Lead nurturing: what it is, benefits and how to apply it

Lead nurturing is a process of developing relationships with qualified prospects. It helps establish relationships between brands and consumers.

This relationship building takes place at every level of inbound marketing, as this is the process where there is a greater opportunity to convert customers and build brand loyalty .

Now, if you're wondering where the action of "cultivation" comes from, it's simple. If users or customers don't feel that a brand is investing in them, they will look for another one that is. In this sense, users look for a brand to nurture and cultivate them (metaphorically) so that they can be part of a brand and be loyal to it.

Similarly, the importance of lead nurturing cannot be overlooked. It is made up of initiatives that boost brand awareness. It also helps establish trust among users, which is essential when it comes to analyzing consumer purchasing behavior.

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Advantages of lead nurturing

Lead nurturing has several advantages and benefits over other processes of this type. It is important to know them in order to identify the elements that can be useful to us, such as:

• Its application requires minimal effort.
• There is lead origin and offer.
• It is legal in the eyes of official regulations.
• Helps to quickly expand the database.
• Improves sender deliverability and reputation scores.
• Denotes a greater degree of concern for privacy and belonging.
• Increases the ROI of marketing campaigns.
• User data is used to its full potential.
• The rejection and abandonment rate is considerably reduced.
• There is a high level of segmentation and personalization.

What is email nurturing?

Email nurturing is, broadly speaking, a strategy based on sending emails to users who fit the profile of a brand's ideal customer. It can also be understood as the process of building a long-term relationship with potential customers through email.

In other scenarios, this practice is also known as email lead nurturing campaigns, as it involves building a solid nurturing campaign through this channel, the main purpose of which is to create greater awareness of the brand and the product that helps convert customers.

Difference between lead nurturing and lead scoring

As you may have noticed above, when we talk about lead nurturing, we are referring to a process in which relationships are established with potential users and clients. This is done by offering useful and quality content in marketing campaigns or actions.

Lead scoring, on the other hand, is a methodology used by the marketing and sales departments. Thanks to their joint work, potential clients can be automatically classified based on certain characteristics. Some characteristics of this process are:

• There is greater participation from the sales team.
• Helps to segment the database.
• It is an excellent complement that helps to do lead nurturing based on user interests.
• Facilitates the flow of potential customers towards the sale of the brand.
• Allows you to analyze the quality of leads.

How to do lead nurturing in your company

If you want to learn how to implement lead nurturing in your company efficiently, we present 5 essential tips and strategies that will help you nurture your potential clients. Start interacting with your users and notice the benefits of this process.

1. Develop content marketing

There's nothing better for users and potential customers than receiving useful content. You can also use this content to create brand awareness and attract more people. It's worth mentioning that content marketing benefits other strategies and not just lead nurturing. Some of the content you can create includes:

• Blog posts.
• E-books.
• Answer frequently asked questions.
• Instructional articles.
• Webinars.
• Research reports.

Likewise, it is important not to neglect the quality of the content, as this will strengthen the ties and relationships you wish to establish. If you want to know how to make quality content, we share the following tips with you:

• Develop content plans.
• Focus on quality.
• Use keywords to find relevant or trending topics.
• Remember that you are writing for people, not robots.
• Share the content on other channels.
• Create content optimized for other search engines.
• Avoid grammatical errors.

There are many ways to create quality content. Find your own style and start generating content that is worthwhile for your brand's users.

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2. Use email marketing

The reason for using this type of marketing is simple: it generates a higher ROI than any other digital marketing strategy. This is because its investment is much lower. It also allows for personalization through data and research into user behavior. In this regard, email marketing can target customers based on the products they search for or browse, as well as the content they download.

To make an effective email, follow these tips:

• Keep subject lines short.
• Add CTA or call to action.
• Keep the message concise.
• Make sure emails are mobile-friendly.
• Leave the invitation open for users to respond or interact.
• Take the time to write a text that stands out at first glance.
By following these and other tips, you can get the most out of email marketing.

3. Maintain an active image on social networks

Within and outside the marketing spectrum, social platforms are an excellent channel for building relationships with your respective prospects; they are not called social networks for nothing. If you want to have an updated image in front of your audience, we recommend following these tips:

• Update your content regularly.
• Upload the right content on the right social network.
• Interact with the audience.
• Take trends into account.
• Use tools that allow you to automate and improve processes.
• If your business requires it, you can open an account dedicated to customer service.

Social media platforms are a great medium if used properly. We advise you to use the most popular social networks such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or Facebook.

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4. Conduct surveys

Surveys are essential to knowing and understanding customer needs. When they respond to what you want to know, it's time to design plans on how to take them to the end of the buyer's journey.

5. Align sales, marketing and customer service teams

In order to nurture customers efficiently, it is important to work together with other areas of the brand. Creating synergy between sales and customer service teams can generate hundreds of actionable data that can encourage the design of new and successful campaigns in the future.
In other words, timely and effective collaboration between these teams will result in a better understanding of users, which will lead to better solutions to any problems that may arise.

Written by Moises Hamui Abadi : I am an entrepreneur, founding partner of Viceversa and SoyMacho. After leading several digital businesses and advising several other businesses, I decided to form MHA Consulting, a digital marketing consultancy dedicated to growing and empowering digital businesses in more than 7 countries and generating more than 1,500 million pesos.