How Many Emails Does It Take To Convert A Lead? [Email Marketing Guide]

Of all the marketing strategies, email marketing is one of the most effective.

But while everyone knows how to send an email, do you know how to send emails that convert leads into buyers?

In this article, we will outline everything you need to know about how many emails it takes to convert a lead.

Let’s get straight into it!

How Many Emails Does It Take To Convert A Lead?

The science on how many emails it takes to convert a lead isn’t exact.

But with a little bit of psychology, we can get pretty close.

First up, we need to remember that people are busy, and they don’t spend all day waiting by their computers for our emails to arrive.

And with so much spam in their inbox, it’s easy to overlook an email.

So you’ll usually need to follow up more than once. If you do that, you’ll be ahead of the 44% of marketers who give up after just one email. [1].

But how many emails is too many?

This is where the psychology comes in. You see, we all have an internal strategy for convincing ourselves something is good or true.

The four convincer strategies are:

• Immediately – these people will respond on your first email
• A number of times – they need two or more emails from you
• A period of time – they just need to think about it
• Consistently – they need to be convinced again every time they hear from you

With this in mind, you’ll find the sweet spot is around 5 emails to convert a lead, with each email spaced 2-3 days apart.

This balances the period of time and number of times convincers.

It gives them what they need to respond positively to you, as well as ensuring your emails don’t get lost in the shuffle of life.

How To Convert An Email Marketing Lead

Email leads refer to the subscribers you’ve successfully collected from your email marketing campaign efforts.

Usually, these are obtained through an opt-in form located on a website. Typically, these forms are paired with a helpful incentive such as a discount on a product or a free gift (often known as a “Lead Magnet”).

Leads are essential as, ultimately, they are the people you’ll be trying to turn into customers.

Through your email marketing efforts, you can build up a relationship where your subscribers begin to know, like and trust you, which increases the likelihood of your product being sold.

Here are some marketing tips to help your emails convert leads into buyers:

Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines

The average office worker receives around 120 emails per day.

Most of these will be sent to the trash without another glance.

So, if you want to avoid the trash, you have to make sure your emails stand out, and not in a bad way!

The subject line is therefore vital, as it is what will hook your audience.

Here are a few tips to help increase your open rate:

• Keep it short, anything above 50 characters is too long
• Pose a question
• Avoid using no-reply email addresses
• Use personalization variables – “Hey, {firstname}”
• Use emojis sparingly (unless your audience expects them)
• Spilt test subject lines to see what works
• Use curiosity
• When appropriate, use puns and humor

Embrace Automation

Knowing now how important follow up is, it’s no surprise to hear that an autoresponder is a game changer.

An autoresponder lets you drip emails out to a subscriber in a defined sequence, making it perfect for automating a sales sequence designed to convert a lead.

Most email marketing providers have an autorepsonder feature.

We use AWeber’s autoresponder, called Campaigns for our automated emails.

Use White Space

There’s nothing guaranteed to get your email deleted than confronting your subscriber with a massive wall of text.

Instead, keep your paragraphs short – one or two short sentences at most – so there is plenty of white space on their screen.

This is especially important on mobile, where a long sentence or paragraph can fill their entire screen.

Look at this article for example – we’ve tried to use these same principles here.

Be Personal

A person’s email inbox is like an extension of their home. It’s a place where they chat with friends and family, as well as manage their personal lives.

So if you want to be a good house guest – and someone they welcome into their lives – you want to come across as a human being, not a corporation

Some of the most effective emails that convert leads are like personal letters, with minimal styling. Fancy HTML templates and graphics just scream promotion.

Read my article on “HTML vs Plain Text emails” for more on this topic.

Likewise, consider setting the “From” name to your own name, not your brand name.

Final Thoughts

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools, and one of the most inexpensive too.

This gives it an amazing ROI (return on investment) of around $36 per dollar spent [2]

But while it may be a low-cost effort, this doesn’t mean the method is entirely free.

Unlike other forms of marketing, it requires effort and time to design, write, and, most essentially, send your marketing messages to the right people.

And don’t underestimate the number of emails it takes to convert a lead.

People may overlook or ignore emails at certain times – an email that might be read while relaxing in front of the TV may be ignored in the office on a Monday morning.

So sending follow-up emails will significantly improve your inbound marketing efforts.

[1] https://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/sales/sales-techniques-and-negotiations/why-you-must-follow-up-leads

[2] https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/email-marketing-statistics/