Generating leads can be tough.
Turning those leads into customers can be even tougher.
That's true even when the leads are warmed up, familiar with your brand, and ostensibly ready to buy.
One of the most important strategies in your arsenal is going to be the art of following up – a simple concept that many marketers and salespeople fail to implement successfully.
Why is following up with warm leads so important?
And what are the tactics that can help you turn all those warm leads into paying customers?
Across the industry, you'll find different specific definitions for the exact line between cold leads and warm leads. But generally speaking, a warm lead is any lead who has already had at least one significant interaction with your brand.
It might be that you've reached out to them before, that they've signed up for a newsletter subscription on your website, or that they've accepted a complimentary product from your brand.
Warm leads have a unique psychology that you'll need to understand to make the most of them.
These are people who know you already. But for some reason, they're not ready to move forward.
Obviously, there are many potential reasons for this. Some of your warm leads aren't in a strategic position to buy. Some of them don't have the money ready. Many of them may just want to see more from your brand before they're ready to move forward.
Following up with warm leads is important for several reasons. For the people not ready to buy, it gives repeated opportunities to buy in the future. For people who have objections to buying, you'll have an opportunity to overcome those objections. And for people who want to understand your point, and plenty of meaningful interactions.
In any case, following up with warm leads is indispensable for capitalizing on those leads, increasing the value of your lead generation strategy, and ultimately building a bigger customer base for your brand.
Roughly 60 percent of customers will say no four times before eventually saying yes. Despite that, nearly half of salespeople give up after a single “no.”
This alone should motivate you to build a better follow-up strategy with your warm lead pool. Even a simple, singular follow-up message could lead to a sale, or a better relationship that leads to sales in the future.
Following up gives multiple opportunities simultaneously, which vary depending on your strategic approach and each individual message.
· More information. Each follow-up with a warm lead is an opportunity to provide them with more information. You can clarify things they may not understand, introduce products they may never have seen, or tell them something about your brand that they may not have realized. Assuming this lead is at least marginally interested in your brand and its products, this can build up your relationship and make a purchase much more likely.
· Brand visibility and exposure. As you're probably aware, repeated brand exposure and greater brand visibility both lend themselves to greater brand awareness and trust. As consumers see more of your brand and have more opportunities to interact with your brand, even if it's something as simple as an email newsletter message, they'll become better acquainted with your brand and more likely to trust it and buy from it. A good follow-up strategy puts your brand in center stage, increasing its visibility and meaning for most.
· Opportunities for conversation. It's possible that some of your warm leads are simply too busy to buy or have meaningful conversations with you. Each time you follow up with your warm leads, you'll introduce new opportunities for conversation. They can ask you questions, they can do more due diligence on their potential purchase, and they can eventually make that purchase.
· New incentives. You can also use follow-up messages as a way to introduce new incentives for your leads to move forward. If they weren't willing to buy your product at $100, would they be willing to buy it at $80? Would they be willing to buy it at $100 if you also threw in a free sample of one of your other products? Depending on the peculiarities of your specific target audience, offering more rewards and incentives could be exactly what you need.
· Different angles. Even with the perfect understanding of your target demographics, individuals within those demographics are going to behave in slightly different ways. Following up with your warm leads multiple times, using multiple tactics, gives you a chance to experiment with different angles. This way, you can appeal to a much broader range of people, and you can glean more information that you can use to improve your lead generation and nurturing strategies in the future.
· Overcoming objections. Some warm leads didn't move forward because they have significant objections to the proposed exchange of value. Maybe they think your product isn't good enough, or that it isn't worth the money. Following up is an opportunity to address these objections, as well as better understand them. For example, if you find that many leads refuse to move forward because they're concerned about the safety aspects of your product, you can send a follow-up message that helps people understand just how safe your product is.
· Nurturing the relationship. Today’s economy is built not just on transactions, but on relationships. That's why part of your warm lead follow-up strategy is about nurturing the relationships you've already established. Figure out what drew people to your brand, tap into that, and help people understand your unique value proposition.
With that in mind, how exactly do you form a solid follow-up strategy for your warm leads?
Everything starts with setting your goals.
Now obviously, your ultimate goal is to win more customers. But what are the ways that you're going to achieve that? And are there forms of meaningful progress that you would accept short of attracting more major purchases?
For example, are you hoping to convert a specific percentage of your warm lead pool by a certain time? Are you more interested in improving brand awareness and trust generally, so that you can facilitate more transactions in the future?
And what would you say is the overall focus of your follow-up strategy? Are you interested in a “means to an end” approach that reliably culminates in more purchases? Or are you more focused on creating more intricate brand consumer relationships and customer experiences?
There are no right or wrong choices at this stage. What's important is that you set goals and a vision for your follow-up strategy that fall in line with your broader marketing and sales goals.
Your follow-up strategy simply isn't going to work unless you understand your customers.
Market research is your best friend.
The first step of the process, therefore, is to better understand the nature of the warm leads in your lead pool. Who are these people? How have they interacted with your brand in the past? How might they interact with your brand in the future? And what's holding them back from doing so?
The better you can answer these questions, the better you can craft follow-up messages. For busy decision makers, you can provide quick, spaced-out informational messages. For nervous, budget-conscious people, you can reiterate the long-term benefits of using your product, compared to the costs of purchasing it. For people who have already bought and might buy again in the future, you can focus on building up your relationship.
Segmentation and tracking are going to be essential tools in your approach.
With segmentation, you can divide your customers into discrete groups, even within the warm lead category, and you can cater to them with highly specialized messaging. This is going to make your messaging much more relevant, and therefore more persuasive.
With advanced objective tracking and analytics, you can better monitor how your follow-up messages are working – and improve your approach in the future.
Another key element in your follow-up strategy is going to be timing.
The exact numbers are going to look different for each business and each lead follow-up strategy. But there are a couple of core principles that everyone needs to follow.
You need to send follow-up messages soon enough and frequently enough that your brand is still somewhat top of mind. If a customer interacts with your brand directly, and you don't talk to them for a year, they're going to forget all about you.
However, it's important not to rush the process or overwhelm your customers. If a customer gets four emails from you in the first couple of days after interacting with your brand, they're probably going to unsubscribe and think poorly of your brand in the future.
Your exact timing will depend heavily on your unique situation. However, you can at least start with one or two follow-up messages per week, depending on the context.
Part of your sales optimization process is going to be choosing the right channels.
And in the realm of nurturing warm leads as part of your marketing strategy, you have practically unlimited options. Email and calls are perhaps the most universally accessible communication methods, but you can also reach out to people through apps, social media, and more.
When choosing channels for your follow-up strategy, think about what types of mediums your customers prefer, the cost effectiveness of each medium, the accessibility to both you and your customers, and the special context of each channel.
Your warm leads are going to be much more likely to engage with your brand, and eventually make a purchase, if you provide them with some kind of value. That's because it's a great way to make your brand seem more respectable and authoritative, but also because it triggers an instinct of reciprocity.
Fortunately, there are many ways that you can provide value to your customers. As a simple example, you can provide freebies, extend free trials, or offer steep discounts on your best products. But you can also offer inside information, expertise, guidance, and other forms of knowledge.
Ultimately, your goal is to make it so that your customers are always happy to hear from you. When they see an email from you in their inbox, they should know that it contains something that's useful to them; otherwise, they may be less willing to open it.
Whatever you determine in terms of messaging channels, content, and timing, you should focus on engaging with your warm leads consistently. If you send a message once a week, but then you drop off the map, people may forget about you. If you follow too many different variations of your strategy with too many different demographic segments, you'll never be able to figure out what works and what doesn't.
Additionally, recall that many warm leads will say no many times before saying yes. The more consistent you are in following up, the more likely you'll be to eventually get to that yes.
Another important element of your strategy is going to be tracking and measuring results. You need an objective way to determine whether your follow-up strategy is working, and which tactics were most material in your success.
Once you have a solid tracking system in place, you should experiment with small variations in phrasing, timing, offers, and other variables. This way, you can gradually guide your warm lead follow-up strategy to perfection.
Maybe you're struggling with a follow-up strategy for your warm leads.
Maybe you don't have a rich pool of warm leads to begin with.
No matter where you are in your lead generation efforts, or how you plan to transform your sales and marketing approach in the future, Marketer.co can help.
We have the lead generation, sales, and marketing experts who can transform your business for the better.
Are you ready to get started? Contact us today for a free consultation!
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