How can you increase your sales conversion rate through Lead Nurturing? Good question! Let's start with an example that has probably happened to all of us: You shop online, fill your shopping cart, and then you don't submit the order after all. But why does this happen? There are probably many different reasons. Sometimes you forget to complete your order because you were distracted or your priorities suddenly changed. Or maybe you did not have enough information about the product. However, often you simply are not sure if you really need the product.
What is Lead Nurturing?
When we use the term 'Lead Nurturing', we mean that we 'educate' or 'nourish' a lead. It refers to providing information at specific moments that coincide with the sales process. The objective is to make the potential customer remember a product, provide him/her with more information and encourage the product's consumption.
Leads go through different phases: The first phase begins when contact is established, for example, through a newsletter. These leads, which usually do not yet show any real interest in buying, are called MQL leads (Marketing Qualified Leads) and classified as 'cold'. At this point, the marketing department has practically confirmed the leads' presence and should now start sending information via email to stimulate buying interest. Once the leads become more interested, they then become SAL leads (Sales Accepted Lead) or, as they are also called, 'warm' leads. From this point on, it is necessary to provide the prospect with much more engaging material, such as e-books or highlighted product information. If real buying interest is shown, the leads move on to the final, decisive phase and become 'hot' SQL leads (Sales Qualified Lead). From now on, the sales process can begin.
Certainly, each company defines these phases and the so-called Lead Scoring ('cold, warm, hot') in its own way. However, the basic idea remains the same. Through targeted marketing emails, leads are followed up from the moment they get in touch until the moment they are actually interested in buying. The time required for this is kept to a minimum because the emails can be sent automatically (Marketing Automation).
And why is this so important?
You not only provide potential customers with information, but you also show them the advantages, benefits and, above all, the added value of your product or the company itself. Many potential customers need support during the buying process because, depending on the product, there may be a longer evaluation and decision step. Imagine if all salespeople had to support the leads from the beginning and, to start with, manage to arouse interest, identify their problems, explain the benefits, etc...: Due to a simple question of lack of time, this becomes practically impossible. In this case, it is crucial to provide the potential customer with concrete and specific information and, of course, to do it at the right time. According to a study by Forrester, companies with an effective lead nurturing system generate 50% more leads ready to buy and save 33% in costs. Isn't this a convincing argument?
What does it take for lead nurturing to be effective?
Of course, interesting content and, ideally, a marketing automation tool. However, the contact data quality should not be forgotten. Your CRM system probably already has a lot of contact data and new ones are added every day, nevertheless, it is important to check their accuracy. Incomplete or incorrect contact data causes either a significant bounce rate or your emails become impersonal because you cannot address the potential customer by name. Would you also like to deploy lead nurturing and need help to clean or update your contact data? With snapADDY DataQuality this is easy. Test it now 14 days for free!
So how does this increase your sales conversion rate?
To summarize, leads that have a real buying interest can be qualified more quickly and get the right sales support, which in turn results in an increased sales rate. This makes the salespeople's job much easier, increases the conversion rate and, in the end, of course, the ROI (Return on Investment).
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