6 Lead Nurturing Adages to Swear By

“Content is king, but engagement is queen, and the lady rules the house!” – Mari Smith

B2B sales cycles are seemingly endless. If you make the mistake of going MIA after the first touchpoint, it would be a classic case of – out of sight, out of mind! In one of its studies, Marketing Sherpa found out that 73% of leads are not ready to buy when they first give you their contact details. Sales folks are known for their aggressive streak and if they chase after a lead that isn’t ready to buy, you run a huge risk of losing that lead. The bridge between prospecting and conversion is lead nurturing. Here’s a quick read for you to understand the concept of lead nurturing, why it’s necessary, and 6 adages that would make you build a winning lead nurture strategy.

What is Lead Nurturing?

Lead nurturing can be referred to as the courtship period of marketing, the hit and trial period before they say, “I do”. It helps your lead to get acquainted to your business. Lead nurture programs help your leads get enlightened and educated about your product/service, which gets them to develop trust in your brand. These programs also get the leads moving from the top of the funnel, when they aren’t quite ready to purchase, to the bottom of the funnel, when they are all set to purchase.

Why is it necessary?

According to a Forrester Research, organizations that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales at 33% lower cost. In one of their research studies, CSO Insights found out that companies with mature lead generation and management practices have a 9.3% higher sales quota achievement rate.

Nurturing is the best way to woo your leads to the purchase. It makes you stay on the same platforms as your prospects, get their attention, charm them, engage them, and increase the probability of them beginning a relationship with your brand.

What are the 6 lead nurturing adages to swear by?

Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with the concept of lead nurturing and are already thinking about kickstarting this program, let’s quickly take you through the 6 infallible lead nurturing adages to swear by:

• Data Enrichment Emails:

  These emails ask prospects for more information, surveying them, if you will. On the basis of the responses you receive via these emails, you’d be able to keep your contacts up-to-date and your content would become more relevant to where the prospects are in the buying process.

• Contact Segmentation:

  According to a research by MailChimp, contact segmentation can improve your email open rates by about 15%. By doing this, you’d be able to target the right audience on the basis of their interests, behavior, etc, without being too ‘sales-y’, repetitive, or overly promotional. Through segmentation, you also eliminate the jeopardy of exhausting your leads.

• Additional Anonymous-touch Opportunity Creation:

  Marketers have a conventional checklist of content assets through which a lead first becomes known to them, like landing pages and weight assets like case studies, eBooks, etc. You’d need to think beyond the marketing clichés like email blast campaigns and gated content to create more lead seizing opportunities. Try new tactics like Twitter cards, Facebook contests, or the ‘Yes or No’ surveys on Instagram stories. Also, try not to gate everything. Use semi-gated content that would allow the lead to preview the material, thus creating better lead capture opportunities.

• Swift and Unfeigned Follow-ups:

  For whatever reason a lead provides you with their contact information, promptly follow-up with them, preferably via email. When you do that, ensure that your message is to the point and unambiguous about the steps that follow. When a lead acts on a CTA, it calls for an action from sales within 5 mins.

• Systematic List Audits:

  Get a grasp on the concept of the qualification of leads (visitor, lead, MQL, SQL, or unqualified) as opposed to the 74% companies that don’t understand the semantics of it. Layer this grasp on top of analytics and customer personas to audit and update the existing lead status. Also, periodically, get your duplicates or bad data removed.

• Consistent Lead Nurturing:

  You could move more opportunities and MQLs to the bottom of the sales funnel faster by fashioning ongoing lead nurturing strategies for several segments. This could be achieved by positioning the leads in nurture tracks on the basis of their interests or behavior.

According to DemandGen Report, nurtured leads produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. Marketing Sherpa also found out that businesses that nurture their leads experience a 45% elevation in lead generation ROI over the ones that don’t. You definitely don’t want to be in that league. So, take it up a notch, or a few notches, you decide! Now, go ahead and establish the best lead nurture program for better engagement, unmatched brand advocacy, and an ROI going through the roof!

Is your lead nurturing strategy the best strategy there is?