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.
“Lead nurturing” is the process of enticing and onboarding new clients. While this sounds simple, lead nurturing can be:
Let’s demystify lead nurturing to help you optimize your marketing practices and grow your brand.
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.
One of the most popular (and effective) marketing strategies in the digital age is segmentation and targeting:
For instance, if you run both brick-and-mortar and online storefronts, you could segment your target audience into:
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.
A simple way to combine multiple lead nurturing strategies is to engage with customers via multiple channels, including:
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.
Speaking of getting in touch with prospective customers, remember to personalize content as much as possible. This might look like:
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.
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:
Make sure to also respond to reviews to show customers that you’re invested in their feedback and satisfaction.
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:
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.
One of the best ways to naturally nurture leads is to share informative content like:
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.
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:
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:
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:
Don’t underestimate the power of virtual “events” either, like hosting a livestream or joining an online fundraising effort for a local non-profit.
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:
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?
Leverage any of the following tools to measure the success of your lead nurturing campaigns:
No matter which tools you use, there are a few metrics that can help you determine whether or not your nurturing strategies are effective:
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:
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.
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.
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