Playing the Long Game - The Importance of Nurturing
All businesses need sales, there’s no question about it. How can you stay afloat with no revenue coming in? But, this doesn’t mean that all sales are created equal.
Are you selling $5 hair clips or a $1000+/month software service that requires a minimum 6-month commitment? This is obviously a huge difference, and although both companies need sales, purchasing the hair clip is a much lower commitment than the software. So, while someone may choose just to purchase the hair clip on a whim after seeing an ad or social post, this is unlikely to happen with the software.
This is a challenge many of our clients with high-commitment products and services face. It’s unrealistic to expect the sales to come flying in, especially if you are a relatively new company with little to no trust built with your customer base. Instead, it’s important to get qualified leads and nurture those leads to push them further down the sales funnel.
What is Nurturing?
Nurturing is a marketing strategy that is designed to strategically place content in front of prospective customers at various points in the sales funnel. The goal is to keep your brand top of mind so that when the prospective customer is ready to make a purchase, your brand is a top contender.
Lead nurturing is important to marketing (especially for brands with longer sales cycles) since it helps your brand to evaluate each lead, and help the leads progress further down the sales funnel, with the goal of eventually making a purchase. Although it’s unlikely every lead in your nurture stream will go all the way through your sales funnel and make a purchase, those who have entered the funnel are far more likely than a cold lead to make a purchase.
When Nurturing is Necessary
Although brands with shorter sales cycles may choose to have some kind of nurture sequence (and they should), it is an absolute necessity for brands with longer sales cycles.
If the price point or commitment is high, it will take time before the sale is made. This is for two reasons. One, as mentioned above, your audience members may not be looking to make a purchase right away. How many times in your life are you looking to buy a new car? Or upgrade your company’s entire software system? It’s probably not every day (unlike low-price, low-committal items, such as a cup of coffee). The other reason is that, when the commitment is large, a certain level of trust is required. The trust aspect is why a strong nurture sequence is even more important for less-established companies. As an example, if you were going to purchase a new software for your computer, you may immediately go to one of the big names, such as Microsoft, because that name has a certain level of trust. You’ve probably had an experience with this brand before in some capacity and therefore you feel more comfortable making a large purchase from them. But what if you see an ad for a similar software from a company you’ve never heard of before. Maybe it’s less expensive than the Microsoft option or has extra features, so you’re intrigued. However, you’ve never heard of this company before and that comes with a risk. What if the software isn’t as good as it claims to be? What if there are hidden fees? Or, worst of all, what if it’s a scam? Needless to say, you need to do some research before you have enough trust in the brand to make a purchase.
Nurturing leads helps to build trust while simultaneously keeping your brand top of mind.
So, How is it Done?
Email or SMS Lists
One of the best ways to nurture your target audience is by getting audience members to sign up for emails or SMS messages and then sending them informative updates periodically to keep your brand top of mind when they are looking to make a purchase decision.
This sounds great however how do you get customers to opt into communications in the first place? There are a few different ways you can do this. Firstly, instead of asking your audience to buy your product or service, try asking them to sign up for a newsletter instead. This is a much lower commitment and will allow you to push them further down your sales funnel by communicating with them regularly. However, it’s unlikely most of your audience will sign up for a sales pitch. So it’s important that your newsletter is mainly educational and NOT too salesy. The email could include industry news and stats, or something else that will interest your audience. At the end of the email, you can provide CTAs and links that encourage the prospect to engage with your brand and move further down the funnel, but again, this should not be the focus of the email.
By emailing consistently, your brand will stay top of mind. By including topics of interest in your email, your audience will be less likely to unsubscribe prior to moving further down the funnel.
Okay, so let’s say you’ve done this, but you’re not getting a lot of sign-ups for your newsletter. How can you expand your pool? One of the best ways to get sign-ups is by offering something small for free in exchange for the person’s name and email. The “free” item could be an informative webinar about your industry (that could also include some information about your product or service at the end) or a downloadable PDF. For example, if you’re a marketing agency that focuses on content creation, the downloadable PDF could be a branded content calendar template. A download like this will not only be helpful for the person who downloads it, but it will also show your skills in your industry as well as keep your company top of mind. You can then start sending them more industry news and information, continuing to build trust and keep your brand top of mind.
Retargeting
Another tactic to consider is re-targeting. This means you can retarget the individuals who have clicked on your ads previously. With this technology that’s available from some paid platforms, you can begin to nurture these individuals as you would with an email nurture sequence. If you keep serving your audience these ads, it will keep your brand top of mind and make these individuals more likely to think of your company when they are ready to make a purchase.
Ready to Nurture?
So, with all this in mind, are you ready to nurture? Remember, even if your brand doesn’t have a long sales cycle, you can still benefit from a nurture sequence.
Nurturing has two main benefits: it keeps your company top of mind for when your audience members are ready to make a purchase, and it builds trust with the target audience so they are more willing to purchase a big commitment product or service from your company.
Want to chat more about nurture sequences? Send us a note, we love to talk all things marketing.
Sources:
-https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5917/5-best-practices-for-lead-nurturing-emails.aspx