If you are in the business of selling, you will have heard of the term ‘lead nurture’. It describes the process of attracting, engaging and convincing a potential customer to purchase from you.
The idea is that the customers are nurtured along a ‘buyer’s journey’ up to and beyond their purchase from you. This process is called lead nurture. Breaking this down: 'Lead' - otherwise known as potential customers, and 'Nurture' - the act of caring or protecting someone while they are growing.
There are a number of marketing tactics that can be implemented to nurture leads, but before discussing these tactics, firstly it would be useful to look at the stages of the buyer journey.
You may have heard of the marketing funnel, otherwise known as the tactics you need to employ to attract new customers, gain their trust, educate them about your products and convince them to purchase from you. It also includes ensuring they are happy with their experience, will buy from you again one day and advocate for you in the future.
At each stage of the marketing funnel, various tactics can be activated that will ideally reach the right people with the right message at the right time.
For example, at the early stage of the funnel - the Attraction/Attention stage, the customer does not know anything about you at this time, so your tactics should be focused on driving awareness. Introduce your brand/product with the aim of reaching as many of your target markets as possible. Some awareness tactics include SEO, SEM, TV advertising, sponsorship, social media and outdoor advertising. These are targeted at reaching people who do not already know about your product or brand. For example, SEO and SEM, utilising key search terms to ensure that those who are googling ‘need a new CRM’ or ‘what is the best CRM on the market?’ will arrive at your site if that is what you are offering. TV and outdoor media targets the general public and are not as specific or measurable with the results, however, from a brand awareness point of view, you will be reaching a broad range of consumers who may one day be in need of your product. Sponsorship is a great way to gain a positive reputation and align your brand with a community.
At the Interest/Consideration stage, you would implement marketing tactics that will educate and inform your audience about the benefits of your product/service. Tactics such as e-books, white papers, blogs, email marketing and other content marketing tactics will help the potential buyer understand more about the solution you are offering. How will this improve their lives, or make their jobs easier? These are the questions they need to be answered at this stage, along with additional valuable information that will speak directly to them and give them a sense of comfort that you understand their needs and pain points.
The Desire/Decision stage is where you need to reassure the customer that you are an expert in your field, you have lots of people who purchase your product/service and they are happy with the outcome. At this stage, marketing tactics include case studies, testimonials, reviews, personalised email marketing and potentially even offering a trial period (depending on your product or service).
The final stages of Action/Advocacy are the stages where you need to ensure the customer purchase process is smooth, that the customer is satisfied with the outcome, in fact, so satisfied that they will come back and purchase from you again, and tell their friends about you.
The process of leading a customer along a path to purchase, providing them with the tools they need to solve their problem, reassuring them that you understand their needs, solving their pain points with your product/service offering is only possible if done with an authentic desire to satisfy the customer and solve their problems. Thsi maybe be easy when you only have a few leads coming into your funnel but what if you have hundreds, maybe thousands of people entering this funnel at the same time? How do you manage this process? What is the best way to bring it all together? You definitely don’t want to be doing this process manually. To maximise the effectiveness of this process, you need a certain amount of automation.
That is where Act! Growth Suite comes in - it combines a reliable and trusted CRM with a high functioning marketing automation system. This will allow you to capture leads, log vital information about each lead, and then apply the marketing tactic that delivers the appropriate message according to the stage they are at. Your email marketing message can be tweaked according to the stage of their journey and Act! Marketing Automation system allows you to create triggers, set up drip campaigns and communicate with new potential customers as well as existing customers.
Marketing Automation gives you the power to test, learn and tweak your marketing messages and serve up the right information to your customers, and potential new customers.
We would love the opportunity to discuss how Act! CRM and Marketing Automation software can help your business take control of your leads and convert them into loyal customers. We invite you try a free 14-day trial of Act! Growth Suite today. Of course, if you have any questions about the software, or about CRM in general, you can contact us at any time and we'll be glad to help.
