As business owners our successes are determined by the number of QUALIFIED LEADS we obtain. We could get leads all day long. If we don’t have the QUALIFIED leads, they mean nothing. It’s also important that those leads are nurtured. Just because we have a QUALIFIED lead, doesn’t mean that we have the sale in the bag, it means we offer something the customer wants or needs. But so does your competition.
Nurturing QUALIFIED leads is as important as nurturing unqualified leads, if not more important. A successful lead nurturing campaign, keeps you fresh on the customers mind during their purchasing process.
Lead Nurturing will help in the transition of qualified leads to customer. This is also true for non-qualified leads.
It is important that when you nurture leads, you are speaking to the customer. Your message is specific to them. Lead Nurturing is a vital element and should be taken seriously, and used to ensure that you have a successful lead nurturing strategy development.
Here are a few easy things you can do to ensure that your lead nurturing strategy is successful:
1) Establish a goal for lead nurturing that is S.M.A.R.T and also aligns with the overall business goals. Success is measured by your business goals, so ensure that you are aligning all activities to these overall goals. If you are setting expectations and goals that do not align with your business goals, the success is less likely, and measurements aren’t nearly as accurate and effective.
2) Targeting: Ensure that messages are specific. Have various messages available for your lead nurturing campaigns to ensure that each qualified lead is obtaining a specific message that is related to them and their needs. This will ensure that you aren’t providing them with information that does not relate to them. It will also show your lead that you are interested in them. Targeted Lead Nurturing is providing the right content to the right person at the right time. If you know someone who isn’t purchasing for 6 months, you don’t want to provide them with a purchasing message right away — you want to build up to that message.
3) Customize Communications: When the communication is relevant, personalized and timely, it has a much higher impact rate than a broadcast message (whether it be online, on air, or on site).
4) Integrate Your Campaigns. Using multi-touch, integrated messages. Using email, phone and online integrations engagement is increased providing a more personalized relationship with the lead.
5) Strategic Focus. Have multiple efforts, contact points, and messages for various buying stages. Depending on where the lead is in the buying stage, the message and touch point should reflect that you are aware of where the lead is in the buying stage.
6) Set up Scores for Leads. Establish different scores, metrics and analytics to ensure the sales team focuses on sales-ready prospects, and the marketing team continues to nurture those who aren’t sales-ready.
Lead Nurturing should be handled by marketing, implementing different details and touch-points to build up the lead until they are in the buying stage of the sales funnel. While it is important that Sales Executives have and build relationships with these leads, it is important that they focus on the Sales side, allowing marketing to handle the nurturing of those leads, guiding and directing the sales team to success.
Do you need help setting up your lead generation and nurturing, let our experts help you!
