A person visits your website and browses around, eventually subscribing to your newsletter by providing an email address. Any basic CRM will add this person to your subscriber list, and leave your marketing and sales team to do the bulk of the heavy lifting in terms of organizing that person into the appropriate buyer persona list and handling the emails that get sent in response to their subscription.
One of the biggest benefits of automation is the reduction of redundant tasks, such as data entry. With an automated marketing platform and the above scenario, newsletter subscribers would be added to workflows that update their lifecycle stage, add them to the appropriate lists based on conditions you set, enroll them in an additional chain of emails delivered at the cadence of your choosing, along with whatever else you can imagine. What’s even better is that these automations can occur 24/7, ensuring that your entire subscriber list is effectively being “nurtured” with your content.
Getting a lead to convert into a customer rarely occurs on the first successful outreach attempt. Since the modern consumer takes his or her time to research options, the idea of lead nurturing has been developed as a response. Lead Nurture campaigns help you to stay top of mind with leads by providing them with relevant content that may help them understand the problems they face, as well as what options they possess. Nurture content does not ask for the sale upfront; instead, it helps you build relationships with leads until they are ready to make a purchase.
Combining lead nurture tactics with automation can create an effective means for warming up a lead. The best part? You literally don’t have to do anything once you setup the necessary workflows. A lead taking any predetermined action can result in any number of possibilities. Furthermore, when combined with your CRM, you’ll be able to see the lead’s level of engagement with your emails, which provides salespeople with important cues on when to reach out and with what content. Just remember, using automation can be a double-edged sword, so always try to add a touch of personalization!
The concept of inbound marketing provides businesses with more qualified leads than traditional marketing strategies, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all your leads will be ready to make an immediate purchase. In fact, according to HubSpot, over 90% of the leads in your CRM aren’t ready to make a purchase decision yet. As such, lead nurturing takes those leads and effectively warms them up. Using HubSpot’s Lead Scoring tool, you can also track your leads’ engagement with your content and website to get a better grasp on who is really ready to be reached out to by a sales rep.
In a study by Forrester, marketers saw an average 20% increase in sales opportunities from nurtured versus non-nurtured leads. The study also revealed that companies that conduct effective lead nurturing had 50% more sales at a 33% lower cost.
Those are some pretty hefty statistics if you think about it. HubSpot combines lead nurturing tactics, multi-channel strategies, lead scoring, and much more to provide businesses with an effective digital marketing and sales platform that helps them grow.
Getting all the pieces of the puzzle to fit together can be a tall order, so get in touch with Tobe Agency today if you need some help!