9 Effective Lead Nurturing Tactics To Optimize Your Marketing Scheme

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Local Business Consulting

 

Lead nurturing is a process in which potential customers are cultivated over time into customers who are more likely to actually make a purchase. This process can result in more revenue for a company, as well as reduced marketing costs, and can create customer loyalty.

Lead nurturing is water for your business growth. Each potential customer has the ability to become a long-time, loyal customer.

  • Content marketing receives 3 times more leads compared to PPC ads.
  • Companies that properly nurture their leads attract 50% more ready-to-buy leads at 33% lower cost.
  • 79% of top companies fail to convert leads into sales due to a lack of lead nurturing

Lead nurturing comes down to planning, execution, and analysis. Implement these lead nurturing strategies to convert more customers and gain a competitive advantage in your space:

1. Be personal when nurturing your leads

You can get more out of your lead nurturing strategy by personalizing it. This means making a human connection with your leads.

When you’re forming a connection with another person, you trade information about your lives, address each other by name, and feel compassion for each other’s difficult situations.

The best marketing copy can make each person on your email list feel like they are the only person on the list.

Here is an example:

Hi, my name is John. I’m a college student and I’m struggling to pay for school. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to save money. If you have any tips, please let me know! I’m also looking for any advice on how to become successful in general. Thank you!

Add your lead’s name at the top of your nurturing emails

It’s not Shakespeare’s rose that people like hearing, it’s their own names.

When you use your lead’s name in your email, it creates a personal touch that shows you care about them. The email feels more like it comes from a friend than from a marketer or company, which builds trust and rapport.

Including a person’s name in both the email subject line and body copy is effective, but don’t overdo it as it may come across as contrived.

Use details about your lead’s lifestyle, location, company, and activities

Email service providers can help you personalize your emails by including the company’s name and URL if you are marketing to a B2B lead.

Using the lead’s geographical location can also help.

Here is an example: What is the best product for you in Las Vegas, Nevada?

Including information about someone’s lifestyle and activities is another way to make emails more personal. For example, if you know that someone signed up for your list because they are interested in sports, you can mention information about active lifestyles, exercising, and other relevant topics.

2. Do not spam your leads

There is no definite answer to how often you should email your potential customers according to marketing experts. A good frequency to follow is once a week.

A friend of mine gave his email address to a store that sells men’s hiking gear, and he regretted it because he got emails from the company all the time.

He unsubscribed and never spent money on the company.

3. Use your lead nurturing emails to educate your leads during the buyer’s journey

The importance of educating oneself is often underestimated. In our culture, many people take a DIY approach and use Google to search for information on a variety of topics every week.

We want to be informed so that we can make the best decisions and avoid wasting money. We also get a sense of accomplishment from learning.

You will earn a lot of respect from others if you are willing to share your knowledge with them freely. Additionally, sharing your knowledge is a great way to help potential customers through their journey of making a purchase.

The best way to market to potential customers is to focus on the three main phases of the buying cycle: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Awareness phase

The awareness stage is when your buyer first becomes aware that your company exists and that you may have a solution to his problem.

A Google search might direct your prospect to your website. If they explore your site further, read your articles, and see your signup form, it’s more likely that they’ll be interested in what you have to offer.

Boom! You have a lead.

This customer is not yet ready to make a purchase, but is instead seeking out more information.

If you’re emailing a segment of your list that consists of beginners or people who don’t have much knowledge about your industry, your emails should include links to your blog articles, special advice sent via email, and other educational information.

Consideration phase

The following phase is consideration. The buyer has realized that there is a problem or goal and has discovered that there are multiple potential solutions. Your product or service is one of those solutions.

The goal at this stage is to compare things.

You can make your product or service seem superior to others by sending emails that mention the competition and how you come out on top.

This is also the time to send educational emails that explain the options on the market in more detail so that people can make informed decisions.

Decision phase

You are now at the final stage where your prospect has recognized a problem or goal, discovered multiple solutions, and reached a decision. You just need to provide the final push to convince them to choose your solution.

What will make your prospect want to buy your product now?

Offering discounts and free shipping codes is an effective way to encourage prospects to make a purchase during the decision or conversion phase.

4. Start your lead nurturing process campaign as soon as possible

Nowadays, people are less patient and want everything immediately.

People also want to hear from brands right away. While you shouldn’t bother your customers too much, you should reach out to them soon after they sign up. Sending an email right after someone subscribes can make a big difference in your relationship with that person.

Your welcome email should express gratitude for signing up for the email list, provide a preview of content, and manage expectations.

5. Segment your list to target specific groups at a time

It is beneficial to segment your email list as it allows you to send more targeted messages to leads which can result in a sale. If you send a message that is too salesy or has a discount code to someone who is not familiar with your product, they are likely to ignore it.

If your business offers more than one product, you may want to segment your customers even further. For example, you could have two separate email lists, each targeting different consumers depending on their position in the buyer’s cycle. This would allow you to send more targeted messages.

6. Find out what your leads pain points are and create awesome content about it

Think about it—everyone experiences some sort of pain or struggle. Everybody has their own difficulties they have to face. It may seem like a downer, but it’s just a reality. Everyone endures some sort of pain or hardship.

For example, if a business lacks an effective means of communication between employees, it can lead to various problems. This can be resolved with products such as Slack or Asana.

Your product should solve your customers’ specific pain points. How does your product make life easier for customers? For example, does it enrich their lives, give them more opportunities, free up time, or entertain them?

Don’t write off boredom as something that doesn’t matter. There’s a reason why Netflix is doing well.

When you have found what specific pain points your audience has, address those in your content. How-to style articles are good for this, as are listicles (articles that contain lists of strategies, tools, etc).

Include links to content that you’re willing to share generously in your emails to leads. By doing this, you’re showing them that they can count on you to help them.

7. Create a content marketing funnel

The content marketing funnel is a strategy that helps customers move through the stages of the customer journey when they are looking to buy something. The content must be created with the different stages of the journey in mind.

A comprehensive content marketing strategy should answer the following questions:

  • What type of content should I produce?
  • Where are the best places to publish my content?
  • How will I measure the effectiveness of my content?

The content you produce should depend on what stage of the tunnel your prospects are in.

Top of funnel – awareness (or attraction)

Customers who are just entering your content marketing funnel are not yet aware of your company or what you have to offer.

You have many content types at your disposal to use, such as:

  • Blog posts
  • YouTube videos
  • Podcasts
  • Social media posts
  • eBooks

Your messaging should be decided before you decide the location and type of content.

How can I make people aware of my brand?

An SEO company in Seattle may produce a blog post discussing what SEO is and how it works.

This stage is all about bringing high-quality traffic into your business.

Analyze metrics to see how long visitors stay on your site, how often they leave without visiting other pages (bounce rate), and what pages they click on.

Your content in the “Awareness” stage should have a CTA that leads them to the next funnel stage. For example, if it’s a blog post, you could offer a lead magnet on learning more about SEO, such as “14 Mistakes Beginners Make When Starting With SEO.”

You can book a consultation call with Neil Patel’s traffic experts by filling out the lead form on their awareness blog post.

Middle of funnel – evaluation

Although it is not unusual for potential customers to hesitate about investing in a solution to their problem, often because they are unsure whether it is something they really want to do or because they think they may be able to sort it out themselves, it is nonetheless important to try to persuade them to commit as soon as possible.

At this stage, you want to work on building trust with potential customers.

Sending an email is a good way to answer any questions that they may have.

You can opt to create content types such as:

  • Emails
  • Useful downloads or infographics
  • Case studies
  • Events or webinars

Bright Edge helped one of their clients, Graco Inco, increase their “People Also Ask” search results by 718%. They also increased their Quick Answer results by 145%.

Now that beginners know the problem and solution, position your business as the best solution available by using case studies.

Bottom of funnel – conversion (or close)

A customer may enter any stage of your sales funnel at any time. For example, a ready-to-buy customer may already know they want SEO services for their company but need help deciding which agency is right for them.

This person might do a Google search for “best SEO agencies in Seattle” to find the best solution.

The conversion aspect of the funnel is about providing more reasons for the customer to buy. A few examples of content types include:

  • Side-by-side comparison tables
  • Free trial
  • Demo

Regarding a demo or trial, Norton has offered a program for free for 60 days, or you can pay $50 for a yearly subscription. They list the benefits of their program and allow you to compare it with similar programs offered by their competitors.

A demo or free trial is a great way for users to get a taste of what your product or service can offer them. It allows them to try out your solution and see if it works for them.

68.8% of users are likely to convert to paying customers when using a subscription business free trial model, according to studies.

8. Email marketing

Email drip campaigns are important for every business. They should be personalized, value-driven, and timely in order to be effective.

You should have a way to collect information from your prospect before you send your campaign.

For example, you could create a Typeform to collect specific responses. For example, if you’re an SEO agency, you might want to collect key information such as company size, revenue/profit, and marketing goals.

The “Ship 30 for 30” brand provides a digital writing course that teaches writers how to write online. In the first welcome email, they ask if the recipient is a brand new writer or has at least one year of experience.

We recommend adding a lead qualifier to your email so you can segment your leads and personalize email flows to fit their needs.

Encharge will help you create email flows and automatically segment your leads and establish triggers.

You can separate high-value from low-value leads by considering the answers to your questions.

If a lead is not the right size for your company, it can be sent to the low-value segment automatically.

In addition, Encharge gives you the ability to establish conditions and rules to divide your list.

If a lead does something specific, you can put them in a category. Things they might do include opening an email, scheduling a call, or clicking on links.

You can tell how interested a prospect is by how they meet the conditions you set. Leads who meet most or all of your conditions are hot, while those who only meet a few are warm. Those who don’t meet any of your conditions are cold.

9. Interact with leads

Marketing automation can help you nurture your leads, but you can also build relationships with them manually through your community.

Your prospects will appreciate you giving them attention and helping them with their problem.

Coaches, consultants, and service providers can use personal branding to better interact with their online community and build their business.

You can learn more about your audience by interacting with them and getting feedback from them.

Here are ways you can better interact with your prospects:

  • Perform a weekly or monthly live stream
  • Send out automated quizzes or surveys
  • Offer a private community like a Facebook group, discord chat, etc.

A live stream is a great way to engage with your potential customers by discussing a topic and then taking questions from the audience.

Start planning your lead nurturing strategy today

If you spend time perfecting your lead nurturing strategy, you will be able to attract higher quality leads, convert them into sales, and improve customer experience.

If you follow the guide above, you will learn to love lead nurturing too. Focus on giving the customer what they need at the exact right time.

 

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