Inbound Lead Nurturing generates 50% more sales at 33% less cost
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2024 4:39 am
Inbound marketing demands equal nurturing for all of your leads. That's what we call lead nurturing strategies . There's no such thing as a bad lead. What you call bad leads may just be people who aren't ready to buy today. But I have news: most of your prospects will NOT be ready, so put these tactics into practice to nurture them.
If 90% of your leads are at the top or fusion database package middle of your marketing and sales funnel, this means they are not ready to talk to you or buy.
That is why your Lead Nurturing strategies will be essential to attract them and improve the conversion of leads into clients. Only then will you be able to see the results of Inbound Marketing.
Implementing an effective lead nurturing strategy can have a huge impact on your Inbound Marketing results.
Research conducted by Forrester has shown that marketers see an average 20% increase in opportunities from Sales Qualify NSQL Nurturing Leads versus Non-Nurturing SQL.
Research also reveals that companies that excel at nurturing organic leads generate 50% more sales at 33% lower costs.
Here are some of our top nurturing techniques that have been proven to help prospects move down the sales funnel.
1. Respond quickly
You may be surprised to hear that using psychology in calls to action will result in a prospect responding but most businesses don't follow up with leads as quickly as they should and the difference this makes with their prospects is huge.
Inbound lead nurturing generates 50% more sales at 33% less cost (1)
A recent article in Harvard Business Review highlighted the slow response times of most U.S.-based companies. Here are some benchmarks from the study, which included feedback from over 2,240 companies:
The average first response time for B2B companies to their potential customers was 42 hours.
Only 37% of companies responded to their leads within an hour.
24% of companies took more than 24 hours.
23% of companies never responded at all.
Make sure your lead generation workflows are responsive and clear in their communications, and that your sales support workflows match.
If you say someone will email or call you, make sure those people are connected to the communication and it is running properly.
Learn how to create a workflow correctly with step 2 of our 3 steps to creating an effective lead nurturing strategy. You should check these workflows from time to time to make sure they are working. Even automated email workflows sometimes break for no reason.
2. Make communication remarkable
Anyone can write a “thank you” or “here’s the whitepaper” email, but successful inbound lead nurturing requires great writing. Here’s one of our thank you emails.
Capture
This is certainly a great lead nurturing email, and it will likely be forwarded, shared, and commented on by other potential customers.
All your nurturing emails should be written in a way that communicates more of your story and highlights, that ensures your prospects and customers talk about your business.
3. Keep it simple
I've seen nurturing email marketing and workflows that are too long and complicated. Your prospects aren't interested in receiving 10 emails, 11 or more times after they've taken action on your website. Instead, keep it to three. Three emails keeps the workflow manageable for you and reasonable for your prospects.
inbound-lead-nurturing-generates-50-more-sales-at-33-less-cost
4. Nourish them strategically
The goal of nurturing is to work prospects until they are ready to move further down the funnel so they move further down the funnel and ask to speak with you.
This is how you identify yourself as Sales Qualify Leads . To do this, you must use your content strategically and give them every opportunity to move forward, through email marketing.
Primary contacts who request monthly communication, such as informative emails, should be nurtured more frequently . One way is to encourage them to subscribe to the blog.
Leads requesting top-of-funnel content should be nurtured with mid-funnel content to attract them and move them forward.
There are 3 types of lead nurturing for the 3 main stages of the funnel. The type of content you use to attract them through the funnel needs to be thought out and planned in advance, as part of your content strategy.
Going into your content planning and strategy sessions knowing what you need to nurture lead interest will help you create the right pieces. The right content helps you build a remarkable experience for each potential customer.
If 90% of your leads are at the top or fusion database package middle of your marketing and sales funnel, this means they are not ready to talk to you or buy.
That is why your Lead Nurturing strategies will be essential to attract them and improve the conversion of leads into clients. Only then will you be able to see the results of Inbound Marketing.
Implementing an effective lead nurturing strategy can have a huge impact on your Inbound Marketing results.
Research conducted by Forrester has shown that marketers see an average 20% increase in opportunities from Sales Qualify NSQL Nurturing Leads versus Non-Nurturing SQL.
Research also reveals that companies that excel at nurturing organic leads generate 50% more sales at 33% lower costs.
Here are some of our top nurturing techniques that have been proven to help prospects move down the sales funnel.
1. Respond quickly
You may be surprised to hear that using psychology in calls to action will result in a prospect responding but most businesses don't follow up with leads as quickly as they should and the difference this makes with their prospects is huge.
Inbound lead nurturing generates 50% more sales at 33% less cost (1)
A recent article in Harvard Business Review highlighted the slow response times of most U.S.-based companies. Here are some benchmarks from the study, which included feedback from over 2,240 companies:
The average first response time for B2B companies to their potential customers was 42 hours.
Only 37% of companies responded to their leads within an hour.
24% of companies took more than 24 hours.
23% of companies never responded at all.
Make sure your lead generation workflows are responsive and clear in their communications, and that your sales support workflows match.
If you say someone will email or call you, make sure those people are connected to the communication and it is running properly.
Learn how to create a workflow correctly with step 2 of our 3 steps to creating an effective lead nurturing strategy. You should check these workflows from time to time to make sure they are working. Even automated email workflows sometimes break for no reason.
2. Make communication remarkable
Anyone can write a “thank you” or “here’s the whitepaper” email, but successful inbound lead nurturing requires great writing. Here’s one of our thank you emails.
Capture
This is certainly a great lead nurturing email, and it will likely be forwarded, shared, and commented on by other potential customers.
All your nurturing emails should be written in a way that communicates more of your story and highlights, that ensures your prospects and customers talk about your business.
3. Keep it simple
I've seen nurturing email marketing and workflows that are too long and complicated. Your prospects aren't interested in receiving 10 emails, 11 or more times after they've taken action on your website. Instead, keep it to three. Three emails keeps the workflow manageable for you and reasonable for your prospects.
inbound-lead-nurturing-generates-50-more-sales-at-33-less-cost
4. Nourish them strategically
The goal of nurturing is to work prospects until they are ready to move further down the funnel so they move further down the funnel and ask to speak with you.
This is how you identify yourself as Sales Qualify Leads . To do this, you must use your content strategically and give them every opportunity to move forward, through email marketing.
Primary contacts who request monthly communication, such as informative emails, should be nurtured more frequently . One way is to encourage them to subscribe to the blog.
Leads requesting top-of-funnel content should be nurtured with mid-funnel content to attract them and move them forward.
There are 3 types of lead nurturing for the 3 main stages of the funnel. The type of content you use to attract them through the funnel needs to be thought out and planned in advance, as part of your content strategy.
Going into your content planning and strategy sessions knowing what you need to nurture lead interest will help you create the right pieces. The right content helps you build a remarkable experience for each potential customer.