You have an awesome new website design up. You’re blogging a few times a week. You’re posting to Twitter and Facebook. You’re doing everything to draw traffic to your site. You’re pointing that traffic to landing pages and lead forms. Now what?

Now it’s time to market to those leads.

Have you set up lead nurturing emails to work with your lead forms? If someone is filling out a form, they are interested in a specific product or service. They came to you, told you that they were interested. They knocked down your door looking for you; don’t ignore them like you do to your Aunt Pam.

They are asking for you to contact them. They are interested in you, and you need to return the interest.

Setting up a lead nurture campaign is an easy process:

1. Create your campaign.

What form is generating the list? Keep everything segmented. For example, if your website sells pet food and supplies, and someone signed up for information on organic dog food or treats, they’re probably not going to want to see emails about cat food, so don’t send them emails on that subject. Keep the campaigns focused. That way, you are more likely to retain them on your list, keep their attention, and hopefully win their business.

2. Select the email timeline.

Once you have your campaign, it’s time to think about the schedule for the emails. Most lead nurture programs will allow you to select the timeline for how often a lead is emailed.

No matter what, the first email should go out to the lead within 24 hours of them filling out the form.

Now, what about the timing for the follow up emails? Well, it all depends on the buying cycle of your product. If the buying cycle of your product is something short, like clothing or custom jewelry, you may want to use a shorter timeline such as 1 day after, 3 days after, 5 days after, or even a little more extended like 1 day after, 5 days after, 10 days after.

If the buying cycle for your product is longer, such as major business software or applications, you may want to spread it out over a few weeks, or even months.

3. Write the copy.

That’s the purpose of this whole thing anyway, isn’t it? You’re contacting these leads so that they don’t forget about you. The first email should be a welcome message. Thank them for their interest in your product or service. No hidden agendas.

The emails that follow should be a little more direct, while not being too pushy. How can this person use your product to make their life easier or better?

Don’t hit them over the head with “BUY! BUY! BUY!” Make them want your product because of the things it does for them.

If we go back to the organic dog food example from above, what benefits will Kingsley, your bulldog, enjoy? A shinier coat? A more active lifestyle? Another example: do you sell a food item such as pasta or spices? What kind of unique recipes can you share that your product will be a hit at their next dinner party? Use your first two emails to gently push them into buying your products by linking them to a special to get a free sample of the featured product. Keep it a lot about them and a little about you. It’s that easy.

4. The final email.

All good things must come to an end, and so must your nurture emails. The final email should be the hard push for the sale. Really drive it in there. Send them a 10% off coupon for their first order, or offer free shipping. Wow them with a deal they would be foolish to pass up.

What’s next?

Well, if they went through that whole process and didn’t opt out by either converting into a customer or unsubscribing from your email list, depending on the robustness of your email marketing platform, you could drop these leads into a “cold leads” bucket, which would basically run another email nurture campaign a few months down the line to try them again. If they still don’t convert, it’s time to set them free. If they come back, it was meant to be.

To help you get started, download our Lead Nurture Campaign Planning template and jump in!

Ready to take your online marketing strategy to the next level? Find out how LyntonWeb can help with a custom lead nurturing campaign with our email marketing services.

This article originally appeared on LyntonWeb.