It is the inbound marketing technique based on the creation of valuable relationships with our users with the aim of accompanying them during their buying process. It is also the link between marketing and sales to achieve conversion. During the lead nurturing process, we seek to build relationships with users regardless of the stage of the buying process in which they are. The key to the success of lead nurturing is the personalisation and contextualisation of the content that we send to our users.
It is important not only to know the user's name, but also to know at what stage of the buying process they are at in order to offer them content that will keep them interested in us and, finally, to make a final purchase decision. Lead nurturing is one of the most important tools in inbound marketing. Thanks to lead nurturing you can nurture the relationship with your leads, generate conversion and make them loyal to your brand.
Thanks to this technique, leads are ready to be passed on to the sales team of your business. Even if they are not ready to buy, they are ready to start a conversation, and this is where lead nurturing can give you an important advantage. It is also a good opportunity to develop your brand, as each campaign is a new and valuable opportunity to learn more about your customers and develop a more authentic brand for them. Knowing more about your customers will help you to improve your business.
Benefits of lead nurturing
- Improve the ROI of marketing campaigns by achieving higher conversions for a lower cost, and streamline your database to drive more sales.
- Converts user information into concrete steps to follow.
- Saves resources such as time and energy when making marketing decisions, as it automates the process.
- Reduces the risk of rejection and abandonment by contacting the right users at the right time.
- Allows you to transparently observe the marketing process and optimise workflows to know what is happening at any given moment.
- Allows a high level of segmentation and personalisation, as it identifies users' interests and pain points. Knowing this information, you will know how to meet their needs.
- It allows you to establish immediate contact with your leads, which allows you to connect with them.
- Discover new interests of leads for the creation of more targeted content.
- Boosts the closing of the sale.
- It allows you to get more customers and build customer loyalty.
- It reinforces engagement, as it offers high value proposals segmented for each type of customer. It also increases the positive perception that the target audience has of our brand.
Lead nurturing process
This process consists of accompanying the leads from the moment they leave their data for the first time until we achieve their loyalty. In order to achieve conversion, there are a series of steps to follow, which we will explain below:
Define your objectives
It is important that you have your SMART objectives well defined, i.e. the objectives you define must be specific, measurable, applicable, relevant and temporary. Be as realistic as possible when defining them, so that you get results that contribute to your business.
Decide your audience
Lead nurturing is based on offering value to the user and to achieve this, you must know who you are targeting and what they need. It is key that you define your buyer persona so that you know everything about this particular customer. Although demographic information helps, the most important thing here is to know their needs and problems ("pain points").
Select your tools
This process should be automated, and to achieve this, there are tools such as MailChimp, an email marketing tool that will take care of sending mass mailings to a specific list of contacts.
Offer value
Your ally will be the content of value. This process should be supported by a content strategy, in which you have a resource base to send them in successive messages. These communications will help create a relationship with the user as they perceive that we are able to understand their needs and that we can meet them.
Tailor content to the Buyer Journey
The customer journey has different stages from when they recognise they have a need, to when they become a customer. At the beginning the user is not sure what they want, so they will be looking for more general content. As they progress along their journey, you can present the brand in a more concrete way through content such as testimonials or interviews. Finally, when they are ready to buy, you can provide offers or free trials.
Be timely
Don't overload the user with messages or leave too much time between one communication and another because the lead can either get bored or get cold. We recommend that your messages include all the necessary information in a concise and to the point.
Coordinate with sales
If you have carried out a good lead nurturing process, the time will come when the lead is ready to talk to your sales team and pay attention to the offers you have for them. For this, it is important that both the marketing and sales teams work hand in hand and agree on how and when to pass the lead from one department to the other.
Loyalty
When your lead has become a customer, another process begins. Communication should not end once you have closed the sale. On the contrary, after the conversion the customer enters an automated communication flow where you offer them after-sales services, reinforce your brand values and attract them with offers to get them to buy again.
Now that you know what lead nurturing is, the benefits it brings to your company and the process to apply it, are you going to use it in your marketing and customer acquisition strategy?
