Lead nurturing is an important part of inbound marketing and of sales in general. Leads generated through inbound marketing efforts are usually not ready to make a purchase immediately. This is why it's important to have a strong lead-nurturing strategy in place so that you can guide your leads down the sales funnel and pursuade them to ultimately make a purchase.
How does the lead nurturing process work with inbound marketing? Inbound is all about providing helpful information and the right time. The main way to practice lead nurturing using online marketing is by setting up automated emails. It's important, however, to make sure the information you're providing in these emails is relevant to the leads who are receiving them. Today, we’ll go over four best practices for lead nurturing with email marketing.
1. Make a plan.
Before you get started, you must lay out a plan for your lead-nurturing strategy. Figure out at what points of the sales cycle leads will want specific pieces of information. Also consider the length of your typical sales cycle, and space out your communications appropriately.
2. Take aim.
Although it would quicker to use the same lead-nurturing email for all of your leads, this goes completely against the inbound methodology! To deliver information that is relevant and valuable to those receiving it, it's important to segment leads into separate lists and target those lists according to their specific needs and interests. Create different buyer personas for your various types of customers, and build an email series specifically for each persona.
3. Go with the flow.
Lead nurturing should be an ongoing, dynamic process. As your lead-nurturing efforts get underway, assess how people are engaging with the content you’re sending out, and make changes along the way to determine the optimal series of information for each type of lead. Also, be sure to revisit your email content regularly to make sure your it's fresh and up to date.
4. Be human.
The whole point of lead nurturing is to get leads to contact you to learn more and ultimately make a purchase. Many companies today, however, set up automated emails to go our from an impersonal, generic company email address. To open the door to conversation with your emails, always send them from a real person's email address to convey that someone is ready to talk.
The success of lead-nurturing emails depends on understanding your prospects and providing information they value at the right time. Following the tips above will help you do just that.
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