Happy May Day! 

Recently, I've been working on several Nurture Marketing programs for clients, both "starting from scratch" and "retrofit," so I've found myself sharpening my tools and building best practices for taking leads from the top of the funnel all the way to sales-qualified.

So, what exactly is nurture marketing?  Well, it's exactly what it sounds like...it's taking a lead and ever so gently educating him/her over a period of time until they are ready to buy.  Think back to the pre-digital era, when salespeople would stop by your office every quarter with a new catalog. Nurture's not new, it's just evolved.

The idea behind modern nurture marketing (which is typically automated) is that only a small percentage of your inbound leads will convert each month/week/day. But, the remaining leads have incredible qualities, too, such as interest in your space and intent to buy, they just might need a little more time and information.

During that period, you don't want to lose them, especially because you likely spent time and money getting them in the door.  I've worked at a company where it wasn't unusual to nurture a lead for two years before it converted to SQL (sales-qualified lead). There are many ways to "nurture" leads, ranging from direct mail to SMS, but for me, the two baseline tactics for most verticals are retargeting ads and email nurture.

1. Retargeting

I highly recommend retargeting as a nurture tactic. Primarily, because it is the only way to nurture people that have never given you their email address or any other info.  I call these people "pre-leads" or "lurkers," and they likely make up the bulk of your web traffic. Did you know that up to 80% of B-to-B buyers prefer to do all of their product research themselves before contacting a company?  That's these guys.

I usually set up retargeting campaigns on the Google Display Network and now LinkedIn Audience Network.  Both of these options show your company's display ads across a variety of websites.  In LinkedIn's case, you can further segment your "lurkers" by demographics such as company size, job title, and skills, which makes for powerful hyper-targeting.  In the case of Google, you can segment OUT people who went to your careers page, as an example, to keep you from targeting people that will never buy.

2. Email Nurture

One of the marketing tactics that people tend to delay initiating is email nurture. In some cases, it's because they are too focused on filling the funnel for Sales, and sometimes it's because implementing a marketing automation platform is overwhelming and a significant upfront cost. But, I'm telling you, for my clients, email nurture one of the first "requirements" I put on the table before I launch a paid campaign for a client. 

It doesn't have to be difficult. Using marketing automation, a marketer can build insanely complex email marketing programs with dozens of if/then scenarios and countless "streams" or "paths" for various leads to follow.  But for most start-ups, all you need to get started is a few pieces of content, a decent website to display them, and 3-5 emails built to begin nurture marketing.  And, unlike retargeting, email nurture is free. (Given you're already paying for marketing automation to collect leads and content for other purposes like SEO). 

It's important to both of these tactics that you test, refine, repeat.  Figure out what retargeting ads are working and what email messages are engaging, and ditch the rest! Focus on building more of the content that performs, and less of the duds, and your nurture programs will continue to improve.

Nurture marketing is one of the cornerstones of a successful Inbound Marketing strategy. Tackle it efficiently and with your customer's buying journey in mind, and you'll set up your business to reap the benefits of today's campaigns for months or years to come.