How automated lead nurturing can supercharge your sales pipeline?
Only a fraction of the visitors to your website will take the action you are hoping for the first time they visit. Regardless of if it is signing up for a newsletter, requesting a quote, or making a purchase, numerous businesses struggle with nurturing leads until they are ready to convert, often interrupting people with sales calls or sending unwanted content at the wrong time. Many of the top web development firms understand how automated lead nurturing can supercharge your sales pipeline.
Marketing Automation and Email Marketing are very important to the overall success of marketing plans in today’s fast-paced multi-channel environment. Using automated lead nurturing as part of a campaign ensures that each and every lead gets a quick response and just as important, isn’t forgotten.
According to Gleanster Research, 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. Those leads need time to develop, often with work on your end to help showcase why your products or services are the answer they need for their problem. Automated lead nurturing is the solution because no matter how long your sales cycle is, the process will deliver timely content to keep people moving along the sales funnel towards a conversion.
What is Automated Lead Nurturing?
By definition, lead nurturing is building relationships with potential clients even if they aren’t currently ready to buy a product or service. It has been part of the marketing process for decades and per a DemandGen report has shown that on average lead nurturing results in a 20% increase in sales opportunities compared to non-nurtured leads.
Automated lead nurturing utilizes technology to provide systematic tracking of leads and their placement within the sales cycle which in turn allows automated content delivery at the right stage in their journey. Leads don’t get lost and contact opportunities take place at the right time rather than too soon or too late to make a difference.
Done properly, it is a way to grow revenue because you will produce more sales-ready leads at a lower cost.
How can it Benefit your Sales Pipeline?
Automation of certain tasks is almost always a benefit to a business because it frees up time for employees to focus on other areas of importance rather than somewhat menial tasks. Specifically, when it comes to your sales pipeline the benefits are:
- More time for closing – Automation allows the sales team to spend less time educating leads to your products and services, their benefits, and how they can solve a leads’ problems. That aspect is handled with timely content delivery so by the time a lead reaches the sales team the focus is on closing the deal rather than spinning their wheels with leads that aren’t ready and possibly are annoyed by the sales contact.
- Problem identification – With automation and the subsequent reporting ability you can find problem areas quickly to help keep your sales funnel running as smoothly as possible. For example, there could be an area in the funnel where leads sit too long which would be resolved with better content that addresses whatever barrier is causing the delay.
- It works 24/7 – A big benefit of automation is that it can run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That means if a customer interacts with your content over a holiday weekend, that response is tracked, and they are moved along to the next stage ensuring they are receiving relevant information at the right time even if your office is closed for days.
- Easily scalable – One of the biggest hurdles in scaling a business has to do with mundane tasks. Often the busywork holds a business back when trying to expand. By automating the lead nurturing piece, it is much easier to work with increased leads as salespeople focus on the close rather than the conversion and close.
- Better metrics – Good marketing automation generates very useful data. With information tracking taking place you can use analytics to understand which type of messaging customers respond to, the optimal number of touches required for a conversion, and how various segments behave and respond which then shapes future campaigns.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that automated lead nurturing can supercharge your sales pipeline and by not using or implemented it you risk falling behind the competition. This is one area you don’t want to try and play catch-up because while you are setting up your automation, they will be reaping the rewards and building their business.
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