If you’re like most marketers, you’re always looking for ways to improve the value of your lead generation efforts. While there are a variety of ways to do this, one of the most effective approaches is to nurture leads until they’re ready to buy. The more refined your approach is to nurturing the prospects already in your pipeline, the better your results.

But if you’re new to the concept, building an effective lead nurturing program can be difficult. In a recent article from Software Advice - a marketing automation technology research firm - HubSpot Product Marketing Manager Jeffrey Russo shared three best practices that HubSpot use to nurture their leads. Here’s a look at some of their tips.  

Given how the Internet has empowered buyers, marketers have to shift away from self-centered content and provide information that’s useful to their buyers. One successful campaign for HubSpot is The Marketer’s Guide to Salesforce, which they came up with after learning that many of their potential customers are Salesforce users.

The ebook breaks down Salesforce terminology, explains data objects (e.g., account, campaign, event), how a typical Salesforce environment works etc. It also covers the methodology and best practices behind topics like lead scoring, sales and marketing alignment and ROI tracking. This type of content saves their potential customers a lot of time and is very useful. It’s been downloaded more than 8,000 times and has helped HubSpot win many new customers.

2. Segment your audience to improve results

HubSpot segments their audience based on marketing persona and life cycle stage. There are three main personas that HubSpot uses to create useful content to nurture leads.

HubSpot then combines these personas with the prospects lifecycle stage, or where they are in the buying cycle. Here’s an example of how they nurture leads for the Marketing Mary persona after they know this type of prospect is considering a purchase. 

3. Don’t rely purely on email lead nurturing

Although marketers are getting better at personalising email communication, it’s important to do the same with your marketing messages outside of email as well. You don’t want show every website visitor the same static and generic message that may or may not apply to them.

One way to personalise marketing messages on your website is to use Dynamic Calls to Action (CTAs). HubSpot, for instance, uses these to keep from prompting leads to sign up for a newsletter they’re already subscribed to, or invite a current user to learn more about their software. HubSpot does this by setting up visitor rules that will display a CTA based on where a prospect is in their buying decision. Below is an example. 

Take your lead nurturing one step at a time

If you’re just getting started with lead nurturing, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. The key is to start with the end goal in mind and go after your biggest groups of leads first, scaling incrementally. That way, you can learn as you go and don’t feel like you’re taking on a massive project from the ouset.

Do you have any tips for improving your lead nurturing campaigns? Leave a comment below.

About Concentric Marketing

Concentric Marketing is an inbound marketing agency and a Gold Level HubSpot Agency Partner. If you would like to know more, or to arrange a no obligation review of your website and current marketing, please just call 0845 034 5603 or click here.