If you work in marketing or sales for a B2B company, lead nurturing is undoubtedly an important part of your day-to-day life. Depending on how you handle it, lead nurturing can be a time-consuming practice with little reward, or an efficient and highly effective way to gain new customers.
Lead nurturing mistakes are easy to make, but fortunately, they are also easy to correct. Avoid the three lead nurturing mistakes we see most frequently, and you can be sure that your lead nurturing program will be worth your time and effort.
Lead nurturing mistake #1: Relying on a one-size-fits-all approach
With the number of high-quality lead nurturing tools that exist today, there is no excuse for relying on the same emails or marketing messages for every lead that comes across your desk. Before you begin your lead nurturing program, be sure to segment your target into several groups based on common needs. For example, you can segment by industry vertical, budget, or decision-making phase and ask your leads to share this information in order to get something of value (like a white paper or case study) from your company. Then, create separate lead nurturing tracks for each segment and tailor your marketing messages to their unique needs. Programs like Genius and Eloqua make it easy to set up numerous email nurturing tracks that automatically deploy these messages to your leads based on the categories you set up.
Lead Nurturing Mistake #2: Bad subject lines
Most B2B lead nurturing centers on email, so learning to write a good subject line is essential. Make sure your subject line addresses something your target cares about and piques their curiosity without being too clever or sales-y. A/B testing will help you determine which subject lines work best. For more subject line tips, see this great article from Marketo.
Lead Nurturing Mistake #3: Lack of strategy
Failing to think through the strategy behind your lead nurturing campaign is the most common and the most detrimental lead nurturing mistake of all. Before you begin any lead nurturing effort, create a set of goals and desired outcomes, and then plan your approach accordingly.
Want to learn more about lead nurturing? Read some of our recent posts on the topic or contact us.
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