We’ve all had the experience of being targeted by a retailer who makes us feel uncomfortable because of their sales tactics. We know about the awkwardness that accompanies those moments when someone is trying to sell us a product we’re not interested in, but the person doesn’t seem to get the hint.
Sales-driven organizations gather leads in a lot of different ways. One organization may focus on pay-per-click advertising and building an exciting e-newsletter, while another thrives on personal referrals and gathering potential customer information at special events.
I've talked a lot about lead nurturing and it's value in helping to grow your business. The fact of the matter is that not everyone is ready to buy the first time they come to your website. In fact 57% of the sales process is actually complete before a customer ever reaches out to a company. In our current world, customers have access to more information than ever before and they use that to their advantage by consuming mass amounts of research before they contact a salesperson. By the time your leads are contacting you, they most likely have thoroughly researched your business and all your competitors businesses and they probably have already decided that they want to work with you. But what about those prospects who come to your site, fill out a form and leave never to be seen again? That's where you're lead nurturing campaign comes into play, helping keep your business name in front of those people anticipating the moment they might finally be ready to make a purchase.
The mistake most companies make when it comes to their lead nurturing is stopping it once your lead has become a customer. Sure closing a lead into a customer is incredibly important but that doesn't mean that your relationship ends once they've signed a contract or made a purchase! Wouldn't you rather develop a long-term relationship with these people? If your answer to any of these questions is "yes" (and, trust me, it should be), read on.
8 Ideas to Generate More Leads Online Today and 10 Tips to Increasing Your Leads Online seriously and you've started generating leads online, but...now what?
You're not in business to generate leads online, you're in business to generate SALES! So, how do you go about turning those leads that you've generated online into actual paying customers? Let's take a look at four Do's and four Don'ts of lead nurturing to help you start closing more deals!
If you've been keeping up with the HIVE blog, you should know a little bit about lead nurturing by now. We've talked about what lead nurturing is and how crucial it is for moving potential customers through the sales cycle. We've also talked a little bit about how to use email workflows for lead nurturing and how they can help you close more customers.
But wait...I know what you might be thinking... "I totally understand that I need to be nurturing my leads in order to turn them into customers but how exactly do I get them to become leads in the first place??"
Great question! How do you take a stranger who has come to your site and convince them to give you some information (ideally an email address so you can use those workflows) so that they then become a lead and you can commence with your lead nurturing? This is where calls-to-action come into play. Ready to learn how to use calls-to-action for lead nurturing? Read on!
In the past couple of weeks we've talked about the importance of lead nurturing campaigns and why you should be using workflows as a part of your lead nurturing strategy. You've learned that the lack of lead nurturing is the reason that a large portion of leads never become customers and you've learned that automated email workflows can help you stay in front of these people with little manual work required. Chances are that, at this point, you're sold on the fact that you need to have a lead nurturing campaign and that email workflows need to be a part of that. If you're still on the fence, consider these stats:
So now you know you need to be using automated workflows, but where do you start? What types of workflows should you try first?
We usually recommend starting small so you can get an idea of how your workflows are functioning and the process that goes into them. Here are three types of workflows that usually work well for all types of businesses:
In a previous blog post titled Why You Can't Afford NOT to Have a Lead Nurturing Campaign, I talked about the importance of capturing leads and staying in front of them. If you've read that post, you might remember that 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance.
We know that staying in front of our leads is a crucial component of moving them through the sales cycle and eventually converting them into customers. We also know that email is the major tactic that we use for lead nurturing. But keeping up with regular email marketing to your database can be incredibly time consuming, especially if you're sending targeted emails to different lists based on their behaviors. This is where email workflows come into play. Let's examine what an email workflow is and how it can help your business.
Every business has the goal of increasing leads and many are focused on increasing their leads online. But with all of the chatter out there, all the competition, all of the distraction, how can your business stand out to help you increase your online leads?
It's not an easy task, but by following our ten tips below, you can begin to increase your online leads and continue to grow your business. Whether you're a small 'mom & pop' or a larger corporation, these tips hold true. Let's get started!
As those of you who have consistently read our blog posts or have chatted with us about inbound marketing likely know, inbound marketing does not stop once a visitor has become a lead. Instead, inbound marketing is all about touching potential buyers at every stage of the buyer's journey and helping move them through the sales cycle to become customers (and eventually promoters). One way we do this in inbound marketing is by implementing lead nurturing campaigns. Let's look at what lead nurturing is and why you can't afford to ignore it.
A common marketing goal for most companies is to find new customers and increase the size of their database. Touching more people and gaining new customers is a great goal but, while this is something that every company should be reaching towards, many companies end up focusing so heavily on this goal that they overlook the opportunity they have to nurture their relationships with current customers and encourage repeat business.
The relationship with current customers is something no one can't afford to ignore. These people have already bought into your company and product, you've already sold them and taken them through your entire sales funnel. They believe in your company. Don't let that be the end of your interaction with them! Turning your current customers into repeat customers can be huge for your business. In fact, did you know that the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60–70% and the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%; (that’s up to 14 times more, or 5 on average). In addition, returning customers spend on average 67% more than first-time customers. You already have an established relationship with these people and you cannot and should not let that relationship fall by they wayside.
While there are a lot of inbound marketing tactics you can (and should) use to communicate with your current customers and help encourage repeat business, today I want to address one of most direct touch points: email. So, why is email marketing important for growing return business? Let's take a look...
