Every marketer knows that lead generation is just a fraction of the many challenges they face in driving the company ROI (return of investment). After lead generation, comes the critical step of converting the leads into customers. While marketers have different strategies to do this, they agree that at the heart of a successful lead conversion program is an effective lead nurturing process.

Most effective lead nurturing programs result in a 50 percent increase in sales-ready leads and 30 percent lower costs. That is good news but what does an effective lead nurturing program look like?

Let’s have a look at each of these steps first before we explain:

• Contact
• Track
• Offer
• Refine
• Engage
• Alert
• Build
• Analyze

Now, let’s see how each of these steps contribute to creating a lead conversion program that delivers.

Contact

This is the initial stage where a prospect gets in touch with your brand for the first time. The prospect might have downloaded something from your website, like a post on one of your social media channels, for example.

Track

The initial interaction should serve as the basis for choosing the type of nurturing path to use for each specific lead. For example, if they provided their email, then you can use that channel to cultivate them.

If a particular lead came from your social media channel, then you can send him regular updates on his social media accounts through your chatbot. If the prospect shows interest at this point and clicked your offer, then one of your customer service reps can further engage them through live chat.

You can also use voicemails, SMS alerts, and notifications.

Look at this!
Slaask comes to the rescue at this point. By integrating all your channels with Slack, you will not miss any activity happening, anywhere. You also get a bird’s-eye view of everything, allowing for easy tracking. Click here to learn more how Slaask can help you with lead nurturing and conversion.

Offer

At this point, your leads click to download another offer from the emails or notifications you sent. It is an indication that they are enjoying what you have been sending them.

Refine

Once that lead clicked the recent offer, you can add that information to further refine the triggers that will make them more engaged. This stage is also where you place them in a different nurturing track that is more specific to their interests. By doing so, you personalize your offer, making it more appealing to them.

Engage

To further engage the prospect, interactive content is added to the usual emails, voicemails, or alerts that you usually send them. Interactive content includes interactive videos, quizzes, trivia tests, etc. According to Demand Gen Report, 91 percent of B2B buyers prefer interactive and visual content.

Alert

When the prospect clicks one of your offers through the personalized nurturing track, he becomes a qualified prospect, a fruit ready for the picking. During this time, a sales rep is alerted that the prospect is showing interest to your content right now. It is the perfect time to go proactive and engage your prospect through live chat.

Aside from allowing you to interact with customers, live chats are equipped with various features that make the interaction even more dynamic. Slaask, for example, has a feature that allows you to subtly redirect your customers to any website while talking to them. Such features allow your sales team to have total control of the conversation.

Build

Other prospects begin to go through a similar process as your first prospect. Consequently, they are also tracked and nurtured in the same way. Furthermore, a sales rep is only alerted when a critical event takes place.

Having a 24/7 live chat support team makes a lot of difference. To optimize the power of instant messaging, mix the power of bots and humans. The bot can answer general questions and classify each customer based on the conversation while the human element comes in to answer crucial questions and slowly guide the prospect through the conversion process.

Analyze

All the data of your prospects are thoroughly analyzed, given the necessary action, and reported to the sales reps and the management. Then, all you need is to integrate them into your CRM system for pipeline metrics and new campaign profiles.

Parting Shot

Creating a successful lead conversion program is possible through the help of a personalized lead nurturing strategy. Aside from customizing it, create a program that supports both customer acquisition and retention. Feel free to follow the 8-step process we shared, or to modify it to fit your needs.

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