Lead Nurturing Strategy
If you pay any attention to how much you’re paying to generate a new sales lead, you’ll never want to let another lead fall through the cracks.
But that’s exactly what happens with almost every lead program.
Leads are sent over to sales, the sales team cherry picks the best leads and lets the rest of them go until they have more time. Which, of course, they never have.
Same strategy, different tools
The concept of lead nurturing is nothing new. Every sales organization has always had some type of plan to stay in touch with prospects – whether by mail, by phone or with personal visits.
But today with the Internet and email, we have many more tools to help us stay in touch and engage our prospects. And much of it can be put on autopilot.
Bring content, not just sales promotion
As you generate new leads, it’s okay to send them your sales promotion materials, but try to mix in some educational content as well.
Offer webinars and white papers with useful, relevant information that your prospects can use – even if they don’t hire you. It will pay off down the road.
Email newsletters
All newsletters are good nurturing tools in that they keep your name in front of prospects and can position you and your organization as experts on various topics.
But email newsletters are easier, faster and cheaper to produce than printed newsletters.
Sequenced email
Instead of sending prospects one or two long emails, we think it’s more effective to spread the message out over several weeks or months with small, more focused messages.
Email “drip” campaigns
Email “drip” campaigns are automated email campaigns. You create all your emails in advance, then set up your emails to arrive on a specific schedule over an extended period of time.
So you don’t have to worry about forgetting an email or missing a deadline.
Lead qualifying surveys
When new prospects come into your system, some effort needs to be made to “score” or to qualify the lead for its likelihood to become a customer.
This can be done through a short survey – by phone, by mail or online. It’s best to make it an automated part of your sales process.
Direct mail postcards
While email is the tool of choice for lead nurturing, direct mail postcards can also be effective.
Create a single postcard and send it out every month or every quarter. Or create a series of postcards with different messages or themes.
To learn more …
Call Bob McCarthy at 508-473-8643.