What are the Essential Tips to Start Your Lead Nurturing?
In A Word Lead nurturing is the actual process of developing and reinforcing relationships with customers at every stage of the sales funnel.
1. Start slowly:
Start by isolating a group of contacts corresponding to a buyer persona in your database.
Analyze when these contacts interact with your site or social networks to determine how relevant the sales cycle’s content point will be.
2. Automate as soon as possible:
If possible, try to automate email sending based on context. Avoid overloading these communications.
The goal is to test several possibilities of objects and content to find out what works best. Look for behaviors or dates (renewing a contract, for example) that will be the triggers for automating your program.
3. Establish a strategy for maturing your prospects:
With automation, you will be able to determine the most suitable channel for each type of prospect.
You will be able to measure the contact’s progress in the nurturing program with CRM integration.
4. Stagger your emails:
The goal is to gradually send emails, so prospects move from the knowledge stage to consideration and then conversion.
Thus, your contacts in the “phase of interest” will be redirected to a program that encourages them to convert. Continually test multiple channels and multiple media to collect information and ensure the relevance of your messages. From then on, you will be able to present several options to your prospects. They will be integrated into a new educational nurturing program.
If you notice that prospects are staying longer than average on your site and content, they are probably considered. Don’t hesitate to put them in an “advanced” program to guide them further through the buying cycle.
If you notice that prospects haven’t interacted with your site for a while, put them on a “re-engagement” program.
5. Manage exclusions carefully:
When your prospects move forward in the conversion process, stop sending them automatic emails that could duplicate the more personalized ones posted by your salespeople.
6. Measure the effectiveness of your nurturing:
To assess lead engagement early in the process, analyze open email rates and click-through rates. If they are too low, adjust your messages, timing, and sending frequency to find the optimal values. Then, measure how many of these prospects move from one step of the tunnel to the next and in how long on average.
To get an idea of the conversion speed, calculate the number of days it takes to go through all of the process steps for an average prospect.
Continuously, analyze and adjust your program to anticipate market changes, customer behavior, and adapt your organization. You now have the tips you need to set up your lead nurturing strategy.