You rarely see products or services that truly stand out. Most are regurgitations of the same thing with little iterations. But still, some businesses just sell better. What sets them apart?
We could attribute their success to several factors—the most important being their customer-business relationship.
How businesses engage and nurture their audience in fiercely competitive markets becomes the deciding factor. That’s where a lead nurturing campaign comes in. Let’s run through it.
- What is a lead nurturing campaign?
- Why is a lead nurturing campaign important?
- What tools are necessary for running a lead nurturing campaign?
- Lead nurturing campaign examples
What is a Lead Nurturing Campaign?
Lead nurturing is how you engage with leads in each stage of the purchasing journey. Remember, even when leads show interest, that doesn’t mean you’ve made a sale. That’s why we run lead nurturing campaigns.
It should be an integral part of every inbound and outbound marketing strategy. Inbound lead nurturing, like content marketing, develops your brand image and teaches your audience about your business and what you can provide. But relying on this alone won’t move the needle.
You need a proactive approach to grow and scale—enter outbound lead nurturing. Cold emails, newsletters, and email marketing get your business directly in front of your audience. But to bring value, you need to give it, making lead nurturing that important.
Why is a Lead Nurturing Campaign Important?
Lead nurturing shifts invasive sales approaches like cold emails into something more customer-centric. This always works in your favor because customers nowadays want to make better, more informed purchase decisions. Lead nurturing provides this critical information.
Businesses that effectively nurture leads and provide value build customer loyalty. That’s what transforms a customer base into a community. Nurturing keeps you top-of-mind by sharing crucial information with your leads that helps them make informed purchasing decisions.
What Tools Are Necessary For a Lead Nurturing Campaign?
Running a lead nurturing campaign takes a lot of work. You can’t do it manually. So, consider using the following automation tools to help streamline the process:
Lead Finder Tools
If you want to nurture leads into paying customers, you have to find them first. You can get leads from lead capture pages, inbound marketing campaigns, or through lead finder tools. Once you’ve built your lead list, it’s time to reach out.
Email Automation Tools
Email marketing is one of the best ways to nurture leads. You can start drip email campaigns, nurture subscribers with a newsletter, or send follow-ups with the help of email automation tools.
But successfully nurturing leads isn’t as simple as automating email schedules or follow-ups. There are prerequisites you need to do to ensure high deliverability rates and to protect your sending accounts, such as email warmups. For that, Instantly has you covered.
With unlimited warmups and email accounts, you’re ensured that every nurturing campaign has low bounce rates, high deliverability, and high open rates.
Content Creation Tools
Inbound lead nurturing campaigns, like content marketing, require you to have tools that assist you in content creation. Think of things like Photoshop, Canva, or Premiere Pro. These digital marketing tools are also necessary in every marketing campaign.
Sales Tracking Tools
Customers go through different sales funnel stages before making a purchasing decision. Sales tracking tools help you manage and see where the leads are in the funnel. This helps your team curate and tailor content that resonates best with them during nurturing campaigns.
These tools assist you in tracking the performance of your nurturing campaigns, enable your team to create a more optimized sales pipeline, and, more importantly, provide insight into lead data and buying intent.
Lead Nurturing Campaign Examples
Nurturing campaigns can occur in every stage of a lead’s purchasing journey. Even after we convert a lead to a customer, we still need to continue nurturing and providing post-purchase support. Here are some lead nurturing campaign examples covering each sales process stage.
Brand Introduction Nurturing Campaign
Every cold email campaign should start with a solid brand introduction. It helps create great first impressions and instills brand awareness, trust, and authority.
Brand introductions typically start with a cold or prospecting email, followed by automated follow-ups or user-triggered responses, and then nurturing content based on user preference.
The content you send to your leads should provide immediate value. Here’s an example template you can play around with:
“Hey, {{First name}},
Running through {{pain point}} is one of the biggest hurdles for start-ups like {{Company}}. It took {{Competitor}} {{amount of time}} to find a solution.
That’s why {{Your company}} developed a simple system to address the issue. We used the system for {{Competitor}} and got {{benefit 1}}, {{benefit 2}}, and {{benefit 3}}.
Since your businesses are similar, we thought we could do the same for {{ Company}}. Here’s our case study on {{Client}} and three others.
The case study might get a bit technical. We're happy to schedule a meeting if you want to get a detailed rundown of how we can do the same for you.
Does this sound good to you? We attached a Calendly link so you can schedule a meeting at your convenience.
Thanks in advance,
{{Your Name}}”
Welcome Email/Onboarding Nurturing Campaign
Got new clients, customers, or newsletter subscribers? Give them a quick rundown of what to expect with a welcome or onboarding email nurturing campaign.
Post-purchase support is absolutely necessary, and it should always begin with a welcome email. Then, throughout the week, your next emails should give supplementary info on the product/service your customers/clients purchased. Here’s an example from DottedSign.
In this email, DottedSign also took the opportunity to showcase their blog, give links to tutorials, and a link that redirects you to your profile.
Newsletter Nurturing Campaign
Newsletters are excellent for nurturing leads who are already interested in your offerings. They keep your business top-of-mind, provide value to leads, and nudge leads further down your sales pipelines.
Since newsletters are part of your inbound marketing campaign, you need leads to sign up or subscribe to them first. For that, you’d want to optimize your lead capture pages.
Regarding content, your subscribers should be segmented based on their interests and what they value most. Here’s an example from the startup tracker, Gravity:
In this newsletter, Gravity gives subscribers a heads-up on the latest startups that launched, making it extra valuable for people in SaaS looking for new clients who may need their products.
Free Trial Nurturing Campaign
Leads who get a free trial of your product/service are a few steps away from converting into a sale. But, you have to guide them to that purchase with a free trial nurturing campaign.
Here’s an example from Grammarly.
The free trial lasted one week. Every day during that week, Grammarly sent material that reviewed the features and benefits premium users received and explained how to make the most of the app.
Two days before the trial ends, Grammarly sends a reminder and gives you options to change your payment settings or request a cancellation.
Renewal Campaign
Renewal campaigns are effective when handling lead segments about to finish their free trials or customers whose trials need renewal. Here’s an example from ExpressVPN
Not only does ExpressVPN remind you that your trial has expired, but it also gives you the features and benefits you’d miss out on.
With email marketing tools like Instantly, users can automatically send leads in the free trial nurturing campaign into a renewal campaign.
Product Promotion Nurturing Campaign
Developing a robust email list of newsletter subscribers is no easy feat, but once you have it, you can easily promote your new products, discounts, or events.
Here’s an example from Pixlr’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions campaign. Their emails during this seasonal event include key user benefits and take advantage of FOMO (fear of missing out).
Unfortunately, this email wasn’t found in our main inbox. It was automatically categorized into Gmail’s “Promotions” tab. Email service providers, like Gmail, can easily spot these promotional emails. Lucky for us, there are strategies for avoiding the Promotions Tab.
Feedback Requests
Getting customer feedback is always a win-win situation. You engage with leads, gain valuable insight on improving your products, and stay top-of-mind.
Asking for feedback also shows that you care for your community. This ultimately leads to a more loyal customer base. Here’s a simple example from Cloudways.
The email has no fluff, uses plain text with no fancy HTML graphic design, and is timed perfectly (right after signing up for a premium account free trial).
Key Takeaways
Lead nurturing campaigns are essential in every stage of a lead’s purchasing journey. To ensure successful campaigns, remember the following best practices:
- Always warm up sending accounts before starting nurturing campaigns
- Nurturing campaigns can start at the top of the funnel all the way to the bottom
- Always track data to improve strategies
- Use the right email marketing tools to help you automate your campaigns
Instantly is the tool for you if you want to create nurturing campaigns for all your lead segments! With a wide selection of automation tools, unlimited warmups, and sending accounts, lead nurturing campaigns are a breeze! Try Instantly for free today!