Lead nurturing gets a lot of attention. Wondering why? Jon Miller, co-founder of Marketo, defines lead nurturing as this:
“…the art of maintaining permission to ‘keep in touch’ with potential customers as they educate themselves, with the goal of being top of mind when they are ready to move into a buying phase.”
Notice that key point – as customers educate themselves. It’s a marketers job to nurture that process and to be the first company that pops into their minds when they become active buyers. As you know, the self-directed buyer relies less on sales professionals than ever before.
Leads are busy. They have a lot of decisions to make in a little bit of time. Nurturing them in quick, digestible ways is the most effective way to maintain a compelling conversation. Though it’s tempting to provide comprehensive touchpoints, it’s better to leave leads wanting more. If your strategy is smart and personalized, you’ll be able to do this without sacrificing anything that’s critical.
As we discussed last month, it’s imperative that you create content for each stage of the funnel. Leads will be intrigued to hear exactly what they need at exactly the right time and more importantly, start looking to you for more. Having content ready to go, paired with sound lead scoring practices, is one of the most useful lead nurturing strategies available.
When your content is specifically tailored to your leads, you can communicate with them more frequently. Emails can be brief but useful, directing prospects to content that aligns itself with their point in the process.
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