Of the people who visit your website (or even your store or office); how many make a purchase or sign up for your service immediately?

We all have that target audience of potential clients and customers we hone in on - those people you think are most likely to buy your product or into your service - but how many of them actually do? Say you don’t manage to close the deal first time round (i.e. the first time they visit your site or request a quote) – what do you do then? The biggest mistake you can make: Forgetting about them.   

Gleanster research reports that 50% of qualified leads aren’t ready to close a sale. That means these people have shown a definite interest, but simply aren’t quite ready to commit to that decision yet and are still considering their options.

And if they’re researching, it means they’re also looking into what your competitors have to offer. 

Lead nurturing is the often over-looked power of email marketing. By setting up triggered campaigns you can target these potential leads, and build your relationship with them to the point where they’re ready to convert. It ensures that your brand is top of mind when the customer reaches the point where they’re ready to make the purchase. This doesn’t only apply to e-commerce sites. Lead nurturing can be of assistance where your aim is to get the potential customer or client in touch with a sales consultant who can then take over and build the relationship further.

What exactly is lead nurturing?

Leads are contacts that have been recognised as potential customers or clients. Once identified they are usually assessed and classified in one of two groups – those that are ready to buy, and those that are longer term prospects.

Those that are ready to buy, are considered “qualified” (definitely ready to make a purchase) and can be forwarded directly to your sales cycle, where you aim to convert the lead to a sale. However, if we look at the Gleanster stat above, not all qualified leads are ready to buy or commit to your brand.  They’re longer term prospects, still stuck in the buying cycle: At this point they know they need your product or service, but would prefer to evaluate their options.

With some nifty teamwork between your CRM team, triggered email marketing, Web Analytics, and sales team; a relationship-building plan (or lead nurturing campaign) is then set up to keep get these prospects from the buying cycle into your sales funnel. 

What does a lead nurturing campaign look like?

After the initial lead generation, a lead nurturing email campaign will usually be a series of automated emails that are triggered at the point at which the lead is generated. Generally, these can take a number of forms:

• Promotional emails – that promote product or service features, or offer discounts.
• Educational emails – that inform the user further on how to best use the product.
• Demo emails – offering step-by-step info on how to use the product, or link to a demo video or download.
• Industry-related email – that offers industry insights into the product or service, or provides the lead with the resources they need to do further research on it.
• Personal follow-up – this is generally only used once the lead has been advanced from the buying cycle to the sales cycle.

Steps to creating a lead nurturing campaign

• Identify and categorise your leads according to their interests, then tailor the campaign accordingly.

This means that if you offer various products or services, you communicate to each contact based on which product it is their interested in. Sending a big generic mail simply proclaiming “We’re the best at all these things!” is not enough. People want to know that you’re a specialist specifically in the service they’re looking for.

• Decide the three big ones.

Who you’re talking to, what you want them to do, and, subsequently, what your message will be.
Remember that if your audience has already heard the initial sales pitch (i.e. if the lead was generated through a promotion) they don’t want to hear it again. In order to pique their interest further, you’ll have to tell them something they don’t already know: Share content (downloads, blog articles, insightful industry content), or offer to put them in touch with a direct contact who can answer questions and give them some face-to-face time if needed.

•  Test your sequence and frequency.

Before launching straight into your lead nurturing campaign, take some time to plan the type of nurture emails that would be suited to your audience and message (i.e. what type of content you’ll deliver with each email in the series), as well as what sequence you’ll deliver the content in. For example, the first might be a promotional email, the second a product demo and the third a personal follow-up.

Timing is also very important in lead nurturing campaigns. You don’t want to email your prospects too often (to the point of annoyance), but you don’t want them to forget about you – and let a competitor slip in during the interim. 

Test various frequency-intervals and sequences to determine the best result. It could also be worth consulting with your sales team on the frequency they find works best in the sales cycle.

Bonus thought

Make sure that your marketing and sales teams are aligned on this one. There’s nothing worse than receiving an email from the marketing team at 10am, only to be met by a phone call from the sales team at 11am. Your communications should be aligned – when both teams communicate separately, it can often exhaust potential customers. (I’ve been finding this problem with banks in particular of late – if I said no to a credit card offer on Monday, I’m not likely to say yes on Wednesday, am I?)

Yes, it’s yet another thing to keep on your radar – but the long term effects of a lead nurturing campaign can yield higher income. The real plus is that this process can be fully automated, helping you relieve your sales team so they can focus more on immediate prospects.