Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing can be defined as a series of tactics and processes designed to build relationships with prospects and customers, even when they aren’t actively looking to buy. Top performing companies implement lead nurturing tactics to set various benchmarks in order to achieve best practices.

The top three challenges that companies face in terms of lead nurturing are:

1.       Developing nurture marketing content

2.       Quality of customer data

3.       Measuring return on investment

Nurture marketing is about using value-added content to build relationships and earn a reputation for your brand as a trusted adviser in the purchase cycle. Creating marketing content in this competitive era could be tricky for businesses. It should be designed in a way that it matches to the emerging trends and yet is not explosive, as it could lead to a hyper-competitive environment. Recent studies show that marketers are seeing diminishing returns from marketing tactics like mass email campaigns. Top performers who embrace lead nurturing excel in market-share growth, revenue growth and customer satisfaction because prospects disregard generic broadcasting marketing communications. Multiple factors like trigger marketing, lead scoring, content marketing, multi-channel engagement, and the use of multiple lead nurturing campaign leverage top companies to maximize ROI.

Use of Lead Nurturing consists of the following:

1.       Value added content that is engaging, captivating along the entire spectrum of the lead lifecycle: from lead to prospect to customer.

2.       Multi-channel communications that will describe your target audience.

3.       Drip-marketing & trigger marketing tactics. With drip marketing, marketers pre-configure the time intervals between communications with prospects.

4.       Lead scoring. Lead scoring is an automated way of aggregating prospect behavior to qualify and determine the propensity to buy.

Since, the buyers have become more informed, it affects their buying decisions. Depending on the organization’s objectives, different nurture marketing tactics can be configured to address different stages of buying cycle.

1.       Revenue from unknown prospects (Leads)

2.       Revenue from known prospects who chose not to buy in the past (Prospects)

3.       Revenue from customers through cross-selling and up-selling (Customers)

Marketing Metrics for Lead Nurturing

1.       Click-through Rate: Click-through rates are a measure of engagement in digital media on the website, email campaigns, landing pages, etc. This is a great way to ascertain how effective different lead nurturing messages are at engaging the right target audience.

2.       Lead Score: Lead scoring assigns numeric scores to prospects based on behavior, activity and profile attributes providing a clear picture to the B2B marketers about the prospects that have a higher propensity to buy.

3.       Conversion Rate: This is used to measure tangible revenue like the engagement and the number of times an asset was downloaded or even a possible visit on a critical webpage.

4.       Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): A metric used to measure a prospect’s propensity to purchase. MQL ensures that marketers are educating and qualifying leads before they are passed to sales.

5.       Campaign Attribution: Campaign attribution tells marketers which campaigns are sourcing qualified leads and the number of leads generated.

According to Gleanster, lead nurturing delivers 4x higher engagement with prospects who are not ready to buy in the short term but still represent viable prospects. That means with the same spend and the same lead volume, your organization could quadruple revenue by plugging the holes in the pipeline with lead nurturing.

Building brands through social recruiting

In a social sphere, word of mouth plays a very significant role. It is necessary that organizations use the social media forum in a very cautious manner. What you publish is what is perceived by your audience. Keeping in mind the demographics of your target groups will make it a little easier to filter the content that will generate more engagement triggering maximum leads for your website. 

Social recruiting is undoubtedly the next-gen recruitment method and is adopted by top companies for not just hiring but also to establish their brand’s identity. Brand is nothing but the impression that you create from your social media presence across the platform.  Based on the current information that you provide about your organization, people form certain opinions and attitudes towards your brand. In order to get that perfect candidate for your company, the portrayal of your business also needs to be enticing enough that will attract the best talent.

A well designed and an appropriately composed branding message increases your brand value in the field of recruitment marketing. "It really has the opportunity to change everything it touches," LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner told Smart Business about social media. "This goes way beyond brand building and customer outreach, which is how many organizations are using social media at a basic level. Leveraging social platforms is going to fundamentally change the way we work and how business gets done. It's going to really revolutionize and disrupt all of it."

Publishing materials on various social media platforms about the upcoming and the emerging trends with respect to your company’s profile provides a better visibility to your brand. The information should not just be relevant, but also should be showcased in a captivating way that will impart a greater picture of your organization.

Talented job seekers visit a company’s page not just to apply for a post but also to assess the company’s profile, stories and organizational messaging. They look for testimonials from the current employees so they get a better idea as to where they are stepping into. Your page talks about the culture you impart at your workplace. It is important that you make the potential applicants see what’s in store for them and how will it impact their professional lives positively. They also need to know how their contribution will help in organizational growth resulting in a better brand positioning.

"Company profiles not only represent who you are and your company's identity, but they enable you to build your talent brands, establish the way in which you're going to recruit and how you recruit, and build word-of-mouth around your products and services," said Weiner. "So identity is an absolute cornerstone." It’s a simple logic that people are very brand conscious. If the recruits develop a sense of optimism towards your strategies, they are more likely to become a part of your organization. Thus, everything boils down to building a brand for your business and creating a unique identity that sets you apart from all the other competitive brands existing in the industry.

When you are posting an opening in your social media page, ensure that you make it more personalized, Eg: Sending out a thank-you message as soon as the applicant submits the form. This emphasizes on the fact that you value their contribution and that people come first when compared to work.

Maximum utilization of social media strengthens your company not only by giving you the best of recruits but also leaves an indelible brand image in your target group’s minds.