As a small business, lead conversion can mean a lot of things to different people.

Most likely you can think of a handful of things yourself. Someone signed up for your newsletter, clicked on a call-to-action, opened an email, visited your website, filled out a form or downloaded an ebook….

That’s all great stuff.

It’s really a true win.

But until someone actually purchases your services or your products, that lead isn’t going to help you pay the bills.

At the end of the day, the week, the month, that’s what it’s all about.

And there’s no better place to focus your efforts than on email marketing.

Plenty of statistics backs that up. Here are just a few to consider:

Let these numbers wash over you, dry yourself off, and let’s get down to business.

The results are there.

The revenue generating potential is there.

The power of email marketing is real.

To help you harness the power and simplify an actionable playbook for your, we rounded up 12 strategies to help you nurture a prospect into making that down funnel move to customer status.

Go ahead. Take a look. And then get busy working on boosting your lead conversions through email marketing.

Develop strong call-to-actions

Strong CTAs are essential to your conversion rates.

And here’s why:

They’re effective in getting your prospects to the next step, and to the next step … right up to that purchase.

The purchase is essential, right?

Here are some things to try out. Remember to test these strategies to see what works with your email campaign.

1. Use anchor text CTAs. Based on a study by HubSpot, anchor text CTAs led to a 121% increase in conversion rates.

2. Design email CTAs as a button. After switching to this e switch led to a 45% increase in clicks, according to Copyblogger. Try different colors to see what works. Some companies are seeing better results with orange and red.

3. Use one strong CTA. It could increase conversions significantly. When skimming emails, one strong CTA may be more effective than several CTAs. That was the case with a company that tested this strategy. According to Toast, the single CTA led to a 371% boost in clicks and a 1,617 increase in sales.

Review your shopping cart abandonment plan

If you’re selling products online, more than likely you need a strong cart abandonment plan.

Focus your efforts here and you could see conversion rates climb significantly.

Here’s an example:

According to the Baymard Institute, nearly 70 percent of all products placed in a cart (at the critical point you could make a sale) are abandoned.

Your job is to set a strategy in place to recover your share of those abandoned carts.

Check out these ideas for boosting conversion rates through a cart abandonment plan.

4. Tweak or overhaul your checkout process. Research shows that about 33 percent of American shoppers abandoned their orders because of a “too long or complicated checkout process.” The Baymard study revealed that $260 billion in potential sales can be recovered nationally by optimizing the checkout process.

5. Use email automation. A drip campaign makes sense for new subscribers. That type of automation also is ideally suited to get the attention of users who abandoned their carts.

Set up a marketing campaign that schedules friendly reminders about the products they left behind. Something as simple as “Did you forget about me?” could be the key to getting the sale.

6. Don’t force someone to become a member. Keep the user’s preferences in mind. Requiring them to sign up for your email list or to become a member can be a turnoff — and a roadblock to them completing their purchases.

Maximize customer testimonials

People are a fickle bunch. They typically don’t want to test you out without knowing that someone like them has already checked you out — and were happy with the experience.

7. Add testimonials/reviews strategically. If your CTAs direct users to your services and products, strategically place reviews, testimonials and case studies on the landing page. Don’t overdo it, but, by all means, let others brag about you.

Several examples of how your services and products have worked for other clients should do the trick.

Get more personal

All email marketing campaigns begin by asking for the prospect’s name and email. Use this valuable piece of information frequently — it’s always more personal to call someone by their name.

And take it up a notch by further personalizing your ongoing communications — using marketing automation to gather data about each of your users.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, automated email campaigns generate 21 percent of email marketing revenue while triggered campaigns generate 75 percent of email revenue.

8. Use personalized CTAs. According to a study reported by HubSpot, personalized CTAs convert 42 more visitors into leads than CTAs that are untargeted.

9. Make use of personalized subject lines. Using the prospect’s name in the subject line can boost open rates by an average of 30 percent, according to a study by MarketingSherpa.

10. Segment your email list. If you’re still sending out one-size-fits-all type emails to save time, stop it. You’re boring your subscribers.

Besides, if you send them one too many emails they don’t find relevant, you’re increasing the likelihood they’ll stop opening your emails.

Customize your subscribers’ experiences based on the data feedback you’re receiving about them through automation. Go beyond geography and gender. Step it up by delivering an experience based on the products and topics they’re more interested in.

11. Implement a nurturing campaign. Take the time to determine what will help you guide a prospect from one stage in the purchase cycle to the next stage, and eventually to a purchase. Develop content, including blogs, white papers, webinars and videos, to answer the questions that prospects may have along the way before they buy.

Make sure the content is relevant and appropriately targeted and delivered at just the right time.

According to Forrester, this strategy could lead to a 20% percent increase in sales opportunities.

And, don’t forget the last step of a nurturing campaign: The follow-up.

With marketing automation, certain actions by the consumer should trigger a personalized email or a phone call to follow up.

Statistics show that if you follow up within the first 5 minutes of the consumer expressing interest, your odds of qualifying them as a lead are 21 times greater than if you wait just 30 minutes.

12. Develop a multi-channel approach. With an effective marketing automation platform, you can extend your ability to nurture prospects through multiple channels — email marketing, social media, retargeting, and your website. These increased impressions, as well as the ability to reinforce a relevant message to your audience, can significantly increase your conversions.

Now, go for it!

Digital marketing is not necessarily a sprint, but you can get some acceleration with your conversions by implementing proven strategies.

What are you waiting for?

Go ahead. Test these 12 ideas to get on the road to more conversions that lead to increased sales.

If you liked this post, check out our Guide to Customer Relationship Management.

About the Author

Corey Trojanowski is Digital Marketing Manager at Delivra, an email marketing, and marketing automation platform designed and built for small to medium-sized businesses with marketing teams that don’t have enough time, email expertise, or strategic guidance. When Corey isn’t waist deep in Google Analytics or working on conversion rates, he’s probably spending time with his family or on the ice playing hockey.