The classic approach to lead nurturing focuses almost exclusively on email campaigns to new subscribers. But this single tactic, narrow scope can ignore potentially lucrative segments of your list. Yes, it’s best to convert a lead to a customer as soon as possible. But it pays to continue to nurture not just leads, but current customers and prospects as well. A full-funnel lead nurturing strategy utilizes email as well as advertising to target people through all stages of the marketing funnel. Here are 5 steps to building a full-funnel lead nurturing plan:
Segment Your List
With any new marketing plan, a good first step is to take an analytical approach to your list. Create segments or sub-lists of:
- New leads
- High-value or volume customers
- Highly engaged users
- Unengaged or older users who haven’t purchased lately
In some cases, you’ll also have a list of unsubscribed users or prospects who joined outside of a targeted lead campaign but made their way to your list, yet haven’t purchased or interacted yet. Well treat these two segments a little bit differently while still incorporating them into our new full-funnel lead nurturing strategy.
Develop Targeted Offers
Using your segmented list, develop targeted offers specific to each group. The offer itself may vary, or just the messaging. For example, a frequent customer may not need as much of an incentive to purchase again, just a friendly reminder that they like your product or service.
A new lead is most likely to purchase immediately after sign-up, so while a large incentive might not be necessary for them either, the messaging should be more introductory and less familiar. The key to a full-funnel lead nurturing approach is to identify where the user is in the marketing funnel and use it to your advantage.
Schedule Emails
You’ve got your lists and your offers; now it’s time to start sending! The messaging will be guided by your segments, and the frequency and timing should vary by segment as well. A new lead needs to receive their first email very quickly after sign-up, and can receive more frequent messaging prior to their initial purchase. Then they will move into a different segment, which will have a less time-dependent email schedule. And, of course, your unsubscribed list should never receive an email once they’ve opted-out.
Build a Media Plan
A true full-funnel lead nurturing strategy goes beyond email to include other relevant websites and consumer touchpoints. Go back to your email list and run a new analysis across your subscribers to look for demographic and psychographic commonalities. This will help inform your media placements. These digital ads are also your best bet to re-engage unsubscribers or infrequent shoppers. If they left your email list or haven’t responded to email marketing, it’s time to try something else. You’ll need an advertising partner to execute a re-engagement or winback campaign, but it’s worth it.
We’ve seen resubscribers convert quicker than new leads at a lower cost. And since these ads use encrypted data to match user email addresses and display targeted ads, this strategy is full compliant with all email and data privacy regulations. You can use a similar matching technique to target your opt-ins as well.
Sequence and Retarget
Your full-funnel lead nurturing campaign is up and running, using segmented lists and targeted offers to deliver relevant messaging across your customer base in multiple channels. Now it’s time to really hit it home with a campaign that builds on itself, sequencing messaging to become more urgent or provide more value. Implement pixel tracking on your website so that if one of your emails or ads drives to your site but doesn’t result in a conversion, you can retarget based on what the user viewed.
A full-funnel lead nurturing strategy can seem complicated to design and execute, but it doesn’t have to be. We can help at any stage. Ready to get started? Take advantage of a free evaluation that will help us design a custom plan for you.