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Just like ABM (Account Based Marketing), 2021 is going to see the rise of Intent data.

The force behind the surge of intent data is the accurate and dependable insights that it can provide to b2b marketers. It can help create more upsell opportunities and increase the number of conversions too.

As per Statista, here are some numbers based on use cases that show how b2b technology vendors use Intent Data-

The above infographic shows that intent data is indeed crucial for not one but several b2b sales and marketing activities. It sure is an integral part of every b2b plan.

We partner with Bombora, the leader in intent data, find out more 

So how does intent data help b2b?

In a b2c scenario which isn’t as complex as b2b, the easier part is getting the customer insights. It can happen through an email, through an interaction or following the digital footprints of the customer.

You get to know what the prospect was searching for, understand the needs and even get hold of the sentimental value that the prospect has towards the product.

Now you can simply customize the solution or offer the perfect and suitable product to the customer and win a sale, because most probably the only decision maker is the customer.

Given the same situation in a b2b scenario, things actually work differently.

In the b2b realm there is not one, not two but many decision makers and sometimes across cross functional teams. There are decision makers in every tier of management and then there are the financial stake holders and so on. This can cause delay in decision making and ultimately in the sales cycle too.

B2B vendors have to identify the prospect through multiple levels of search and analysis. They may have to comb through the website visitors, social media visitors, the organization etc. to arrive at a conclusion.

This makes it difficult for b2b vendors to zero-in on one particular prospect who could possibly and ultimately make the buying decision.

Also, there are instances when b2b marketers are faced with the challenge of gauging the intent of buying through random searches done by visitors. It is also very challenging to differentiate between this kind of search and genuine, methodical search that can tell a tale.

So to resolve this problem and address the challenges, one needs a systematic and more accurate analysis and data that can lead to a more streamlined b2b reach.

Intent data has been an emerging trend amid b2b in the past few years. It has all the components of online activity and details of content-consumption done by visitors. This information is then shared cooperatively by data providers with b2b vendors.

Intent data is the lean-on pillar of b2b. It collects data from every single activity conducted by online users, visitors, prospects. It tracks activities that involve content consumption done through downloadable content assets, webinars attended, reviews, online sessions, time spent on social media etc.

Here are some factors that intent data takes into account to produce reliable results-

• Type of content consumed
• Amount of content consumed
• Number of employees consuming content
• Amount of time spent looking up for specific data
• Place and time zones from where the content was consumed or looked up

So what does the future hold for intent data and b2b sales?

Let us first understand how intent data is used in different ways by b2b marketers-

• Reach businesses that have shown keen interest either in the product or service
• To create robust lead scoring models based on the data sought through intent
• To get accurate insights about companies and prospects who are researching the solutions or products
• Identify upsell opportunities or retarget customers

Intent data is indeed the top contender when it comes to b2b research and tools. So when we think of the future and the use of intent data, it is going to be the go-to solution in most cases in b2b.

It is and will be the most reliable source that can help to reduce the time lag between understanding the needs of the prospect, contacting the prospect and catering to his needs with specific solutions.

Intent data signals will help marketers to not just be quick, but more accurate in choosing the right strategy from case to case.

It can even give a more accurate description for creating buyer personas, further narrowing down targeting for better results.

Conclusion-

Just like ABM, Intent data is the undisputable and most preferred tool to be used by b2b vendors in 2021 and also in the future. B2B marketers can reduce the challenges by getting closer to knowing the prospect and thus creating higher chances of converting leads.

Take a look at our recent blog- how to use Intent data to augment b2b sales that discusses some of the goals and challenges of Intent data and the effective ways to optimize Intent data.

Every adversity has some opportunity hidden in it. Owing to continued market fluctuations, unpredictable trends and customer behavior, today the market is still uncertain in terms of sales and marketing performance. A lot needs to be still recovered in terms of ROI. But this can also be a unique opportunity to make things better and focus more on that which is working with the help of some powerful tools.

Intent data can bring much relief from the challenges faced by b2b marketers by leveraging and unleashing its true power.

This blog discusses the various goals and challenges of Intent data and how marketers can optimize its potential to get more business growth.

Transform your business with our data solutions

Goals and Challenges-

The real value of intent data is in how you optimize it to elevate your overall sales, marketing performance and ROI too.

So what are the primary goals of using Intent Data?

The primary goals of intent data are to facilitate effective b2b marketing!

So around 64% marketers give weightage to quality of data and around 43% give importance to the ease of implementation. Only 36% say that the source of data is critical for Intent data to be effective and to be able to bring in the desired results. (resource Ascend2)

We partner with Bombora, the leader in intent data, find out more 

Intent data can come with some challenges too. Marketers can identify and combat these challenges and can win them over through a proper strategy-

Here are some challenges and apprehensions regarding effective use of Intent Data

One can easily channelize the immense potential of Intent Data by leveraging and accelerating ABM pipeline too. Targeting those accounts with highest level of potential with Intent data can help marketers get good ROI.

Being Specific-

Traditionally marketers often rely on firmographics, demographics and other data that can bring the results but cannot always promise success.

Becoming more specific or focusing more on the demand rather than just leads can help companies to reduce the sales cycle.

Intelligent use of data can often lead to better ROI. Intent data can create better clarity, thus leveraging the efforts and right use of time for better outcomes.

Marketers should remember the following while coupling intent data with other marketing initiatives-

• Relevance
• Purpose
• Precision
• Personalization

What do the signals say?

You may have crafted appropriate strategies, have created great campaigns based on data and all is set to roll out. But what is most critical for success in b2b along with other factors is the need for perfect timing!

One of the most significant things about intent data is the signaling part. Intent data can help guide and tell b2b marketers when to launch a campaign, when to get that email marketing campaign started and when to nurture those leads.

Intent data pave way to the right timing and direction and can be one of the most reliable guides for b2b marketers.

So what are the benefits of Intent Data and how can it be used to leverage and empower b2b sales and marketing-

Uses of Intent Data-

• Personalization
• Email Marketing
• Targeted Ad content
• Crafting relevant content
• Enhancing ABM
• Leveraging Landing Page capabilities

Conclusion-

Marketers can be very hopeful about intent data to ultimately accelerate ROI, but one can only achieve it when one uses efforts to optimize intent data.

Intent data can empower b2b marketing while minimizing efforts and saving time and resources too.

Intent Data is the future as much as personalization is and it can certainly bring more focus and better results if used the right way.

As an experienced b2b marketer you may have been using some lead generation tactics for a long time, yet is it possible that they may not have been fully optimized yet? Sometimes all you need to do is dig deeper into some of the existing techniques and tap into their full potential and you can even tweak some of the existing practices as per the response of the leads.  

So, how do leads usually respond? They either show interest or engage further or they go cold. But each lead is different and so the tactics to be used to lure those leads also have to be unique.

This blog discusses 5 clever lead generation ideas you may not have tried or may have tried but not with a unique approach.

Diverse marketing mix-

There is no sure shot way to success when it comes to lead generation and there isn’t a single channel approach that can bring success either. 

When the audience is diverse and is so heavily distributed, marketers must not leave any potential untapped. Adopting a marketing mix such as combining organic and paid campaigns can add up to the chances of getting leads converted. Using content syndication, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing are the various different ways to make sure all avenues are explored for best results.

Even if you are generating demand, you need to establish brand visibility and offer valuable content assets with an omni-channel presence.

Enhancing the probability of generating or attracting leads is the best possible strategy for b2b lead generation.

Conversations with sales team-

This may seem like the ‘not so significant’ factor involved in lead generation, but cross-functional communication is critical to lead generation success.

Sales team is the one who is in direct contact with the prospects. They know first-hand about the prospect, about the pain-points, challenges and so they know the prospect fully well and about their needs too.

Hence the feedback of sales team is instrumental in shaping current as well as future strategies. This can be a decisive factor, as lot of lead nurturing activities can be shaped as per the feedback from the sales team.

A one-on-one conversation can lead to a lot of more revelations, experience-sharing and insightful discussions that can lead to even creating valuable content assets. All this can support lead generation efforts to maximise the ROI.

Generate demand-

How about investing in generating demand rather than investing time and efforts in traditional methods that make you run behind the leads with no guarantee of returns?

Talk about focused approach and investing in prospects you already know. Think ABM!

Account Based Marketing is therefore one of the most popular ways for converting leads. Focusing on ABM allows you the freedom to not rely too much on getting that email ID, or waiting for that form to be filled.

Simply focus on what you know, on the account and start from there. Design and deliver the best ways and solutions to the focused audience or company and reap the benefits in less time.

Grab your Free E-book for more techniques on lead generation 

Let your website work for leads-

Website is not just a decorative platform; in fact, today it goes even beyond attracting leads. It helps to even convert leads and encourage the visitors to fill in that form you so want them to.

So how do you let your website work for you? Start by making your website less complicated and more self-navigating to direct the users toward engaging more.

Come up with incredible CTAs placed strategically on your webpages. Simply limit the exit options so that your visitors don’t get lost within your website. Keep it simple to help them with quick decision making.

Minimize the exit points on your website by an integrated design and CTAs at each level to keep them engaged and to convert them too.

Make data the lean-on pillar-

Make lead generation more scientific! Using proven methods such as data can be helpful to guarantee results.

Maximise the use of cleansed data for better returns. Channelizing this valuable data can also give you the ROI on data.

Data can used to analyse buyers’ journey. This could give more scope to you to analyse and even up your game each time you decide a strategy to contact your prospect.

Conclusion-

Lead generation needs clever and innovative approaches to help get results. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time, you can simply go back to what you have been doing so far, analyse it and tweak and fine-tune the current ways of implementing the strategies.

In the ever challenging journey of generating and converting leads, did you ever regret losing a lead thinking it was too weak a lead to pursue? Or there may have been times when you thought that a dynamic lead scoring model could have saved you from failing to convert those leads? We all go through these phases and experiences. But what matters is that we learn and implement some practices that stop us from failing again.

Grab those leads and turn them around for success. Here’s a blog that shows you just to how to do that

Know more about our lead generation services

Turn around the weak leads-

So what are weak leads? If strong leads or good leads are the ones that have shown interest in buying your services or products, weak leads are the ones that aren’t so keen on buying from you.

Weak leads may not have landed on the landing page; they may not have filled in that form or downloaded any content asset. However, while you nurture and purse good leads, at the same time, you cannot entirely give up on weak leads. You can or need to warm up to them to help them develop an emotional connection with your brand.

Prioritize weak leads and generate demand that matches with the needs of these leads. This way you will enhance the chances of converting these weak leads into strong ones.

Keep up with the purchase cycle-

You have to keep up with the pace of the purchase cycle. Without this you may lose track and eventually lose the grip on knowing your customer and his journey.

Today’s age is dynamic and digital too and this gives ample amount of choice to customers to make up their minds and change their minds often too.

All this has created a very unpredictable environment when it comes to purchasing and predicting customer behaviour and preferences.

These purchase cycles and its patterns provide invaluable data to you about your customers and prospects. This is a gold-mine for every b2b sales and marketing professional as this can lead to generating demand and driving good leads to you.

Therefore, keeping up with the purchase cycle can help a lot in converting leads.
 

Dynamic lead scoring structure-

It’s very important that your lead scoring models match your business objectives. Lead scoring can be very helpful when it comes to focusing on certain leads including the weak leads. A dynamic lead scoring model also allows you to know if you are putting the right efforts in the right direction that can save a lot of your time and costs too.

Conclusion-

Goals mean nothing if they exist without a string strategy. Unless they are backed up with relevant and wise practices to make them work, they will not get you the desired results. Lead generation is such a stream that it needs constant innovative practices to match up with the changing market landscape and business objectives too.

Data is one of the most valuable assets of b2b organizations. If the quality and timely availability of data is undermined, it can hamper the lead generation process and thus impact the ROI. Such is the importance of data!

Data can be the internal decision maker for any b2b organization that is involved in lead generation and demand generation services.

Data, if it’s a limited resource within the organization it definitely needs scrutiny, filtering and polishing and it becomes all the more important to leverage and optimize this valuable resource that can impact sales and leads.

So what can one do to ensure that data quality is optimized? Take a look at these parameters of data that can literally decide the fate of your leads!

Here are some decision making factors that one cannot ignore when it comes to data-

• Accurate data- Data that is validated and filtered can bring in good results
• Data aligned with business goals- If you have quality data but it is not aligned with business goals and objectives it cannot get the desired results
• Relevance of data- Relevance of data can determine whom you are going to communicate with and what. This factor can save a lot of time and effort
• Trustworthiness- Data that is trustworthy or reliable is the real valuable data that can actually optimize your other efforts to elevate ROI

So before we move ahead to discuss the 3 most important practices to optimize data, let us see how one can get the best out of data-

• Define data well to know if you have what it takes to nurture those leads
• Get your business goals well defined too, because this is how you will know whether the data you are using is relevant and useful
• Get the data processes and systems in place as this can affect  data cleansing, filtering, treatment and data-readiness before you use it
• Check the results of your previous campaigns that used particular data sets. The metrics of these results can tell you a lot about whether you are using the right data or not
• Last but not the least; create a data ambience in the organization. Let each function and all cross functional teams know the value of data before you optimize it

When everyone in the organization understands the importance of data and there is a proper ambience that exists to validate, guard and utilize data for the right audience, strategies and practices of data can further help in optimizing data-

Who governs data?

Some of the unobvious questions such as who governs the data in your organization can be the first step in creating good data solutions. Data governance is an equally important aspect as data cleansing.

Data governance says a lot about who is responsible for data maintenance, data cleansing and data relevancy and if all these factors are set to come under data governance in your organization.

A lot can come under data governance. Data policies if any or being accountable for all data solutions and outcomes, data transparency, relevance and other protocols need to be set for maximizing data efficiency.

The process of optimizing data starts with analysis and ownership.

Which parameters decide the quality of data?

So does each one involved with data know about the parameters on which the quality of data is going to get decided? It’s very important that both sales and marketing teams are on the same page when it comes to knowing and deciding certain quality parameters when it comes to data.

Each customer is unique and so is his business. Thus, data that is unique to that particular business can also be counted as quality data. Data cleansing, filtering and treating data for checking its relevance in time and in terms of target audience are important parameters to determine the quality of data.

Quantity data without quality cannot serve the purpose of your business objectives. Quality of data therefore is extremely important when it comes to any campaign that is being planned for lead generation or email marketing etc.

How does Data cleansing determine data success?

Data is often lying around in files, documents, database systems etc. sometimes for years. Everyone might think there is a lot of data available but all data is not useful data.

Data that is scrutinized, cleansed, filtered, treated to validate its relevance. It can help understand whether the people with the corresponding data are still with the respective organizations or are they still the decision makers etc. and more factors determine the real value of data.

Hence data cleansing is one of the most critical parameters or practices that can determine the quality of data.

Conclusion:

Data is a solution today and it cannot be ignored, taken for granted or left untreated. It has huge impact over the overall business and ROI of any b2b or any other organization for that matter. Trained personnel, creating an ambience of data matching, quality and quantity management are the other practices that can help optimize data solutions.

B2B organizations have realized that personalization is the key to getting more customers, retaining customers and building strong relationships that work long term. Marketers are now no longer looking for short-termed solutions. Acquiring new customers is a lengthy process, however, retaining customers and nurturing them with personalization creates stronger and long term business ties that can give better ROI.

Personalization has been in vogue for quite some time and b2b marketers and organizations are yet to see its full potential. Here is a blog that talks about some of the best techniques to strengthen personalization in b2b.
 

360 degree view of customer:

Having enough knowledge of the attributes of the customer, his inclinations, his likes and dislikes, his preferences, the buying history, geographical influences, family and their influences and much more can give a 360 degree view of the customer. This in fact is at the very core of b2b sales and marketing success.

The data you seek needs to be essentially about these details about the customer. For example, if a prospect’s family prefers a certain service provider for a longer duration, chances are they have developed loyalty toward that brand for some reasons.

As a marketer, if you look into their buying history and analyze details of why they prefer a particular brand, product or service, it can give a clear idea of their needs. This data can help marketers reconfigure their approach, communication and even customize services to suit the needs of the customer. Hence, personalization becomes significant when it comes to not only capturing the attention of the prospect but to also to convert them into business.

Content assets based on analytics:

Analytics and analysis of data plays a huge role in deciding the right strategy for the right customer. Technology too is invariably important in predicting and analyzing customer behavior. But when you combine technology with human instinct, experience and expertise, you will most likely get the best results when it comes to lead conversion. Analytics can help create buyer personas and mapping out buyer journeys etc.

Analysis of customer profiles and creating ideal customer profile helps in creating effective content assets to enhance personalization. Content assets and personalization are inseparable. Content assets such as white papers, e-books, infographics etc. can go a long way in starting conversations, creating scope of connecting on a personalized level for better understanding of the customer and much more.

Email marketing:

Personalization would be incomplete without email marketing! In fact, email marketing is one of the most effective tools when it comes to personalization. Email marketing can have a massive impact on ROI and this comes with effective messaging, communicating the right offers to the right prospect at the right time. Email marketing can widen the reach of your marketing efforts and can help you to tap the target audience for better ROI. It can help you to make to communicate in a more personalized way with decision makers so that you can influence their buying decisions reducing your sales cycle.

Conclusion:

Personalization is the key to successful marketing and sales in 2021. This is the most accepted and the most effective way to communicate with your clients, customers or prospects. It can help build long term relationships and can foster them for better results. Making a wise choice of channels or social media platforms to personalize communication can be a game-changer for b2b.

Customer is king! This is a well-known truth and it has been prevalent for as long as businesses have been in existence. The only thing that has changed is the approach of the customer itself. Today’s customers are quick to change, have dynamic choices, are tech-savvy and most of the times clear of what they want and whom they want to get it from. Whether it is a service or a product, they study many aspects before approaching a marketer. Today customers exhibit certain digital and social media behaviours which are valuable data for any marketer who wants to capture their attention.

Customer data captured from various sources can be instrumental in shaping marketing strategies and also understanding the needs of the customer thoroughly. The importance of customer profile is paramount in determining the sales and marketing success in B2B. Identifying target audience and creating an impeccable customer profile is an integral part of B2B sales and marketing.

So how does one optimize an ideal customer profile to leverage the potential in them to get converted into business? There are many ways to do it, but let us discuss some critical factors here in this blog.

Focus on the most potential customers first:

Look at what will most probably give you the fastest results, which means one must focus on customers that are most likely to convert. Going by the traditional ways to create an ideal customer profile can work well in the b2b landscape. After identifying the best customers, you can start analysing the characteristics such as age, region, company, designation, the authority level when it comes to decision-making, etc.

Determining the best customers and their characteristics can enable you to know which channels, strategies you must use to approach them and then nurture them to convert them eventually. These parameters help define the best customers and their probability to get converted and thus augment revenue growth.

Aligned approach:

Creating an ideal customer profile has several benefits. It is of great help to multiple functions across the organization. Sales, marketing, operations even finance if work in good alignment it can always lead to better business outcomes. It leads to more clarity, unison in decision making and thus can pave way to getting more revenue due to minimum internal errors or misalignment. Instead of relying only on the data or different versions of the same customer, once you create an ideal customer profile it eases the job of each one in the organization who is connected to it in some way.

Being target specific:

The job of any b2b marketer, whether it is sales or marketing is to break down the complexity of b2b and simplify it to augment ROI. This can be done when there is more clarity about the kind of customers you would be looking at. An ideal customer profile can help minimise the complexities and define the target very well. Once the target is clear, sales and marketing teams can then build plans around the target profile to capture the attention of the customer, delight and engage them further to accelerate sales and get more revenue growth.

Conclusion:

B2B is a complex market and the more specific one becomes, the more narrowed down approach one adopts it becomes easier to get the results quickly. Customer is important and the more your approach is customer-centric, easier it is to convert them into business.

Lead nurturing is one of the most sought after techniques in lead generation in b2b! If done well, it can give huge returns not only in terms of conversions but in building solid relationships with the clients. Focused and strategic efforts in lead nurturing can lead to the better results. So let us take a look at how you can make lead nurturing stronger and more effective.

With customers having access to technological innovations, digital tools and social media, the competition in the market is getting tougher each day. Customers are well informed, and they do intense research before deciding to buy from you. It is therefore important to strengthen techniques such as lead nurturing which is more about reaching out to the right customer with the right approach.

Tech-savvy and smart customers are looking for someone who is ready to put in the effort to understand their true challenges and provide customized solutions for better business outcomes. Therefore, marketers are now emphasizing on creating a robust lead nurturing strategy with aligned content strategy and content assets for best results.

So what exactly is lead nurturing?

To make a lead sales-ready by using techniques that involve content assets to engage leads is lead nurturing.  Lead nurturing involves hand-holding through various different stages of buyer’s journey in order to make them ready to eventually buy from you.

Lead nurturing needs a dedicated approach and focused techniques to optimize it in order to leverage its power. Here are a few things that you can do to empower your lead generation process by mindful lead nurturing –

Build a solid persona:

It’s best to start from the basics, hence investing time and effort in building a solid buyer or target persona makes sense and it will surely set you in the right direction. A persona is a fictitious thing and the more logical you are in creating it, the better the personas will be. A persona helps in determining the needs of the prospect, and to create an identity of the prospect that can be used as a good reference point. It can also help cross-functional teams to understand the prospect better.

In fact, building persona is more of a cross functional activity, wherein as much information across different functions can be gathered, better it is for building solid personas.

Understanding Buyer’s journey:

Mapping the buyer’s journey is very critical in any lead nurturing process. Being aware of the buyer’s journey enables marketers to create aligned content assets for better lead nurturing. There are several stages of buyer’s journey such as top of the funnel stage which is the awareness stage, then the middle of the funnel stage which is the consideration phase, and then the bottom of the funnel stage where the buyers are almost read to buy from you.

Each stage has peculiarities that determine that stage and thus content assets needed for each stage are different. Specific and relevant content assets provided to prospects at each stage enhance the chances of engagement. Hence knowing the buyer’s journey is very crucial for strengthening lead nurturing.

Conclusion:

Lead nurturing is a vital part of lead generation process and it can determine the future of leads. Getting leads can sometimes be less challenging than converting them and this is where lead nurturing comes into the picture. Create a strategy that is aligned with the prospect and it will be easier to engage them and eventually convert them into business.

ABM or Account Based Marketing is gaining huge popularity in b2b and for all the right reasons! It’s a great and focused way of nurturing and getting those leads converted. However, if your ABM campaigns lack strategy and analysis at various stages, then you could face a few challenges. Certain factors may not match up to your expectations when it comes to the results.

Things such as use of irrelevant content, too many expectations in less time, flaws in defining the target audience etc. can contribute to the failure in ABM. Marketers can take this opportunity to monitor, supervise and analyze their entire ABM campaign and make necessary changes to avoid future mistakes.

Here are some factors that could hamper your ABM efforts and how you can fix them:

Incorrect profiling of target:

ABM begins by choosing wisely. It is about making no mistakes when it comes to profiling the target audience, it is about Ask the right questions to get the right answers. The biggest mistake markets can make is in creating wrong or incorrect profiles of their target audience and a lot of loose ends when it comes to getting to know the target well. Make sure you know how your ideal customer looks like.

If you are not clear of the criteria you will not be able to focus on the right prospect or organization at the right time. Make sure you invest your energy in knowing the right answers to some of the questions such as the industry they belong to, the number of employees, the key decision makers in the company, the services that you want to propose to them, are they aligned with their business goals. If your answers to all these questions are appropriate then you can be sure that you are in the right direction.

Too many expectations:

Though ABM is a great way to get those leads rolling and conversions too, it is not an overnight success formula. It takes considerable time, efforts, consistency and perseverance along with the right techniques to make ABM is a huge success. So much has been written and being talked about the miracles of ABM that marketers are bound to feel that this is a sure shot way to success. It can be only if done strategically, but at the same time, having too many expectations and in less time would be a mistake. 

Irrelevant content assets:

Content is at the foundation of long lasting relationships in b2b. Content assets are instrumental in ABM success. If you think just having any content asset can influence your audience, then you are mistaken. Content assets make sense only when they are relevant to your target audience. Sending irrelevant content assets to your prospect can make your efforts in ABM campaigns go waste. Many times marketers wonder where things are going wrong, when they have not paid attention to content.

Make sure you choose the right content for the right audience or organization that is your target audience and you will reap huge benefits in ABM.
 

Conclusion:

Account based Marketing is a much focused activity in b2b. Any focused activity is bound to produce great results. But this in no way means that marketers can be complacent and put all faith in ABM without a proper strategy and understanding of the target audience.

If you want to get more leads and convert them quickly, focusing on lead nurturing would be the right thing to do. A longer but more sustainable route to lead conversion; lead nurturing can be a very fulfilling technique to build long term relationships with your customers and can even be used in retargeting.

MQL or Marketing Qualified Leads are an important part of every b2b organization. These leads show an inclination or intent towards making a buying decision. They are the warm leads that can be converted with a proper lead nurturing strategy. Getting these prospects to know you better so that they decide to buy from you is at the core of any lead nurturing process. Unlike SQLs, MQLs are not ready to buy from you yet but they can become SQLs soon enough if you nurture them properly. SQLs or Sales Qualified Leads are those leads that are ready to buy from you and are about to get converted.

So how do you optimize nurturing for your most potential lead generation components including MQLs and SQLs? Here are some ways that can accelerate your lead generation process with appropriate lead nurturing:

Be a problem-solver:

The prospects that are looking for solutions urgently can get quickly converted, but if not captured and nurtured they will be the first ones to go to your competitors. So nurturing them and being a problem-solver for their challenges should become your top most priority. You can start with offering them with content assets or offers that can make them stay and get converted:

• Offer free product demos or free trials if you offer product based solutions
• Offer content assets that showcase your problem solving abilities
• Use focused email marketing to offer them what they are looking for
• Give discounts, coupons or gift vouchers if that is a part of your marketing mix
• Include client testimonials that speak about your expertise and how it helped them

Targeting with emails:

Email marketing can be one of the most personalized approaches when it comes to contacting or keeping in touch with your prospects. It is a tool that can enhance your chances of converting those leads that are at any stage of your sales funnel.

Email Marketing can help you to narrow down your focus to those leads that need to be contacted and nurtured on a more regular basis.

You can nurture leads with email marketing in the following ways:

• Personalize the messaging and offers for effective response
• List out those leads that are looking out for insights and information
• Email valuable content assets to make your outreach more successful
• Be consistent and be unique

Webinars:

Those leads who register for webinars are definitely more interested in your services. Registering for your webinar is a sign that the lead maybe inclined toward buying from you. A webinar is an important nurturing tool that presents an opportunity to marketers to get to know the prospect even better and can directly contact them for further engagement.

Webinars need to have following elements to make it a successful nurturing technique:

• Choose a relevant topic to make the webinar interesting and information based for your prospect
• Webinar is about having one-on-one communication with your prospect so make the most out of it by making it very interactive
• Ask questions to get to know your prospect more
• Gather enough data to be able to keep them in the nurturing loop even after the webinar

Conclusion:

Lead nurturing can make lead generation more interesting and less challenging.  There are many ways in which a lead can be nurtured and it all depends on several factors such company goals, prospect’s business goals, type of organization, products, services, target audience etc. However, most importantly if lead nurturing activities are aligned with business goals it can most likely bring positive results.