Keep it warm: lead generation and lead nurturing

How to generate leads?

Lead generation is the process of finding prospects who are likely to be a good fit for your product or service. In this post, we’ll walk you through how to use lead nurturing techniques in your sales funnel, and how that can positively affect both lead generation and lead conversion rates.

It is about identifying potential customers who might be interested in your products and then capturing their information. With this data, you can reach out to them periodically with offers or other useful information related to what they expressed interest in initially. A well-executed lead generation strategy will also take into account lead nurturing, which requires more time than just generating leads. Lead nurturing involves engaging with a customer over the course of weeks, months or even years before they finally convert into a paying customer.

The value of warm leads

Keeping your leads warm will not only increase your conversion rates, but it’ll also allow you to reach out with more targeted messages. This results in reduced marketing costs and increased profit margins. It also shows the people that they’re valued. After all, no one likes to be ignored or feel like they are a number in a database that’s there just to be sold something.

How do you know when your leads are cold?

Cold leads are people who you’re not actively marketing to or following up with. They could be people that you’ve collected from previous marketing, from speaking at a conference, from an event. The risk with cold leads is that the longer they stay on your list without some activity, the less likely it is for them to convert into customers and can end up costing your business a lot of time and money. How do you know when your leads are cold? When you stop engaging with them.

Warm and hot

How lead nurturing process look like?

The best way to get those leads warm again is by using the three Ps: personalize, preview, prioritize. Personalizing a message makes it more relevant for each individual prospect and will increase their interest in your company and products or services. Previewing content offers prospects a glimpse of what they will receive if they sign up for your mailing list. Prioritizing your messages helps you stay focused on what really matters most to the customer in terms of their interests and needs.

Why does keeping leads warm matter?

Customers are the lifeblood of any business. With how quickly the market is changing, businesses need to stay flexible and be ready to change with it. The best way to do that is by maintaining a warm pipeline of qualified prospects, instead of trying to push cold leads through your sales funnel. By maintaining a good system for getting new leads in and qualifying them, you’re always generating a warm lead pool.

Types

• Increasing commitment – this type of action wants to keep your leads engaged by offering them credible, persuasive and straightforward content that is relevant to them and in which they are interested.
• Presentation of the benefits – here you provide your potential customers with various educational content that makes them aware of what benefits they will get from your products or services. Audiences clearly see how your solutions make their work more efficient.
• Closing the sale – this type of lead nurturing focuses on the leads that are already at the bottom of the sales funnel to eventually get them to close the deal. At this point, marketing and sales must work in full compliance to bring their efforts to the ultimate goal – a paying customer.

How to create effective lead nurturing campaigns?

Persona

Create an ideal persona. What are their hopes and aspirations? What does their life look like? How does that make them feel? How do they find themselves feeling about your product or service? These are the questions you should be asking yourself to get a full understanding of what makes this person tick.

Behavior tracking

To see if your lead is interested in your content, use heat maps (a system which shows how people interact with certain areas on a page) to see which parts of the page they click on and for how long. Use A/B testing on different offers and layouts to see which work best for you.

Content

Once you’ve found out what type of content will attract your lead’s attention, create it. Provide helpful articles that answer their questions and give them the knowledge they need to solve their problem. Stay in contact by sending them relevant updates and sending personalized e-mails that reflect their interests. Send reminders when it’s time for them to sign up for a webinar or conference call.

Test and measure

One of the most important steps in crafting any lead nurturing campaign is knowing whether or not you’re achieving your desired results. It may seem difficult at first, but keep track of everything from open rates to conversions. If one particular piece of content has received many more clicks than others, then try using it more often as well as using it differently.

Retargeting

By retargeting your leads, you can reach those who might have left your site without converting and bring them back. Lead scoring. When someone signs up for a free trial, assign them points based on their activity after the initial registration date. Then segment these leads into warm, cold, or hot categories based on how many points they have accumulated so far.

Web push

Push notifications are used to remind website visitors about upcoming events such as webinars or conferences. While there are various ways to implement web pushes, the idea behind them is fairly simple: information enters your browser while you’re browsing the internet and alerts you that something noteworthy related to your industry happened.

Loyalty program

Develop loyalty programs where users earn points every time they visit your site or sign up for a newsletter. Reward them with exclusive deals, discounts, early access to new products and services, VIP status at special events, etc.

Omnichannel

The process of connecting your company across all channels to create a cohesive customer experience. Create connections. Utilize social media to share your posts on multiple platforms and connect your followers on different networks to stay updated and informed. Post updates on Twitter and Instagram, promote Facebook posts, and share videos on YouTube or Vimeo. Build a chatbot. They are an increasingly popular option for customer service because they provide a quicker response rate than traditional phone calls or e-mail.

Last words

Your job is not done the moment you get a new lead, it’s just begun. It’s up to you to keep nurturing the relationship and this starts before they have even seen your product or service. A qualified lead might take months or years to turn into a customer, so it’s important not to neglect them once they’ve become hot.