Introduction: What is Lead Nurturing?
Nurturing leads is a lot like cultivating a garden.
The garden doesn’t just sprout up after years of neglect. It requires maintenance and manicuring to reach its most beautiful, flourishing self. A buyer’s journey starts similarly. They begin as leads (aka planted seeds), and only convert when nourished, replenished, and carefully managed. No, this process doesn't involve pruning and watering. Instead, throughout the sales funnel, consumers need additional insights and information.
Below, let's examine some standard methods used for lead nurturing:
Email Marketing
"Due to email marketing's targeted technologies, consumers spend 138% more when they’re nurtured with this tactic than when they don’t receive emailed offers."
Here are some factors to focus on:
- Are the emails getting delivered, opened, and shared?
- Low delivery rates mean a lack of valid email addresses on a list.
- Well-written subject lines impact open rates.
- When emails are forwarded a lot, it means they’re compelling.
- Bounce rates indicate people are clicking through to the landing page but exiting immediately:
- The email list might not be explicitly targeted enough, or the landing page isn't optimally designed.
- Deeper insights include form completion rates, acquisition rates (are leads turning into customers?), site conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs.
Content Marketing Strategies on Websites
Website content increases inbound leads and adds a helpful boost to organic traffic.
There’s one caveat in all of this:
The content must be compelling enough to successfully nurture leads and drive sales revenue. Taking the time to iron out a strategic content framework involves creating relevant, targeted content that adds value to a lead's life. This can include how-to videos, blogs, and other resources that establish the website owner as industry experts and a go-to resource.
Optimizing Websites for Lead Nurturing
Frequently, a website is the first point of contact leads have on their buyer's journey. Optimizing it for conversions and acquisitions is a non-negotiable must-do.
Here are some ways to optimize websites:
Design Valuable Product/Service Pages
- Use clean, simple designs that are intuitive with user needs.
- The copy on the page should point out the top-selling features of the product/service.
- Building a template makes it easier to keep building successful pages.
Limited time offers
- Using language that implies an offer won’t always be on the table will drive leads toward converting.
Use LiveChat Bots
- Live chatbots on websites provide an extra layer of customer service and contact, so leads don't have to wait for email queries to be answered. There are lots of options for this, however Contact Cloud offers Live chat widgets as a standard features and the widgets some ready to function out of the box.
Make Conversions Simple for Leads
- Whether it's filling in a demo scheduling form or searching for contact options, make this the most painless, hassle-free part of the sales funnel.
Implement click to call or instant connect forms
- Often times forms are used on a website to intake sales inquires, support requests etc and customers these days expect instant feedback. You can give to them with instant connect form like FormReactor by Contact Cloud.
Where Does Call Tracking fit with Lead Nurturing?
Why should call-tracking be implemented to nurture leads?
The reasoning is straightforward; any interactions with leads should be recorded and therefore be reported on later. From there comes the need to find where phone-call tracking fits into the buyer's journey. Everybody is well aware of how annoying it is to be interrupted by telemarketers. Therefore, it's wise to implement this tactic once leads have been showing interest, to make it a more personalized interaction.
Alternatively, a campaign's purpose could be for customers to reach out. In which case, phone numbers must be involved in the rest of the lead nurturing strategy. Also, utilizing phone tracking lets companies know which of their keywords and lead nurturing channels are working best. If customers reach out, it'll be made clear if they did so through social media, Google ads, the given company's website, etc.
Here are some other factors to consider:
- Follow up with leads, even if they don’t initially engage.
- Make sure to answer incoming calls quickly.
- Contact your customer back quickly when they make inquiries to your business.
- Analyze phone calls for unique phrasing used by leads and salespeople to find conversion trends.
Hopefully, it’s now apparent why lead nurturing is integral to your business – and that call-tracking plays a critical role in the process.
