Not everyone is ready to purchase your product or service during their first visit to your site – that’s normal. The B2B sales process takes time. So, before a prospect turns into a sales-ready lead, it’s beneficial to build trust as they progress through the buyer’s journey. However, unlike B2C marketing, a simple abandoned cart isn’t enough. B2B buyers are more experienced, and their marketing needs to reflect that.

B2B marketers love to generate leads, but without a successful nurture campaign, they’re not maximizing each lead’s potential. A recent study showed that effective lead nurturing generates 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost. And, it’s valuable to sales, marketing, and customer service teams.

I love stats, but I hate this one: 65% of B2B marketers aren’t executing lead nurture tactics. Don’t let this be you. Stop leaving leads on the table and add them to your funnel instead.

First, define your goal

Like any marketing initiative, start with your objective and define the role you want lead nurture to play in your larger marketing strategy. You can have many nurture campaigns in market at any given time, but each should have a unique goal.

Are you aiming to connect with potential customers? Begin with a welcome campaign that makes your brand a pleasant addition to any inbox. Want to provide education instead? Build trust with leads by sharing helpful content like eBooks, webinars, and blog posts. Looking to secure a client who is deciding? Product demos or promotional emails are effective methods to gain more clients. Focused on keeping clients? Launch an onboarding campaign or collaborate with your customer service team to create helpful content for clients.

Keep the buyer’s journey in mind when building your lead nurture funnel by aligning lead nurture activities with the stages of the buyer’s journey. By following the buyer’s journey, you’ll construct a well-thought-out flow that will push leads through the sales funnel in a more thoughtful way.

Next, Segment

The more personalized your content the better. So, the more information you have on a prospect the better. Think beyond the buyer’s journey and get personal with your prospects.

For example, we may segment our nurture flows by industry, job title, or marketing interest. Armed with this info, we could send personalized content to a marketing manager at medical device manufacturer who is struggling with getting digital campaigns in market.

Let the data show you where to invest

I wasn’t lying when I said that I love data. I extra love it when it gives you insights into your customers and your marketing. The data that you collect from your lead nurture campaigns will give your team a deeper understanding of your customer. You’ll learn what messaging resonates best and what nurture tactics lead to conversion. Lead nurture data will also close gaps between marketing and sales teams by giving valuable sales-focused insights – think close ratios, sales cycle length, pipeline data, and retention numbers.

Dive into the data and analyze the success of each of your campaigns. Get started by asking yourself:

  • What campaigns are the most/least successful?
  • What do successful campaigns have in common?
  • What content types are the most/least successful?
  • What segments convert rapidly?
  • What segments drive the most ROI?

Now, get started

Get planning! Start mapping out your campaign goals and segmenting your prospects. If it’s your first lead nurture campaign, start small with a welcome campaign that introduces leads to your brand and your content. As your campaign progresses, start with small asks to get more personalization data. Before you know it, you’ll be your sales teams’ favorite marketer.