5 Effective Lead Nurturing Techniques

Attracting customers with inbound marketing takes a lot of work, but when done right, it empowers the customer and increases brand awareness. Lead nurturing goes hand in hand with inbound marketing. Developing relationships with customers at every stage of the sales funnel is lead nurturing; it’s keeping your customers engaged and informed right through to their buying decision.
Using lead nurturing techniques that actually work can have a huge effect on your sales. Most of your inbound leads won’t make a purchase right away, so nurturing that relationship is the key to making that sale down the line. Here are some effective techniques that keep you on your customers’ radar.

1. Develop a Buyer Persona

Get to know your customers by creating a buyer persona. Start by gathering demographic information and then find out what problems your customers are facing. Understanding your key demographic allows you to really target your marketing content and understand your customers’ needs. Why spend tons of time and money on a marketing campaign if you don’t know who you are marketing to? A good buyer persona will inform marketing and sales strategies and increases the speed of decision-making for your team.

2. Content That Targets Your Customer

Now that you have a good understanding of who you’re marketing to, you can take that information and create content that they would actually want to consume. Keep your customers in mind whenever you are creating marketing content. You want to become a source that they trust. By developing that relationship with your leads, you are never far from their minds, so when it comes time for them to make a buying decision, your company should come to mind.
Integrate that content into your social media marketing plan. All of your organic content, replies, and comments should be informed by your buyer persona, and all part of the larger plan to generate sales. Your strategies should constantly be changing with your customer in mind to really nurture those relationships.

3. Multi-Channel Marketing

Don’t just rely on one platform to reach your customers. The average open rate for email marketing in Canada is anywhere between 18-26% depending on the industry. While that is an effective lead nurturing tool, you still need to reach all those people who didn’t open that email! That’s where multi-channel lead nurturing comes in.
A typical buyer moves quickly from one platform to another, browsing the internet, going on social media, and opening emails. Meet them at each stop of their journey. Create engrossing website content, stay up-to-date on social media, have an email marketing schedule, and follow up with leads the old fashioned way—use the telephone.

4. Follow Up Right Away

You may think that a follow-up phone call for a sales lead needs to happen the same day as it is requested, but that is not nearly fast enough. Think 30 minutes. Online sales leads go cold quickly, so keep the heat on them by calling right away. In this digital age, people are used to quick replies and instant information, so keep up with the times by following up as quickly as possible.

5. Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is by far one of the least used lead nurturing techniques, but also one of the most effective. It is the practice of ranking your leads based on the perceived value each lead has for your company. The idea is to have your sales team follow up with the highest-ranking leads first. Essentially, your team will be going after the biggest fish. Setting up a system for lead scoring can be time consuming, but once it’s in place, it is an effective lead nurturing tool.

Author: Jordan Rinaldo
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