The Smart Marketer’s ULTIMATE Guide to Lead Nurturing

If you’re a marketing forum junkie like I am, you probably see the same old topics pop up about how to get started, how to get clients, how to outsource, how to do this and that but very rarely do you see more advanced topics that actually matter when it comes to running a business.

What is lead nurturing?

Lead nurturing is all about building trust, rapport, and credibility with your qualified leads. If you do further research on this topic, you will see people refer to leads as prospects, but I don’t think that is correct.

A prospect, to me at least is someone that may or may not be interested in what you have to offer. Why would you waste time in building trust and rapport with someone that will never buy what you’re selling? This is why it’s called LEAD NURTURING. You want to invest your time and energy to convert those leads into customers, am I right? RIGHT? Yes I am.

Why Does It Matter?

If you’re like most marketers or business owners, most of your time is spent on lead generation. Our favorite metric to gauge success is by total leads generated because we know in the end leads mean money. The more leads you have in the pipeline, the more revenue you are going to generate.

The problem is, when you generate a lead, not all leads are created equal now are they? Sometimes we get a super hot lead that’s got a credit card in their hand right now and a pocket full of cash ready to make it rain on you. The majority of the time though, we get leads that aren’t quite ready to buy.

What do you do with these leads? Sometimes you follow up by email, send a newsletter, give them a call saying, “Hey! Ya ready to pay me yet?”, and of course they want to delay you a little bit longer because they’re low on funds or too busy, or whatever other story they give you. That’s not good enough.

Most people aren’t going to buy just because you want them to.

Beginners are often the worst when it comes to lead nurturing, because they have so few leads they focus all their attention on one person. They’re like a hungry shark that smells blood, starts circling around its’ prey ready to eat. It’s kind of funny to watch because I’ve been there. We try to force them to buy, maybe even offer a made up special deal if they buy by the end of the week. “Create Urgency!” is what everyone preaches but the truth is sometimes urgency doesn’t matter. If a lead is not ready to buy, they’re not going to buy. Instead we have to make sure we’re the one they choose when they ARE ready to buy.

Different Types of Lead Nurturing For Different Problems

To effectively nurture leads you generated, you first need to identify the proper strategy, problems, and goals for each set of leads. These types include:

• Never nurtured, cold and old leads that dropped off
• Automated Lead Nurturing for New Leads
• Leads that have chosen another company
• Leads that are deciding between you and another company
• Lead Nurturing for Existing Customers used for Retention

Are there any other situations you can think of where a lead may need some nurturing, specific to the situation they have? I’m sure there’s more, but the important thing is for you to realize this concept.

If you have a close rate of 25%, that means you’re losing out on 75% of the leads you generated. With a proper lead nurturing strategy you can easily increase your close rate and immediately add to your profits.

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Lead Nurturing for Old Leads

If you’ve never practiced lead nurturing before, then I urge you to look into your CRM, email history, and compile a database of old leads that you haven’t heard from in a while or haven’t followed up with. Even if they already chose somebody else and told you they were no longer interested, you need to add them to this compiled list. Really it doesn’t matter if a year has gone by with no contact, you should add these leads into your autoresponder.

The purpose is to let them know you still exist, and that if they chose somebody else, you’re going to show them exactly why they made a bad decision. If they simply lost interest, you’re going to be generating new interest.

How you do this…

You want to spend some time writing an autoresponder series specific to these old leads. You want to refresh them, you want them to be out of the dead category and moved into a fresh new hot lead category, right?

The goal is to re-engage the old leads. Using nearly any autoresponder you have the ability to segment your email list, and you can do this in an automated way by setting up segmenting if a lead opens an email or clicks a link in the email. For these types of leads, they’re usually pretty cold and your results are going to be minimal. However, that doesn’t mean you ignore them, I have had cases where old leads end up being unhappy with who they went with or new issues come up that allow them to be open to doing business with you.

Types of subjects to send/cover:

• How To Know if Your Website is REALLY Performing like It Should..
• New Changes to ‘Company Name’ That Allows you Even BETTER Results.
• How To Know if You Chose the Right SEO/Web Design/insert service Company

Something along those lines are usually good topics to cover in an old lead nurturing campaign. Usually you want to mix the email marketing outreach for lead nurturing with content marketing in a sense. It’s best if you have in depth topics covered in a blog post on your website, and can segment these leads based on who clicks.

The subjects I gave as examples are just showing you different ways to re-engage the lead. You will want to customize this to whatever you’re offering. Maybe you’re selling PPC campaigns, maybe you’re selling grow lights to marijuana dispensaries, you will want to tailor your topics and content toward areas these leads may be interested in after 1 year of choosing someone else, or deciding to stick with what they have.

Situations change, you want to be there to capitalize on it when those situations change.

Results you can expect:

You’re not going to reopen a bunch of leads but you will reopen a few. I usually send old leads a series of 3 emails. If they click, they get sent to a “Stage 1” lead nurturing campaign which is what you will have for brand new leads. Some companies like to ignore those that don’t click or aren’t re-engaged. I’ve done that and I’ve also sent them to a 2nd round of attempting to re-engage them. The choice is yours, but the important thing is to not ignore them and give it another chance.

How to Nurture These Leads:

• Postcards are used regularly but you will have a low ROI for this group and the purpose is to re-engage
• Email marketing is commonly used in order to direct them to a relevant blog post
• Ebook giveaways will show how interested a lead is in a particular subject.

    Before getting to the next section, here is a cool infographic from agsalesworks.com

Automated Lead Nurturing For New Leads

Since you’re probably just starting to get into the concept of lead nurturing, you will want to immediately implement this for new leads you generate. How you generate these new leads will determine which autoresponder to use.

For example: If you’re cold calling, cold emailing, direct mailing and someone is interested, they become a lead, you will want to use an autoresponder service that doesn’t require a double opt-in aka confirmed opt-in.

A confirmed opt-in is when someone submits information in a form and has to click a link verifying they’re subscribing or want to hear from you. If your new lead came to your website and wants your lead magnet (free giveaway ebook, whitepaper, case study, etc.) it’s usually better to use a double opt in. I use Aweber for double opt ins and Mailchimp for my cold emails or regular email marketing.

Now I’m not going to go in depth with advanced segmentation and strategies, that will be for future blog posts. This one is just to give you a detailed guide on the basic concept of lead nurturing.

How I Nurture These Leads

1.) Introduction

You will handle this differently based on how they became a lead. If they’ve became a lead via your website then chances are they already know a lot about you and have been researching. If this is a lead generated by cold calling or another method then you want to use an introduction for your autoresponder series for new leads. You want to use this opportunity to tell them why you’re different, what makes you unique, why do people choose you, and why they should trust you.

The introduction is important, even if you already introduced yourself because this is an important step of any sales process, you’re not just introducing yourself as an individual, but a company with proven processes, beliefs, and values.

This is followed up by:

2.) Engage Them With Helpful Content & Educate Them

The best way to build trust and credibility with a new lead is to provide them with helpful content and educate them about your process, the general process of whatever service they want.

For example, a new lead I may send out an email sequence with these titles if they’re interested in SEO:

Learn The 3 Ways Most SEO Companies Take Advantage of YOU

5 Techniques to Instantly Implement for Better Visibility

[FREE DOWNLOAD] Checklist Before You Hire an SEO Company

With those topics, you’re educating the potential client while at the same time grooming them to trust your business and leads to them assuming you already do all the things they could want.

3 ways most companies take advantage of you, can show them dirty sales tricks and SEO techniques that could hurt their business instead of help.

5 Techniques for better visibility helps them instantly get value from what you can offer them. This builds credibility, trust, and will allow you to move on to another stage of the sales cycle.

The free download is customized so it includes everything you already do, it’s what your lead should look for in a company. Giving this information to them allows you to continue building on things they now know as fact. Gives you great credibility and incredible positioning.

The general education phase should be anywhere from 3-7 base emails. You can do this daily but I recommend 2-3 days in between emails. This allows you to heavily focus on getting the lead to the next stage in the sales process, and gives you a very high chance of the sale before the end of the series.

What happens if they don’t buy after the initial series?

Not everyone is ready immediately, some people will buy next week, next month maybe even next year. Like I said before the goal is to make sure when they’re ready to buy, they choose you. You’re the first on their mind. You don’t ignore them just after the first 2-3 weeks of education.

You will want to continue adding new content to your autoresponder. Usually weekly emails will be good enough. Continue educating, give whitepapers and case studies, free ebooks and guides, link to helpful blog posts. Throw in once in a while a special bonus if they get started with your service by the end of the month, try to generate action within the nurturing.

3.) Prepare Them to Do Business With You

This is the 3rd step or stage in lead nurturing. It’s not in depth or complex. This step is really just preparing them to the idea of using your product or services. Once your leads are nurtured from one step to another and you segment them based on interest, stages, etc. it’s ready to get them to buy.

For example: Do NOT Get Your Website Redesigned UNLESS You Have These Things

The email would detail what they should have ready, perhaps a check list or a small guide. Next it would be ideal to direct them to a questionnaire that they can fill out and send back to you to get started in the process. Have them select a budget range or “package” they’re most interested in. Usually at this point, the leads are ready. They’re ready to pay, they’re ready to get started.

Using different segmenting methods in your autoresponder will allow them to go stage to stage automatically. Although, you do want to be personal and contact them by phone and personalized email, you don’t want to just let everything be through an autoresponder, people want to feel comfortable with a real person before committing.

Bonus Tip: Try to overcome objections before the lead has an objection. During your email sequence you should be touching on common objections and dismiss them to ensure an easy sale once the lead is ready to make a purchasing decision.

Lead Nurturing Leads That Chose A Different Company

Many people write off a lead that is closed and you didn’t win the sale. While chances are this situation is not going to yield a lot of sales, when you use any sort of marketing automation you want to play the numbers in your favor.

Why ignore a lead that clearly showed interest in your product or service?

How in depth you want to go into segmenting your email sequence is up to you. You can have a general sequence that covers everyone or create specific sequences that are based around who your lead chose to do business with instead of you. Usually, you don’t want to put in the extra effort on that advanced segmentation unless you have a common competitor you lose sales to.

Let’s just assume there is just a general sequence you use. The way I would approach this autoresponder series would be to space out the first message, 2 months down the road, with a new email once every 2-3 months. Topics you want to cover:

• What you do better than XYZ company
• Why they made a bad decision
• What is different about you
• Why they should switch over to you
• New features you added / price changes
• Special offers for switching
• Free download/ebook of new knowledge/topics that affect them going forward

This type of lead nurturing is different because it is focusing not on education of the potential client or lead, but because it focuses on changing their perspective and shaping their perspective in a way that gives you an advantage. I have actually had sales because of a lost lead that was referring people to me. How crazy is that? He hasn’t switched, but he’s not referring people to the company he’s using but to mine.

Lead Nurturing For Those Deciding Between Multiple Companies

The general consensus among those who use lead nurturing in their business is that in this situation you want to outline the benefits of choosing you, why you’re the best, why you’re better than anyone else. I don’t necessarily agree with that for multiple reasons.

#1 – It suggests that you have lazy sales people or abilities.

That’s generic stuff. Maybe it works sparingly but the truth is you’re not customizing their experience, you’re not shaping their perspective, you’re not moving them in a specific direction, and you’re not giving them the knowledge they need to make an informed decision. You want to use lead nurturing in a way that is going to educate them in a way that leads them back to you. How you nurture these types of leads and any type for that matter, should be by helping them prioritize their needs.

Why does it suggest you have lazy sales people? Because you’re focusing on benefits like everyone else is.

#2 – Being better doesn’t matter but being different does.

If you have read another blog post on the “Death of SEO” well, the “Death of SELLING SEO”, you will see that being different and changing perspective is much more important than being better. Focusing the conversation and guiding them to proper priorities helps eliminate the price shopping being done, and helps eliminate benefit comparisons between companies and products.

Don’t compete on price. Lead nurturing isn’t about price, it is about guiding them through your process. Focus on guided education. This is not just educating them on your product or service, this is guiding them to be educated about what makes you different and how it helps them. When you’re in control of their education during a buying process, the education you provide will lead them back to you.

To give examples, these are the types of subjects or blog posts I would share with these types of leads. Keep in mind, to tailor this based on your own business, I’m just using a variety of subjects related to my company:

• Don’t Choose an SEO Company Until You Read These Secrets
• 3 Common Lies SEO Companies Never Want You to Know
• Why Most Businesses Will NEVER Rank in Google
• 9 of the Most Important Questions To Ask an SEO Company

These topics catch attention, they also educate the lead. It exposes common tactics used by other companies.

I’m not sure if you guys research SEO a lot or see different SEO companies offering wild guarantees, but one of the most common guarantees is that their customers will be ranking within 3 months or they will work for free. This is one of the biggest scams used in the SEO industry by companies that don’t know what they’re doing. Customers fall for this because they think it’s a great deal, and it’s a problem for me because I don’t offer a guarantee.

How do I combat this?

I share with the lead that this is a common trick used by SEO companies. I explain why it is a trick because the average lifetime of an SEO customer is 3 months. Most people quit paying and move on to another service by the end of 3 months. These companies know this, so they don’t care about “working for free” because they already made money off of you. They don’t need to do anything else at this point, money was made.

This helps because now when my lead is comparing other companies and sees this common guarantee they want to steer clear. The education I provided them about the industry leads them back to me. I have also used this technique for back links and showing leads how most companies use techniques that can actually hurt their rankings in the search engines.

Things to keep in mind when dealing with leads that are comparing you to other companies:

1. Focus on what makes you different not better.
2. Educate the leads in a way that the education points back to you
3. Show them the unnecessary harm other businesses can put them through

This is my favorite form of lead nurturing. It’s very fun and it’s really cool to watch the entire process unfold right in front of your eyes.

Lead Nurturing Existing Customers

Well this is interesting isn’t it? You’re probably thinking, why do I need to nurture my existing customers when they already bought? I forget where the quote came from, maybe it was Mad Men on AMC or somewhere else, but it was “The second you get a client is the second you start losing them.” Perhaps I’m paraphrasing, I don’t know but the concept is the same and the words are very true.

Having a monthly phone call, or touching base once every 3 months isn’t good enough. Once you have a customer, it is your job to not just make them happy and deliver the work, but to also continue educating them and leading them to a potential upsell or at the very least ensure that they continue giving you a lot of referrals.

What to send existing customers?

• Case Studies in areas other than what you’re performing for them
• Updates on changes in your field, and how you’re staying on top of it
• News that may effect your customer
• Free giveaways, ebooks, white papers, etc.
• Blog posts that could help them

When you’re doing this, you’re ensuring other companies aren’t swooping in to steal them away from you. You’re continuing to establish yourself as more of an authority, you’re staying on their mind and building an even stronger relationship than you could by manually calling every one of them.

People place a huge effort in marketing and sales. Don’t ever think that what you offer is good enough that someone else can’t come along to sell your client on their services or products instead, even if you’re much better than them.

You must place as much effort in nurturing your existing customer base as you do in sales.

Some people think that just because their clients “like” their facebook page, that the updates made to the page is good enough to nurture them. It’s not. Don’t make that mistake.

Closing Arguments / TL;DR

Well no argument here. I’m pretty sure you already realize the importance of lead nurturing. Many companies out there focus on marketing and lead generation but waste the opportunity if someone is hard to contact or falls off the map. Many leads go to waste and marketing dollars are shredded because of this oversight and lack of effort placed in lead nurturing. I hope this guide to lead nurturing can help you and your business. Stay Updated, Enter your email below

Just to further reiterate the importance, but in a different way, lets use a little bit of math.

Lets say you have 100 leads a month and you only close 10% of them for an average of $1,000/sale. That’s $10,000/mo and $120,000 a year. 90 leads go to waste each month and 1,080 go to waste on a yearly basis.

If you even implement just parts of this guide and generate an additional 5% sales from the 1,080 leads that go to waste on a yearly basis, this directly adds 54 new sales for $54,000. Most lead nurturing systems businesses implement add at minimum an additional 10% in sales. The numbers here are used to show you the potential of what you can add to your business even if you performed below average.

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I guess this is it, until next time!