3 Fail Proof Ways to Nurture Leads
The key to a good content marketing strategy is to provide content for leads no matter where they are in their purchase journey. But that means creating a good program to nurture those leads that are not yet ready to buy to help them through their journey and towards your product or service. While the specifics of an effective lead nurturing program will be different for every business, these are three fail-proof ways to nurture every lead until they are ready to buy.
One: Stay In Touch
The worst thing you can do once you’ve gained a new lead is to let that lead go cold. Ugh! At the very least, set up a monthly newsletter where you share relevant content with your leads. Ideally, you’ll segment your leads into specific personas or where they are in the purchase journey but don’t let this stop you from getting started. Just don’t forget to do it soon.
If you don’t have an email service provider (ESP), you can still personally send emails to your contacts. I once worked with a principal at a top consulting firm who would send an email to his clients every week sharing his own insights into what was going on in the industry to which he served. Of course it would be better to have the insights an ESP provides for further personalization and lead scoring, but he didn’t let that stop him from the first rule of lead nurturing. There’s no reason you can’t do the same for your small business.
Two: Think Outside the (In)Box
While email marketing remains an effective lead nurturing channel, it’s unlikely that your open rates exceed 20%. Even with targeted, personalized emails, nurturing your leads requires a multi-channel approach to guide your audience towards your products and services.
Don’t stop email marketing, but start adding on Google remarketing. Basically, remarketing allows you tp push personalized ads to website visitors and app users. This allows you to continue a conversation with those who you’ve already connected with, even if they are on competing websites or have abandoned shopping carts. In addition, remarketing is usually less expensive than straight up PPC so you can’t afford NOT to remarket.
Of course you need to look beyond remarketing, like social media marketing, public relations, etc., but that will depend on your business.
Three: Go Back to the Whale
We all know it costs more to get a new customer than to convert an existing customer. So every effective lead nurturing program includes a way to promote re-purchasing or upselling from existing customers. If you don’t do any list segmentation, you MUST segment past customers from prospective customers. Then you can create a program for existing customers. For example, your emails and remarketing ads wouldn’t include content for awareness or education. But instead, content around when to replace their products, or benefits of complimentary services.
You spend so much time and money getting a lead, don’t waste all that effort by ignoring these fail-proof lead nurturing tactics.
Image: Photospin
