Now you understand what leads are and how they differ, the next step is to nurture them through the lead-generation process. So what is lead nurturing? Leading nurturing ensures those “not-ready-to-buy” leads are engaging with your brand. Successful lead nurturing takes b2b lead generation service understanding the buyer based on factors such as their business profile, industries they serve, products/services they engage with and where they are within the sales funnel. Providing content that promotes lead engagement will inform prospective buyers’ information gathering and evaluation stages and thus support sales conversion.
Lead nurturing tactics for improved engagement
Potential leads interact with your company and brand through various online and offline platforms. Tracking all these interactions to use them for lead generation is a big task, which is why automating it via lead generation software is the way to go.
Converting anonymous visitors to your website or social media channels into leads is an exercise in data collection. The type and amount of data a company needs to collect to convert an anonymous visitor depends on the nature of the product and service the company is trying to sell.
Step 1 – Identify your audience
The first place to start is to develop a buyer persona. Using both market research and real data from existing customers, you can create a fictional representation of your ideal customer.
Where to research the data:
Demographics
Spending behaviours
Buyer motivations and intents
Common roadblocks to converting a sale
Buyer goals
Step 2 – The buyer’s journey
Now that you understand your audience, it is essential to also understand how they behave. A helpful method is utilising the stages of the buyer’s journey and providing content to support them at each stage of the sales funnel. Below are three stages of the buyer’s journey, their goals, and how sales funnel content marketing can support it.
The awareness stage
At this initial stage, the buyer tries to understand a problem or investigate a need to be met. They seek answers to questions by researching top-level informational content found within blog content and e-books and creating a survey or quiz. During this stage potential for conversion is low, but the potential for data collection is possible. Below are some ways in which you can encourage visitors to give you information that allows you to convert them to leads in the future.
- Pop-up forms: Cleverly placed pop-up forms can help encourage visitors to your website to provide their contact information. A welcome pop-up on your landing page can encourage them to sign-up for an ebook, or exit intent pop-ups can be triggered when visitors show signs of leaving your website.
- Offers: You can use pop-ups, banners, and other types of ad placement to barter offers for visitors’ contact information. This creates a win-win situation where the customer gets an offer, and you get information that could help convert them to a lead.
- Contests: They are an easy way to convert visitors to leads. Contests not only encourage visitors to volunteer their information, but they also create engagement. Visitors who participate in a contest have a vested interest in your company or brand.
- Social listening: Social presence is mandatory for companies and brands today, but presence might not be enough for strong lead generation. Companies and brands need to practise social listening, monitoring their social profiles and understanding followers’ and visitors’ reactions to their posts. Social listening sends a positive message to prospects—telling them that the company or brand is listening and cares.
- Events and conferences: Certain offline methods of generating leads are still relevant. Presence at events, conferences, and expos gives your company or brand visibility and allows you to put your best foot forward. Interact actively, capture leads by collecting contact information, and diligently follow up.
The consideration stage
The consideration stage of the buyer’s journey finds potential leads actively trying to solve a problem. Solutions will be considered across a variety of selected sources that provide the most relevant and best answers to the problem. At this stage, it is vital to nurture the prospect with content you can use to then collect information about them and reach out. Below are some ways in which you can encourage visitors to give you information that allows you to convert them to leads:
Online sales lead generators include product comparison guides, ebooks, whitepapers, webinars, videos, and live chats are an effective and convenient way to generate leads.
The decision stage
The buyer’s journey’s decision stage sees a person ready to make a purchase. Knowledge acquired during the buyer’s journey will be passed on to the sales team, where first contact will be made using strategies designed to convert. Content to keep in mind includes product/services demonstrations, online courses and a well positioned pricing page, and free trials.
Once sales opportunities convert to customers, develop loyalty and adoption programs that drive continued conversion. These include:
Onboarding programs
Product adoption programs
Contract renewal programs
Re-engage lost deals
Site Title 