Digital marketing continues to evolve. Omni-channel and multi-channel marketing strategies are a must to reach today’s savvy buyers. Potential customers want you to make it easy for them to say “YES” to working with you.
It’s important for you to customize the buyer’s journey according to where each of your leads is in your funnel. This will give you the best shot at reaching them right where they’re at in order to intelligently speak to their needs. The easier you make it for them to say “YES” to working with you, the more leads you will convert. Most of the people I’ve worked with over the past 14+ years have used organic lead-generating tactics which have required spending a lot of time understanding who their ideal client is and what makes them tick. Develop a compelling nurturing campaign to help you serve your potential clients at a higher level by speaking their language and addressing their unique pain points. If you don’t yet have a nurturing strategy, these 7 simple steps can get you started:
Tip #1 - Define Your Avatar
Create a highly defined avatar for your content. If you aren’t clear about who you’re talking to, your messaging will fall flat.
Tip #2 - Add Value
Attract your leads with value-added content. Use emails, SEO, and social media to share your engaging and entertaining content that is relevant to your ideal customer.
"Content is the fuel for your lead generation efforts." – Dayna Rothman
Tip #3 - Show Appreciation
Follow up with people who engage in your content or visit your site looking for information. If they provided contact info, they are interested, reach out and make them feel appreciated. Don't forget to add them to your email list.
Tip #4 - Rate Interest Levels
Score your leads according to interest level. This method can be simple but it’s a valuable tool for sorting the leads in your funnel and managing your nurturing content based on interest categories.
Tip #5 - Pay Attention to Buying Triggers
Create targeted content for each category you set up. Each group will have a specific set of triggers to get them to the finish line. The more personalized your message is the higher your conversion rates will be.
Tip #6 - Discover What Makes Them Tick
Collect more data by asking for it. Many entrepreneurs forget to ask. Provide a value-rich FREEBIE in exchange for information shared on a survey form. This data will help you gain more insights into buying decisions and triggers.
Tip #7 - Be Omni-Present
Use multiple channels to engage with your potential customers. It can take 12+ marketing touches for an online lead to become a paying customer. This can be accomplished through email, social media, paid ads, website content, and social selling to build relationships and add value.
If you’re not scoring your leads and using a CRM to track your conversations and engagement, I encourage you to start. Having a detailed account of your interactions will help your marketing and sales team tailor their conversations to increase conversion rates. An easy way to set up a scoring system might include:
Deciding what parameters are important to work with you
Using demographics to create categories
Create a point system
Set up a form to keep and monitor the data
You want to group potential buyers together based on common characteristics like business size, annual revenue, or industry. Based on this information you can customize your messaging to meet their particular needs. Really think through your avatar's data points. What “must” a potential lead have in order to work with you, not just what you would “like” for them to have. The more discerning you are at this stage the better your conversion rates will be. The closer the lead is to meeting these criteria, the higher the score. For example:
A “must” might include:
A coach, consultant, or service provider
Uses paid ads as part of their marketing strategy
Has a budget of $500+ for consistent ad spend
Has their message and offer nailed down
A “would like” like might include:
Uses the Live Launch Method
Has sold their high ticket offer
Has data on their ideal client
Wants to fast track their growth
Note that the would-like list doesn’t exclude them from working with you, but the people who meet the must criteria will definitely hold a higher priority on your list to nurture because they fully meet your predetermined criteria.
Take a close look at buying behaviors. People with a higher propensity to buy should be a priority in your funnel. People who are willing to fill out a survey have a higher interest level than someone who just clicked a link to get a freebie.
Once you have this process in place, you can take a look at your messaging and put together a nurturing plan to keep your leads moving through your funnel. If you’re looking for a good lead nurturing email sequence, consider the following flow:
Email 1: Send a thank-you email.
Email 2: Send more value that matches with your lead’s interest
Email 3: Introduce yourself, your business, and your team.
Email 4: More value that can help your subscribers.
Email 5: Present your product and why it would be useful for them. It’s important to have a waiting period between each email so you’re not spamming them. This is easy to set up in your email servicing company. If you’re looking for an email sequence to follow up from a lead magnet opt-in, you might try this type of flow: Email 1: Lead magnet email
Email 2: Tips about sales
Email 3: How to overcome sales obstacles
Email 4: About us
Email 5: Sales partnership case study
Email 6: Book a sales consultation with our experts
Email 7: Re-engagement email (are you still interested?) In order to convert, you must first be able to make your leads feel seen, heard, and understood. They need to understand how you can solve their most pressing problem by:
Helping them learn enough about you
Building trust and relationship
Establishing yourself as an expert
Offering impeccable value
Engaging with them
Be mindful about who you are including and excluding with your marketing strategy.
Be sensitive to how often you email your leads. Depending on where they are in your funnel. If you bombard them with too many emails, they may opt out and you’ll lose a potential client. Take note of your email stats and see how many emails are being read, what your click-through rate is, and, of course, your opt-outs. Opt-outs aren’t necessarily a bad thing. They are simply a way of non-ideal clients self-selecting. The cleaner your email list, the better your stats will be. Remember, you’re not going to be a perfect fit for everyone, so don’t take opt-outs personally. I think you would agree, lead generation is one of the most time-intensive parts of building an online business. So, it’s important to take the time you need to nurture and develop those relationships so you’re getting a good ROI on your investment.