You learned about prospects, leads, and opportunities in our first Marketing Matchmaker post. Now the Marketing Matchmaker is back, and bringing you some tips on nurturing your leads into conversions!
To spark your memory, a lead has shown interest in your company, but isn’t ready to buy yet. It’s kind of like getting someone you like to like you back, but they’re still non-committal.
Sometimes the way to someone’s heart is pizza and beer or flowers and chocolates. Unfortunately, nurturing your leads is going to take a little more work than that.
Here are ten tips:
1. Develop Goals
Just like it’s important to know what you want in a relationship, it’s important to know what you want out of a marketing campaign. Otherwise, there will be a ton of confusion in your company, and between you and your lead. Without goals, your campaign’s success is limited.
It’s also important to know your lead’s goals. What are they trying to accomplish by buying your product?
Figure out what you want and avoid the awkward, “So, what are we doing?” conversations.
2. Don’t Be Selfish
Goals are important, but it’s also important not to act like you’re just in it for one thing (a sale). Leads aren’t stupid. They’ll know what you’re doing if you keep pushing or hinting not-so-subtly. This is just going to annoy them and hinder their conversion.
Create a relationship with your leads! Your focus should be on building a relationship. Your lead has a problem that your company can solve. Focus on helping them, and solving their problems. Don’t just throw the product in their face. That makes everyone uncomfortable.
3. Use Your Best Content
If you’re struggling with what to show your leads, get together your best content and send it their way in an email.
Remember, at this point in the sales funnel, they’re not sold on you yet. They’re still comparing you to all your competitors. You need to let her see your potential.
Send leads educational content like blog posts, ebooks, or webinar invitations to show that your company knows what its doing. Flaunt the knowledge rather than the product.
4. Create Personas
Just like you can’t use the same pitch on prospects, leads, and opportunities, you can’t use the same pitch on all your leads. Some of them will respond differently to different content, tones, and jargon. So create buyer personas to help identify what they’re looking for and how they’re likely to react. Ask yourself if the info you’re sending is relevant to them.
Maybe take a look at your leads’ LinkedIn profiles, just like you might Facebook stalk your dates. It’s best to be prepared when going into these things.
5. Get Personal
Don’t call your love interest “babe,” use their name!
And don’t address your emails “Dear Customer” or anything impersonal. Address your leads just like you would over the phone (“Hi, Bob.”).
It’s also important to personalize the actual email as well. Mention parts of previous conversations with them, and customize the information you’re giving to their specific needs. Make them feel as though the email was crafted specifically for them. This creates a stronger relationship.
6. Be Yourself
Don’t try to be someone that you’re not. Trust me, everyone’s going to notice, and it will come across as insincere.
Use the body of your emails to show leads some of your personality. Stay away from dry form emails. Use some spunk. Show your leads who you are and what makes you different. They will appreciate this variance from the other million emails they get.
Emailing all those leads can take a ton of time, so a lot of marketers use marketing automation. If you do this, try combining automated emails with personal ones from the sales reps. Also make sure that you’re still speaking in your own voice. It helps mass, automated emails feel personal.
7. Value Simplicity
This one’s easy. You want to leave them wanting more.
Don’t overwhelm them with tons of information, and don’t make emails too wordy. Keep it short, sweet, and simple. This will also help with readability!
8. Check For Mistakes
Scratch that. Check, re-check, then check again for mistakes!
These little things matter. If you have grammar and spelling errors in your emails, leads won’t take you seriously. You’re going to look dumb. There’s no way around it. This could hurt their willingness to trust you.
It’s like if you go on a date with a huge mustard stain on your shirt. This affects your date’s impression of you…and it’s not going to be a good one.
9. Measure Results
You need to check how your lead nurturing tactics are going!
Measure the open, click-through, and unsubscribe rates of your emails. Also, look at the important KPIs for your landing pages.
10. Optimize Your Efforts
If a date isn’t picking up what you’re puttin’ down, stop doing it! If something isn’t working, replace it with something that does.
Try testing things like:
- Your email subject line
- Offers or next steps
- When you’re sending emails
The Happily Ever After
Remember, part of what contributes to the success of your company is to create meaningful and lasting relationships with your customers.
Figure out the way to a lead’s heart, and your sales manager will be thanking you. Hook ‘em and keep ‘em coming back for more.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Marketing Matchmaker: How To Nurture A Lead In 10 Ways
More Sales & Marketing articles from Business 2 Community:
- PR in 2015: It’s a Bigger Job Than Ever
- 10 Types of Content That Will Increase Your Website Traffic
- 5 Content Marketing Myths Debunked
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- Blending Growth Hacking and Inbound Marketing for Startup Success
