Lead nurturing is a big buzzword these days, and with good reason. It’s a critical part of any inbound marketing campaign because inbound marketing depends heavily on quality leads. If you’re not bringing in interested customers, you may as well be bringing in no customers at all.

Lead nurturing is exactly what its name suggests. It’s all about identifying potentially interested people and guiding them along their way from initial interest to purchase. It’s up to you to make sure these leads are constantly reminded of what makes your company special. It’s also your job to ensure that these leads never have a reason to check out your competition.

Landing Pages

No matter where you get your leads, you need to be on point from your very first lead interaction. Make sure you have a customized landing page that speaks directly to the viewer. You might not have all of the necessary information to make it totally personalized, but you can at least show you understand the reader’s situation.

Instant Contact

The second someone fills out your website form, you should have an automatic reply ready to go. If you’re offering an eBook in exchange for signing up for your website, make sure that eBook is in the recipient’s inbox within seconds. Also, be sure to thank the lead for their interest, and assure them that more exclusive content is coming soon.

The same rule applies if you’re dealing with ordinary communication, such as emails and phone calls. You should respond as soon as possible, every time. Any communication you have with a lead is representative of your company as a whole. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to present your organization in a positive light.

Personalized Follow-Ups

As you work on your lead, you should always be aware of where the lead is in the buyer’s journey. When you send out communications to your leads, they should always keep the reader’s status in mind. This not only shows that you’re familiar with the lead, but it helps you to nudge the lead towards the next step in the process.

Provide Value

One of the core principles of an inbound marketing campaign is the consistent delivery of valuable content. Everything you send a potential customer should have value; either it tells the reader something they don’t already know, or it gives the lead an opportunity to access an exclusive offer. Delivering the goods every time can add a lot of pressure, but it’s also the best way to encourage leads to enter a long-term relationship with your company. Again, if you do your part, potential customers have no reason to look elsewhere.

Provide MORE Value

It would be easy to rest on your laurels once you’ve got a lead in the works. That is the absolute worst thing you could do. Instead, you should take the initiative and give the leads even more unique and useful content. The more you do to wow a potential customer, the more likely they’ll be to stick around and become actual customers.

Be Consistent

Sporadic periods of communication don’t get the job done. You have to be consistent with your lead interactions. If you don’t continue to give leads the valuable content that they’re beginning to associate with your company, you’ll lose out on that lead. Don’t be too aggressive, but keep in touch enough that people never forget who you are or what you can do for them.

It’s vitally important to nurture your leads and move them along the buyer’s journey. Your inbound marketing campaign depends on your ability to generate leads and convince them to take action. Lead nurturing is the key to success in this area. As you help more leads through your process, you’ll get even better at lead nurturing, increasing your overall conversion rate and your inbound marketing ROI as a whole.