Lead nurturing allows brands to drive interaction and get additional customer insight through the use of personalized campaigns. The goal is to build the relationship, gain trust and earn their business.
All strategies that fall under lead nurturing let brand marketers build relationships with future clients. You keep leads engaged with the brand until they are ready to make a purchase. And that is important, research by MarketingSherpa suggests that at the time of original lead capture, only an average of 27% of those leads will be qualified to the point where they are ready and willing to engage with sales. The remaining 73% aren’t there yet. This explains why more companies are willing to invest in email based lead nurturing.
Lead nurturing is getting more common
In the report, “The State of B2B Lead Nurturing” 35% of B2B companies say they can’t live without lead nurturing and only 6% say it is not very important to them. Traditionally, lead nurturing is much more commonplace in B2B companies that have limited sales capacity and high value products.
But the sophistication of email marketing software is giving lead nurturing a boost also in B2C and with lower value products. These days everybody can go and start with simple lead nurturing programs like a welcome email series even if your budget and other resources are limited.
However, it’s important to note that not everybody who knocks on your door is actually an interested prospect. In B2B lead nurturing, leads are classified using BANT attributes – a big part of lead nurturing is actually about scoring leads and qualifying them. BANT is an acronym for Budget, Authority (to purchase), Need, and Timeframe:
- Budget
Does the new lead have enough remaining budget to buy your product or service and is this available for the purchase at this moment? Without budget, they won’t be buying soon.
- Authority (to buy)
Is the prospect a decision-maker, or influencer? What is their function title? This will prove influential if they have the authority to sign on the dotted line. Remember that in B2B email marketing, but also in B2C, there are often multiple people making a decision together. Think about how to plan your vacation and how carefully you undertake each point of the trip. Use that careful planning in making sure that each component (each person influencing the businesses decision) is taken into account.
- Need or product fit
Is there an actual need for your product or service? What are the problems or motivations that drive that need? In addition, it is valuable to gain insight into the type/version of your product and services people are looking for and the level of natural fit.
- Timeframe (to buy)
How urgent is the need for your product or service? Is there a hard deadline? When will the prospect be ready to buy? For example, the budget allocation cycle of a company can drive the necessity for a quick choice – at the end of the day, its up to you to highlight the importance of your product/service well enough for a business to believe they need it a.s.a.p.