Nurturing leads tends to be an overlooked aspect of B2B marketing despite its effectiveness and relatively inexpensive implementation. Especially with long sales cycles and complex products, marketers and sales teams need to remain patient and persistent with those that are not quite ready to buy. Growing your business requires maintaining a healthy funnel of leads. Here we break down some of the key channels to use for nurturing leads and the different types of campaigns you can run.

Key Nurturing Channels:

Automated Email Workflows

There are many different types of lead nurturing campaigns, all of which help to guide prospects through the sales cycle. With the varying stages of the buyer’s journey requiring different types of content, having a platform with the ability to automate these types of campaigns is an invaluable tool to marketers. Email workflows are automated messages that go out in response to a particular marketing trigger or set period of time. These workflows create a drip effect for your sales funnel, enabling your marketing team to focus on content that will drive these prospects towards conversion.

Live Touch Teleprospecting Campaigns

Some view lead nurturing as an automated process consisting mostly of repeated email contact with potential customers. While marketing automation for lead nurturing is extremely valuable, an equally critical component is the live touch. Call-centric lead nurturing not only enhances the web-based approach, it also creates opportunities to forge relationships with prospects that go beyond the click-through. Teleprospecting campaigns help you to capture pain points, identify critical business intelligence, build long-term relationships and keep your database up to date.

Social Media Engagement

With social media becoming such a large part of the sales and marketing process, it’s important to learn techniques that will help you nurture and convert leads through different social platforms.  Engaging with your prospect’s content and connecting with them is the first step in social media lead nurturing. Developing real relationships through social media channels involves providing value and just being yourself. Treat your prospects for what they are, people.

Types Of Nurturing Workflow Campaigns:

Fulfillment

When a prospect has downloaded a piece of your content or responded to an offer, you’ll want to immediately place them into a lead nurturing campaign that will set expectations from your company. You’ll want to ensure that the content you follow up with aligns with the type of content they downloaded.

Engagement

Once you’ve developed a relationship with a prospect, it is important that you keep your company in the forefront of their search for a solution. Since some sales cycles can be lengthy, you’ll want to set up a workflow that will engage them regularly so that when it comes time for a buying decision, yours will be the company they turn to.

Re-Engagement

Every company has a database full of inactive leads. Just because a prospect has removed themselves from the sales cycle, it does not mean they are gone for good. These types of campaigns are designed to encourage the prospect to let you know they’re still looking for a solution.

Product Information

You can be sure that your potential customers are researching all types of solutions to their pain points. They may even be looking to outside sources to gather information about your solutions.  It’s important to make sure they are getting accurate information on your product or solution, and who better to get that information from than you?

Differentiators

Knowing your competitors and what separates you from them can be the difference between a prospect choosing your product or straying to a competitor. These campaigns are geared towards informing your prospect what makes your solution different, and better.

Expert

At this stage, you’ll want to share information with the prospect displaying why your company is the right choice for them. Sharing content that shows you are a thought leader in your industry will help to guide them towards the bottom of the funnel, reassuring them that your company is a trusted industry expert.

Promotional

These types of campaigns are designed to entice customers towards an immediate purchase through the use of package promotions or special pricing. These can be used as a means to show the value of your service, while at the same time providing the prospect with the feeling of a “good deal”.

On-boarding

When you are on-boarding a new client, there will be a large amount of communication between the two of you. Chances are, many of these communications are the same with each client.  Automating this process allows you to focus more on the personal touches that ensure a lasting relationship with your customer.

Up-sell

Existing clients are a prime source of additional revenue, and they need to be treated as such.  Once a customer has signed on with you, you’ll want to develop a campaign that promotes other services your company offers and outlines how they can supplement their current agreement.

Renewal

Repeat customers are what drives business and provides you with a consistent contribution towards your bottom line. When a campaign is nearing its end, you’ll want to provide them with information that entices them to renew. This can include a case study on their own project detailing the success you’ve had and how far they have come since signing on.