Value Your Leads: Lead Nurturing Best Practices to Boost Conversion
According to statistics 79 percent of marketing leads never convert to sales. That figure reveals an even sadder reality: 65 percent of B2B marketers haven’t established lead nurturing. Whatever the reason companies have for not focusing on lead nurturing is a path to self-destruction. With every minute of neglect, the clock slowly ticks until the mechanism finally explodes and destroys everything.
The statistics are shocking given the fact that even multi-billion dollar companies place so much premium on lead nurturing. Take Microsoft, for example; the tech giant bought LinkedIn for a whopping $26.2 billion, the most significant acquisition in its history.
Why would they pay that much? For what?
LinkedIn gives them access to millions of data of the audience they want to become their customers. That data will provide them with an idea what each target wants, enabling them to create a personalized strategy to win their prospects over.
That is a clear and perfect example of lead nurturing. It is so important that another study showed the significant difference it has in companies that have made this a part of their conversion process.
- Annuitas Group revealed that nurtured leads purchase 47% more than the non-nurtured ones.
- Eloqua, Taleo Corporation said their conversion rates increased by 30% more
- DemandGen Report said that lead nurturing emails get 4–10 times more response than standalone email blasts
First Things First
A lot of B2B marketers make the wrong assumption that acquiring a large percentage of leads give them a bigger fighting chance of increasing the sales. If that is the case, then a lot of companies could have become multi-million dollar companies just because of the leads they have, but such is not the case.
Instead, you have to build a relationship with the customer, know what they want, and gain their trust. Once you get to know them, it would be easier to deliver something they want based on their individual needs.
Thus, their conversion is based on how well you can give an exact solution to their pain and also the steps that lead them toward that path. As you lead them along, you should be careful of pitfalls that could jeopardize that conversion journey. We have prepared some tips how you can avoid those mistakes as you nurture your leads.
Value Your Leads
Consumers are wiser and more sensitive today than 20 years ago. Thanks to a vast amount of information that is readily available on the Internet. Now, consumers can easily spot whether you want to make a quick buck or there to bring a solution to a pain point.
So how do you show you value your leads?
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By providing them with valuable content for free, something that makes their lives better or solves their pain points. When your leads see that you are concerned about them, they will trust you, and it will be easier to convert them and make the purchase.
Know More about Them
Since you are the ones who lead them on a journey, you have to know your leads so you can provide what they specifically want to make the journey comfortable, convenient, and enjoyable. What are the touch points that your prospects have to go through? That means you have to provide content that is relevant in every point of their journey.
Be Consistent
Being consistent means following your schedule. If you release new content every Tuesday and Thursday, you have to make sure you do so. If you don’t, you send a negative message that you don’t care about your business, and that is bad news for your business. If your target leads see you don’t care, why should they care as well?
Staying on schedule also ‘trains’ your leads to perform actions that are connected to multiple touchpoints. When you get your leads to do this, you are also getting their “Yes” that can eventually lead them to purchase.
Drip Campaigns
Research showed that leads who were nurtured through a drip marketing funnel are likely to spend 47 percent more on purchases than those who went through other channels. More so, they increase the chance of client re-engagement and have higher open rates.
Beyond Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is not a standalone process. Instead, it compliments with other marketing strategies, such as email marketing and landing pages. These elements work harmoniously in a marketing ecosystem that ultimately leads to conversion.
The most important, however, is automating the marketing process. Using software or tool. You create and send trigger information based on the specific client’s behavior. Through this, the target receives the information at the most appropriate time that brings them closer to the sale.
This article originally posted at The Savvy Marketer.