Educate

Lead Nurturing with Content and Marketing Automation

lead nurturing is the process of enabling your leads to educate themselves on how your product may solve their problem.

There is a lot of work to be done once someone converts into a lead on your website. Keep in mind, not all visitors who come to your website are ready to buy. In fact, less than 1% of them are ready to buy. The leads your website generates will be in different stages of their buying journey. This is a great opportunity for marketing to support the sales team, through personalized lead nurturing.

Why Is Lead Nurturing Important?

 

According to the CEB Marketing Leadership Council, “B2B customers reported being nearly 60% through the sales process before engaging a sales rep, regardless of price point. More accurately, 57% of the sales process just disappeared.”

Today’s buyers are enabled to do their own research without having to call a sales rep to start the process. And effective lead nurturing puts you in a strong position against your competitors.

Long Sales Process?

 

The manufacturers and professional services companies we work with have a considered purchase process their prospects go through. The sales cycle for their high-ticket ($80,000+) product or services can be anywhere from several weeks to several years.

Establishing a long-term, documented strategy for lead nurturing will ensure your company is forging a trusting relationship with your potential customers. If you have done a good job of creating a comprehensive path for the prospect to educate themselves on your product, chances are that you will have earned your way to their “short list” when they eventually choose who they want to do business with.

Give them

The Right Information at the Right Time

You’ve seen which specific offer your prospect has self-selected in the lead generation phase, and determined which stage of the buying process your potential customer is in. Now it becomes your task to appropriately educate that prospect so that they are informed enough to make a buying decision.

Therefore, it’s important to structure your marketing automation to optimize what content your prospects see - at the times they are hungry to see it.

Business Example
Someone who enters your marketing funnel by way of a general company brochure probably isn’t quite ready to have a salesperson knocking at their door. Similarly, a lead who has requested a quote or budget estimate probably won’t be thrilled to see their inbox filled with baseline information about what it is you provide.

What all is involved?

companies who excel at lead nurturing

For most companies, lead nurturing with 6-8 “touchpoints” is the magic number before a prospect becomes a qualified sales lead (when they are ready to speak to sales).

Different prospects will want to interact with your content in different ways, so this is where it’s crucial for sales and marketing to complement each other.

Example channels to execute your touchpoints include:

  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • phone calls
  • video voicemails
  • blog content
  • webinars
  • in office visits
  • video content, and
  • trade show appearances
Business Example
A LinkedIn advertisement pointing to a whitepaper may work well for initial “tire-kicking” prospects who are in the exploratory stage, while video may perform best as the prospect digs into more technical specifications and/or requirements. Webinars often perform well as prospects move even closer to a buying decision, as they are a great place to overcome very specific objections and/or answer very specific questions.

Addressing Common Sales Objections

 

We likely agree that the wrong time to be overcoming potential client objections en masse is at the end of the sales process.

How can you overcome objections ahead of time? Put simply, you focus on enabling your prospects to educate themselves on your product information. Think of it as “over-educating” your prospect so they are able to make the most well-informed decision on what product makes the most sense for them.

This mindset helps your company focus on your customers’ needs through helpful content, which frames your business as a trusted and empowering ally when a buying decision is to be made.

A documented lead nurturing strategy can help your prospects sell themselves, even before they get to speak with a sales rep.

Flesh out your lead nurturing strategy with

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  • Attract more website visitors
  • Generate more qualified leads
  • Turn your digital marketing investment into revenue
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