Lead nurturing is as crucial as the initial enticement; as RETAINING leads is as important as LURING them. After all, one can snag a billion leads; but that means nothing if one loses them between the initial hook and the final conversion.

Having a powerful social media marketing strategy will help you build a loyal and engaged following while getting highly qualified and targeted leads. Get to know your audience; and share information that will help demonstrate your expertise AND your dependability. Use blog posts to direct traffic to your website or landing pages. Doing so is a proven way to capture higher quality prospects. When it comes to social media, Instagram and Facebook are both platforms that can help generate highly targeted traffic and leads.

To fully grasp the importance of lead nurturing, it’s worth reviewing how the sales funnel is structured:

The TOP of the funnel is luring people to your website via initial contact. This is done by offering enticements—like free consultations or demos.

The BOTTOM of the funnel is the final close: converting shoppers to buyers by luring them with special deals, great offers, complimentary trials, newsletter subscriptions, etc.

But it is the MIDDLE of the sales funnel that gets you from the top to the bottom; so that’s where most of the interesting things happen. This is the part that many neglect; as many are focused on the outreach and the sale. Lead nurturing is what brings leads from the beginning to the culmination; and involves KEEPING each prospect’s attention after you’ve CAUGHT it.

One can have the best hook in the world; and be a master closer; but if there’s no way to get from the former position to the latter, it’s all in vain. Because lead generation is so time sensitive, it’s a good idea to divide your leads into short-term, mid-term, and long-term to create a rolling pipeline. Establish metrics to ascertain who qualifies as a prospect. Have criteria for what they have to do to move to the next level of the pipeline.

First, you must match your content to the buyer’s journey. Once you recognize each stage of the buyer journey, you can generate content that gives the essential information AT THAT POINT to move leads on to the next level. This means providing whatever a lead needs to understand before moving to the next stage—furnishing them to on-going incentives to keep paying attention.

Be sure to reply to queries as soon as possible. Social media is an interactive mode of communication; so you are wise to treat it as a two-way dialogue. So it is crucial to respond promptly to comments or queries posted directly to your site or on your social media profile. This punctuality will strengthen your standing—making a great impression. Being dependable (doing what you say you’ll do) will cement your reputation for being a brand that genuinely cares about its customers.

Generate buyer personas; and continually re-examine them for efficacy. It is important to maintain insights into who your typical customers are and what they’re looking for. Try to analyze your buyer personas every quarter, to make sure your communication stays fresh and appropriate to your audience.

Use your competitor’s favorite keywords. And see which sites they frequently visit to boost their backlinks. The more you see certain websites use keywords regularly, it’s likely that that keyword is most effective for them. So home in on the same sites and keywords that your competition uses to drive potential leads to your website.

Make use of the full range of social media channels to share content and get it in front of more prospects. The key is to do this in a targeted way, and to personalize the messaging as needed. That’s where LeadMachine.AI’s automated system comes in handy. An automated system that is smart will ensure that marketing teams don’t squander valuable time and money on prospects that aren’t likely to convert.

Avoid focusing your posts that are solely about your own company; as too much overt self-promotion comes off as tacky…or even as special pleading. Interact with leads in an organic way; and try to be helpful rather than solicitous. When prospects are potentially ready to buy, they will be more likely to come to you and trust you as a supplier if your intentions seem noble and sincere. Remember, unengaged leads don’t convert. Higher engagement levels translate to more leads generated.

And don’t forget calls-to-action. It is important to make your CTAs as effective and clear as possible. Make it clear and easy for your audience to understand exactly what you want them to do and how they can benefit in return. Ensure that you have a compelling landing page so that when people come to your site it increases the likelihood of conversation.

Make sure you are equipped with the right tools in place to track leads. Always ensure that you’re able to track return on investment. Subsequently, you can allocate budgets by using trackable channels to attract your leads. Google Analytics will help you analyze your website traffic and also report on your audience behavior. This enables you to properly tailor your follow-ups. If you generate a lead and do not follow up within a reasonable amount of time, your lead will go elsewhere.

That’s why it is to your advantage to use a SaaS that focuses on tracking your leads activity online; and is capable of delivering content that is tailored to the interests of the target customer. Having all of your lead sources report back into one central system helps keep your leads organized—tracking the effectiveness of and value of each lead source and ad campaign. And it ensures that you are always able to effectively follow up with each lead.

After all, your campaign should be about more than just obtaining an email address; it should be about developing a new customer. Nothing matters unless it’s moving you closer to another conversion.

In sum: Focus on engaging leads, not just on adding them to your database. A single engaged lead is preferable to a thousand un-engaged leads. Long contact lists alone accomplish nothing.