Every organization’s sales team spends hours debating how to increase sales volume. Converting potential buyers into paying customers takes many forms. But lead nurturing is an important aspect that is often overlooked.
What is lead nurturing?
Lead nurturing is outreach to keep warm leads. Lead nurturing converts non-paying customers into paying customers in the future. 15% of B2B companies lack lead nurturing systems. The rest have lead nurturing systems but fail to deliver due to common errors. Let’s look at some common lead nurturing errors and how to avoid them.
Common lead nurturing mistakes and their solutions:
- Too quick to quit
- Slow reaction
- Inedible content
- Focusing on only one-channel
- Lead nurturing isn’t drip marketing
- Not conducting Internal reviews
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Too quick to quit
If no progress is made within a few days, sales reps tend to remove contacts from lead nurturing lists. But lead nurturing takes time. Track each lead’s customer journey to see how long lead nurturing campaigns should be.
So that sales reps always know where a lead is in their customer journey, email provider provides technographics and firmographics for lead scoring. You can then plan your outreach to convert as many leads as possible into buyers.
Customers in the early stages of product research may take months to convert. Conversely, early-stage customers can be converted with a single outreach message.
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Slow reaction
The longer a company waits after a customer expresses interest, the less effective its outreach campaigns become. According to a Harvard Business Review study, sales reps who wait 10 minutes before reaching out to a lead reduce their chances of conversion by 400 percent. This means sales reps need accurate lead contact data at all times.
Email provider provides sales reps with human-verified accurate direct dial numbers so they can connect with customers quickly. Customers of email providers saw their call-to-connect ratio jump from 9-10% to 15-20%, almost 100%.
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Inedible content
Customer research online before buying results in multiple marketing messages from various sources. Brands must therefore create engaging content to keep the lead’s attention. Researching ideal customers and interested leads can help create the most engaging marketing content.
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Focusing on only one-channel
Lead nurturing is difficult because sales and marketing teams must persuade prospects that their product/service is superior. This is not an easy task, and focusing on only one communication channel will not suffice. Every lead has different pre-purchase research preferences. Omnichannel targeting ensures all leads receive outreach messages and are more likely to convert.
According to research, nearly half of companies will lack unified customer engagement channels this year. There will be disjoint in customer service. In order to gain a competitive advantage in sales volume, now is the time to plan your omnichannel outreach campaigns.
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Lead nurturing isn’t drip marketing
Marketers frequently mix up drip marketing and lead nurturing. While drip marketing is a good way to connect with customers, it doesn’t work well for converting leads.
Drip marketing involves sending prospects pre-scheduled emails with product info and offers. In order to start a sales conversation, a lead nurturing campaign must be more nuanced. Incentives and information alone cannot lead nurturing. It must first understand the lead’s issues and then explain how the products/services can help.
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Not conducting Internal reviews
The goal of any sales or marketing team is to maximize campaign ROI. This is only possible if the organization avoids complacency and continuously works to improve and maintain its lead nurturing efficiency.
Internal data analysis is required to determine the best times to make sales calls, the best content to send to email list subscribers, the best outreach channels, etc. This will allow businesses to create the most effective sales strategy for their customers and sales team.