A 2015 IDC study commissioned by Salesforce found that 65% of B2B buyers only engage with a vendor sales rep after they’ve already made a purchase decision. The same study found 83% of those customers only want to hear from you if you are relevant to them. So how can you ensure that you are approaching your leads with relevant content? You should consider a lead nurturing campaign.
When an anonymous website visitor shares their information to become a qualified lead for sales, it’s because they’re interested in your brand. Lead nurturing campaigns help marketers build relationships with prospects, from their first interaction to the time they’ve become a frequent return customer.
These campaigns are meant to communicate with each prospect and customer on an individual level. Therefore, it’s essential for campaign content such as emails, digital ads, and direct mail to be personalized. By sending content that directly answers your audiences’ questions and relates to their needs, you can help solve their problems and lay the groundwork to offer solutions that result in sales and long-term customer relationships.
Nurturing is rarely about immediate sales. Instead, it’s about inspiring real engagement and keeping your brand at the forefront of your audiences’ minds throughout successfully recurring customer lifecycles.
By The Numbers
According to Hubspot:
- Only 25% of leads are legitimate and should actually go to sales
- 50% of leads are qualified but aren’t ready to buy
- Lead nurturing emails get 4-10X the response rate of generic email blasts
- 25-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first
What is Lead Nurturing?
“Lead Nurturing” sometimes goes by other names: marketing automation, drip marketing, auto-responders, etc. Simply put, lead nurturing is a system that allows you to send an automated series of emails to an early stage lead. These emails help to pre-qualify them, educate them, and build interest in your brand. The purpose of lead nurturing is to offer relevant content at each stage of the customer lifecycle and drive your leads to the mature phase where the sales team can take the lead.
Lead nurturing enables you to build thought leadership. We know that people typically engage with businesses they know and trust. The first time someone converts on your website, it is not likely they know who you are or understand the advantages of working with your business. Because of this, lead nurturing is an opportunity to show that you are an expert in your field.
Studies show that targeted and segmented emails perform better than mass email communications. Lead nurturing enables you to tie a series of emails to a specific activity or conversion event. In other words, you can craft your follow-up email based on the action a lead has taken on your website, thus showing that you are aware of their interest in the topic and what they might need next.
Using Social Listening in Your Lead Nurturing Strategy
The next step in the equation is to ensure that your lead nurturing campaigns are reaching the right audience with the right cadence. Using social listening dashboards, you won’t miss out on what your potential customers are saying. Unique sourcing goes beyond regular social channels and captures more of the organic conversation about your brand, competitors, or industry. Utilizing this powerful tool allows you to know what is top of mind for engaged consumers in your space. Businesses can therefore create content and messaging that resonates with their current concerns.
AI-fueled trend detection capabilities additionally unite the speed of social listening with the rigor of market research. (Check out our Market Research Use Case Story here to see how a major fast-casual beverage chain was able to capitalize on dairy alternative trends.) Identifying white space opportunities allows you to seize market opportunities more quickly than your competitors, thanks to real-time data analytics. Being alerted to emerging conversation topics among your consumer-base is necessary. This information allows you to create detailed and specific lead nurturing campaigns that resonate with your audience.
Another important way of using social listening is to learn where prospects learn about your brand. Some individuals prefer to get their information from social media channels, while others prefer reading news coverage. This information helps consequently to identify where sales and lead nurturing efforts should be focused.
Want to know more about how Synthesio’s social listening platform can give you confidence in your lead nurturing program? Take a look at more details about our powerful tool here.
