Create and optimize a high-converting lead nurturing strategy

Introduction

In today's competitive market, consumers often explore multiple options before purchasing. The seven-touchpoint rule states that buyers typically require numerous interactions with a brand to consider a purchase for reasons like assessing alternatives, verifying brand legitimacy, or recognizing their need for a solution.

Building relationships with buyers right from the get-go is essential, as trust isn't something you can assume. Instead of bombarding them with sales pitches, having regular, meaningful interactions where you get to know the customer lays down a solid foundation. If you don't keep up with these relationships, you risk losing out on potential new leads, customers, and sales. So, it's key to have a lead nurturing strategy that meets the needs of leads at every step of their journey. That's how you'll improve lead generation and conversions and keep customers coming back for more.

What is lead nurturing?

Lead nurturing is the process of developing ongoing relationships with buyers depending on where they are in the sales funnel. It’s about giving prospects what they need when they need it, intending to guide them towards a sale. For instance, in the middle of a funnel, you need to provide more information about your product or features, while at the bottom of the funnel, you need to provide comparisons with your competitors.

Of course, lead nurturing is complex: no two customers are the same, and the sales cycle looks different for everyone. Lead nurturing involves unlocking individual pain points, understanding each buyer better, and providing personalized content based on their specific needs.

The 6 best lead nurturing channels

For customers to convert, you need to be present across channels and engage them where they are. 

1. Organic search

Utilizing search engine optimization (SEO), businesses can improve their visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) to attract leads, by crafting keyword-rich content, engaging meta descriptions, and informative title tags.

2. Paid search

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows for immediate visibility in search results through targeted keyword ads, offering real-time tracking and optimization to enhance return on investment.

3. Content marketing

Content marketing involves creating valuable, relevant content across various formats like blogs, explainers, ebooks, infographics, videos, and more. This engages consumers, gives them solid takeaways while demonstrating expertise and building trust.

4. Email marketing

Leveraging automated, segmented, and personalized nurturing emails enables businesses to directly engage potential customers, nurture leads with targeted content, and track engagement metrics for optimization.

5. Organic social

Social media platforms provide a space for businesses to share engaging content, connect with their audience, and build community, fostering brand loyalty and driving conversions through genuine interactions.

6. AI lead nurturing

Social media platforms provide a space for businesses to share engaging content, connect with their audience, and build community, fostering brand loyalty and driving conversions through genuine interactions.

Why do you need a lead nurturing strategy?

A lead nurturing campaign turns prospects into customers. When every prospect has different needs, it’s important to address them with well-timed communication and relevant content. Without a strategy, you can end up missing the mark with a lot of would-be buyers. 

Capture leads in a non-linear customer journey

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to lead nurturing, which makes it difficult to know what content or message to send and when to send it. A strategy based on individual customer needs rather than a step-by-step process is key to targeting consumers. 

Marketing expert Samuel Brealey illustrates the customer journey as a messy ball of string:

Other marketing specialists believe the sales cycle is less of a “funnel” and more of a “filter system”:

Successfully meet the needs of different leads 

The best lead nurturing strategies use data to capture customer information. Brands can use this information to get a better picture of who their customers are and what each buyer might need.

The sales funnel will look different for different companies depending on average cycle time, who they’re targeting, and the product they’re selling. The key is to uncover what your unique funnel (or filter system) looks like.

A customer who has already added products to the cart will be navigating a different buyer’s journey from a customer who has just discovered your brand. Lead nurturing strategies help you decide what content customers need and deliver it to them in the moment they need it. 

Create a loyal base of returning customers

Customer experience is now one of the most exciting and important parts of the business. In an age where consumers crave connection more than ever, lead nurturing creates a smooth experience for buyers at every stage of the cycle and encourages them to return.

Once a lead makes a purchase, they’re still a lead with the potential to buy again. By fostering stronger relationships through appropriate, well-timed content, customers are more likely to come back and spend more. 

Automate the process to scale your efforts

Having a lead nurturing strategy in place allows you to automate the lead nurturing process, which frees up team time, scales your business, and generates sales. It also reduces customer queries by giving them the information they need. 

Gain a competitive advantage over brands that aren’t nurturing leads

Only 35% of B2B marketers have established a lead nurturing strategy. By implementing lead nurturing, you’re already one step ahead of them.

A customer will choose a brand that understands their needs over a brand that doesn’t. 56% of consumers feel more loyal to brands that “get them” and show a deep understanding of their priorities and preferences. 

How to create a lead nurturing strategy?

Creating a lead nurturing strategy has several moving parts. Understanding customer needs drives the type of content you create, but putting it all together is the tricky bit. Here’s how to put your best foot forward: 

1. Understand the stages of a sales funnel

Knowing how your customers interact with you as they go through the sales cycle provides vital insight. Consider the actions customers take at each stage: 

• How do leads arrive in the cycle? 

• What questions do they commonly ask? 

• What actions do they take next? 

This information will come together to create a big-picture overview of how your customers engage with the sales cycle, where they are most likely to enter the cycle, what actions they take at each stage, and who is more likely to move toward a purchase. 

2. Align marketing and sales to uncover common objections 

Too many brands consider marketing and sales as separate departments when they should work in tandem. About 25% of businesses describe their sales and marketing as either “misaligned” or “rarely aligned,” which can harm sales. 

Your sales team might know that price is a common concern for leads, but if this information isn’t shared with marketing, they won’t have a reason to create resources around it. Combining insights will help you create a better customer journey. 

Sales teams can provide information like: 

• Reasons leads end up not converting 

• Biggest objections on an account-based level 

• First-hand narratives of major pain points 

Marketing teams can provide information like 

• Keywords leads are using to search for solutions

• Best-performing content throughout the sales cycle 

• Granular information about top demographics 

Successful lead nurturing strategies use insights from both departments to build out the process. Here’s some clarity from marketing expert Sujan Patel: 

3. Identify and segment high-quality leads

Use research to segment your audience based on who they are and where they are in the cycle. Lead scoring is a technique used to identify high-value leads. The more “points” a lead has, the more often they’ve interacted with your brand or taken certain actions. Interactions can include downloading free content, attending a webinar, reading a post, checking out your pricing page, or requesting a demo. 

You can also segment and score leads using: 

• Firmographic data, like their company name, location, team size, and annual revenue 

• Professional data, like their job title, their experience, and their biggest challenges 

“One of the most important things is correctly identifying the activities you want to score. For example, pick the whitepapers you know leads read prior to conversion and assign them a score. Don’t assign a score to all whitepapers. Next, include a combination of scoring properties to identify the best-qualified leads to nurture. E.g. job title, industry, company size, and activity history.” says Kushlani De Silva, marketing consultant. 

4. Build out your email marketing campaigns 

Automated email campaigns will nurture leads who have handed over their details but aren’t yet ready to buy. You might have got their contact details after they:

• Downloaded a piece of content from your site, like an ebook, a checklist, or a whitepaper

• Booked a demo with your sales team

• Joined a webinar or an event you hosted 

• Enquired about your services or product and requested more information 

Once you’ve got their details, you can start the nurturing process.

 Most email marketing platforms will enable automated sequences; different leads will need different information. The email sequence will depend on the insights gathered from the previous three steps. 

Some examples include:

• Welcome sequences and campaigns

• Customer education campaigns

• Competitor differentiation campaigns

• Re-engagement campaigns

• Post-sale campaigns

Someone who’s new to your brand will be best suited to a welcome sequence where you introduce your products and begin trust-building, a lead who is weighing their options might be better suited to a competitor differentiation campaign, while a lead who’s just made a purchase should be put straight into a post-sale campaign. 

5. Create targeted content 

Nurturing leads is a balancing act of starting conversations, developing trust, and presenting your solution as the best possible option. Once leads are enrolled into an email sequence, it’s time to start building relationships and guiding them toward a sale. To do this, send them content that suits their needs at that exact moment. 

Content should answer questions they might have, ease their concerns, and make purchasing your product a no-brainer. Use your segmentation data to create engaging content. For example, a lead in a managerial position might need content on management and scheduling, while a small business owner might need help with scaling and identifying stakeholders. 

Take KnowBe4 as an example. They ask visitors how many employees they have. When a lead selects an option, they’re taken to a specialized portal full of targeted information.

Think about how leads might prefer to consume content. Short articles might work best if they're busy, but if you’re teaching a complicated process related to your product, a video demo is probably more appropriate.

6. Track, measure, and analyze

Creating a successful strategy will likely take some tweaking as you get to know what content your audience reacts best to and learn more about their needs.

Start by setting concrete goals using specific numbers where possible: Do you want to achieve a 25% increase in conversions? Do you want to attract 10% more leads every month? Do you want to cut the sales cycle by 14 days? 

Use these metrics to stay on track and keep a close eye on how your lead nurturing strategy is performing. Don’t dismiss intangible metrics, though. When you create a lead nurturing strategy, you’re playing the long game. 

Examples of effective lead nurturing strategies

Businesses employ various tactics to guide potential customers toward conversion, here are some of the most effective ones: 

• Retargeting targets potential customers who've previously engaged with the brand but didn't convert. It uses tracking tools to serve ads across the web and personalized messaging based on past interactions to encourage re-engagement.

• Personalization utilizes data-driven insights and segmentation to deliver timely, relevant content through the preferred channels, building trust and speeding up conversion by showing an understanding of the customer's needs.

• One-on-one interactions foster genuine connections through direct communication, such as phone calls or in-person meetings, addressing specific needs and providing tailored advice to create a personalized experience.

• Surveys collect insights directly from potential customers through targeted surveys, helping tailor marketing strategy efforts and lead nurturing strategies. 

Key metrics to calculate the ROI of lead nurturing

Here are some key metrics to tell you how your lead nurturing strategy is performing. 

Average ROI

Working out your average ROI will tell you how much you gain from each lead. Use this formula to calculate it:  

ROI = Net income / Cost of Investment

Average deal value

Every lead is worth some amount of business. While the deal value could change, having your eyes on an approximate deal value will help predict revenue. Focus on deals where the prospect shows interest in your product and is willing to invest. 

Awareness metrics

Metrics that measure the awareness of your brand determine how many new potential leads you have at play. These metrics include:

• Growth in website traffic 

• Growth in social follower count 

Loyalty metrics

If you can prove that loyalty is increasing, there’s a good chance your strategy is doing what it should be doing. You can measure loyalty through:

• An increase in contract renewals

• Upsells

• Repeat purchases 

Conversion rates

The more conversions you generate, the more effective your lead nurturing strategy is. Track conversions through: 

• The number of content downloads 

• The number of webinar attendees

• The number of signups

• The time it takes for leads to convert

Financial metrics

The better your lead nurturing strategy performs, the more revenue you’ll make. Track your revenue increase over time and align it with the implementation of your strategy.

Performance metrics

Performance or engagement metrics show how often leads interact with your content and emails. To measure your performance, track metrics like:

• Email open rates

• Click-through rates

Cost metrics

The slicker your lead nurturing strategy becomes, the easier it will be to convert new customers. Keep track of your cost per lead to see how much you’re spending on converting new customers and to determine if this number is decreasing over time. 

What is a lead nurturing CRM?

A lead nurturing CRM system automates and optimizes lead nurturing processes for businesses by tracking lead behaviors, preferences, and engagement, enabling targeted and personalized communication. Utilizing features like lead scoring, segmentation, and automated workflows, these CRMs help businesses prioritize leads and guide them effectively through the sales funnel. Additionally, integration with other marketing tools and channels allows for streamlined coordination of lead nurturing activities, enhancing conversion rates and fostering long-term customer relationships in a single, efficient platform.

Lead nurturing CRM best practices

The following are a few lead nurturing CRM best practices to help businesses unlock the full potential of their software:

• Automation streamlines engagement by triggering workflows based on lead actions, providing timely, personalized content while optimizing team resources.

• Customer journey mapping provides insight into the lead's conversion path by integrating mapping with CRM, enabling personalized experiences at each touchpoint.

• Multichannel nurturing engages leads across various channels, tracking interactions within CRM for a unified, personalized lead experience.

• Lead scoring assigns values to leads based on behaviors and attributes, using CRM integration to prioritize and focus efforts on those most likely to convert.

• Customization tailors CRM platforms to specific business needs, enhancing lead data organization, workflow optimization, and insightful reporting.

• Lead segmentation categorizes leads in CRM systems for focused communications, enhancing the relevance and efficiency of outreach efforts.

Get your lead nurturing strategy off the ground

There’s no time like the present to start working on a lead nurturing strategy. Start by digging deep into your customers’ wants and needs, then prioritize the kind of information they need to help them attain what they want. 

Don’t forget to track and measure your performance along the way, and don’t forget you’re in it for the long haul. Lead nurturing isn’t just about numbers and conversions; it’s about creating life-long relationships with customers who will continue to come back for more.