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It would be incredible if everyone bought or made a booking after their initial contact with your business. This rarely occurs. With a good lead nurturing strategy, you can increase the likelihood that a prospect will become a sale.
After spending over 20 years in sales and marketing, I am acutely aware of how much anxiety can fill the gap between a prospect showing interest and the moment they place an order. Let me show you some examples of a lead nurturing campaign in action. Watch your conversion rates increase when you implement these strategies.
What is lead cultivation?
Lead nurturing is the process of building a relationship with those who have shown an interest in your service or product but aren’t yet ready to purchase. Lead nurturing is a strategy that guides people through the marketing channel, from initial interest to eventual conversion.
Lead nurturing campaigns can be in many different forms, and they use a variety of channels to reach potential customers. Email is most commonly used, but other methods such as social media, snail-mail, or even a phone call can be useful. You can increase your chances of a sale by doing anything that will strengthen your relationship with the prospect while they are weighing their options.
Let’s take a real-life example. A client has a consultation but does not book a service. You send follow-up emails over the next few weeks. You can also mail a postcard with a coupon code and try to schedule work via SMS text. These actions are all part of your lead nurturing campaign.
Lead nurturing has many benefits.
Here are some ways that lead nurturing can increase the sales closing rate.
Building a relationship with the business
PWC polled over 90 people who said they would buy from a business that earned their trust. Nearly the same number said they would recommend that company to other people.
Lead nurturing campaigns are a great way to provide leads with helpful tips, social proof, and other content.
Brand awareness and recall increase.
How many times have you seen an advertisement or logo to remember it? It is commonly believed that you must have seven touchpoints before a customer places your logo, brand, or product.
With a lead nurturing strategy, you can have meaningful interactions with people after they have requested information or added a product to the cart. Your brand is at the forefront of the customer’s mind when it’s time to make a purchase.
Educates your best customers
The vast amount of data available to buyers is a great advantage. Google’s study found that 53 percent of shoppers research products before purchasing. Transparency has become as important to many buyers as price and quality.
Whoever offers the most information wins. This is exactly what happens in the lead nurturing process. You can give details on where you source your products or how to keep a service area clean. The more informed a lead is, the more likely it will choose your solution.
Increased conversion rates
All of these advantages lead to the ultimate objective of getting more leads to purchase from your company. Nurtured leads are 47% more likely to buy those who weren’t promoted.
Lead nurturing: ways to make it successful.
Lead nurturing doesn’t fit all. A clothing retailer uses different tactics than an enterprise software consultant. Consider this as a list of lead nurturing ideas that you can combine to create your strategy.
Sending targeted emails
Email is my favorite channel for nurturing leads. It is easy to automate and less expensive than advertising. It’s also useful for any company or product.
You can’t send random emails to leads. This will get annoying. Here are some tips to make the most of your nurture email:
- Segment the list: Segment by behavior (clicked on product pages, watched videos), engagement (those who opened the last email vs. others), or journey stage.
- Personalize emails for relevance. Send customized emails based on the information you have about each customer (their birthdays, their interests, and their shopping habits).
- Create captivating headlines: Increase open rates by using concise and actionable subject lines.
- Add a CTA that is clear and compelling: Add a Call to Action that states clearly what your lead needs to do next (buy, watch the video, claim a discount).
- Make them mobile-friendly: 75% of emails are opened via a mobile device. So make sure that yours is fast-loading and easily readable on mobile.
- A/B Test: A/B Test Variations of your CTA and subject line to determine which one gets the most conversions.
Retargeting with Ads
Retargeting Ads help you nurture leads as they click through the internet. Retargeting ads are what you see when you click on a page for a product and then you see an advertisement on another website.
The ads are displayed automatically on websites within an advertising network (like the href=”https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/02/10/google-display-network”>Google Display Network/a>, for example). Leads are then automatically presented with ads on websites in an advertising network.
Follow lead nurturing best practices when setting up your remarketing campaign to ensure your ads do not go from being effective to being overbearing.
Leverage SMS Marketing
In the right circumstances, SMS Marketing (using text messages to reach your audience) is the ideal strategy for nurturing leads. This is because SMS requires an “opt-in,” so those you text are qualified leads.
SMS marketing is effective:
- Advertising on the Internet is less expensive than other forms.
- Texts don’t compete for attention the way an email in an overcrowded inbox does
- 89% say that they prefer texting to calling businesses.
- Open rates of 98% for text messages
Text messages can be used to confirm appointments, offer time-sensitive discounts, or announce products and services.
Create nurture content
Content marketing is a great way to educate leads as they weigh their options. Content marketing includes a variety of formats, such as FAQs, eBooks, webinars, and blog posts.
Content is a marketing strategy that powers the other nurturing channels. You can distribute educational content via email, SMS, or social media.
You should create content at each stage of the marketing funnel.
- Awareness Stage: The focus is on how-to material that reveals and solves a problem.
- Use cases to show how your product or service solves a problem.
- Stage of action: Explain product features and discounts.
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