“Hi, nice to meet you! Let’s get married.” 

That's as crazy as it sounds, but if you’re pushing the wrong message to your leads, this is exactly what they might hear. 

Lead nurturing is like dating. Come to think of it, so is most marketing and sales activity. The technical definition of lead nurturing is the process of developing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel, and through every step of the buyer's journey.

There’s a lot of marketing jargon in that, but essentially it means that you’re attracting customers and turning them into buyers. You want to be able to answer any questions they have and deliver content that is pertinent to them and serves a purpose.

Lead nurturing can be a time-consuming process, but it works. Luckily, there are companies that have built software that make lead nurturing a snap.  

We’re going to take you through five reasons why investing in lead nurturing software will benefit your company.  For an extensive look at how to use video in your marketing automation, download our ebook now!

1. SEAMLESSLY GUIDE BUYERS THROUGH THE SALES FUNNEL

The buyer’s journey is the process that your buyers go through when they decide whether to purchase your products or services. The three primary stages of that journey are:

1. Awareness
2. Consideration
3. Decision

Let’s look at Hubspot’s definitions of the buyer’s journey.

During the Awareness stage, buyers identify their challenge or an opportunity they want to pursue. They also decide whether or not the goal or challenge should be a priority.

When a buyer is in the Consideration stage, they have clearly defined their goal or challenge and have committed to addressing it.

Lastly, in the Decision stage buyers have already decided on a solution category but not a solution provider. For example, they could write a pro/con list of specific offerings and then decide on the one that best meets their needs.

Lead nurturing software is extremely helpful when you’re trying to move leads through the funnel. You can set up the software to know what stage of the buyer's journey your lead is in based on the actions they take, so that you can easily send them content and information that is most beneficial to them at that time. 

Your software is only as good as the content you use with it, so keep that in mind. Remember that viral content blog we had? We talked about social currency, which basically refers to creating content that makes your company look like an expert. That’s the kind of content you’ll want to have at your disposal to deploy in your lead nurturing process.

An important part of guiding your buyers through the funnel is doing it in a timely manner. With this type of software, you’ll also be able to offer immediate response to inquiries. You can set up automatic replies to customer questions so that your sales team can keep focused on their current activities, instead of flooding their inbox with inquiries. 

2. YOU’LL STAY TOP OF MIND

Let’s jump back to that dating example. If you go on one date with someone but don’t talk to them for weeks on end, you’re probably not going to have much luck getting another date. Lead nurturing will help you stay in touch with your leads on a consistent basis.

Again, not everyone has time to check in with a lead as often as they should, nor do we have a bazillion sales people to do that for us. But we can use lead nurturing software to set up triggers and checkpoints to reach out to leads who we have, or haven’t, heard from in a while. This also cuts back on being “salesy” or needy since you’ll have a consistent timeline and triggers that will make your lead feel like they’re initiating the conversations.

An added bonus is that your follow-ups and outreach will provide leads with valuable information through email, social, and other platforms. This opens the door to increase your engagement and brings in the opportunity for expanding your reach through social sharing.

3. YOU GET INSIGHTS AND INFORMATION

Our nerdy side also enjoys these software platforms because you can find out exactly where your leads are jumping out of the funnel. You’ll be able to track sales and conversions easily and all in one place so you can see what works and what doesn’t.

With the information you gather, you’ll also be able to create segments to help create more personalized and accurate content. For example, you might have a lead that drifted to your site from social media and if your automated introduction to them says, “Thanks for your call,” you’re putting up a red flag right away. 

These software platforms have the ability to track analytics that will help you present your information in a more pleasing and accurate manner. This is all behind the scenes of course, but it makes your company look like it’s got its stuff together. 

4. YOU’LL SHORTEN YOUR SALES CYCLE

I don’t know of any CMO or sales manager that isn’t looking for ways to save time and increase efficiency. One study done by Market2Lead shows that companies experience a 23% shorter sales cycle when they use lead nurturing. That’s nearly a quarter of your time back onto your calendar. Uhm, yeah I’ll take an order of that please.

Plus, you won’t waste time on leads who aren’t interested or ready to buy your product. Those are what you call unqualified leads, and those guys will clog up your funnel fast if you don’t pay attention to them. 

Another study showed 54% improvement in quota achievement. Essentially, lead nurturing software will help your salespeople do their jobs better.  

5. YOU’LL BRING IN MORE BUSINESS WITHOUT SPENDING MORE MONEY

Another buzzword for your C-Level executives is ROI, or return on investment. You know, getting more bang for your buck, working smarter not harder, or however you want to say it.

Automating and nurturing your leads through the sales process will make it easier for you to reach out to more opportunities while still closing leads that you’ve already got in the pipeline.

It’s been shown to raise conversion rates and to increase the quality of sales that you do make. Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. Not only will you have more time on your hands, but those sales that you do convert will bring in, wait for it, more bang for your buck.

Lastly, effective nurturing and overall customer satisfaction will encourage referrals and lead generation. If you are able to convert leads in a way that is friendly, consistent, and applicable to them, those customers will turn into megaphones for your brand by sharing content on social, forwarding the emails you do send them, and basic word of mouth marketing.

Getting started

Lead nurturing software has a multitude of benefits, but these five are our favorites. You’ll seamlessly guide leads through the sales funnel, stay at the top of your buyer’s mind, learn more about them, shorten your sales cycle, and you’ll have the opportunity to boost that ROI.

So the next thing on your list should be to invest in this type of software. Remember it’s all about creating a relationship with your lead and not scaring them off or turning them away. Give this a try next time: “Nice to meet you, let's get to know each other.”

Our favorite software to nurture leads is definitely HubSpot. As an all-in-one marketing solution, HubSpot just makes marketing a lot easier, allowing us to automate processes left and right, and putting key customer right where it needs to be.

HubSpot offers a ton of options though, and at different price levels, so we put together this buying guide to help anyone who's considering it.