Important Tips for B2B Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is one of the primary activities in B2B lead generation. Here are some important tips on lead nurturing that need to be addressed for marketers to succeed in it.
Lead scores are very useful in determining whom to pursue. It is the only link to online behavior that drives choices of follow-up actions (e.g., which email template to use or how much of personalization is required). B2B marketers require a good scoring process that has sophisticated algorithms based on explicit and implicit information about prospects. However, the rules of scoring needs to be constantly looked into and reworked based on lead profiles a marketer wants to focus.
Marketing department facilitates sales conversations through lead nurturing programs. Although sales people have the actual conversations with prospects, the pathway is made clear by marketing department via sending personalized email messages and sharing relevant content.
It is important to think holistically about nurturing and the customer viewpoint. Although we agree that “hot” leads need prompt action to close a sale, more often than not the nurturing continues in the sales organization. Therefore, it is important not to let arbitrary boundaries or semantics cloud the need to support a prospect seamlessly through his/her purchase cycle. Even existing customers need to be nurtured on a regular basis.
Lead nurturing exercise needs to be tweaked based on responses obtained from prospects and customers. Since the environment changes constantly, yesterday’s success may not work equally well tomorrow. Therefore, it is important to monitor constantly and optimize as required. Marketing automation solutions help in tracking lead nurturing process and sending automated emails. By using these solutions, marketers need not worry about company size of the prospect. In fact, nurturing is the best way to scale when there are few resources.
Despite the use of automated solutions and the fact that it enables huge productivity gains and provides the ability to scale, measure and optimize nurturing tracks, lead nurturing needs constant monitoring. More importantly, content shared needs to be fresh and relevant.
All B2B marketers need to remember these basic lead nurturing guidelines while marketing their product or service. Customers are rarely ready to purchase during the first contact. Lead nurturing and content marketing are a powerful combination that helps a prospect chart a path down a purchase cycle. It also helps add credibility to the marketer and increases brand loyalty at a later stage.
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