Growing a business is like growing a plant. The amount of time, dedication, and nurturing you put into it will determine what you get out of it. That’s what lead nurturing does for sales.
What is Lead Nurturing?
Lead nurturing is a strategy that businesses use to maintain and grow relationships with potential customers. It is the process of building a relationship from the beginning of the sales funnel to the end. Prospects are nurtured by providing information that is relevant to their situation and stage in the funnel.
Lead Nurturing Mediums:
- Email Campaign
- Webinar
- Blogs
- Ebooks
- Newsletters
- Videos
Why is Lead Nurturing Important?
Building and maintaining strong relationships is key to closing more sales and getting repeat business. By nurturing leads, your company provides the information and engagement buyers seek at every stage of the sales process.
Lead Nurturing Facts & Stats
What Does a Lead Nurturing Campaign Look Like?
The goal of lead nurturing is to give your leads additional relevant content. That will promote natural progression down your sales funnel. The process can occur via social media, blogs, and other methods. In most cases, however, email nurture campaigns are the best choice. So, what does this typically look like?
- Introduction: Tell the prospect about your company.
- Education: After you identify their needs, send educational materials that would benefit the potential buyer.
- Multi-Touch: Reach your audience on their preferred platform by running campaigns via email, blog, LinkedIn, etc.
- Boosted Sales: More sales can be generated when leads are nurtured throughout the sales cycle.
Lead Nurturing Scenario
It is easier to comprehend the benefits of something when you consider a scenario. To help you understand just what lead nurturing can do for you, we have provided a before and after comparison.
Before Lead Nurturing:
A new lead comes into the sales pipeline, so your sales agent right away calls the prospect. Most calls end up going to voicemail, or it turns out the lead is not ready to buy at this time. Because your team knows the potential customer will eventually need or want to buy, they continuously follow up and call the lead weekly.
- 👎Even though calling the lead keeps them engaged, it’s not enough. You are not learning anything new about the prospect or their pain points.
After Lead Nurturing:
A new lead comes into the sales pipeline, so an email is automated to the lead. Meanwhile, your sales agent calls at the same time. Whether the call goes to voicemail or not, the sales agent knows the lead has been contacted via email. Next, the sales agent will call as best practices recommend while sending targeted sales content automatically to the lead via email or social media.
- 👍The lead is now receiving beneficial information customized for them. Meanwhile, the sales agent can look over this data and have more insightful phone calls on their pain points.
Creating an Effective Lead Nurturing Strategy
No matter the medium, a lead nurturing campaign includes a goal and solid content shared throughout the customer journey at the right time. Your company needs to identify its buyer persona and provide helpful information during the potential buyer’s phase in the sales cycle.
Goal:
Sell more commercial video surveillance systems.
Solid Content:
Create educational and informational pieces about commercial video surveillance systems.
Share:
Publish the content to your company blog, and incorporate it into social media pieces and emails.
Timing:
Throughout the month, send out multiple emails with this messaging, ensuring that each piece of content is timed and scheduled so that it’s the information the buyer wants and needs at the time. At the end of the campaign, they should have all questions answered and be closer to becoming a customer.
Lead Nurturing Email Campaign Example:
Below are just a few of the many lead nurturing templates you can use.
New Lead Nurturing Emails:
Version 1
- Brand Introduction
- Share Recycled Content
- Encourage to Stay Connected
Version 2
- Value Prop
- Share Recycled Content
- Reminder
Current Client Lead Nurturing Emails:
Version 1
- Value Prop
- Share Recycled Content
- Reminder
Version 2
- Survey
- Value Prop
- Cross-Sell
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The Steps to a Successful Nurture Strategy
5 Ways Lead Nurturing Can Help Boost Sales
Lead nurturing is a powerful marketing strategy. Below are our top 5 reasons why implementing a lead nurturing strategy can boost sales.
1. Quality Relationships
Building trust isn’t easy. Nonetheless, lead nurturing helps your sales agents build and maintain valuable relationships through regular and consistent communication. Most lead nurturing is done through automation. So, when a lead reaches out, your team is ready to provide the one-on-one relationship they’re looking for. By giving your prospects a sense of being seen and building trust with them through automated messaging, you increase the chances of converting them into customers.
2. Lead Segmentation
Because you are nurturing your potential leads, you can segment them even further to get optimum results. By narrowing your target audience, you can talk about their pain points or problems and offer specific solutions. A survey, for instance, can help you learn what your clients are looking for in a product or service. Depending on what they answer, you can then segment your email list. You’ve now divided a broad buyer into a sub-group with specific characteristics and can send even more targeted beneficial information their way.
3. Creates Cross-Selling Opportunities
When you find out a customer’s interests, you can suggest additional products that complement their past purchases. For example, you may have a lead segmented into your access control bucket, so you can cross-sell an all-in-one video security solution. Essentially, this means you are now nurturing a prospect. In addition to cross-selling items you know they are interested in and making it clear that you understand their needs.
4. Higher CTR
By measuring click-through rate, you can determine whether your content, survey, subject line, etc., are effective at engaging users. In addition, your CTR can increase with a lead nurturing program. According to HubSpot, lead nurturing emails generate an 8 percent CTR compared to general email sends, which generated just a 3 percent CTR.
5. Better ROI
ROI, or return on investment, measures the performance and efficiency of an investment. It’s an optimum way to evaluate whether resources are optimally used, or not. In terms of lead nurturing, it can provide a 45 percent higher ROI for marketing departments. For this reason, lead nurturing is a crucial component of increasing sales.
Are you looking to Increase Sales?
Now that you know the importance of a good lead nurturing campaign. You’re ready to take on more leads. 360Connect is an online lead generation company that sends true intent prospects to suppliers.
Get a steady stream of qualified prospects and grow your business today!
- Learn More about our Revenue Growth Program
- Looking for more sales tips? Check out 360Connect’s Learning Center
Related Article: Nurturing Campaigns: Why Time is Money