Are You Nurturing Your Leads? The Importance of Marketing Automation

Inbound marketing is no longer a buzz word. It continues to increase in importance, as marketers are beginning to realize both the power of the consumer and the cost-effectiveness of convincing potential customers with good content rather than expensive outbound ads.

At the same time, too many marketers still confuse inbound marketing with lead generation. It’s true that generating leads (getting web visitors to give their information in exchange for valuable, relevant content) is an important part of inbound marketing. But lead generation is worth little if those leads aren’t led through the sales funnel, gently nudged to eventually become customers and directly benefit your business. The concepts of lead nurturing & marketing automation are absolutely crucial for inbound marketing to be successful.

It’s important to remember that 95 percent of the leads giving you their information in exchange for content are not sales ready. They’re likely just looking for great content, but that doesn’t mean they will not become customers sometime in the future. If they simply sign up for content and never hear from you again, they’ll forget you over time. That’s where lead nurturing comes in.

Usually, an effective lead nurturing campaign is based on regular emails with updates to your product or new, relevant content. If a visitor became a lead because they downloaded your eBook on effective home banking, they may be interested in future eBooks or other content about personal investments or retirement plans.

As long as the new content is relevant to the content they originally viewed, they’ll be likely to click and read, eventually associating your company with quality information in that field. That’s when it may be time to gently nudge them toward the sale, sharing offers such as a free trial or consultation. Now that they’ve been nurtured, they’ll be much more likely to at least consider a sale. By developing a relationship and establishing expertise in the minds of your audience, you’ve made the prospect of turning a lead into a customer much more likely.

Of course, this example is just the beginning of the complex field that is marketing automation. To see how it can make an impact for your company, contact us!