The secret behind a successful lead nurturing campaign

The secret behind a successful lead nurturing campaign 

BeBold operates her marketing strategy according to the inbound marketing model. Not sure what inbound marketing is about? Check out our intro to inbound marketing. The blog you are reading now picks up where we left off with the first step in inbound marketing: lead generation.  

What is lead nurturing? 

Lead nurturing is all about building relationships and guiding leads through their customer journey. Have you heard of the Marketing Rule of 7? It states that a person needs to hear or see your message at least 7 times before they take action to buy your product or service. The number of touchpoints a person needs has grown extensively due to the increasing amount of information we are exposed to. With marketing automation, you can easily create automated conversations with prospects and customers at every stage of their journey. 

How to nurture your leads 

Customers need information, advice, and comparisons when buying products or services. As a company, you need to provide relevant content that helps customers to make the best decision because relevant content is a driver in your lead generation & nurturing strategy. Answer the needs of your leads & delight them throughout their journey: 

1. Define your lead nurturing goal 

First things first, before you get started on your lead nurturing campaign, it’s important to define your goals. A clear objective and good tracking will secure a measurable result or indicate where changes are needed. You don’t want to put in the effort and get no results, right? 

2. Determine who & where you want to nurture 

Creating customer personas is a critical part of any successful lead nurturing campaign. But that’s not everything; you also need to choose the right channels, review customer behavior data, and target customers who are interested in your product or service.  

 
3. Get cracking on content and an automated lead nurturing flow 

Now that you’ve identified your target audience, chosen your channels and planned your content, you’re ready to set up your lead nurturing flow. Some key tactics: 
 
Use relevant & targeted content  

Once you have a clear goal and understand your customers’ personas and journeys, you’ll know what  content your leads need. Make sure you have all the content you need and create additional pieces to keep your leads engaged and moving along the customer journey.  

Personalize your messages  

If you have your tracking set up correctly, you can collect a lot of valuable information about your leads. You see which pages they’ve visited on your website, which links they’ve clicked and how engaged they are. Use this information to personalize your communication and send emails at the right time.  

Set up a consistent cross-channel experience  

Combining targeted social media and triggered email marketing is a great way to increase your lead generation efforts. Why not integrate your Facebook Custom Audience or LinkedIn lead form with your Marketing Automation platform? This way, you get the most out of your lead nurturing efforts and make sure you’re reaching your goals. 

Take into account the sales cycle of your product or service  

When it comes to bigger purchases, like a car, the decision-making process takes longer than smaller purchases like lipstick. It’s also important to consider whether you’re launching a B2B or B2C campaign, as people tend to react differently to work-related content on the weekend.  

Follow up  

Once people have entered your campaign, don’t forget about them. Keep in touch and drive engagement using your different communication channels. And make sure you provide relevant content.  

Use lead scoring  

Lead scoring is an incredibly helpful tool for aligning the right follow-up activities and resources with each inquiry. It also helps marketing and sales professionals identify where each prospect is in their buying journey. You can tell which leads are more likely to convert (high-quality leads) and which ones are just browsing (low-quality leads). Understanding lead quality allows you to use the right resources on the right leads.  

 
Keep nurturing your lead nurturing campaigns 

Once you’ve launched your campaign, don’t sit back and relax. Check if everyone is going through your campaign correctly and track which version of your A/B test performs best. Keep an eye on your target audience and see if they’re engaging with your content. Testing, data analysis, and tweaking to optimize your campaign should be your new normal. Not sure where to start? Our strategic marketers are here to help – schedule a 15-minute call with one of them to get you going!