Lead Nurturing Marketing Automation: How to Get Started

Praveen Kumar

Aug 01, 2024

10 min read

What is lead nurturing?
What is automated lead nurturing?
6 automated lead nurturing strategies and examples
Benefits of automated lead nurturing
Want to reduce your CAC to half?
5 ways automated lead nurturing will grow your sales
How to start using marketing automation for lead nurturing?
Marketing Automation Software Examples
How do we close more leads with lead nurturing?
Conclusion

Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost.

Automated lead nurturing simplifies the process by keeping leads engaged and efficiently moving through the sales funnel. This can make your marketing work a little bit easier.

Keep reading to learn more about bringing marketing automation to your lead nurturing efforts and how an effective lead nurturing strategy can significantly grow your sales.

What is lead nurturing?

Lead nurturing is developing relationships with potential customers at every stage of their buying journey.

In B2B SaaS, marketing automation involves understanding their needs and providing valuable content and timely follow-ups.

This approach supports lead generation by guiding leads with personalized communication until they are ready to purchase. Effective lead nurturing builds trust and keeps your brand top of your mind.

What is automated lead nurturing?

Automated lead nurturing refers to using automation tools to engage potential leads through various stages of the buyer’s journey.

A lead nurturing system is essential in today's longer sales cycle. It helps develop relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel, maximizing profit and increasing return on investment.

Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. To achieve this, you must start automating tasks such as sending follow-up emails, providing relevant content, and guiding prospects based on their behavior and interactions with your brand.

With automated lead nurturing, companies can reach potential leads at the right moment with the right information, enhancing the chances of conversion.

Businesses can streamline this process by utilizing marketing automation services. These services ensure consistent and personalized communication that drives lead generation and fosters long-term relationships in the B2B SaaS sector.

6 automated lead nurturing strategies and examples

Lead nurturing strategies are essential for prioritizing time, focusing on leads most likely to close, and improving sales lead generation results.

Automated lead nurturing can take many forms. Here are a few practical examples:

Abandoned Shopping Cart Emails: Automatically send an email to remind a potential customer about the items they left in their shopping cart.
Event Reminder Emails: Email a reminder for an upcoming webinar.
Follow-Up Emails After a Micro-Conversion: If a user downloads a guide, follow up with related content or a call to action.
Anniversary Emails for Existing Clients: Send personalized messages to celebrate milestones with your clients.
Re-engagement Campaigns: Target inactive leads with special offers or valuable content to rekindle their interest.
Lead Scoring and Segmentation: A marketing team segments leads into different nurture tracks based on their engagement score.

Benefits of automated lead nurturing

Companies can’t rely solely on manual lead nurturing anymore. Automation is crucial for several reasons:

Non-Linear Purchase Journeys: Today, people take unique paths to become clients, often deviating from the traditional marketing funnel. Automated lead nurturing allows businesses to create multiple journeys based on user behavior, ensuring that leads receive relevant information at the right times without manual intervention.
Multiple Distractions: In a world full of distractions, keeping your brand top of your mind is challenging. Automated lead nurturing helps re-engage potential clients even if they initially lose focus. For example, an automated shopping cart abandonment email can help reclaim lost sales by reminding customers to complete their purchases.
Multiple Stakeholders: Sales decisions often involve multiple stakeholders, especially in B2B scenarios. Automated lead nurturing can address the concerns of different decision-makers by tailoring content to each role, making it easier to persuade the entire decision-making unit.

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5 ways automated lead nurturing will grow your sales

Marketing automation drives a 14.5% increase in sales productivity and a 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead.

Bringing marketing automation to your lead nurturing strategy can significantly boost your sales. Here are five key benefits:

1. Qualify, segment, and nurture leads automatically

Qualifying and segmenting leads manually is time-consuming. Automated lead nurturing software can instantly handle these tasks, allowing leads to enter your nurturing workflow sooner. Introducing a lead scoring model can further enhance this process by ranking prospects and identifying the most qualified leads. This approach, known as lead nurturing marketing automation, can lead to higher conversion rates as you can promptly engage with potential customers.

2. Deliver the right content at the right time with behavior tracking

Successful lead nurturing anticipates a user’s needs. Automation tools can track user behavior and segment leads accordingly. For example, if someone downloads a guide on roofing costs, your system can automatically place them in a segment that receives related content, ensuring they get the information they need when needed. This B2B lead generation strategy, combined with CRM and marketing automation and a well-designed marketing automation workflow , enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of your lead nurturing efforts.

3. Create multiple paths to purchase with multiple lead nurturing campaigns

Marketing automation software allows businesses to build various marketing automation strategies and paths to purchase, accommodating the non-linear nature of today’s buyer journeys. By offering tailored experiences based on user behavior, companies can increase the likelihood of conversion.

4. Ensure lead nurturing happens (without the manual effort) with an automated process

Lead nurturing is essential for capturing sales, but manual processes can easily be neglected. Automating your lead nurturing ensures that every potential client receives timely, relevant information, moving them closer to a purchase without requiring constant manual effort.

5. Discover what works (and what doesn’t) with automated reporting

Automated lead nurturing tools provide real-time data on performance metrics such as open and click-through rates, enhancing SaaS marketing automation . This immediate feedback allows businesses to adjust their strategies quickly, optimizing lead nurturing efforts to improve conversion rates continually.

How to start using marketing automation for lead nurturing?

Ready to implement marketing automation for lead nurturing? Here’s a step-by-step guide to get you started:

Choose Your Goals: Decide whether you want to nurture existing leads, revive inactive ones, or both.
Audit Your Lead Generation Strategy: Review your current offers and methods for attracting leads.
Determine Your Audience Filters: Identify criteria for segmenting your audience, such as their position in the buyer’s journey. Collaboration between sales and marketing teams is crucial to effectively targeting, nurturing, and converting leads.
Outline Your Nurturing Pathways: Map out the actions that will move users from one stage to another.
Repurpose Your Content: Use existing content like blog posts to create nurturing emails.
Test Your Campaigns: Use A/B testing to optimize elements like email subject lines and content.

Marketing Automation Software Examples

Use marketing automation tools to target various goals, which are highly customizable. One key aspect is guiding leads through different sales funnel stages, such as interest, awareness, and consideration. Here are a few examples to inspire you:

Welcome Emails: Once you have a lead’s contact information, send an email. This can introduce your brand, offer the next steps, or just say thank you.
Social Proof Emails: Send customer reviews or highlights of top sellers to build trust and encourage purchases.
Discount Offers: Offer new leads a discount to boost first-time purchases. This can be combined with interactive experiences like quizzes to personalize the offer.
Product Education: Use drip email sequences to educate leads on using your product, highlighting key features and success stories.
Customer Preference Collection: Use emails to learn about leads’ preferences, which can help personalize future communications.
Abandoned Cart Emails: Send reminders to potential customers about items left in their cart, including links to complete the purchase easily.

How do we close more leads with lead nurturing?

Automated lead nurturing can transform your sales process, making it more efficient and effective. If you feel overwhelmed by developing and launching an automated lead nurturing strategy, consider seeking professional help.

Personalized Content: Use lead generation and marketing automation to deliver personalized content that addresses the target audience's needs and pain points. This builds trust and positions your brand as a thought leader.
Timely Follow-Ups: Implement email marketing automation to send timely follow-ups after a lead engages with your content. Prompt responses show your commitment and keep the lead moving through the sales funnel.
Educational Resources: Provide valuable resources such as whitepapers, case studies, and webinars demonstrating your product's ROI and benefits. Educated leads are more likely to convert.
Lead Scoring and Prioritization: Use marketing automation to score and prioritize leads based on their engagement and behavior. Focus your efforts on the most qualified leads to increase your close rates.

Also, a sales rep can play a crucial role in lead follow-up, relationship-building, and initial conversations with leads in the awareness stage of the sales funnel.

Conclusion

Automated lead nurturing is a powerful tool that can help businesses reach potential leads with the right information at the right time.

By automating your lead nurturing process, you can qualify, segment, and nurture leads more efficiently, deliver tailored content, create multiple paths to purchase, ensure consistent lead nurturing, and gain valuable insights through automated reporting. Start leveraging marketing automation for lead nurturing today to grow your sales and improve customer engagement.

By integrating marketing automation into your lead nurturing efforts, you can enhance your ability to connect with potential clients throughout the buyer's journey, provide them with the information they need, and ultimately increase your sales.

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