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What Is Lead Nurturing?
Lead nurturing is the process of building a relationship with someone who is interested in your business and has the potential to become a paying customer.
You don’t have to leave it up to chance to see whether or not a person is going to make a purchase from your company; there are strategies you can use to help educate potential buyers on your products and services in order to help sway them towards becoming a buyer. Lead nurturing involves building trust with potential customers so that when it does come time to make a purchase, they choose your business over the competition. If you’re having trouble generating leads from your website, be sure to check out our post here.
One big mistake that many businesses make is that they go for the final sale immediately, and customers don’t want to be inundated with requests to buy. Lead nurturing is about playing the long game- developing trust and creating a relationship with a customer so that they feel like your company has their best interests in mind, and they trust you when it comes down to finally making a sale. Unfortunately, 65% of B2B marketers do not nurture their leads, which means they’re missing out on a huge opportunity to turn leads into customers who could ultimately turn into repeat customers. Don’t be one of these businesses; instead, follow these simple tips to ensure your leads are nurtured to their optimum potential.
Educate Your Customers
Pay attention to what stage your customers are at in the buyer’s journey, and use that data to educate them about your business. Look at what they’ve already viewed/downloaded on your website, and send them emails with information accordingly. Share the latest trends on your products, show them demonstration videos, product reviews, testimonials, special offers, and more.
Personalize Your Pitch
All your leads are different, so don’t treat them as if they’re the same. Not only are they at different stages in the buyer’s journey, they’ll have different needs and backgrounds, and you need to take this into account when dealing with them. Segment your audience based on their demographics and defining traits, and then make sure that the information you’re delivering to them is personalized for each specific group. Add their name to the top of the email and try to include information about their company or group.
Do more than email.
Although email is a very effective way to nurture leads, it will be a turnoff to your buyer to receive constant generic emails that may or may not be useful to them. Instead, try to come up with other ways to reach them. Consider implementing a dynamic call to action on your website, such as one that prompts a user to sign up for your newsletter, or to “click here” to request your ebook or learn more about your product. You can also run a Facebook pay-per-click ad campaign that will automatically target your ideal customers.
Create Targeted Content
According to Hubspot, “leads nurtured with targeted content produce an increase in sales opportunities of more than 20%.” Targeted content consists of delivering the right content to the right audience at the right time. This might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised at how many business owners miss out on this opportunity to turn a lead into a conversion. Use a marketing automation platform in order to identify and segment your audience based on their needs and interests, and then use those interests to send them relevant and valuable content that will help them- not just persuade them to buy.
Be Timely With Your Follow-Up.
Automated lead nurturing can help you reach a large group of leads, but then it’s up to you to respond in a timely manner. Research shows that there are benefits to responding quickly as opposed to waiting, so pick up the phone and make those follow-up calls. Use the information you have available to you about your leads to tailor the conversation and show them how your company can provide them value.
This is especially important if you feel like your leads aren’t opening your emails or responding to your pitches. Engage them by asking for their feedback on how you can improve, and then listen to what they have to say. You can also create a sense of urgency by creating a time-sensitive offer or giveaway. Really, any kind of offer that your audience will find valuable is a good way to engage them.
Check out our post for more ways to turn leads into conversions! How do you nurture your leads? What strategies have you found to be most effective? We’d love to hear from you- comment below! Contact us today for more information.