Nurturing is one of the most important steps in a sales process. In fact, it has been proven that the more leads you nurture, the more customers you’ll gain. And, the more customers you gain, the more revenue you’ll generate.
Many inbound marketers mistakenly believe that nurturing leads need to be done only once. But, in reality, leads require nurturing throughout the engagement process. You can try out innumerable nurturing activities but the best ones are those that have been proven to work in multiple industries, across multiple channels and platforms.
Nurturing leads is an art that takes years to master, which is why it’s critical to learn how to do it successfully or leave it to the expertise of a professional. This article is a step-by-step guide to the lead nurturing process and will help you gain a firmer grasp of the most effective lead nurturing strategies in 2023.
What is Lead Nurturing?
Lead nurturing is the act of supporting and engaging potential customers by providing relevant information and content at all stages of their buying journey. This process is most effective when there is a high volume of leads coming in, and is done with the purpose of qualifying or engaging customers in a conversation so as to build trust and thereby, increase sales.
Lead nurturing is important for building a relationship with a new prospect. It provides the prospect with information on what is next and what benefits they can expect from the next step in the process.
Why is Lead Nurturing Important?
Lead nurturing is the act of identifying the needs of customers and customizing content for different audiences. Engaging your target audience in lead-nurturing campaigns that are timely and personalized will increase engagement and drive results. Listed below are the 4 key benefits of lead nurturing that most businesses are not aware of:
- Lead nurturing helps businesses get better quality leads
- It increases the Average Order Value (AOV)
- Lead nurturing creates more loyal customers
- Increases brand awareness
What are the Tactics for Successful Lead Nurturing?
There are innumerable lead nurturing strategies. igenr8 brings you the most effective lead nurturing strategies that will fetch you more customers and higher revenue, no matter what business you are in.
1. Understand your targeted customer
Every customer has a persona. The good news is that the personas can be segmented into groups and specifically targeted. But it is important that you identify the differences in each group and understand your target customers’ persona. Only then can you offer meaningful content that addresses the needs of each persona.
Customer personas are used to represent buyers’ challenges, communication preferences, lifestyle habits and lifestyle. This will allow you to understand what content your target customers are looking for at each stage of the sales funnel. You could send customers specific emails asking them to complete a questionnaire. You may also ask qualified questions to site visitors and suggest that they fill out a form on the landing page.
2. Use multi-channel lead nurturing techniques
A majority of lead nurturing strategies used to be a simple email drip campaign, which would send generic emails to a prospect list. But marketers are now in constant search of new technologies and tactics that go beyond email marketing. Many are now using powerful marketing automation platforms to execute multi-channel lead nurturing strategies.
Multi-channel lead nurturing is often a mix of email marketing, social marketing, paid retargeting and dynamic website content. It also includes direct sales outreach. There are many strategies involved so it is important to make sure your marketing and sales teams are aligned and work together.
3. Create a customer database
A growing customer base means more opportunities for engagement and buying decisions. This is why it is vital to create a customer database and leverage it.
You can build a customer database by creating relevant, knowledgeable and useful content. Make use of forms that users must fill in to receive this content. Email acquisition is crucial. It is necessary to acquire an email address in order to digitally link, communicate and gather data. In fact, email analytics – such as, opening, click-through and spam rates, clicked links – provide more information that you can add to your customer profile.
4. Follow-up with leads on time
Although the benefits of prompt follow-up calls are obvious, most companies don’t act quickly enough. Automated lead nurturing may be a great way to reach out to a large number of prospects. But a follow-up email or phone call is often the best way to convert inbound leads into qualified sales opportunities. This is because a lead’s chances of being converted into a sale opportunity is higher if they are contacted right after a website conversion.
Following-up on a lead is much more efficient than cold calling provided you make a well-planned, timely call to an inbound prospect. Based on their browsing history, you would know what a prospect is looking for. You also have enough information to conduct initial research about the prospect and the company they work for. So, all that’s left to do is to follow-up on time.
5. Send personalized emails
Email marketing is still a powerful tool for lead nurturing and personalizing emails can improve your lead nurturing strategy. A recent study found that 41% consumers have switched companies due to lack of personalized service.
There are many options you can adopt to make use of this lead nurturing strategy such as sending triggered emails to visitors who complete actions such as downloading your content or clicking on links in your emails. They can also visit certain pages on your site or demonstrate high levels of engagement. By combining the power of marketing personalization and behaviour-triggered emails you will be able to deliver the right marketing messages at the right time to the right people.
6. Use lead scoring tactics
This methodology, also known as lead scoring, is used to rank prospects based on their perceived value to an organization.
In most marketing automation platforms, lead scoring can be used to assign numeric values for certain website browsing behaviours, conversion events or social media interactions. This score can be used to decide which leads need to be pursued by a sales representative directly and which leads require further nurturing.
7. Coordinate sales and marketing teams
Lead nurturing strategies that are aligned with marketing and sales result in greater customer retention and success. Both sales and marketing must identify where prospects need to be transferred between teams in order to foster lead nurturing. This can be done by considering different triggers such as lead scoring, workflow enrolment and conversion events.
A sales and marketing service agreement (SLA) should outline the shared expectations, responsibilities and goals for cross-team collaboration. An SLA will allow the teams to hold each other responsible for converting leads into paying customers.
8. Engage prospects immediately
Find leads and turn them into customers. This is the ultimate goal for every business. A lead that is not branded doesn’t have any real value so it is vital that you engage prospects immediately before they respond to your competitors’ content.
Lead engagement is the proven way to connect with your prospects. It is common to launch a lead generation campaign and fail to retain customers. The combination of lead generation and engagement can improve the marketing results of any campaign.
9. Measure the interaction throughout the process
Before you can accurately assess the success of a lead nurturing strategy, it is important to define what you are judging. Keep in mind that revenue impact is the ultimate indicator of success.
To properly measure interaction, it’s important to determine what makes a good nurture program and what actions can be considered as engagement? Not everyone who opens an email should be automatically considered a prospect. While some people may have an easy interaction with your content, they will not be able to influence your metrics. Try conversation to interact in real-time with leads as this greatly increases the chances of them converting. It is also a way to show your brand is human.
Measure interaction by asking yourself these questions:
- Are you generating more revenue by increasing the volume of your entire nurture program?
- Does this lead nurturing strategy bring in more value or increase the value of your existing customers?
- Does your nurture strategy reduce the time it takes to close sales?
10. Email nurturing
Email nurturing, also known as ‘email lead nurturing campaign’, is the act of building a long-lasting relationship with leads by keeping in touch with them and showcasing your products’ value.
A strong email nurture campaign can help you educate your leads, build brand awareness and build trust that will lead to a sale.
igenr8 is a leading marketing consulting services dedicated to B2B companies. Our primary focus is to provide lead generation services and lead nurturing strategies to B2B sectors. Our team handles every aspect of a client’s top-of-the-sales-funnel needs, from building targeted sales leads lists to B2B appointment setting with qualified prospects. If you are looking for a good B2B lead generation company to create lead nurturing strategies for your business, reach out to igenr8 and grow your business.
