If you have spent time in building your audience of potential clients, then you must have strategies in place to nurture your potential leads. If you don’t, then over time you’ll find your leads will ‘go cold’ and your marketing efforts will go to waste. When you have a lead nurturing strategy, you’ll also stay connected to those leads who are not yet ready to buy from you. You’ll remain top of mind, so that you’ll generate more sales enquiries when they are ready to commit.
1. Email marketing
Sending emails is one of the easiest ways to stay connected and in touch with your prospective clients, and is a must for any business. It is also a very cost-effective marketing activity.
It is a much more personal form of communication and is effective to generate sales enquiries and appointments. Personalising the emails to your recipient make it more personal.
Here are some email strategies that I recommend you implement, including:
- A welcome sequence: A series of 4 – 8 emails that are sent over the first 2 week or so after someone joins your mailing list.
- A weekly broadcast email: A regular email that adds value and keeps you and your business top of mind.
- Sales sequences: These are campaign-related email sequences, sent to people who sign up or show interest in a service that you are selling or launching.
2. Facebook Groups
A great way to build engagement and connect with your prospective clients is via a private Facebook group.
As the ‘host’ of your Facebook group, you can create a community feel by welcoming new members, sharing exclusive content, running polls, and asking questions.
When people comment on your posts, you can start to have a conversation and begin to build a relationship which is critical for making sales.
And it is also a great place to go live and allow your followers to see and hear you which will help to build that relationship faster.
3. Event Marketing
Meeting people in person is a great way to nurture your leads and build a connection.
I encourage you to host events and invite your followers along to either free or paid events.
If you can’t meet in person, then you can also run events online via Zoom or by using webinar technology.
The types of events you run could include:
- Information sessions: These sessions work well for high-priced services, where clients want to do some research before they buy.
- Masterclasses: These events are where you teach people a new skill or provide them with the steps they need to take to complete a task.
- Networking events: These events are an excellent way for you to build community and introduce yourself and your followers to each other.
4. Social Media Marketing
When nurturing your leads via social media, consistency and relevance are incredibly important.
To stay top of mind, I recommend posting as much as you can – every day if possible.
And, to create content that is highly relevant when it comes to what your audience needs and wants.
These posts include those where you ask a question and encourage a response.
Posting videos and going live on social media also gets increased reach and is a great way to nurture your leads consistently.
5. Outreach Marketing
This last strategy involves reaching out directly to people who are on your email list or who follow you on social media.
Start by taking note of those who are engaging with your posts and who are clicking-through on your emails.
These followers are your warm leads and will likely respond positively to your reaching out to them.
There are a few ways that you can reach out, including:
- Liking and commenting on their social media posts.
- Sharing their content to your social media stories and doing a shout out.
- Emailing or sending them a social media direct message with a personal note.
Note that this strategy is not about selling directly; but to create engagement by reaching out, starting a conversation, and nurturing your leads.
Article by Alison Kirk
