The marketing game is more than just about generating leads – it’s about being able to nurture those leads in a way that could possibly lead to a sale. As a result of poor lead nurturing, many of the leads that are generated by marketing activities eventually become a cold trail because of poor follow up.
The ability to generate a large volume of leads is easy with effective marketing and communications strategies, but a lead isn’t necessarily one that is ready to buy. It is all about what you do once you generate the lead – as the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. It’s sometimes all a matter of perspective; essentially a lead is not inside a buying cycle as yet but could be in the future. It’s not about calling up on a lead within a few days of generating it if you know they don’t want to buy immediately. Instead of having a your salesperson contact and pressure that lead to buy, an alternate option would be to send them emails about product features so your brand name is on the top of their mind when they are ready to buy.
Be in contact with your lead - but in a way that subtly leads them to the sale instead of a forced and aggressive approach. Lead Nurturing is about which selective journey you chose to take your lead on to convert them into a buyer. You need to initially know what type of lead you have before you decide on how you guide them towards the sale.
Once you take stock of what kind of lead it is, then decide on the ideal channel to keep in touch. Ideally use a multi-channel strategy based on the type of lead. In some cases a combination of social media, email marketing, phone calls and SMS marketing works best - in other cases different channel mixes work better. You need to find a way to make them think of your company on the journey to purchase. It’s the ideal way to cultivate new relationships into long terms ones as well. It makes the buyers choice become more predictable and creates the right amount of trust without being overpowering.
The basics of Lead Nurturing, in that sense, are similar to relationship marketing – where two parties mutually travel on a journey together. Relationships matter in business just as much as with your personal connections. It is the very same principle of personal human connections that make business relationships all the more powerful.