Lead generation is a major challenge for many business owners, and the most important part is what comes next. After all, your lead gen efforts will be quickly squashed if you don’t keep your prospects engaged with your brand. When that engagement stops, the sale becomes a missed opportunity.
Some of the trickiest aspects of lead generation are:
- Generating a consistent pipeline of leads.
- Ensuring your leads are the right lead.
- Qualifying and engaging leads effectively while using your resources efficiently.
- Moving your leads from prospective customers to the current customer.
Here we’ll focus on what it takes to nail the sale and turn those prospects into customers! Keep reading to find out how to nurture your leads, create content that converts, and stay top-of-mind with your prospects.
What is the Benefit of Lead Nurturing?
You work hard to generate quality leads — the last thing you want them to do is grow cold before making the sale. You have to engage your prospects and nurture your leads so they keep your brand at the forefront of their minds. If you don’t, your leads may forget about you and turn to a competitor instead.
If you don’t have a nurture campaign, you’re likely to miss the sale.
Your prospects need a human connection. They don’t want a sales pitch — they want their problem solved. They want their concerns addressed and their questions answered before they move to the purchase stage.
Need proof of the benefits of lead nurturing? According to Forrest Research, companies that nurture leads make 50% more sales at a cost of 33% less than non-nurtured leads.
How Do You Engage Prospects?
Now that we’ve seen why it’s important to keep prospects engaged, the big question is “how do I do that?”
In this stage of the buyer’s journey, your prospects are in deep consideration. They’re weighing pros and cons, looking at you and your competitors, and trying to decide on their best option. Now is a critical time to strike and drive engagement with your brand!
Here are some tips on how to engage your prospects in a lead nurture campaign:
- When you get a new lead, follow up, and do it fast. If they want something from you, they want it now. Be prompt in sending that quote, proposal, or whatever it is they need for the next step.
- Engage prospects at multiple touchpoints. It can take around 8 interactions with a company before making the sale, according to research from Hubspot, the marketing and sales CRM platform. (You should note that the number of touchpoints leading up to a sale will vary by industry.)
- Send helpful, quality content that speaks to where they are in the buyer’s journey. Share information on why YOU are the best option out of the competitors and how your solution is the best one. (More on this in the next section!)
- Be human and connect on a personal level. People like doing business with humans, not robots! But at the same time, you need to work efficiently. A great tip for combining a personal touch with efficiency: try recording a simple video to embed with your follow-up email or text messaging campaign. This adds the human touch and helps you stand out.
Content Marketing to Nurture Leads
When we talk about creating content, what do we mean? The content you create for leads and prospects can be in the form of white papers and case studies, blogs, ebooks, infographics, videos, and so much more. There are limitless opportunities to create excellent, engaging, and educational content.
How to Write for Your Audience
When you’re creating content for your prospects, write with them in mind. Put yourself in their shoes and think through the problem that led them to connect with you in the first place. Remember when you’re communicating with prospects and as you nurture your leads that you are selling their problem, not the solution.
For example, if you sell a fitness solution, your customers don’t really care about the awesome specs on your new machine.
What they care about is how much healthier and confident they’ll feel after using your product.
Make sure your content is targeted and you have a thorough understanding of your customer’s journey. Understand that the way you create content for someone who’s just filled out a contact form versus the way you create content for someone who’s already attended a webinar and had a follow-up call with a salesperson is not the same. They need different information, and they have different questions. There are plenty of excellent software options that help you keep tabs on your prospects.
The overall keys to successful content marketing for prospects are to keep your content targeted and customer-centric.
Best Ways to Keep Prospects Engaging with Your Brand
These are some great channels where you can add touchpoints with your prospects and share your killer content. Consider adding these into your marketing arsenal for nurturing leads:
Email marketing: deploy newsletters to your contacts and create targeted drip campaigns for your new prospects.
Phone calls
Try a cloud-based predictive dialer to spend less time listening to dial tones and more time connecting with the people who matter.
Webinars
Answer your prospects’ burning questions in larger groups. This keeps your sales team working efficiently.
Social Media
Connect with warm leads on LinkedIn and post great content on social media. You can even upload your list of prospects to send targeted ads.
Text Messaging
Incorporate rich text messaging into your lead nurture campaign for quick and interactive two-way communication.
Retargeting Campaigns
Use remarketing pay-per-click ads to re-engage past website visitors. This requires a paid budget and sophisticated marketing team, but is a very effective tactic!
After the sale is made, don’t drop off the face of the planet. Continue using the channels and tactics outlined above to keep your new customers engaged and ready for an upsell!
Work Smarter, Not Harder
As you know, loads of time and effort goes into generating leads and engaging prospects. You need a multi-pronged approach to scale your communication, lead generation, and prospect engagement.
Our software solutions keep your pipeline of prospects full while enabling your team to communicate effectively and efficiently. For example, instead of calling one at a time, use our predictive dialer to connect with calls that are picked up. Leave a ringless voicemail as an unobtrusive way to nudge your leads. LeadsRain’s umbrella solutions are here to help you work smarter.
Contact our support team today to find out how we can help you generate more leads. Your growth is our goal!
