5 Effective Lead-Nurturing Tactics

Lead nurturing requires relationship building at every touch point of the consumer’s journey. Brands need to provide active, personal engagement, as well as relevant and timely information to steer potential buyers toward a purchase. This requires assessing each target group’s needs, behaviors, and preferences to ensure they’re receiving information through their preferred communication channels when they’re most engaged. Start by implementing these strategies:

Social Selling

Given social media use, it’s not surprising that it’s become a lead-nurturing channel. Sales staff can start conversations with social followers to build relationships and eventually push a sale. This act, called social selling, gives consumers a comfortable setting to engage with a brand and learn more about it.

Like all lead-nurturing tactics, it’s important to cultivate a relationship before pushing sales.

Targeted Content

Brands can’t create one-size-fits-all content and expect success. Instead, creating tailored content for specific groups or niches has become more beneficial for lead nurturing.

To create specific content, you’ll need to define your audience with detail. Make sure you’re collecting information from your customers through a variety of ways. You can conduct surveys, monitor buying behaviors and collect demographic information during email sign up.

The idea is to collect information and build customer personas that explain exactly who your customers are so you can create content for each group.

Tight Follow-up Times

Time is of the essence with potential buyers. Brands need a plan to address potential buyers with immediacy. The last thing you want is a prospect reaching out with specific questions only to be ignored. Make a commitment to follow-up with customers within 24 hours.

Personalized Emails

Personalizing emails with a name, or based on behavior, for example, is an effective technique to assure your customers they’re not just another contact in an email blast.

Triggered emails based on a consumer’s action (e.g., abandoned cart) provide both a timely and personalized response for those on the cusp of making a purchase.

Multi-Channel Nurturing Strategies

Find out where potential customers spend their time and how they communicate with your brand. Younger consumers, for example, tend to use a wider variety of social media, including far more image-led platforms than older consumers.

Use a variety of strategies to reach consumers, including social media monitoring, social media ads, paid retargeting, and dynamic site content, among others.

Implement these lead-nurturing tactics and see what works best for your business.

Read Part 1: New Destinations: Mobile and Social Effects on the Consumer Journey

Read Part 2: Follow the Leader: Targeting Different Lead Types

Read Part 4: Keep Customers Coming Back With Loyalty Programs and Post-Sales Marketing