Kick-Ass Lead Nurturing in 6 Steps
Updated: Nov 19, 2024
There has never been a better time to ensure your lead nurture strategy is on point -- turn your readers into ‘brand fans’ that want to buy from you.
Only a small percentage of the people reading your content will buy, leaving nine out of 10 still pondering. HubSpot
A lead nurture strategy is just a fancy pants way of turning a quick hello on your website into a conversation that helps both you and your prospect.
You give the reader helpful stuff to read for a while, get their email address on their terms, and then you pop up and ask them if you can help with anything.
It's the strategy that most businesses miss and the one strategy that ties sales and marketing firmly together. Why? Because it's all to do with using content to attract customers.
It's much more viable for a salesperson to follow up a lead that they know something about.
Content that talks to people’s challenges
Who are you talking to? Why would they be interested in this content?
You won’t be surprised that writing for someone in particular gets better results.
33% of B2B marketers cited that they were “struggling to create targeted delivery of content.” Forrester Research
Are they interested? Give them links to more content they might like and take the reader on a journey.
You can read about creating an inbound content strategy here.
It’s okay to lead the reader to in-depth content like an e-book -- you can then exchange information for an email address -- a lead.
If you use a piece of software called HubSpot you can get really clever and send lots of people different types of content that is relevant to who they are, for instance, in recruitment, insurance, or financial services.
Use a multi-channel approach to promote your content
The companies that are succeeding at lead nurturing promote their content through multiple channels:
Marketing automation -- this includes setting up something called 'triggers' on your website or via a platform like HubSpot, where you can set up rules to say if a person does ‘x’ then send them here or do this.
Email marketing -- do you have subscribers? No, then ensure you set up a basic subscriber form on your website to collect data from those that want to receive updates or access an e-book.
Social media -- you can do this organically or via PPC.
Retargeting -- you can pay for your products and services to pop up on other searches and websites. Personally I find this intrusive, but statistically, it works.
Dynamic website content -- a website that remembers who the reader is and shows specific content or pages for them.
Direct sales outreach -- your sales team use the content you have created to send direct messages or contact customers you’d like to do business with.
How many touchpoints does my lead nurture strategy need?
That would be anything between five and ten -- there are varying reports. But this does tell us not to be shy in creating content and leading people on a journey.
It’s easier than you think, for instance, if you clicked your way around this page you would hit:
Another blog (inbound content creation).
That leads to a free strategy template (in exchange for an email address).
You would then be automatically be sent new, relevant blogs and content.
Each blog has an example of a project I’ve worked on and a video.
That has a link to copywriting and marketing plans.
"49% of marketers include less than five touches in their lead nurturing programs." Demand Gen
The most successful marketers are addressing common questions along the journey, a blog (information that solves a problem), that leads to a case study (a real example), detailed information, and a demonstration or trial.
Follow-up a lead in 60 minutes
Yep, 60 minutes.
"You’re are seven times more likely to have a more meaningful conversation within 60 minutes of the lead being generated." HubSpot
So, that’s up to 60 minutes to stalk their LinkedIn profile, see what they’ve looked at on the stats on the content that has piqued their interest, visited their website, and Google them.
You can then send them something even more relevant, offer a demo, trial, or call.
Hi, Bob.
"So, Bob, you seem to be interested in knitting unicorns -- it just so happens that we have some great unicorn knitting patters in stock. Not ready yet? View more unicorn knitting tips here."
Everyone loves personalisation, whether it’s your local butcher knowing your name or an email from someone who has taken the time to understand who you are.
"41% of consumers switched businesses due to a lack of personalisation." HubSpot
Lead scoring
If one reader has clicked on six different blogs about gardening and one has quickly browsed a page on compost -- the first is a hotter lead.
Software like HubSpot combines customer relationship management software with website analytics to give you a scale of how hot a lead is.
This is one of the biggest missed opportunities in marketing! All that effort to create content and no analytics to tell your salespeople which leads are hot. Get on it.
Found this interesting? Find out how MPH Copywriting built an SEO-optimised website in four weeks that converts 1 in every 10 visitors.
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