It takes time, resources and expertise to successfully nurture leads, guiding them expertly through your sales funnel until they become paying customers. But is it worth all this investment, both in man-hours and investment? Won’t interested leads become customers on their own?
Lead nurturing is absolutely worth investing in, especially for B2B marketing. Unfortunately, the people your sales team contact don’t always take the initiative and become paying customers on their own. In fact, it hardly ever happens.
Research has found that nearly 75% of B2B leads aren’t ready to commit when you first get in touch. Only a small percentage of leads are ready to make an immediate purchase. If you invest in lead nurturing, on the other hand, you could see an increase of around 20% in sales opportunities.
Get good at nurturing – or outsource to lead generation services which excel at it – you could see up to 50% more sales for a 33% lower spend. Just think about what could mean in terms of revenue, if you were to effectively double sales and spend a third less on nurturing. Now that sound like worth bothering with, doesn’t it?
Your at-a-glance guide to lead nurturing tactics
If you’re new to lead nurturing, let us take you on an introductory tour. Here’s a rundown of the key tactics used by lead generation services to gently yet persuasively nudge leads further along the sales funnel.
-
Multi-channel strategies
The leads you want to reach users more than just email. If you go and find them on the platforms and channels they use, you’re more likely to make an impression. If your email rates are low, think multi-channel. You can nurture using social media, direct sales outreach, dynamic website content, email marketing and many other channels.
-
Targeted content
This means delivering the most relevant, valuable content to the right people, at exactly the right time. This can be challenging. It involves a good deal of research into your target buyer personas, and a clear plan on how to best nurture each type. To target content without losing a vast amount of time, you’ll also need to integrate marketing automation tools. These enable you to identify and segment your lists, and coordinate activities to tailor and deliver content to each group.
-
Building trust
You can put all the automation and systems in the world in place, but you won’t truly succeed at lead nurturing unless you can build relationships with your leads. This is what makes nurturing such a skill, time and resource-intensive task. Your team need the expertise to personalise calls, research thoroughly, build trust and have real, relevant, problem-solving conversations with leads.
-
Efficient lead tracking
Without a solid CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, your lead nurturing efforts will go nowhere. It’s essential for efficient tracking of progress, so you can plan each nurturing action that moves a customer through the sales journey. It’s also important for timing, so you can strike at the optimum moments.
If you’re sold on the benefits of lead nurturing, but lack the time, manpower or expertise to handle it in-house, our experts can help. IT Focus offers a full range of lead generation services, including nurturing – and we deliver real results. Get in touch on 0330 058 0100 or email info@itfocus-tm.com to find out more.
