10 lead nurturing strategies for businesses

For every business, success is all about turning window shoppers into customers—ideally, repeat customers. To do this, companies use lead nurturing strategies: approaches designed to respond to prospects who have already shown interest in a product or service.

Learning how to nurture leads is a must, especially for local businesses that face competition from both fellow neighborhood brands and national powerhouses. This guide is here to help.

Below, we’ll offer ten tips for nurturing leads, explain how to track your efforts, and provide a few real-world examples of businesses using powerful platforms to turn tire kickers into customers.

What is lead nurturing?

“Lead nurturing” is the process of enticing and onboarding new clients. While this sounds simple, lead nurturing can be:

• Time-consuming – Depending on your industry, courting and officially acquiring new clients can require a significant time investment.
• Costly – Time is money. While efforts to gain new customers are usually worth the investment, the cost of lead nurturing simply cannot jeopardize the bottom line.
• Complex – Depending on the size of your business, your diversity of products, or your overall approach, you might adopt a multi-layered strategy to attract and retain customers.

Let’s demystify lead nurturing to help you optimize your marketing practices and grow your brand.

Strategies to nurture leads effectively

Implementing lead nurturing strategies is the first step to ensuring sustainable company growth. These strategies lay the foundation for effective lead nurturing that aligns with the unique stages of your sales funnel.

#1 Leverage targeted content

One of the most popular (and effective) marketing strategies in the digital age is segmentation and targeting:

• Segmentation is the process of breaking down your target market into “segments” of shoppers with common interests or characteristics.
• Targeting strategies use specific approaches for each individual segment.

For instance, if you run both brick-and-mortar and online storefronts, you could segment your target audience into:

1. Local customers who could shop in your physical location
2. Clients who will only shop online

Plus, you can use specific strategies to target past customers or prospects who have engaged with your marketing content before: check out our guide to retargeting vs. remarketing.

#2 Multi-channel engagement

A simple way to combine multiple lead nurturing strategies is to engage with customers via multiple channels, including:

• Email
• SMS text
• Paid media (like TV and print ads)
• Online platforms

By using multiple channels, you can target multiple segments, communicate consistently with prospects, increase overall brand awareness, and make it easier for prospects to get in touch with you.

#3 Personalization at every step

Speaking of getting in touch with prospective customers, remember to personalize content as much as possible. This might look like:

• Leveraging automation to use customers’ names in marketing emails
• Creating locally-inspired content that resonates with neighbors
• Sending reminder texts and emails ahead of appointments, holidays, or milestones

For instance, a local florist might send out reminder texts to spouses the week before their anniversary—a nudge to place an order before their special day.

#4 Encourage community recommendations

As lead nurturing strategies go, collecting and curating recommendations—customer reviews—is one of the most impactful. After all, over three-quarters of consumers consult online reviews before making a purchase, and nearly half of customers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations.

Here are some ways you can ask for customer reviews:

• Add signage or decals to your physical storefront reminding customers to leave reviews.
• Offer incentives for customers who leave reviews, whether the feedback is positive or negative. This will not only encourage more reviews but also help refine your lead nurturing campaigns.

Make sure to also respond to reviews to show customers that you’re invested in their feedback and satisfaction.

#5 Timely follow-ups

Responding to online customer reviews is just one way to demonstrate follow-up: keeping customer relationships active and open.

As you create a plan for following up on leads, remember two critical elements:

• Timing – Before you reconnect with a customer, consider whether or not it’s a good time to reach out. If you're reaching out via phone, avoid calling during or after dinner time, for example.
• Frequency – There’s a fine line between comprehensive follow-up and pestering. Too many follow-up attempts could become annoying to customers.

Follow-up is especially important if you’re building B2B marketing strategies; after you establish a connection with a client, follow-up will ensure that you remain at the top of their mind.

#6 Educational and informative content

One of the best ways to naturally nurture leads is to share informative content like:

• How-to guides (in print, video, or infographic format)
• Advice for product maintenance
• Buying guides
• Local insights

A landscaping company, for example, could generate consumer trust and build a following by sharing tips for winterizing, preventing weed growth, or choosing native plants.

#7 Aligning sales and marketing efforts

All of the lead nurturing strategies above can help you forge new connections and bolster existing customer relationships. However, your sales approaches need to be as strong as your marketing approaches if you want to meet customer expectations and keep them coming back.

Align your sales and marketing teams to ensure momentum throughout the sales process. Both teams need to share the same enthusiasm, messaging, and goals to provide consistency and encourage customer trust.

To accomplish this, consider:

• Cross-training sales and marketing staff
• Including both teams in strategy planning
• Keeping sales and marketing teams in the loop on each team’s successes

#8 Implement lead scoring for prioritization

To ensure that lead nurturing investments don’t interfere with your bottom line, do your best to only pursue high-quality leads.

“Lead scoring” is an approach that helps businesses prioritize the leads (i.e., prospective customers) who are most likely to make a purchase. To score leads, you can either:

• Use automated tools – Customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you automate the lead scoring process and identify the prospects most likely to “convert” to customers.
• Set rules – Collaborate with marketing and sales teams to identify shopper trends and create a plan for pursuing the leads with the highest intent to buy.

#9 Host local events and promotions

Engaging with locals is critical for neighborhood businesses to building local market share, forging new customer relationships, and growing their credibility in the local marketplace.

Consider:

• Hosting an open house event at your brick-and-mortar store
• Running a joint promotion with another local business
• Tabling at community events like farmers’ markets and festivals

Don’t underestimate the power of virtual “events” either, like hosting a livestream or joining an online fundraising effort for a local non-profit.

#10 Build a long-term relationship

Lead nurturing doesn’t end when you make a sale. In fact, a purchase is just the beginning of your relationship with a customer.

After the purchase, foster a long-term relationship via:

• Support – Reach out to customers to offer support or troubleshooting services if needed.
• Follow-up – If you sell a consumable product, contact the customer when you expect them to restock to remind them of your product.
• Rewards – Whether you implement a rewards program or offer an incentive for repeat purchases, acknowledging and encouraging customer loyalty can help you maintain long-term relationships.

Measuring the success of lead nurturing

Learning how to measure the success of your strategies is just as important as learning how to implement them. What can you do to evaluate your efforts?

Tools for tracking progress

Leverage any of the following tools to measure the success of your lead nurturing campaigns:

• CRM software – Mentioned above, customer relationship management (CRM) software is one of the most useful tools for both administering and assessing marketing campaigns.
• Customer reviews – Either manually or via software, monitor your customer reviews. If you’re trending up over time, your efforts are likely working. If your reviews stay stagnant (in quality or quantity of feedback), you may need to reassess your strategy.
• The balance sheet – Numbers don’t lie. For an at-a-glance view, evaluate your overall profits and revenue over time. While this won’t offer as specific feedback as CRM software might, it’ll still indicate the overall effectiveness of your efforts.

Metrics to monitor

No matter which tools you use, there are a few metrics that can help you determine whether or not your nurturing strategies are effective:

• Response rates – How many customers leave reviews, open marketing emails, reply to SMS messages, or use your coupon codes?
• Return on investment (ROI) – Compare the money spent on marketing efforts to the overall revenue earned. If spend remains greater than revenue long-term, you need to adjust your strategy.
• Cost per sale – Divide your total marketing spend by the total number of sales you made during (and shortly after) your campaign to determine your cost per sale.

How Nextdoor empowers lead nurturing

Looking for a platform you can use to nurture leads via multiple channels? Turn to Nextdoor: a hub designed for local brands looking to reach their neighbors. We’ve helped countless small local businesses reach their marketing goals and grow, including:

• Speakeasy of Strength – Speakeasy of Strength, a Brooklyn-based neighborhood gym, leveraged Nextdoor connections and outreach to quickly spread the word about their brand, build local credibility, and become a Neighborhood Fave.
• Skin by Lexie – A local beauty guru grew her esthetician business into a thriving studio: Skin by Lexie. Using Nextdoor’s built-in neighbor networking features, Lexie expanded her client list to 900 regulars.

Nextdoor is a powerful, all-in-one platform local businesses can use to collect reviews, share content, post and manage paid ads, and connect one-on-one with prospective and current customers.

Build community and grow your business with Nextdoor

Lead nurturing strategies help businesses grow their reach, increase sales, and build long-lasting relationships with loyal customers. But in our digital world, entrepreneurs need an all-in-one tool to implement multiple strategies at once. Welcome to Nextdoor.

Get discovered locally with a Nextdoor Business Page: an online profile you can use to nurture leads, connect with fellow business owners, stay engaged with the local marketplace, and advertise your brand.

Start by claiming your free Business Page today.

Sources:

1. Forbes. How to Create an Effective Lead Nurturing Strategy. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesagencycouncil/2023/07/07/how-to-create-an-effective-lead-nurturing-strategy/
2. Corporate Finance Institute. Market Segmentation and Targeting. https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/management/market-segmentation-and-targeting/
3. TechTarget. What Is Multichannel Marketing?. https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/multichannel-marketing
4. Forbes. Online Review Trends Affecting Today’s Consumers. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2024/02/08/online-review-trends-affecting-todays-consumers/
5. The Hartford. Marketing Success Metrics. https://www.thehartford.com/business-insurance/strategy/marketing-roi/measuring-performance