How to Nurture Leads in a Digital World

Nurturing leads is a task that has been made both easier and more complex by the new age. Digitalization has unearthed several helpful tools, but it has also managed to complicate the processes by requiring a myriad of prerequisites.

Well, the main thing hasn’t changed regardless of trends. Understanding the audience is the very first step to undertake when nurturing leads.

After all, no matter the funnel, businesses need to provide the right information at the right time.

Understanding Audiences Reinvented

There are two key aspects to consider when defining your audience:

1.     Identifying buyer personas
2.     Identifying touchpoints and pain points of the buying process

Buyer personas are highly detailed representations of your ideal customers. They go beyond demographics and include motivations, behaviors, and typical challenges. “Detailed” is the keyword here.

Namely, to be able to create perfect representations of your customers, you’ll need to perform throughout research and analysis.

Here is a recommended checklist:

•         Gather data about existing customers; include characteristics, preferences, and purchase history. Use surveys, social media analytics, website analytics, and customer interviews.
•         Segment your audience. Group your customers into distinct segments based on their shared characteristics and behaviors. E.g., you may create different personas for B2B and B2C customers.
•         Develop detailed profiles for each persona. Assign names, ages, job titles, and any additional information they feel comfortable sharing. Include pain points, objections, preferred communication channels, etc.
•         Put yourself into personas’ shoes to tailor personalized messaging. Be empathetic.
•         Keep in mind that buyer personas evolve over time, so make sure to update your personas regularly.

Customer journey mapping is best performed by identifying touchpoints and pain points of the buyer personas. In other words, you need to understand how customers interact with your brand from the first moment they discover it to the point of making a purchase decision.

Here is a recommended checklist for this step:

•         Create a visual representation of each stage a customer goes through when considering whether to buy your product. Example stages include awareness, consideration, evaluation, and purchase.
•         Identify different touchpoints that a customer has with your brand at each stage. Example touchpoints include website visits, social media engagement, email interactions, and customer support interactions.  
•         At each stage, consider the pain points and needs customers may be facing.
•         Tailor your content to address these specific needs and pain points at each stage.
•         Understand that the customer journey often spans multiple channels and devices. Ensure a consistent customer experience across the touchpoints.
•         Keep gathering feedback to refine your customer journey maps. Adapt your strategies based on the actual experiences of your audience.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a critical step of lead management. The process involves creating and distributing relevant and consistent content capable of attracting, engaging, and converting your audience.

There are many approaches to consider here, depending on the industry, company vision, and feedback. We’ll hereby mention only some best-case content types.

Educational Content

Educational content serves to inform and educate your audience and may come in different types and sizes.

Typical content types include:

•         Blog posts
•         How-to guides
•         Tutorials
•         Ebooks
•         Whitepapers
•         Webinars
•         Online courses

Personalized Content

Personalization is a critical step of content marketing. Tailoring your content to the audience’s specific interests and needs is a complex process but invaluable nevertheless.

 To ensure that your content resonates with your customers on a deeper level, you may consider the following approaches:

•         Customer segmentation
•         Creating dynamic content (display different content to different visitors based on their previous interactions with your website)
•         Deploy email personalization and customize product recommendations based on customers’ purchase history

Storytelling

Storytelling is an advanced technique that “humanizes” your content. Its main purpose is to connect your audience with your brand’s narrative.

Storytelling content types may include:

•         Brand stories
•         Customer success stories
•         Educational narratives (e.g., a story of a customer’s journey from a problem to a solution using your product or service)

Content Analytics

Measuring the performance of your content is crucial for nurturing lads.

Typically, this step includes:

•         Website analytics (page views, bounce rates, and conversion rates)
•         Email metrics (email open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates)
•         Social media metrics (likes, shares, and comments)
•         Conversion tracking (monitoring how specific content pieces contribute to lead conversions and sales)

Content marketing is an ongoing process, which is to say it requires continual effort and fine-tuning. Basically, content needs to remain personalized and engaging over time.

Drip Campaigns

Drip campaigns are a series of automated emails sent to leads at predefined intervals. Optimally, the campaigns should serve to engage, educate, and guide leads through their decision-making process.

Typical drip campaign types include:

•         Welcome series (when someone subscribes to your list, send a welcome message)
•         Nurturing sequences (e.g., informational content for early-stage leads and product-focused content for advanced leads)
•         Cart abandonment emails (remind your customer to finish their purchase)

Lead Nurturing Tools and Technologies

Lead nurturing relies on the use of various technologies to automate processes, gather data, and provide a personalized experience for customers.

Typical technologies include marketing automation platforms (e.g., Pardot and HubSpot), email marketing software (e.g., Mailchimp and Constant Contact), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems (e.g., Salesforce and Zoho CRM), Content Management Systems (e.g., WordPress and Drupal), landing pages builders (e.g., Instapage and Unbounce), analytics and tracking tools (e.g., Google Analytics and Hotjar), and social media management tools (e.g., Hootsuite and Sprout Social).

For some added value, you may consider hosting webinars and virtual events. Whatever keeps the audience engaged is certain to help you nurture leads in the long run.