Lead Nurturing: a cycle of educational messages that you send to people who seem to be interested in the product, but not convinced enough to make a decision. We perceive it as a magic wand transforming ambivalent leads into loyal customers and reducing lead leakage. A well-designed program can convert 15-20% of people who otherwise wouldn’t buy from you.
Not every Lead Nurturing works like that. Most of them share these 6 common mistakes.
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1.You don’t have educational content
Lead Nurturing isn’ about sales. Iy’s not a watered-down or veiled sales message. Your aim here is to deliver useful knowledge.
Start with asking:
– what terms or data must the client learn to be able to make a decision?
– how will she see that your solution applies to her situation?
– how will she measure the performance?
– which need or challenge your product addresses?
These question must be asked at the beginning of developing a campaign. If a lead can’t relate your product to her personal problem, she won’t buy, because she has no reason to. Focus on user’s perspective.
2. Your content is too difficult
You address your educational campaign to laymen, so don’t start from advanced knowledge. You probably are the expert, eager to share her knowledge, and that’s great, but Lead Nurturing is not the best place to dispute nuances.
To put yourself in beginner’s shoes, research forums and social media groups to see what questions are asked most frequently. Reach out to your salespeople and customer support to learn what concerns customers most often have. And start with that.
3. Your educational cycle lacks cohesiveness
If your messages are chaotic and don’t build the knowledge gradually, they do no good. Take time to divide the knowledge into palatable chunk and make the information as easy to consume as possible.
Also make sure that messages are cohesive regarding graphic design, so users recognize them and associate new message with the previous one.
4. You push leads to sales too fast
Building a relationship takes time. Psychology of marketing says that it takes 5-12 interactions with customer to sell. So if your lead isn’t hot, take your time.
Only 2% of transactions are made by the first contact. But you have to win the other 98% with patience.
5. You’re too pushy
Even if you send innocent educational content, don’t overdo with frequency. Enough is enough, even with beneficial and useful content. Sending too much will irritate the recipient and she won’t have enough time to process the information because your flood her with more and more each day.
According to Marketing Sherpa, 84% of marketers reach out to leads once a week. The second group does it once a month. Find the best option for your audience. Lead Nurturing is mostly about the right pace.
6. You don’t build trust
An essential part of Lead Nurturing is building trust – you should manifest how trustworthy you are. If you fail to do it, the whole knowledge you share means nothing, because it won’t translate into sales.
Trust is built as a result of small gestures such as:
– delivering social proof with case studies or success stories
– sending the right amount of messages
– using lead’s name in the communication (in the subject and in the body of the message)
Lead Nurturing is one of the most frequently used Marketing Automation features. That’s why it’s so important to avoid these mistakes.
What else could hurt Lead Nurturing?