The first time you talk to a lead, you get all the introductions out of the way, learn the important basic information about the lead’s company, and share what your company does. The next time you talk to that lead, you skip over the introductions and run a sales call tailored to what you now know about that lead.
You need to market the same way: Don’t send generic marketing messaging to prospects that you know. Send them messaging targeted to their needs. This kind of marketing is called “lead nurturing.”
Who should use lead nurturing marketing?
Some companies work in markets where they have spoken to or know all of their potential customers and leads. These companies may not see a lot of value from splitting their lead nurturing program from the rest of their marketing because their entire marketing program is effectively lead nurturing.
Most companies, though, have not had the chance to speak to every prospect in their market. If your company is still exploring your market, lead nurturing can help you increase the effectiveness of your marketing messaging and increase speed in your pipeline.
Who should receive lead nurturing?
Your sales reps spend time on the phone collecting valuable information. If they are entering what they discover on their calls to your CRM, you will accumulate an extremely valuable database of information about your prospects. (Without a well managed CRM, lead nurturing will not be as effective. Read this article to learn more about why CRM management is vital to the success of marketing programs.)
Any prospect that has been qualified but is not currently in a sales cycle should receive lead nurturing messaging. Building relationships takes time, so get a jump-start on your competitors before prospects begin a sales cycle. You want to continue to build your relationship with qualified prospects so that when they are in a sales cycle, your company and your product will be top of mind.
How is lead nurturing different from other marketing?
Lead nurturing allows you to message specifically to the needs of your qualified prospects. If you are a marketing company and know that a portion of your database is interested in making a new website in the next year, that group should receive different marketing than the portion of your database that is instead more interested in starting email marketing campaigns.
The more closely you can identify and message to prospects’ needs, the more effective your marketing program will be – you should write specifically to what your prospects want to learn about. Lead nurturing is often a wise investment of marketing dollars because you can send the right message to the right prospects once you know more about their companies and the kinds of solutions they are looking for. Getting your lead nurturing program off the ground, though, can be challenging.
If you need assistance managing your CRM to collect the necessary data to run lead nurturing programs, it is helpful to work with a partner with experience implementing lead nurturing programs. If you are looking to begin sending more effective messaging to your qualified prospects, NuGrowth Solutions can help. To find out how, contact the NuGrowth team at 800-966-3051 or fill out a contact form and we will be in touch.
