Nurturing leads is an important part of the sales process. But it can also be challenging. Fail to maintain enough contact, and you could lose a potential customer. But if you’re too aggressive about pursuing these leads, you may drive them away.

So, how can you maintain this delicate balancing act, nurture leads effectively, and turn them into customers? Find out now in this blog from Incept as we discuss the basics of cold leads, and discuss six simple and effective steps you can take to turn cold leads into paying, loyal customers.

What Is A Sales Lead? Understanding The Basics

So, what is a lead? Leads are people who have shown some interest in your products or services, but haven’t yet pulled the trigger and become paying customers. They're at the very beginning of the “sales funnel.” For example, a lead may have visited your website, clicked an ad on Google, followed you on social media, attended an event you hosted, or even joined your email list – but they have not yet taken any further action toward making a purchase.

“Nurturing” a lead, then, means that you’re taking steps to build a relationship with this potential customer over time. The goal of nurturing a lead is to keep your company at the top of their mind when they're ready to make a purchase, and turn them into a valuable, paying customer.

6 Steps You Can Take To Nurture Leads Effectively

Nurturing sales leads means building a relationship with them over time, so that when they are ready to make a purchase, your company is top-of-mind. Here are some best practices for nurturing your leads:

1. Segment your leads – Not all leads are the same, and they shouldn’t be treated the same way. For example, someone who attends an event you host in person is more likely more interested in making a purchase than someone who simply clicks on an online ad – so you should segment and prioritize your leads by the likelihood of them actually buying your products or services.
   In the same way, you also should do your best to gather demographic information to segment your leads. Age, location, gender, industry, job title, and other information can help you tailor your messaging to their specific interests, needs, and pain points.

2. Develop a content strategy – Having an overarching content strategy is essential for nurturing leads. One of the best ways to nurture cold leads is to provide informative, educational, and useful content that shows how your products or services address their pain points. Using content like social media posts, blogs, whitepapers, webinars, and case studies can provide real benefits, and help you turn leads into customers. 

3. Use email marketing – Email marketing is a very effective and mostly hands-off way to nurture cold leads. You can use modern marketing automation platforms to create a series of emails that are sent to cold leads over time, with personalized and relevant information and offers.
   For example, if you run a landscaping company and a customer signs up for your emails and is interested in lawn mowing, you could send them a blog post about the importance of regular lawn mowing, and even a coupon or some other kind of special promotion to get them to sign up for your services or learn more.

4. Provide value first – First and foremost, anything you send to a cold lead should provide value, without you asking for anything in return. For example, you could offer a free consultation with your company, a sample of your products or services, or a free trial, depending on your line of business. Offering a freebie or something of value to a cold lead can encourage them to take the next step, dive more deeply into what you have to offer, and convert into a paying customer.

5. Stay top-of-mind – It’s hard to know when a lead will actually turn into a paying customer. So it’s important to keep your company “top-of-mind” as much as possible. This way, when a cold lead is ready to make a purchase, your company is the first one they’ll think of – rather than a competitor.
   For example, you can send emails, invite leads to events, or send personalized messages on their birthday. Or, using modern web advertising tools, you could serve ads for your products or services on social media and web browsers, which ensures they’ll be reminded of your company regularly.

6. Measure, optimize, and refine – Once you’ve implemented the above tips, it’s time to refine your approach. Most modern marketing platforms allow you to use advanced analytics to track page views, ad clicks, email engagement, and other ways that cold leads engage with your content.
   By tracking these metrics, you can gain insights into the effectiveness of your marketing approach. This allows you to A/B test, make changes to your content marketing efforts, and continue to improve your cold lead nurturing process in the future.

 Follow These 6 Steps For Lead Nurturing Success!

Nurturing leads isn’t always easy, but it’s a very important part of the sales process. And by segmenting your leads, developing a comprehensive content strategy, using email marketing, providing value-focused content, keeping your company at the forefront of a lead’s mind, and using analytics to measure and optimize your efforts, you can dramatically improve your cold lead nurturing efforts. This lets you bring in more cold leads, build real relationships with them, and turn them into loyal, paying customers over time.

If you need more tips, tricks, and guides on how to bring in more customers, the Incept blog is a great resource. We’ve got tons of other useful blog posts just like this one, which can help you bring in more leads, improve your customer base, and boost profits.

We’re also here to help with outsourced marketing and CX services. If you and your team are having a hard time staying on top of your leads and converting them into customers, our marketing experts are standing by to assist you. Get in touch today, and see how we can help your business thrive.