Whenever you make a new business contact, the only way to know if there’s a deal on the table is to keep following up with your prospect. In a world of “following up” and “checking in” emails, here are 3 ways to personally and strategically nurture your leads.
1. Keep tabs on the relevant business and industry news (industry research)
Emailing to say “hey, just checking in” likely won’t cut through the noise in a crowded inbox. Leverage tools like Google Alerts and LinkedIn Sales Navigator to keep tabs on your prospect’s company news. If a saved Account or Lead is mentioned in the news, the new LinkedIn Sales Navigator homepage will highlight this:
For Google Alerts, name your search terms, and Google will send updates to your inbox when newly published stories match your search terms. If your prospective account is called “General Store” and it’s located in “Anytown”, you could set up a Google Alert for “General Store Anytown”, and it will email you updates when new articles or press releases mention General Store in Anytown.
Perhaps after a successful initial call, a follow-up meeting occurs and your prospect mentions that their significant other works heavily within the school system and coaches a high school lacrosse league in Anytown. You can also utilize this as a Google Alert and connect with the Prospect to perhaps mention on a personal level that they saw in the news that the team won state finals. There are many approaches to this method and reconnecting/nurturing leads for your business.
Industry and local news updates give you a reason to reach out to your prospect…instead of “hi, wanted to follow-up on XYZ”, you can now lead with a relevant update such as “Hey, I saw that General Store is planning to expand in Anytown. Congrats on your business growth! Does your team have the right Applicant Tracking System to support your new hiring efforts?”
2. Share industry-related information and business updates (content marketing)
Maybe you had a lukewarm response to an email that said “let’s talk in the new year”…well, in the meantime, you can build your brand awareness and position yourself as their provider of choice with content marketing and relevant company-branded emails.
Look into your CRM to see what type of email marketing capabilities are available –HubSpot offers free email marketing templates for the starter service, and Salesforce offers “Salesforce Marketing Cloud” that integrates with your Salesforce.com prospect information.
With a marketing platform synced to your CRM, start tagging prospects or adding them to a ‘business lead nurturing list’ to receive general business updates and content related to their industry. A couple of specific ideas for a general prospect list:
- Resources for their industry
Are you hosting an upcoming webinar that hosts local leaders in the marketing industry? Your prospect may be interested in attending this event for their own professional development. You may want to share with the prospect a relevant article that discusses their industry and/or need. For example: Spam traps? This might help your prospect’s deliverability in their own B2B outreach, as it relates to the marketing industry.
- Holiday updates and promotions.
Does your company president write an annual holiday letter for clients? By sharing this with your prospect you can show him or her the depth of service your company provides for its clients. Is your company offering a free trial for your new software? It’s worth letting your prospect know, in case he or she didn’t know about this new service.
Good marketing reaches the right people with the right message at the right time.
Combine your personal sales outreach with marketing to drive inbound interest and nurture existing leads.
3. Use cookies to reward those who visit your site, app store, Facebook or Instagram Page (retargeting)
Retargeting ads are a fantastic way to acquire new leads but are especially a great lead nurturing tactic. They are a way to advertise to people who visited your website, app, store, Instagram or Facebook Page. And on a broad scale, you have the option of where you want these ads to be placed.
For example, say you worked as a Sales Representative for Wrike, a project management platform. You spoke with a prospect, say “Bob”, about your services after they liked your Facebook page and filled out an inquiry form on your website. Bob says he’s interested, however he’d like to speak to his team on the matter and see if everyone is in agreement that Wrike would be the best decision for their communication software.
In order to nurture that relationship with Bob, you may have a set reminder to reach out to him again in a week, which is great, but you want to reach out to this lead in another way, all while not coming off too strong…
By using an effective Facebook retargeting ad, you allow for Bob to visit your site once more before he calls you back to tell you he’d like to proceed with the purchase of Wrike.
Thus, retargeting ads keep a brand top of mind for potential customers to buy your product and/or services.
You can use keyword research and audience definition to ensure that you get the right people to see your ads. If you are thinking of going this route, here are some brief, yet helpful tips to ensure business success: Find the right ad format, leverage several targeting options, and ensure coding is set up properly! By doing this you can easily turn those prospects into clients and/or customers for your business.
In conclusion, there are several ways to nurture a business relationship after you’ve made a connection. Whether you use email nurturing, content marketing, retargeting ads, or utilize all three tactics – these are great ways to not only nurture a lead but carry them through your pipeline.
If you’re looking for help managing and taking care of your business and prospects in your pipeline, The Endurance Group can help. Contact us now to see how our lead nurturing strategies can advance your sales goals.