One of the biggest challenges for any business is to effectively engage with customers at every stage of the sales funnel. Marketing involves creating leads—the act of identifying potential customers, attracting them, and then eventually converting them into buyers. According to a report, 80% of new leads never convert into sales. For this reason, you must create an effective strategy to avoid losing a potential customer. 

By developing a lead-nurturing campaign, you can build deeper relationships with your customers, which can help boost your conversion rate. According to a report, 80% of potential customers who didn’t make a purchase now will purchase within the next 24 months. You must create an effective lead-nurturing strategy. A full-funnel lead-nurturing strategy can generate up to 50% more sales-qualified leads at 33% lower cost. 

In this article, we’ll learn the difference between lead nurturing and lead generation. Also, we’ll learn why lead generation is important and some effective lead generation strategies! 

Difference between lead nurturing and lead generation

If you want to enhance your lead generation or lead scoring system, then you must know the difference between a lead-nurturing campaign and a lead-generation campaign. These terms might seem similar, but their functions and uses are different. Lead generation refers to the process of generating leads from a traditional lead generation strategy, such as SEO, content writing, social media marketing, etc.  For example, if you want to increase your Instagram followers, then you must plan a lead generation campaign.

Lead nurturing, on the other hand, involves the use of qualified leads, those who have shown interest in your brand, to boost sales or online traffic. Lead nurturing can begin only once you have collected enough leads through lead generation campaigns. The goal of the nurturing campaign is to convert these leads into paying customers. It requires an in-depth understanding of the interests and preferences of your already targeted audience. 

Why is lead generation important?

People rarely make a purchasing decision after interacting with your brand for the first time. Hence, you must nurture them to convert them into a paying customer. Your potential customer can find you through an online search. According to a report, online searches are often the first touchpoint for customers searching for products. However, finding you on a search engine result page alone is not enough to motivate customers to make a purchase. They might look for substitutes and compare your products with them. If they continue to interact with you, then each additional touchpoint you built is an opportunity to nurture the lead. Lead nurturing helps in taking your customer from the awareness stage to the final stage of decision making. 

According to a report, a well-thought-out lead-nurturing strategy can attract 50% more sales-ready leads at a lower cost. A lead-nurturing campaign can take various forms. To achieve your goals, it is important to select the right strategy. Here are some of the lead-nurturing campaigns that you can use to engage with your leads.

• Welcome Campaign: Once the prospects have signed up for the email list by filling out the form or showing interest in your brand, send them a welcome email series to introduce yourself and your services to them. 25% of marketers feel that lead-nurturing campaigns are the most effective top-of-funnel demand generation tactics. 
• Re-engagement Campaign: Leads fall off at every stage of the sales cycle. A re-engagement campaign can help you reconnect with them. To re-engage them, you can use new product information, 
• Product Campaign: When your leads know more about your services then consider an email that provides in-depth information about your brand. 68% of marketers use ultra-valuable content to nurture leads. 
• Promotional Campaign: It is used in the final stage of the sales process. Where you push to close the deal by offering discounts, promotion codes, etc. 
• Multichannel Campaign: No lead will spend their entire time on one platform. You must track customers across different platforms and provide multiple touchpoints so that they consider you.

Effective Lead Generation Strategies

There are many lead generation strategies; choose the strategies wisely so that you can achieve your marketing goal. 

• Target Content: In lead nurturing, one content doesn’t fit all. You must target your audience or leads with targeted content that can improve the engagement rate. Understand each unique buyer persona. Then design a unique content strategy that aligns with their interests, preferences, goals, etc., and having marketing automation further improves the situation. 
• Multi-channel Lead Nurturing: Earlier, lead nurturing strategy was easy, where you had to set up a simple drip campaign that would send generic emails to your audience. Today, marketers are looking for new, unique, and innovative strategies. With the help of marketing automation, marketers can move beyond their one location. An effective lead-nurturing campaign includes a variety of tactics such as interactive website content, social media, paid retargeting, etc. 
• Lead Scoring: This methodology is used to rate the prospects on a scale that represents the perceived value each lead represents to your business. It can be used in most marketing automation platforms by assigning a numeric value to certain website browsing behaviour, social media interaction, conversion events, etc. The resulting score helps in determining how much effort you should put into pursuing a lead. It also helps in knowing which leads require more effort, while those who are ready to purchase. 
• Align Strategies: Make sure your sales and marketing strategies align with each other, as only then will your customer retention rate increase. Both sales and marketing identify exact stages in the customer journey where the prospects should be transitioned between the teams. You can use different triggers such as lead scoring, workflow enrollment, etc. You can outline these shared expectations, responsibilities in the sales and marketing service level agreement. It helps in keeping both teams accountable. 
• Personalized Email: Email marketing is a highly effective nurturing tool. The personalisation of this tool helps in producing better results. There are many ways to personalize emails to improve a lead-nurturing strategy. You can send trigger emails when a visitor fulfills a task, such as downloading content, clicking on links in an email, visiting certain pages, etc. By combining behavioural trigger emails with personalization, you can deliver relevant messages to relevant leads at the right time. 

Lead nurturing is the building block of a successful marketing campaign. Provide your leads with something that provides value to them and guides them to the next step. Building a strong and meaningful relationship requires time and effort. Customers won’t buy from you just like that; you have to nurture them. Lumia 360 helps in formulating innovative lead-nurturing strategies to boost the conversion rate and sales. If you want more help on lead nurturing strategy, then email us at info@lumia360.com or call us at 514-668-5599. 

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