One of the biggest hallmarks of a successful business is in the ability to generate new sales leads out of potential customers. Without the continuous growth of these leads, a business cannot expand or grow as there will be a lack of new customers buying their products and services. In business, a lead will create opportunities for new connections, and allow a business to keep tabs on their market competition. Although the majority of businesses view sales leads as “untapped” reserves of new customers, they can also be connections that a business already has and just needs to foster. Based on my entrepreneurial journey I have learned nurturing leads And here is summary on why businesses should use lead nurturing, what it consists of, what the benefits are of using it, and some tips on how to use it.
What Is Lead Nurturing and Why Should Businesses Use It?
Lead nurturing describes the human engineering of developing relationships with potential customers through purposeful, meaningful engagement. In most cases, lead nurturing is done with a defined target group by providing relevant information to the customer throughout every single stage of the sales funnel, including when the customer is not looking to purchase a product or service from the business.
It involves actively listening to the needs and demands of the prospects that are created through lead generation. Lead Nurturing is intended to be used as a vehicle to raise the company’s standing in the eyes of the potential client. Common tactics that are used in lead nurturing include timely follow-ups, personalization, targeted content marketing, and multi-channel nurturing
Company can begin nurturing a potential prospect as soon as they have their contact information and are able to personalize the communication they have with him or her.
A business may use an occasional e-mail letting the client know about new products or updates to services such as price changes, whereas, with more specific lead nurturing campaigns, the business may educate the customer in the advantages of a particular product or service through a personalized sales pitch that encourages them to buy the product sooner rather than later.
With the advent of social media, companies are able to create communities around their services and products, opening up new spaces and opportunities for lead nurturing tactics.
Stats Which Backs Lead Nurturing
According to Forrester, marketers that use lead nurturing tend to see an average increase of 20% on sale opportunities as opposed to non-nurtured leads and companies that excel at lead nurturing tend to generate 50% more sales at a 33% lower cost. Beyond this, there are several other reasons to nurture leads:
- They bring in higher purchase prices. The majority of nurtured leads will bring in 47% more purchases than non-nurtured leads.
- Lead nurturing e-mails that are personalized get a response rate that is four to ten times the amount of generic, standalone e-mails.
- Most businesses (48%) already require multiple influencers and a long nurturing cycle to acquire leads and so lead nurturing fits right into traditional marketing methods.
- With lead nurturing, you can establish your business as a thought leader.
- With lead nurturing, you can build long-term relationships with your customer base.
- You can segment out opportunities to the right sub-target audiences.
- The majority of companies assert that lead conversion is their top priority, and therefore can use traditional lead generation strategies with lead nurturing marketing.
Now that we have gone over the advantages of lead nurturing, let’s take a look at tips for using them.
How can you start “Lead Nurturing” For Your Business
Here are ten tips on how to use lead nurturing effectively.
- Do Not Focus on Sales Alone But On Relationship Building. By just focusing on sales alone, you miss out on creating a relationship with your customers. Relationships are needed if you are going to foster a sense of trust, transparency, and loyalty.
- Provide Help to Your Prospects. By actively participating in discussions and being aware of your audience’s pain points, you can provide solution-based services and goods.
- Do Not Over Commit and Be Brutally Honest. Customers want complete transparency and so being brutally honest is a must. Do not over commit on what you offer but instead speak plainly about your services and products. This will build trust & loyalty with your customer base and avoid failures down the line.
- Personalize and Segment Your Audience. Segment your audience into specific groups based on their interests. In doing so, you will be able to personalize your marketing campaigns and increase the probability of sales.
- Educate Your Potential Prospects. Increase awareness among your potential customers by providing them with the information they need to make a purchase.
- Target Your E-mail Marketing Campaigns. By segmenting out your e-mail list by age, location, and interest, you can better cater to your prospects.
- Create Incentives or Urgency. Re-engage your potential customers by curating interesting e-mails that use urgency or incentive tactics.
- Maintain Uniformity. Always make sure that your frequency of e-mails is uniform and consistent.
- Identify Pain Points. Knowing which areas are the pain points of your prospects allows you to create e-mails that revolve around these pain points and offer solutions through your services or products.
- Begin Nurturing Ahead of Purchase Intent. Rather than waiting for your potential leads to show purchase intent, begin your lead nurturing campaign ahead of time to avoid sale purchase delays.
All in all, when done right, lead nurturing will allow you to build a healthy relationship with your customers, build trust and interest through engaging opportunities, and create a business brand that is transparent and solution focused.