Lead Nurturing to Improve Quality of Leads

Lead Nurturing to Improve Quality of Leads



Lead nurturing essentially involves methods of maintaining a steady relationship with prospects irrespective of

whether they are ‘sales ready’. Only one out of ten people who visit the corporate website are there looking to buy

immediately, and sadly the remaining nine will walk away if not nurtured early on.





Lead nurturing leads has multiple benefits:

· Understanding your customers’ intentions

· Obtaining swift information on the sales readiness of your prospects

· Sustaining leads’ interests

· Educating leads





Gartner suggests that successful enterprises segregate their leads into different classes: hot/warm leads, cold leads

or dead leads. But the question looming large on all B2B sales teams’ minds remains - is there any sure shot and

foolproof way of nurturing these different leads throughout the sales cycle? What does actual lead nurturing

entail?

Nurturing leads is no longer simply the marketing team’s prerogative; it has grown mature enough to include both

the sales and marketing teams. Lead nurturing is about building familiarity about the company and the product

with the prospect, creating perception about the company and the product, and inspiring trust about the

workability of the product. In essence, it is the activity of providing information, insights, expert analysis, etc., to a

prospect.





Techniques for Lead Nurturing

Drip marketing remains the most common lead nurturing method employed, where every week, information is

sent out to prospective customers who are still mostly unaware of the company’s products/services. The first

email is the best way to make that ‘perfect first impression’. From offering presentations and targeted leads in the

first week to emailing across effective call-to-action content in the form of newsletters, testimonials, e-books and

reports in subsequent weeks, the basic idea behind the drip marketing method is to sustain the interest of the

customer with more pertinent information.





In the last couple of weeks, emails inviting the customer to a trade show or providing freebies, discounts or

bonuses can give insight into whether the drip marketing emails have made a positive impact. Drip marketing also

remains the best way to gain valuable feedback from the customer and a value enhancer for the lead generation

process. Therefore it is necessary that content is created in such a way that it attracts and intrigues the lead. So be

it newsletters, testimonials, or even the email itself, only when content is targeted and sharp can it actually create

an impact.





Lead nurturing campaigns are a must if companies want to bring about continuous communication with the

customer and also know when leads are ‘sales ready’. Automated processes and technology enables marketers to

keep in touch with multiple leads and scale up the number of prospects. B2B companies should employ a multi-

pronged approach using different lead nurturing tactics.





Lead nurturing enhances the quality of leads obtained for lead generation. So from using the first degree

connections on LinkedIn and mobilizing social networking sites, to using articles, case studies and research reports,

to holding webinars, trade shows, seminars, workshops and blogs, there are many mechanisms for lead nurturing.

Using marketing automation tool for lead nurturing is a great way to improve the efficiency of the process.





Read more on - Lead scoring, Marketing automation solution