What is lead nurturing?
Lead nurturing is the process of building a relationship with viable prospects until they become ready to buy.
Why nurture?
Simply because the chances that you will talk to the right person precisely when he or she has a need and the budget for your offering are incredibly low.
As a result, all lead generation efforts that strictly focus on “the low-hanging fruits” generally end up being a huge waste of marketing $, whereas systematic lead nurturing helps you convert inquiries into qualified leads and qualified leads into sales.
What does it take?
Based on our experience, successful lead nurturing requires four key elements:
- A clear definition of what is a truly qualified lead. Ultimately, it is this definition that will help you determine which leads are worth nurturing and the selection criteria you need to use to build your list.
- A lead management process to discard inquiries, nurture viable prospects, and transfer hot leads directly to sales, and the possibility for sales to send stagnant leads back to marketing for further nurturing.
- Meaningful and relevant content. If the content matches the prospect’s buying cycle (i.e., sending a general article to prospects that are in the early stages of the buying cycle and a webinar invitation to prospects that are in the later stages), he or she will find it more relevant. As a result, the prospect will be more incline to receive future communications.
- Patience and persistence. Nurturing campaigns are not like “wave campaigns”. It takes more than two or three emails to see results. The optimal frequency of communications depends on a number of factors, such as the interests and needs of your target audience, your industry, etc., but most experts suggest at least nine “touches” before you get to see results.
How does lead nurturing work?
Once you have a list of leads worth nurturing, a lead management process, content for each stage of the buying cycle, and rules to determine the frequency of communication, you can start nurturing your viable prospects using various communication channels, such as email, letters, dimensional mailers, SMS, follow-up calls, etc.
If you are new to lead nurturing, you may want to keep things simple and send the same message to all nurture leads. Depending on the type of offer they respond to (i.e., whitepaper, case study, etc.), you will be able to measure their level of interest and prioritize follow-ups accordingly.
If you use lead scoring and have the resources to develop more nurturing content, you can engage in more complex nurturing programs for each role (i.e., IT director vs. CFO) in each buying stage (awareness, evaluation, vendor selection, etc.).
Is lead nurturing right for your business?
It depends. Lead nurturing works best when the sales cycle is relatively long (+ 6 months) and/or when the initial investment is high, because that is when trust becomes a key factor in the seller-prospect relationship; and lead nurturing is the ideal way of building trust one step at a time.
The higher the stakes, the stronger the bond needs to be between the prospect and the client. By providing relevant and timely information to your prospects, you will maintain their initial interest and demonstrate—instead of only assert—your expertise. Over time, prospects will increasingly perceive you as a trusted advisor, who understands their challenges, and wants to help them—as opposed to a vendor who simply wants to make a quick sale.
What results can you expect?
It depends on a number of things: your industry, your solution, how much nurturing content is at your disposal, and, of course, your consistency with lead nurturing programs.
Based on our experience in the IT industry, you can reasonably expect that 20% of your nurture leads will convert to sales-ready leads within 12 months.
Other statistics commonly referred to on the Web include:
- Marketo
“Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost per lead”
- Brian Carroll
“Proper lead nurturing programs can yield anywhere from 15% to 200% in additional, new qualified leads.”
- Eti sales
Our statistics reliably indicate that for every 100 or so prospects nurtured in the prospect pipeline, will render some 20-40 more sales-ready opportunities over time. (Yes 20%+.)
- Sirius Decisions
“Lead nurturing can help convert 29% more leads than not nurturing.”
