To be successful in business, you must have predictable growth, and capturing leads makes this possible. So it is necessary to understand what this strategy consists of .
Many will tell you that they don't have the specific reason why they grow or why they have tools/budget but not the prospects.
So you've come to the right place, we'll explain what it's all about and everything you should keep in mind about the famous term: lead nurturing.
Are you ready to know this concept? Let the reading begin!
What the heck is lead nurturing
If we translate it into Spanish, it means: nurture or cultivate a prospect.
Sounds like a tree, right?
But yes, we can see it from that perspective, your tree or plant is that prospect that has come to your website and you must offer it content of interest, that is, the water for it to nourish and grow.
That is to say, that it matures in its purchase journey.
On the other hand, this process appears when you collect leads and want to work with them, providing them with material that benefits them and helps them meet their needs.
In short, lead nurturing is the act of building a long-term relationship between the company and the customer . It is a maturation of opportunities for business.
If you want to see it from the quantitative part, the MarketingSherpa study says that " 21% of potential customers will make a purchase if you do not adopt a lead nurturing strategy and 79% will never make a purchase without offering them anything in return."
Likewise, "the return on investment increases 45%" thanks to the lead nurturing process.
Ok and then internalize its meaning... What is it for?
It is used for:
- Filter qualified leads from marketing strategies and send them to the sales team.
- Personalize communication with customers.
- Create links between the client and the company.
Still not clear to you? 
Let's continue.
That is to say, that from the brand an accompaniment is made to nurture or cultivate the audience ; with valuable content to guide you through the conversion funnel and get you to buy.
In recent years, importance has been given to lead generation in SMEs. This is very interesting for the market, because not only large companies use this type of tool to obtain more prospects.
Bottom line, you need to incentivize prospects until they take a specific action that gets them down the path of the buying journey. And lead nurturing is the best mechanism to do it.
¿Lead scoring antes que lead nurturing?
Well, let's go in parts, let's first see what lead scoring is and then let's make a comparison versus the term lead nurturing.
Lead scoring is precisely qualifying leads into groups and distributing them in a database. Of course, taking into account the profile of the buyer person.
What is this type of rating used for?
- To segment and organize the database
- Analyze the quality of leads
- Save time for the sales team, since they will focus only on the best quality leads
- Manage the most interested leads
- Improve the relationship between the marketing and sales area
As we know, these techniques are part of marketing and although they can be confused or defined in the same way, their differences are evident , for example, their moment of prominence in the purchase journey.
The first task is carried out by lead scoring through user measurement. Then lead nurturing comes into action with the use of data and the implementation of the marketing strategies that must be included for the conversion funnel.
Now. To answer the question of who goes first in the process, without a doubt the first in prominence is lead scoring.
These techniques need each other , because without knowing the results of lead scoring, lead nurturing cannot work.
Before moving forward in this navigation of concepts, let's take a short break having a glass of water and downloading this free material that will be of great value to you to apply the term 
Why is lead nurturing important? 5 Benefits
Is this type of technique as important as others we have seen?
Of course it is, since it is one of the commercial optimizers that offers personalized content to users with the purpose of maintaining interest in the brand during the purchase journey.
In addition, it is the one who effectively interprets user behavior during the stages of the conversion funnel.
The reality is that the importance of nurturing leads is that it allows you to offer a quality relationship with your buyer person .
To reinforce the above, learn about the 5 benefits that can convince you to use this technique.
Greater sales opportunity 
Drive the final purchase
Personalized customer service 
Provides privileged user information
Improve the quality of leads
By cultivating leads, you can identify those who have the best chance of becoming an ideal client.
It is not a mystery that lead nurturing is part of the Inbound marketing methodology , specifically the relationship phase.
Let's do an exercise together, so that you can see in detail the importance of this process and how it can benefit you.
Watch how we do it in RD Station :
Social media banner ad
The user leaves his data (name, email, company) to download the material
The user receives the thank you message
The material of interest arrives at the user's email
RD Station analyzes that it is a prospect, an ideal possible client and sends personalized emails focused on directing the client to the final phase of the conversion funnel.
Interesting, right? Now is your turn!
2 key aspects of lead nurturing: education and loyalty
One of the main challenges of marketing strategists and directors is to get potential customers , for this reason, the education and loyalty of these prospects is so important .
The main challenge of this lead nutrition is to educate customers before they complete the purchase so that the commercial area contacts the best ones and thus they can make satisfied customers.
Let's take an in-depth look at each area...
For the educational field, the company must focus on giving value or impact to some user need through actions that demonstrate the benefits of the services or products of the business .
This aspect can be presented in the first stage of development, creating educational actions to teach the user the added value of the company.
Customer retention is the greatest desire of companies, but it requires aspects such as communication, customer service and experience during the purchase.
Loyalty focuses on turning that potential customer into a believer in your brand, making not just one purchase, but two, three and as many as they can.
This process is carried out under the strategies of promotions and personalized offers so that the buyer becomes a regular customer, since we know that these actions will create an affective bond between the brand and the customer.
In short, you will be able to make a more humane and efficient process.
How to apply and optimize lead nurturing: steps and tools
These are the steps to implement a lead nurturing system:
online presence
Your future customers must first know about your website and have the best navigation during their instance. It must be easily accessible and attractive.
Social networks must also be on the radar, create reliable profiles with considered traffic in publications.
Note: Don't forget to define your goals under your marketing plan .
Create a workflow
Develop a workflow based on the type of lead and the stage of the conversion funnel.
Organize the plan in accordance with the communication and marketing strategy.
choose the channels
Lead nutrition must be channeled through attractive means for the audience such as social networks, email marketing, among others.
Of course, this information can be obtained from the previous study of your buyer persona.
Analyze what media can work so that your message reaches the most understandable possible.
Note: be careful with "bombing" prospects so much, remember that the main objective is not to disrupt their day-to-day life, but rather for them to look for you to satisfy their needs.
Use automated marketing
Over time you don't play games and for this you must be very proactive and strategist, don't be afraid to use applications that will be a wonderful ally in the long run.
This technology will allow you to simplify marketing campaigns through nurturing leads. With this information you will be able to identify the most relevant content for each user that goes through the conversion funnel.
Automation will make it easier for you to carry out this entire process .
Fall in love with the ideal client
You managed to get that qualified lead, so the next step is to keep them, to make them fall more in love with the brand. You can do it by communicating with him gradually with promotions, special offers, giving him a special role , with the purpose of continuing to buy and speak well of the company.
Some tools for these steps are:
- Email Marketing
- SEO optimization
- Landing Page
- Client list
- A CRM (Customer Relation Management – Customer relationship management)
- Communication triggers
Now, we are going to show you a brief example of what a simple lead nurturing process would look like:
Create a Landing Page with valuable content for the user to register
Create a TYP (Thank You Page) after having done the conversion with the user
Email Marketing: prepare automated and personalized emails with value offers
The marketing and sales team cannot live solely by receiving a certain number of audiences in their attention flow, but by knowing which ones can reach the final part of the sales funnel.
One more thing... this free material is highly recommended!: Marketing Automation step by step 2023 . It will take you to practice how to do lead nurturing automatically :
5 Examples of Effective Lead Nurturing Tactics
Although it is not so easy to understand, strategists like you look for tactics or actions that go beyond the simple paper and can facilitate this process.
So let's see some examples of this lead's tactics:
Content Marketing: strategically nurture content, whether by email or special offers.
Use of tools: contemplate the use of these so that they can serve as support for the initial strategy, such as sales CRM or Marketing Automation, they will make your life easier. This interesting video about What is a sales CRM and what is it for? this will help you.
Have multichannel options: create multichannel strategies that lead you to address all online and offline media. Be careful, you have to know how to identify what type of content works for each channel.
SEM campaigns: segmented advertising according to the profile of your buyer persona and strategically located.
Measure and track: do it at the right time, with the right prospect and message. This way you will know what is being done well and what is not.
These are some of the most used techniques, so evaluate which one can be adapted to what you want to achieve, and to the preferences and needs of the ideal client.
What are you saying? Would you use this methodology?
Let's do it!
To finish… Closing data
- The brands with the most chances of growing are those that understand that users must be given prominence.
- Those companies that nurture their leads generate a sense of importance.
- You have to prepare for a market that is continually advancing, you just have to find those trends and "enjoy" the moment.
- Remember that it is not just having the most leads, but having the best.
- Ask yourself if it is effective and profitable for you and your team to use this technique.
- If you choose the easy route, even an AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot could do the trick, on the surface, but taking the hard route will bring out the best in you as the marketing leader that you are.
- Not only will your clients grow but your company.
- The trick is that if the lead still does not feel ready to make the purchase, it is worth approaching and convincing them.
Always go ahead, if you're wrong, you learn, but try.
