Lead nurturing campaigns usually consist of many levels. They start after successful lead generation and end when the qualified lead has been delivered to the sales department. When it comes to lead nurturing, the potential customer is accompanied from the first time they show interest (i.e. after searching for general information) to when they show concrete interest in the product, after which they are handed over to the sales team which provides them with appropriate offers.
The further along the purchasing process of the prospective buyer gets, the more precise the content is. Be careful here, as this is where the challenge is when it comes to the lead nurturing process: If you contact the prospective buyer with offers too early on, it could scare them off. Therefore, it’s best to gradually provide them with useful information until they feel ready to make a purchase.
Many marketers distinguish between three phases when it comes to lead nurturing:
- Awareness stage: The user recognizes a problem or a need, begins researching, and looks for information to help them understand their problem.
- Consideration stage: The user has understood their problem and is now searching specifically for answers and solutions.
- Decision stage: A solution has been found and the user now has to decide who should help them and which provider they should choose.
In the early phase of the purchasing process, the person interested usually carries out a lot of research and needs a good amount of information. The content offered to them at this point is therefore less product-oriented. In the awareness stage, the contact should be helped to understand their problem. Marketers need to empathize with potential customers, understand their needs, and adjust the nurturing accordingly. Just like with content marketing, it is advisable to bear the appropriate buyer persona in mind. The more information you have for the contact, the more targeted the lead nurturing tactics can be. In the consideration stage, the contact is led in a step-by-step way to solve their problem or fulfil their needs, right up until they are presented with specific offers in the decision stage.