Companies that do not have prospective leads are well on their way to failure. Leads that convert into sales are the end requirement of every marketing activity. The sales team in every organization invests a substantial amount of time in lead generation activities. While acquiring potential leads is an important task, it is in no way enough to guarantee sales. The leads need to be gradually nurtured over a while to ensure that they reach the final stage of the marketing funnel. Lead nurturing refers to the process of developing long-term relationships with prospective customers by listening to and fulfilling their needs at every stage of the customer journey. Read on to know 5 effective lead nurturing tactics that will help you convert those prospects into final customers:
Targeted Content
Customized content is the easiest way to guarantee customer delight. 78% of CMOs believe that custom content is the future of marketing. To nurture your leads, the first step is understanding their needs and pain points and the second step is sending them content that fulfils their individual requirements. Customers do not have the time to read unnecessary and irrelevant content. For a lead nurturing strategy to work, customers should receive highly personalized content that adds some value. The objective of sending targeted content is to make customers feel that their singular needs are important for the company. This helps in building strong relationships which ultimately have greater chances of converting into sales.
Remarketing
Remarketing is one of the most effective lead nurturing tactics that marketers have in their arsenal. Remarketing can be defined as a marketing strategy whereby targeted content and ads can be presented to people who have already visited your website, driving them to take some action. With remarketing, marketers can give customers the required push to complete some action that they had left incomplete, by nurturing them with engaging content. For example, when it comes to eCommerce, customers often add items to their cart and then abandon the cart. With remarketing ads, marketers can subtly remind customers about their abandoned carts and prompt them to complete the purchase.
Follow-Ups
Customers want to feel that they are important for the company and not just another source of revenue. Timely follow-ups should be a component of your lead nurturing strategy. Companies that periodically follow-up with their leads, in a time-bound manner, have greater chances of conversions. Marketers should spend extensive time in understanding prospects’ browsing behaviour and actions. Based on this, timely emails and phone calls can be made. For example, when a lead views a particular product or service, an email can be sent offering an exclusive discount on the item. This will help in nurturing the leads and driving them towards making a purchase.
Omnichannel Marketing
Success is omnichannel. Nowadays, customers are not satisfied with only one source of information. They visit various sources to get their queries answered before they make the final purchase. Hence, marketers need to start thinking beyond email when it comes to lead nurturing. Omnichannel marketing can help brands engage with their prospective customers across different platforms. Marketers can gather critical customer data from different platforms and use the same to design lead nurturing campaigns that are relevant and helpful. By engaging with visitors across different platforms, companies can ensure that all the needs of the customers are fulfilled and customers remember the brand at the time of purchase.
Social Media
Social media channels contain valuable information regarding customer behaviour. Brands that can optimally utilize social media can effectively nurture their leads into paying customers. Prospects discuss brands on social media platforms. Marketers need to track and analyse these brand mentions to find new markets, engage with potential customers and prompt them to choose your brand. Companies should also use social media to track customer grievances and negative feedback, which helps in retaining customers and building brand reputation.
Converting leads into sales is not an easy task. Marketers need to employ several tactics to take the customers to the end of the marketing funnel. Lead nurturing can go a long way in building up the prospective leads to turn into sales qualified leads. It helps in building a long-term relationship with customers, based on trust, which also has a positive effect on repeat sales.