If you’ve acquired your warm, cosy leads, you’re ready to make the next move! It’s time to put your leads through your inbound marketing funnel.
What’s an inbound marketing funnel you ask? It’s ultimately the way in which your leads move through the sales cycle using your marketing techniques. To achieve this movement, your data should be placed into a lead nurturing campaign/s.
A lead nurturing campaign is something that will make them feel even more cosy and warm than they already are, it is something that will encourage them to take that next step and move even further down your funnel.
A lead nurturing campaign is, ideally, an automated series of emails or follow-ups designed to move the lead down your marketing funnel until they are ready to become a customer.
Here are 4 steps you can take to create an effective lead nurturing campaign:
1) Define your audience and segment your leads
Why market to only one type of buyer when you know that there is always more than one type of customer? You must know who needs nurturing before you start and then segment them in the effective and appropriate way.
2) Offer something of value
Would you be interested in something if there was really nothing of interest on offer? If you show your leads that you deserve them to make another move, simply by making the first move, you’re on the right track!
3) Set up a timeline & schedule your campaign
Make sure you don’t bombard your new leads – no one likes spam. With a lead nurturing campaign, patience is a virtue.
4) Review & Optimise your results
Experiment as your campaign runs. If something isn’t working, don’t keep it running, change it! The more you pay attention and really put the time into your lead nurturing campaigns, the more you will get out of them.
There are so many different ways you can make loyal and interested customers from your leads but you have to remember that they are real people so if you don’t treat them right, they won’t stay very long.
Key Mistakes
Lead nurturing campaigns are not an excuse to email blast your entire database. Segmentation is key. Nowadays, you have the technology to set up segmented email lists and oh what a glorious thing this is. You can create all kinds of lists, based on all sorts of factors, so why not use this to your advantage and really make your emails personal.
Turning your leads into loyal customers is a lot easier when your prospects have great information to learn from. So now it’s your turn to start building relationships with your leads today; create a personalised and interesting nurturing campaign to offer trust, reliability and relevant information. Then all you have to do is wait for the bite, because you’ve earned it!
