B2B marketing is incomplete without lead nurturing. It's an crucial strategy to drive potential customers towards a purchase. If done correctly, lead nurturing can turn prospects into long-term customers that will generate sustainable revenue.
Although they may not be customers right away, prospects can become warm leads quicker if you communicate with them regularly after their initial contact.
Attracting potential buyers is just the beginning. For a lead to be considered a success, it must eventually turn into a sale. You must be proactive in nurturing every step of the sales conversion process.
Lead nurturing refers to the process of providing relevant content to your leads. They will continue to go through the process until they are ready to buy. Lead nurturing gives you the chance to convince prospects of the value of what your offer offers. It is rewarding but it also presents its own challenges.
Here's a short video by Dashly that explains the basics of lead nurturing
Quick Takeaway
A great lead nurturing program uses
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The clear goal
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A clear audience
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Personalized content
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A timeline that is based on your sales cycle
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Multiple touches
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A method of measurement and improvement
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Marketing and Sales alignment
B2B companies still make glaring mistakes in nurturing. These mistakes can be avoided, which is the worst part.
Marketers can now scale their lead nurturing campaigns using technology, such as readily available automation tools or easy-to use CRM software. These tools are powerful and effective in delivering the right message at just the right moment to qualified leads. This makes it easier to move leads through your sales funnel.
Your marketing team doesn't take the time to develop a B2B lead generation strategy and nurture strategy. This is a huge sales opportunity that you are allowing to slip by.
Strategies for Lead Nurturing
1. Your email strategy is what you should be focusing on
Email nurturing has never been easier thanks to marketing automation. You can easily distribute your attention grabers where they make sense by having up-to-date charts of your email demographics. Although it might seem outdated, email marketing and nurturing are still in fashion, especially when they are used with other platforms.
2. Utilizing your targeted content
Your website content can be targeted to certain niches of your target audience. These mini-demographics can be used to optimize personalization in your lead nurturing efforts.
3. Diversify your distribution
Use your social media platforms! You're not using your brand to be heard in the community you want to reach, so you're way behind. Social media allows you to voice your brand and give authenticity to your company.
Knowing where people are and how to interact with them will put you ahead of anyone else. Social media allows you to reach many people and nurture them.
Source: Marketing charts
The Challenges of Lead Nurturing
1. How to determine the Lead Nurturing Timeframes
When is the best time to start your lead nurturing efforts. It can be dangerous to continue nurturing leads after they have turned cold. However, giving up too quickly may result in losing those leads who just needed more time.
Although there is no way to predict the timeframe, it is possible to estimate your average customer's buying cycles. Monitor the progression of your leads from the top to convert to customers to find out how long it takes.
If the average buying cycle takes four months from lead to sale then this is the time that you should devote to your lead nurturing campaigns. It is important to adjust your messaging and timing based on the stage of a prospect in the sales funnel.
2. Calculating How Often Leads Should Be Contacted
How often should you call or send an email to your leads? Most businesses send more educational offers to leads in the upper part of their sales funnel.
This stage has low barriers to consumption, so emails are often well received, especially if your content resonates with your target audience. Engaging content is a great way to build trust and awareness for your brand. Don't go overboard. As time passes, communication frequency should drop.
To avoid overwhelming prospects, it is better to reduce the number of offers you send once they have moved to the middle stage of your sales funnel. Instead, focus on sending them more relevant, specific offers such as blog posts, webinars, and any other content that will help accelerate their progress along the sales funnel.
3. How to determine what type of content or offers are appropriate
The type of content you choose will depend on who your audience is. One way to find out what works is by looking back at your sales funnel to identify gaps in your existing content offerings. You might have too many educational-type offers at the top of your funnel and not enough webinars that are relevant to your industry for qualified leads. Based on the results, adjust your content offerings and update any stale material that doesn't resonate with your target audience.
According to Demand Gen's Benchmark Study respondents, most leads respond positively to research-based content. 69% stated that whitepapers are powerful offers that produce positive results. 61% said webinars and thought leadership articles also work well.
We must not forget the most effective channels to share your content. Email is still the most used ( 94% usage ), and 43% retargeting and telephone marketing.
4. Proper monitoring and tracking of lead nurturing results
It's easy to forget about the results of your previous campaigns after all the work that went into nurturing and capturing prospects. It's okay to do this, but it's also a missed opportunity to learn and improve from your past mistakes.
For detailed monitoring of results, you can either use an Excel file to track or a full-fledged analysis software program. No matter what tools you choose, they can be used to map the buyer journey, identify leads who dropped out, and monitor KPIs like click-through, conversion and engagement rates. These are the key elements to track in order to determine the success or failure of a campaign. They will also help you make informed decisions about future lead nurturing efforts.
Common Lead Nurturing Mistakes
1. Communication problems with buyers
It takes leads about ten touch points (or points of contact) to convert into sales. However, this depends on your business type and sales cycle.
You can structure your contacts by using lead nurturing in stages. This will ensure engagement beyond just touchpoints. Start by providing general information to attract new contacts, then go on to more specific information about your products and services to nurture them toward a purchase decision.
2. Generic Nurturing Rather Than Targeted Lead Nurturing
Each person has their own struggles and every leader is no exception. To show that you care about each person's situation and to offer support, you should address their unique challenges.
Personalization is a great way to nurture your leads. You should tailor your content to their concerns, needs, and recent actions. If someone downloads content from your website, send an email to reflect what they did and offer guidelines for next steps.
Start by creating buyer personas, fictional representations of key market segments that are similar to your demographic and psychographic characteristics. This will help you create targeted and personalized content. You can then create nurturing lists based on this buyer persona so you can customize your emails and content according to product interest, job title, geographic location, etc.
3. Create "Good Enough Content"
Passable content will not cut it in today's digital age. Content should answer your leads' questions as it is the foundation of lead nurturing. Businesses are naturally increasing their content creation.
Your leads won't trust a piece of content that is "good enough". It will likely be second-rate or worse than other options.
4. Avoid Behavioral Targeting
Dynamic refers to "constant activity, change, or progress" and dynamically sending targeted content to lead nurture helps marketers adapt to changing B2B landscapes.
Triggered email is the most popular form of behavioral targeting. They are typically sent via a marketing automation platform in response to leads' behavior on your website and social media channels.
This method combines the three elements of email marketing: sending the right content at the right time to the right person.
Although it's easy to create triggered emails, it can be difficult to set them up throughout your nurturing campaign. First, consider which set of actions should trigger a trigger email. For example, viewing certain articles.
5. Not providing Supplemental Content
A lead who visits your website and downloads an ebook is likely to be relevant to your target market. This means that they will be able extract value from your other content (since we create content for our target markets).
Do not let your lead settle for one content offer. Consider adding supplementary content based upon what they have already viewed. Your conversion rates will increase if you have positive touchpoints.
6. Slow response time
If you don't respond to a lead within 42 hours, it is a costly mistake. The odds of a lead becoming a purchase are 21x higher if the lead can be contacted within 5 minutes as opposed to 30 minutes. Imagine how many leads could you lose after just 42 hours.
This same study showed that only 16% companies responded within 24 hours. It is even worse if prospects are actually reaching out.
To reach top-of-funnel prospects, lead nurturing must be proactive. You have a better chance of converting leads into sales if you respond quickly.
7. Not Letting Sales Sell
Although marketing automation platforms can offer dynamic and relevant content for leads to nurture, it is still the job of the sales team to close the deal.
Each seller must possess the skills, knowledge, and behaviour to accomplish this, but they must also be aligned to your lead nurturing process. This sync is essential because leads will continue to get emails from the automation software when sales reps should be speaking to them.
You can nurture leads by providing great content and convincing them to contact your sales rep. Then, let the sales rep do their job. It also means that you send great content with your personal emails. Automation is wonderful, but it should not replace one-on-one conversations.
8. Conversion Metrics are not optimized for lead scoring
Lead scoring allows you to rank prospects according to a scale that reflects the potential value of each opportunity. This is done by assigning numerical values to specific behaviors, conversion events, and social media interactions. This score determines which leads should receive follow-up by a sales rep, and which leads must be nurtured.
Lead scoring is a hypothesis. This means that each point for an action can only be guessed. After you have established a baseline, work with sales to adjust your scoring logic. You want to continually improve the process to qualify leads.
An equation that tracks conversions of Marketing Qualified Leads to Customers (MQLs), can be used to establish a baseline for determining if your lead scoring is effective. This equation is: (# MQLs sent directly to sales) /(# of customers who were closed by MQLs).
Reduce the percentage if it is too low. Even though your conversion rate is respectable, you should always look for areas where you can improve.
Source Marketing Charts
9. Don't do your research
It takes time and effort to find your ideal customer, but it is worth it in the end. It's important to identify your ideal customer so that you don't work blindly. This helps you avoid making mistakes and wasting precious resources communicating to an audience you don't understand.
Do your research to avoid making this mistake. Many tools and software are available for free to help you observe customer behavior. There's no reason to not know your audience well. Find out their pain points and then figure out how you can help them. This knowledge will allow you to create the most effective solution to their most pressing problems with your product offering.
10. Failure to map content to the sales funnel
Once you have researched your audience and developed a buyer persona you will be able to create a lead magnet that is effective. It can be used to create an irresistible offer, or valuable content that the recipient will want to accept.
Begin by identifying the pain points that your buyer personas are experiencing. You should regularly share relevant content that solves the buyer's problems and place them in prominent places, such as your website, landing pages or social media accounts. You should also conduct A/B testing on a regular basis to adjust your approach accordingly.
Source: Visual Paradigm
11. Failure to Follow up
After you have segmented your leads, identify those who are interested in your product and then reach out to them. Start contacting them immediately. They might not be available right now, but they may change their mind in the future.
Keep in touch with them, and remind them why you are interested. It is a lost sales opportunity to not do so. Yet, 50% marketers fail to follow-up with leads who express initial interest.
It is important to respond quickly. A Harvard Business Review study found that if leads are not contacted within one hour, they are up to seven times more likely to convert. Notification alert software can remind you to follow-up with and get in touch.
Do Lead Nurturing Work
Numerous studies have shown the effectiveness of lead nurturing programs. These programs can also be used to identify and segment leads at various stages of the sales process. Customers have unique needs and competition is fierce. You can stand out by optimizing your lead nurturing strategy so that you focus on your best leads more than your worst.
How well you know your prospects, and the actions you take based on that knowledge will determine how successful you are at converting leads to customers. You can only monitor and track progress as well as what you do with the results. It is important to respond to your KPIs by being proactive, updating your approach, leveraging the best practices, and avoiding those that don't work.
You want to implement some of the strategies shown on MIG's website but need advice or help? Marketing Insider Group is home to a group of 35+ writers who are ready to create content for your business. Get a consultation or check out our blog content.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main types?
Marketing is the act or communication of ideas, values and messages to consumers. These days, we often hear the term “marketing” being used interchangeably with advertising. Marketing encompasses more than advertising. Marketing encompasses all forms of communication used to promote and market a product/service.
Marketing is comprised of branding, promotion, as well as distribution. A company's branding is the way it represents itself to its target market. Promotion is the act of getting attention for your brand by using paid advertisements, free promotions, and public relations activities. Distribution is how you get your message across to your target audience. Distribution can be done via traditional methods such as television, radio and print. But, the new technology has made it easier.
How to Create an Ecommerce Marketing Plan
The first step is to define what you want. These should include products and/or services relevant to your business, but also enough variety to keep customers engaged.
The second step in marketing is to decide how much money you want to spend on advertising and promotions. Multimedia marketing techniques may be needed, such as direct mail blasts, email blasts or social media.
Once you determine how much money your business needs, you can develop a budget for each marketing method. A professional who specializes in emarketing might be able to help you choose the best marketing method for your company. They can help you choose the right method for your company.
Once you have your plan in place you can begin to implement it. To make this process easier, you can hire someone to do some or all of the work for you.
Start from scratch, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Use proven strategies that have worked well for other online retailers. Be sure to verify everything before you make any changes.
Remember that your ultimate goal should be to increase sales and profit. Your eCommerce marketing strategy needs to consider both short-term and long-term goals.
You can boost your sales by reading our article about eCommerce marketing strategies. We hope these tips will help you achieve success.
What is the role of marketing in a business strategy?
Marketing is part of every business strategy. Without marketing, there would be no way to tell the world what your company does. Marketing without sales would be pointless. Marketing is essential to any business plan.
But not everyone understands the importance of marketing. Many people think that marketing is only about spending money on advertising campaigns. Marketing is more than just advertising. Marketing encompasses everything you do to communicate your company's identity and position in the marketplace.
When you think about your business, ask these questions: What image am I trying convey? How will my customers see me? How should I portray myself to the outside world?
If you don’t answer these questions you haven’t thought of marketing yet.
Why is it important to define your brand?
A brand is simply the promise your company makes to its clients. A brand promises certain qualities and benefits that make your company stand out among competitors. Your brand is what distinguishes you from others within the same industry.
A brand gives you credibility and authority. Potential customers instantly recognize your company's logo when they see it. They trust you because you've earned their respect.
Your company's culture can also reflect your brand. If your employees are passionately involved in your brand, then it is probably reflective of your passion for the product or service.
Your brand is much more than words and pictures. Your company must live up to this promise. It is a promise that you will provide value for your customers.
You need to take into account several things when you are attempting to build your brand. First, you want to choose a name that clearly describes what your company does. Sweet Dreams Bakery, for example, would be a great name for a bakery. If you run a software business, however, you would probably choose DreamSpark Software.
Next, you will need to decide how your company will be represented. Will you use a recognized symbol? Are you going to use corporate colors? Will you use logos
You'll also want to think about how your target audience sees your brand. Will you portray yourself as friendly and helpful? Will you appear professional and trustworthy? Do you appear knowledgeable and experienced?
These are all the questions that you should answer before building your brand.
What are the five marketing concepts?
The following five marketing concepts can be used:
- Branding is a way to project a positive image of yourself. It's what people see when they hear your brand name. It's important to establish a brand identity that is consistent across media.
- Positioning – How you position yourself in your market. How can you best describe who you really are?
- Message – This describes the message. What is your point? Why should anyone buy from you?
- Marketing mix – This combines channels, pricing, and promotions to deliver your message to your target audience.
- Measurability – How can you measure your success?
Are there any dangers associated with digital advertising?
Digital marketing is not without risks.
First, be careful what you post on social media.
You should also make sure that all your content is original.
In addition, you run the risk of losing control over your brand image online if it isn't closely monitored.
Last but not least, identity theft may occur if someone uses your personal details without you being present.
How to Protect your Online Reputation
- Pay attention to what you post on social networks
- Ensure All Content Is Original And Does Not Infringe On Anyone Else's Intellectual Property Rights
- Monitor Your Brand Image
- Use Strong Passwords
- Avoid Using Personal Details Without Permission
- Notify us immediately of any unauthorized activity
- Don't Post Photos Of Yourself Or Others In A Disturbing Way
- Never Give Out Your Social Security Number
- Keep up to date with the most recent news
- Avoid Scams
- Select a Secure Password
- Always Keep an Eye out for Updates
- Don't share too many details
- Take care when you give credit card numbers
- Avoid sending money by E-Mail
- Fake websites to avoid
- Bad reviews can damage your business.
- Regularly check your credit reports
- Be vigilant about your privacy settings
- Ask someone you know before sharing anything
Social Media Marketing can be a great way for your business to get noticed online. It is a great tool to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and sell products. Here are five ways social media marketing can help boost your business.
- You can create a Facebook Fan page to allow you to interact with customers directly on Facebook. You can also upload images, videos, or other files.
- Twitter Promote Your Business – Twitter offers a great way to share information and connect people. Increase visibility by using hashtags
- Post Videos on YouTube. Many people enjoy watching these videos. If they like what they see they might click to visit your site.
- Host Live Events – Having live events allows you to meet face-to-face with potential clients. They can ask questions about your products and services.
- Respond to Customer Reviews. Positive reviews can build trust with clients and encourage repeat sales. Make sure to respond quickly to any negative comments.
Statistics
- Today, 81% of brands around the world have affiliate programs. (influencermarketinghub.com)
- This allows us to deliver CPCs that are 80% less than average and CTRs 4-5 times higher than average. (marketinginsidergroup.com)
- Companies that use personalization are seeing revenue increases ranging from 6-10%. (blog.hubspot.com)
- A poll earlier this year found that 14% of older Gen Z's had bought an item in the previous six months based on an influencer's recommendation. (influencermarketinghub.com)
- In 2017, 34% of marketers cited co-branding as the most effective way to increase the number of email subscribers. (influencermarketinghub.com)
External Links
neilpatel.com
blog.hubspot.com
moz.com
- SEO Learning Center- Moz
- [Case Study] How Moz Ranked #1 for High-Volume Keywords in Less Than 3 Months – Moz
influencermarketinghub.com
How To
What is your marketing strategy
Are you familiar with the expression, “If they build it, they will follow”?
Well, you're wrong.
Although building something is hard work, it's not enough if you want to attract customers. Internet Marketing Principles are necessary to reach your target audience in order to grow your business.
Internet Marketing Principles refer to the guidelines marketers use in creating websites, blogs, emails campaigns, and social media profiles that generate leads, and sales.
For example, if you're selling handmade jewelry online, you'd better learn to use these Internet Marketing Principles to drive traffic to your site, capture emails, and close sales.
Here are some examples of Internet Marketing Principles.
- Content is King – You must make your content unique and memorable. Copying someone else's content can cause you to lose credibility and be seen as a reliable source of information.
- Establish trust – More people trust recommendations from close friends and family than advertisements or Adsense. Be sure to trust your friends and family when you recommend a product.
- Be personal – People prefer to talk to real people rather than robots. You want your website to look real and not robotic.
- Offer value – People will only give out free stuff if you feel they are getting something in return. In return for their contact information, you can offer something of value.
- Tell stories – Stories are powerful tools for connecting with audiences. They enable you to share your story with your audience and help you connect with them.
- Giveaways – Giving things away helps spread awareness and builds brand loyalty.
- Because they motivate users to act, it is important that you use call-to action buttons.
- Before you launch your website live, make sure to test everything.
- Keep it simple – Simple is often better than complex. When possible, keep it simple. Simpler websites are easier to update and maintain.
- Clear goals are easier to measure.
- Measure everything – Measuring your progress towards your goals is crucial to improving your marketing efforts.
- Focus on conversion – Conversion means turning browsers into buyers.
- Get feedback. This will help you improve your marketing efforts.
- Track your results – Tracking your results allows you to identify areas that could be improved.
- Repeat – It creates momentum.
- Optimize Your Marketing Efforts – Optimization ensures your marketing efforts are efficient.
- Stick to your guns – Consistency will keep your brand's name recognizable.
- Reward yourself. Rewards will motivate you.
- Learn from others – Learning from others' mistakes is one of the best ways to avoid making those same mistakes yourself.
- Never stop learning – Always seek out new ideas and techniques.
- For sustainable growth, you must think long-term.
- Trust your gut. Sometimes, intuition can guide you through life.
- Treat each day as a trial run. We learn lessons from mistakes, even though they are inevitable.
- Your weaknesses are your strengths – Knowing your strengths can help you overcome obstacles.
- Don't let your failures discourage you. Everyone has failed at least once. But don't let failure discourage you. Don't give up.
- You must take some risks to be successful.
- Enjoy the ride – It's essential to living happy lives.
- Be passionate – Passion fuels motivation.
- Remain true to yourself – It's important to establish relationships.
- Self-awareness is key to self-improvement.
- Find your tribe. It is vital to establish a supportive network of like-minded people.
- Vision boards are great tools to visualize your future.
- Ask questions. Questions are the gateway into knowledge.
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By: Carter Grimm
Title: Lead Nurturing: The Biggest Challenges & Mistakes
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/demand-generation/lead-nurturing-challenges-mistakes/
Published Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2022 14:00:00 +0000