Why Lead Nurturing?
The real power behind lead nurturing comes from its ability to automate thoughtful communications. With a nurturing program in place, your prospects no longer get spammed with generic emails. Instead, they receive targeted messaging based on their own activities, interests and more.
“More than a quarter of marketers (26%) get 10% – 20% better response from lead nurture campaigns vs. standard campaigns, and another 20% – 30% better responses to lead nurture campaigns compared to non-nurtures.” (Demand Gen Report 2015)
1) Welcome Campaign
Welcome emails in response to a particular offer are highly anticipated, frequently opened and simple to automate. By turning your welcome emails into a nurturing campaign, you can begin to establish a lasting relationship. In the initial email, remind readers why they contacted or connected with you and let them know what to expect from your program. Then, start sending them concise, educational content to build greater awareness and interest. Make sure to keep it targeted based on the offer or communication to which they originally responded.
2) Top-Of-Mind Campaigns
A top-of-mind campaign is designed to engage readers at regular intervals, preventing leads from getting stale. This drip occurs over a longer period of time, providing consistent touch points.
3) Re-engagement Campaigns
Not all leads will complete the sales cycle. Bummer, but true. Re-engagement campaigns are targeted toward these inactive leads, with the goal of encouraging them to reconnect (re-enter the sales cycle). Case studies, helpful blog posts and new white papers are excellent content pieces to deliver to this audience.
4) Product Education Campaigns
As prospects progress through the sales process and begin to seek out more product-focused content, you’ll want to make sure they are getting the right information. Focus on your lead’s pain points, how your solutions may benefit them and showcase your product/service differentiators. Be sure your sales team has visibility into these interactions so that they can tailor their follow up conversations based on this activity.
5) Competitive Drip Campaigns
This type of campaign focuses on competitive differences between your products/services and those of others. Focus your content on your prospect’s priorities to help them differentiate between market choices. A general competitive campaign can be effective, but the more you know about what a customer is currently using or evaluating (through segmentation via survey/interests), the more persuasively you can make your case.
6) Industry Expertise Campaigns
As prospects move closer to the middle of the sales funnel, it becomes important to reinforce why your company is the right choice. Share helpful press releases, industry reports or high-traffic content to establish your company’s authority. Lead scoring can be an effective way to segment this targeted demographic as a goal of this drip campaign.
7) Promotional Drips
As your prospects near the purchase stage of the sales funnel, a well-timed promotion or special discount can be just the catalyst they need. The right offer near the end of the trial can help encourage customers to commit. Try to identify a low cost (to you), high value (to your customer) incentive you can offer to close the deal.
8) Onboarding Campaigns
Onboarding a new client can be an automated or high-touch process depending on your business model. Nurturing campaigns allow you to automate some of the repetitive tasks involved in onboarding, like providing introductory training resources, a list of next steps after sale, timelines, how to obtain support and where to get answers to frequently asked questions. These resources can help new clients get started on their own, without having to wait on personal assistance.
9) Upsell Campaigns
The upsell (or cross-sell) campaign is designed to leverage existing client relationships by providing them information and incentives on your broader list of products/services. It’s common wisdom that it’s easier to introduce additional products/services to a current customer than it is to find new customers! Use upsell/cross-sell campaigns to incent clients to do more with you and you’ll drive more revenue with less effort from your sales team.
10) Renewal Campaign
Renewal nurtures can be a convenient way to remind your existing clients that it’s time to renew their contracts, subscriptions, etc. This drip can be triggered a month (or more) before the renewal date and may be designed to automatically send multiple reminder emails over a specified period of time and notify an account manager based on whether the customers renews or takes no action.
Utilizing one or more of the above nurturing campaigns can provide your clients and prospects with a better customer experience, while automating repetitive tasks to improve your team’s efficiency.
Talk with us today about developing your marketing communication strategy.
