The Executive’s Guide to Effective Lead Nurturing Programs

Effective lead nurturing can have a lasting and profound effect of your business’ success. By doing so you can see what brings you closer to your established goals. Goals can be as simple as "X% open rate and X% click-through-rate" or "X% conversion". According to a recent study by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 70% of companies are producing more content than they were a year ago. Through progressive profiling, your business is able to gather the right information about your leads to further focus your message and increase qualified conversation rates.

So, while lead generation is certainly important, investing in generating more leads without building an effective lead management process is simply, well, foolish. While the focus on lead generation is great, there’s a huge difference between generating leads and creating bona fide sales ready leads that predictably turn into profitable customers. Today I get to do much less teaching as more and more executives have increased their focus on lead generation. Over the last five years, I’ve seen the focus on lead generation increase significantly among small and mid-market businesses (SMEs). Of course, a close second priority is converting contacts/leads into customers.

The ability to gather information about the people visiting your website and downloading your content has never been easier. Lead nurturing is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Nurturing is more purposeful, following a clearly delineated process. Lead nurturing utilizes both marketing and sales tactics to increase the predictability and velocity of revenue growth.

Measure and track results.

You might find you need more or fewer steps for your own business needs. This process assumes that you will be using email for your lead nurturing. Digital marketing is a great way to leverage lead nurturing. A well-thought-out lead nurturing program can help convert those otherwise languishing leads into sales.

All of your drip marketing campaigns should be tracked and analyzed. At the lead nurturing stage of the game, remember, we aren’t sending out blatant sales pitches. For example, if you were selling lead nurturing an online course, you might provide some free information related to the course, without actually promoting the course.

When engaging in lead nurturing, you aren’t trying to close the deal (just yet). Otherwise, you may need to contact some customers and conduct a few surveys to better understand their wants and needs. Segmentation is all about grouping your leads into sections that help you better target your customers. For example, with Campaign Monitor, you can integrate your mailing list with Salesforce CRM, getting the best of both worlds. Ideally, your system will include a way to send out email newsletters and engage in drip marketing. For example, you are promoting a new online course.

Now consider that the top priority among B2B marketers is increasing the number of contacts/leads generated (Source, State of Inbound 2015). Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan. These include click through rates, content downloads, and the conversion rate from marketing qualified leads to sales qualified leads. Re engagement campaigns are also common, targeting contacts who previously showed interest but stopped interacting with the brand. Lead nurturing begins when a prospect submits a form, downloads content, or signs up for an event.

• The tips we’ve shared here should help you develop a lead nurturing strategy that is authentic, consistent, and agile.
• By implementing lead scoring, sales teams typically approach leads with high scores, finish lead nurturing, and initiate the sales process faster.
• This might include following up on a hot lead who just visited your pricing page, reaching out to a prospect who matches your ideal customer profile, or nurturing a contact who's showing renewed interest after going quiet.
• Don’t wait and make hay while the sun shines – convert them with an effective lead nurturing strategy.
• In contrast, marketing teams concentrate on potential customers with low points and create additional nurture programs for those specifically.

If all you do is send out a generic newsletter once in a while, you also aren’t engaging in lead nurturing. Far too often, a business might be generating a substantial number of leads, but then it fails to follow through with them. Lead nurturing is a way to cultivate and build relationships with leads in order to encourage conversions. When you combine lead nurturing with marketing automation, your results can be even better. Lead nurturing is a highly effective way to generate more sales for your business.