When it comes to marketing for your business, it’s all about lead generation and lead nurturing. Your ultimate marketing aim, after all, is to generate leads that are sales-qualified, for your sales team to close.
However, tell me if this situation sounds familiar.
You acquire a large list of leads, but find that most of them are unqualified or not ready to buy. Some of these leads are gathering information or comparing brands for the future. Both groups have little intention to buy.
Following up on these groups is either unnecessary or wasted time for your sales team as no (or little) sales come from those leads.
If this sounds familiar, then let us introduce you to lead nurturing using Inbound Marketing.
Inbound Marketing is all about Content Marketing, and that includes knowing how to use different types of content to drive leads down the marketing funnel. For instance, look at the Inbound Methodology below:
Source: HubSpot
At each point in the process, there’s content, but the format differs; from easily-consumable blog posts, to asset downloads through forms and landing pages, to personalized emails. Content formats are specifically chosen to help you gather more in-depth information from your leads to move them down the marketing funnel
For example, anyone can download an eBook discussing the merits of the iPhone, but who would actually download a fact sheet about its specifications, or a detailed price comparison between the iPhone and an Android Phone?
All three of the aforementioned assets are content pieces, but they tell you very different things about the lead:
The eBook downloader would be less sales-qualified than the Fact Sheet downloader, who would be less sales-qualified than the Price Comparison downloader. You can then ask your sales team to contact the one who’s telling you (with their behaviour); “I’m about to make a purchase!”
The Buyer's Journey (Source: HubSpot)
To make this easier, you can set up an automated email workflow to nurture these top-of-the-funnel leads.
People who have downloaded the eBook get entered into a series of automated emails which invites them to download the fact sheet. Downloading the fact sheet signifies a significantly higher level of interest in your product. You can then let them continue down the funnel to download the price comparison sheet.
This process enables you to filter out the leads who unsubscribe or stop engaging with your content. More sales-ready leads are left to engage and this ensures your sales team’s calls are more effective.
So, plan your content carefully, and use your content to help nurture leads (with minimal effort). Who wouldn’t want that?
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