How to Track and Nurture Leads at Every Stage of the Customer Journey

Businesses have more data, technology, and tools than ever to track and nurture leads.

Today, we know more about the buyer’s journey than ever before, yet it’s still equal parts complex and convoluted:

Most organizations haven’t realized their technology’s and data’s true potential. Many of these marketers are stuck trying to force leads into boxes and guide them down a linear path.

Instead of trying to control and guide various unruly parts of the journey, marketers should focus on the things they can control.

7 Strategies to Track and Nurture Leads Throughout the Customer Journey

Buyers have no time for promotional lead nurturing. They demand a personalized experience that empowers them to make smart decisions. Not surprisingly, 83% say treating them like a human being is the secret to winning their business.

1. Create Highly Relevant and Targeted Content

High-quality content is a requirement for lead nurturing: Buyers consume 13 pieces of content on average before making their final choice.

Buyers consume content from both first- and third-party sources at each stage of the sales cycle. A nice mix of informative content about your company/products and non-promotional educational content about your industry is key.

Consider each firmographic segment’s content needs, at each stage of the cycle. To learn about your company and the products/services you offer, leads want comprehensive content:

• Functionality and use cases
• Peer reviews
• Case studies
• Product comparisons
• Tutorials
• Problem-solving solutions

Certain pieces of content work better as multimedia—such as tutorial videos or infographics—while others lend themselves better to written formats—like interactive written product comparisons.

Digital events are also useful for educating leads and building connections.

2. Give Your Leads Plenty of Ways to Contact You

Your buyers are smart. They know as soon as they send you an email to ask a basic question, your sales team will jump all over it.

Your website should answer most of their questions. However, some leads will still want to confirm certain information or ask questions.

Make sure your leads have plenty of routes to reach out. Not only are contact methods important for customer service, but they also give you access to vital lead data.

Chatbots, live chats, email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger—these are all useful tools to track and nurture leads simultaneously.

3. Personalize Your Email Marketing

Email marketing is an ideal platform for nurturing leads because it’s personal. With conversational email content, you can build conversations.

You must also personalize your email campaigns. Account-based marketing strategies also work well with email.

Set up campaigns that create a unique experience for each firmographic segment or account. Integrate other data sources to create campaigns based on the most current data.

4. Automate Your Lead Scoring

Most organizations still use outdated lead scoring methods. Artificial intelligence makes it easy to score leads faster and more effectively.

AI can detect subtle changes in behavioral patterns and merge your on-site data with third-party intent data sources to create a well-rounded picture of each lead. Plus, machine learning improves itself over time.

Automating your lead scoring process gives marketers more time to hone their tactics and connect with leads on a human level.

5. Get Sales and Marketing on the Same Page

Tracking leads becomes easier when marketing data and sales data aren’t stuck in siloes. Both departments need the most current and correct information to make proactive decisions.

When departments aren’t on the same page, working with the same data – striving towards the same goal, actions become reactive.

6. Use a CRM to Track and Nurture Leads

A contact relationship management system can help break down the barrier between marketing and sales. A CRM serves as a hub to manage prospect, lead, and customer data.

By customizing your integrations, you can design a CRM specifically designed to meet your goals.

Use a CRM to track and nurture leads at every stage of the sales funnel on different platforms. With all your data in one convenient location, you won’t have to worry that you’re working with bad intel.

A CRM also helps you nurture current customers so you can prevent churn and boost lifetime value.

7. Meet Customers and Buyers Where They’re At

Just think about how many digital touchpoints you interact with throughout a single day: Facebook, LinkedIn, Gmail, blog sites, news sites, etc.

Your goal is to figure out which touchpoints your leads interact with and how to get your content in front of them.

Remember, buyers consume both first-party and third-party content before choosing a vendor. Your job is to figure out what the mysterious third-party platforms are and how to get the right piece of content there.

Focus on the Things You Can Control – Not What You Can’t

Learning more about the buyer journey has only made it more confusing. Every organization and every sale are unique. Don’t generalize: personalize.

You can’t control lead behavior, but you can influence it with the right strategy to track and nurture leads. Empower your audience, connect with them, and be a force for good.