According to market data, on average only 5-10% of leads are ready to make a purchase at the moment of first contact with a brand. So what about the other 90%? Those customers need to be properly "nurtured". Meet Lead Nurturing - the strategy that turns interest in a product into a real purchase!
What is Lead Nurturing?
Lead nurturing is a process built on the relationship with the customer. It is not only about building that relationship, but above all about sustaining the bond at every stage of the buying journey.
Acquiring a lead is only the beginning of the sales process. For a prospect to make a purchase decision, they will need a kind of "activation". Effective lead nurturing means delivering valuable content to the customer exactly when they need it. This builds a professional image for your brand and earns trust, which means that when the user is ready to make a purchase decision, it is your offer that will be their first choice.
Why do you need Lead Nurturing?
Acquiring leads is often hard work into which you pour sizeable advertising budgets. By not nurturing the contacts you have won, you let their potential go to waste. Lead nurturing put into practice means:
- Higher effectiveness: Companies that use lead nurturing generate more leads that are ready for sales, at lower cost (by as much as ⅓).
- Building trust: The whole strategy of caring for the customer builds your image over the long term. A customer who trusts you is not only more inclined to buy, but also more likely to recommend your product or come back for another order.
- Bigger baskets: Good shopping experiences increase customer comfort and satisfaction with the choice they made in your store, which translates directly into a higher basket value.
Lead nurturing is a process you can now easily automate, providing "care" for thousands of customers at once. It is a highly effective solution that benefits your store without requiring additional human effort.
Learn more: Designing a customer journey map - using automation and personalization in Customer Journey Mapping
What does the modern customer nurturing process look like?
For lead nurturing to be truly effective, it must not resemble spam. Online customers are sensitive to pushy tactics and can quickly become discouraged - both from making a purchase and from the brand itself. Well-designed lead nurturing has to include:
1. Education instead of selling
It is not about not selling, but about guiding an undecided customer toward a decision in small steps. Nobody likes to be forced into something. Instead of writing "buy our product", write "see how to solve your problem". Build the need by offering real value.
2. Personalization
In online sales, personalization is already a must. The customer expects the offer to be tailored to their needs. Harness the power of data - with AI-powered personalization you give every recipient exactly what they are looking for in your offer, without needless frustration or wasted time.
3. The right moment (Timing)
In a lead nurturing strategy, timing matters. Activities that sustain contact must be subtle. "Overprotectiveness" and flooding the inbox with messages can lead to unsubscribes and the loss of a lead. Use Lead Scoring - scoring systems, often already integrated with your CRM, that help determine a customer's level of engagement and match the right activities to that level.
Read also: Behavioral segmentation in marketing automation - how does it work in practice?
Lead nurturing techniques - how to implement them?
Implementing a lead nurturing strategy is a multi-stage process that can involve various tools and techniques. It does not have to be complicated, though, especially if you draw on the help of the Persooa team. We will help you set up automations so that the whole process runs like a well-oiled machine.
Here are the most effective lead nurturing methods that we can implement in your business too:
- Personalizedemailing: This is the foundation of staying in contact with the customer. For emails to deliver results and draw customers to your offer, customer segmentation and content personalization are essential. Sending generic messages to all contacts is hardly effective - the entire email sequence should be tailored to the behavior of each specific user. You will learn more in our article: How to use personalization in mailings to increase sales?
- Dynamic content on the site: Thanks to modern personalization tools, your website can "recognize" a returning user and display a tailored message: a welcome, an extra discount as an incentive, or a feed of products they viewed last time.
- Ad retargeting: If a prospect visited your blog or abandoned their cart, it is worth reminding them of your existence. Precise retargeting lets you reach such people with an additional, valuable message (e.g. educational content). Thanks to automating campaigns like these, you can easily sustain the customer's purchase intent and effectively build brand recognition.
- Webinars and an educational blog: Additional interactive content placed on your site builds the brand's image as an expert. This technique closes the distance fastest, builds authority and also lets you acquire new, "fresh" customers.
You may also be interested in our article: Why do customers of your online store abandon their carts without completing a purchase?
Lead nurturing in e-commerce - is it worth it?
In the e-commerce industry, where competition is enormous and the cost of acquiring traffic keeps rising, lead nurturing is an extremely effective tool. It is a strategy that lets you fully leverage the potential of everyone who has already visited your site but did not decide to buy on first contact. It lets you "rescue" abandoned carts and turn one-time or would-be buyers into loyal, returning customers.
Lead nurturing is an investment that pays off in the form of higher conversion and greater order value. Instead of burning through your budget on constantly acquiring new contacts, take care of the ones you already have in your base.
If you want your lead nurturing strategy to be not only effective but also automated, then rely on the experience of specialists. Our Persooa team are experts who will help you select personalization and automation mechanisms tailored to your business. With our help, you will turn anonymous visitors into loyal customers - take care of your leads at every stage and boost your results with Persooa.