Moving leads further into the sales funnel is the goal of any sound sales or marketing program. It requires a long-term vision that does not use hard sales practices. Instead, you focus on educating your leads and slowly bringing them to the point of purchase. You do this by delivering engaging content, building a strong brand and becoming the solution of choice.
Here are four lead nurturing best practices your company needs to embrace:
- Nurture your prospects to the next stage down the sales funnel. The goal is to push them down the funnel with gentle nudges, instead of trying to force them to buy your product or service immediately. Today's consumer expects to build a relationship with the companies they engage with. Hard sales tactics are the fastest way to scare off the qualified sales leads you are trying to nurture.
- Make sure that you always include relevant content or a message focused on the lead's needs or desires. Let's say you just got a new lead for your mountain hotel website. That person downloaded a brochure about family skiing vacations. Sending that person a message about taking a "couple's retreat" is not appropriate at this point. Instead, send them more information on the family ski packages you have available. Understanding your business' buyer personas is key to sending the right content and message.
- Keep your messages short, sweet, and simple. Consumers usually have tons of messages coming in these days. Nobody has the time or patience to read a long email or Facebook post. Make sure your messages are easy to scan and have visual appeal. A long email of tight prose with no white space will immediately get sent to spam and a social media post that requires someone to click Read More will likely get passed over. If you have a longer piece of content, provide a summary of it in the message and a link to the longer article/post they can read later at their leisure.
- Have a conversation instead of a one-way monologue. You are a real person. Make sure that every communication sounds like it comes from you, directed totally at that person. That is true whether you send it via text message, email, or social media. Personalization is key to making a personal connection. At least refer to the lead by his or her name. Including other information, like title or company name, is even better. Sending relevant content based on their needs and interests, with personalization included, is the best.
As we mentioned before, constructing and understanding your business's buyer personas is critical if you want potential customers and current customers to stay engaged and loyal. Download our free Buyer Persona eBook to find out how to get started!
