead of only showing up when you have something to sell, make regular contact with your leads and update them with your latest blog posts, current trends in the B2B healthcare industry, and any content you’ve published in other places, like reports, podcasts, or studies.
To do this, it helps to create a calendar. Consider how often you want to touch base with your leads – typically every week, or every other week – and plan out what you’re going to say to them in each email.
This medical device manufacturer wanted to target cardiothoracic surgeons – a notoriously difficult-to-reach medical group. They sent this email with a link to their latest roundup post that was sure to pique the interest of their target audience.
Get Creative With Your Content
Emails are a great way to build relationships with prospective buyers. They also provide a way for you to share the value of your business solutions through various types of content.
Remember, every prospect is different and might prefer content in different mediums. For example, one prospect might prefer to watch a video of your product in action, while others would rather skim through a blog post that explains the pros and cons.
Either way, you can serve them the content style they love through email. This might be:
- Case studies highlighting success stories from other customers
- Whitepapers that uncover trends in the healthcare industry
- Blog posts that offer solutions to certain problems they might have
- Videos that show your product in action
- Invitations to upcoming webinars/events
Get Personal
B2B healthcare accounts can run into the millions of dollars. For this reason, it can really pay off to nurture inbound leads on an individual basis. A personalized email strategy taps into each prospect’s unique wants and needs.
And email is the perfect format to do just that. It’s such a personal form of communication.
Think about it: it’s basically like reaching out to a friend and having a private, 1-to-1 conversation. Use this to your advantage by asking qualifying questions in your emails and encouraging leads to reach out with their answers.
For example you might ask:
- What is your biggest business struggle right now?
- What does your dream business look like?
- If you could change one thing about your business right now, what would it be?
- What solutions are you considering?
Not only does this approach open a dialogue (which makes it far easier to warm up leads) so you can understand who your buyers and decision-makers are and what competitor solutions they’re considering. It also gives you an insight into their challenges and goals. You can then use this information to serve them content geared towards that need. Or you can initiate a conversation about how you can solve a specific problem they have.
Use Email to Your Advantage
Email is a low-cost, low effort – but highly powerful – tactic healthcare marketers can use to turn leads from freezing cold to boiling hot.
Just follow the simple tips we’ve laid out here to get started or contact us and we would be happy to help lay out a plan for you!
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