Your company now has the world as your playing field. While it can bring revenue in from all around the globe, it also means competition can be from anywhere, especially when other companies have products or services like or similar to yours. Understanding the buyer’s journey is vital in today’s highly-competitive playing field.
- How can your company attract potential customers to become aware of your products or services?
- How can your company engage your visitors to consider your products or services?
- How can your company help customers make the decision to buy from you and remain loyal to your brand?
With today’s advanced AI-technology, companies have the software platforms to create and design exciting customer experiences, while quickly analyzing and tracking results. Establishing leads is vital to any company’s success. It takes a team effort to define a lead management process that will gather and utilize the right information a company needs to attract leads to nurture into sales.
Your Company’s Mission and Vision is Key to Aligning Marketing and Sales
For any company to be successful, every department must keep the company mission and vision in mind. Marketing and Sales are two departments that should work closely together to create and design the information your company needs to attract an audience, engage with pertinent information, and nurture with the personalized information to relay the value behind the products or services for sale.
The support departments, such as customer service and accounting can also give valuable information. Customer data can be gathered and reviewed to learn more about your present customers to help define new leads.
- What potential customers thought about buying?
- What customers bought once and never returned?
- What customers continually return products?
- What customers are loyal and buy the same products? Are there more products they could use?
- What customers bring in the most revenue? What products do they purchase? Do you know why?
- What customers are slow to pay, or are not paying at all? Why?
Buyer Personas Help Determine Your Target Audience(s)
Gathering current customer data will assist marketing and sales staff to bring together vital customer information to begin understanding what customers they want to attract. Creating buyer personas is a creative way to build your marketing strategies to attract the customers most likely to need or want your products or services.
As found on Forbes, building buyer personas are instrumental for “cross-departmental alignment.” To substantiate why it’s imperative for intercompany alignment, all departments have the same vision of the company’s mission and the same idea of the customers the company needs to attract.
Also noted, changing a company’s approach to attract potential customers may also help to obtain positive interests. As the author points out, companies are more likely to start their presentation “about what they do – not, what the customer needs.” How can your company show potential customers your products or services can take care of their “pain or need,” and interest them to want to know more?
Build a Lead Nurturing Strategy
“Lead Nurturing,” as defined on IMPACT, “is the building of relationships with individuals who are not currently ready to buy but could be an ideal customer in the future.” There is a lot more convincing to do before it’s time to “go in for the final sale right off the bat.” The statistics, found in the IMPACT article, prove that lead nurturing works “on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads.”
Step One: Personalize the Marketing Approach
You know the customers you have and need to retain. Now, you have the potential customers you hope to attract.
Email can be a powerful way to attract potential customers. The key is to send out e-mails with personalized and pertinent information to customers that will prove you know you have the products or services that they need or want.
Also important; Don’t blast customers with emails too often. There is no magic number, as reported on Entrepreneur, but a company needs “find the sweet spot” by analyzing the email results.
While email marketing helps you reach some potential customers, there are other prospects you’re not reaching. Other marketing channels offer additional marketing strategies.
Developing “a multi-channel lead nurture strategy” is vital with today’s technology. Even better, an omnichannel lead nurture strategy is what you can do with today’s technology. Multi- and omnichannel may be similar, but there is a difference.
Step Two: Engage and Follow Up
Education is a strategic way to engage with customers. It gives customers information to consider a company’s products or services. According to the IMPACT article, it’s “one of the most crucial steps in closing the sales cycle.” The second point of the Forbes article also suggests to “host educational webinars and follow up.”
Once customers have clicked to learn more, send out “onboarding emails to educate leads about your products or services to help them get started.” These emails can include links to educational videos with information to directly contact a member of the sales team.
Timely and personal follow up can be critical to earning customers’ loyalty. Offering a contact name makes it more personal, even if it’s a sales support person. The sales support staff can send a quick email reply that Jane, or John, Doe will be in contact very soon, and ask for additional information that will help the salesperson be ready to meet or talk with the potential customer.
Customer relations are critical to retain your existing customers. Following up for customer feedback can lead to improving your company’s processes, as well as obtaining new leads. Building customer loyalty can be one of the best ways to market your business.
Step Three: Track the Success, Measure the Results, and Analyze for the Best ROI
Lead scoring is highly-beneficial once customers have decided to purchase your company’s products or services. Tracking, measuring and analyzing will not be able to be done if you’re a start-up company, but the process can be instrumental for established companies.
Lead scoring helps companies see what is working and what is not. Companies can see where they can scale their efforts to prioritize for a better return on investment.
How to Get Started with the Right Content, Data and Technology with Highpurple
In summary, by giving customers an exceptional buying journey establishing a lead nurturing strategy, your company can be successful in engaging potential customers, in helping customers find a solution purchasing your products or services, and in realizing an increase in sales and customer loyalty.
Even though it can seem like an overwhelming project, it can actually be an exciting adventure for your entire company, your present customers and your potential customers. The team at Highpurple can guide your company to power up your marketing funnel through lead generation campaigns, content marketing, and more.
Contact us, and get started on a remarkable adventure, and the results will be exciting. It is our mission for you to promote yours.
