What is automated lead nurturing?
Automated lead nurturing involves using software to automatically engage and educate potential customers. Marketing and sales teams use marketing automation software and AI sales tools to build customer profiles and deliver relevant, timely content with personalised messaging. Prospects receive content based on demographic characteristics, their position in the buyer’s journey, and other content that they’ve engaged with. With automated lead nurturing, companies can guide them towards making a purchase without relying only on human outreach.
Benefits of automated lead nurturing
Here’s why automated lead nurturing is so valuable to companies. It can:
- Streamline sales and marketing efforts with fewer manual tasks
- Enhance customer experiences with relevant content, personalised messages, and timely responses
- Inform prospects who understand how your product or service meets their needs, making them warm leads for sales
- Lead to fewer missed opportunities when a prospect shows interest, because sales teams aren’t distracted by cold leads or overwhelmed with manual lead qualification
- Achieve higher conversion rates because sales reps can engage in more meaningful conversations with prospects, thanks to information-rich unified customer profiles built throughout the lead nurturing process
- Speed up sales cycles that lead to more revenue
How does automated lead nurturing work?
When a potential customer engages with a brand by registering for a webinar, downloading an e-book, or taking similar actions, sales automation software captures this information and adds it to the customer’s data profile. The software then automatically begins nurturing the lead by sharing relevant, informative content to educate the prospect and build trust. Here’s how it works:
1. An action triggers the lead nurturing process
A prospect signs up for a newsletter, which triggers an automated email confirmation that thanks them for subscribing and explains what they can expect.
2. The lead receives a personalised content sequence
The sales software sends other content, potentially across different channels, learning about each prospect’s interests based on their engagement. As the system learns more, it continues to send a series of personalised emails, content, and even discount offers, further developing the customer profile.
3. Metrics and testing optimise the lead nurturing
The software continuously monitors key metrics, such as email click-through rates, and conducts A/B tests on elements like email subject lines to automatically refine and improve lead nurturing efforts.
4. Leads are scored and routed based on their reactions
As leads are nurtured, the software updates lead scores based on behaviour and engagement. Once a specific score is reached, the software can notify a sales rep to follow up, helping sales prioritise the most engaged and qualified leads.
Types of lead nurturing automation
One way to distinguish types of lead nurturing automation is to examine marketing channels and campaigns. When you do, these common types of automated lead nurturing come to light:
- Automated email campaigns: This includes individual follow-up emails triggered by specific customer actions, such as downloading an e-book, and drip campaigns that deliver a predetermined sequence of content designed to educate and build credibility.
- Interactive, personalised automation: Chatbots are one example, providing prospects with instant answers and directing them to relevant content for further nurturing. Each lead’s journey gets personalised as technology routes them to different content or webpages based on their individual actions and interests. Because each prospect’s lead score is automatically updated based on their behaviour, sales reps will know when it’s a good time to reach out.
- Multichannel engagement: Communications are automated and coordinated across channels, such as when people who registered for a webinar receive both email and SMS reminders. This type of automated lead nurturing also includes retargeting ads across social channels and other websites.
Examples of automated lead nurturing in action
One example of automated lead nurturing that you’ve probably experienced is the “abandoned cart” on an e-commerce site. You visited a brand’s website, browsed, added a few items to your cart, but didn’t complete the purchase. Maybe you got distracted, accidentally closed the tab, or couldn’t make a final decision before moving on with your day. Whatever the reason, you are automatically entered into a follow-up campaign from the brand.
Within a few hours, an email arrives in your inbox, reminding you of the items in your cart with a link to finish the purchase. If you don’t take action, you might get a second follow-up email encouraging you to buy based on the products’ benefits. Finally, a day later, you receive a third email with a discount code to motivate you to complete the sale before your cart expires. All of this happens automatically. By setting up this lead-nurturing campaign, the marketing team generates more sales without any extra manual effort.
On the B2B side, a common automated lead nurturing strategy is offering a free trial. These usually attract a lot of interest, making it almost impossible for the sales team to follow up with every lead personally. Automated lead nurturing helps identify which leads to contact, when to reach out, and what messaging to use.
When a prospect signs up for a free trial, they are automatically entered into a lead nurturing sequence. During and after their trial, they usually receive content like quick-start guides to help them use the product and case studies showing how similar organisations have benefited. Based on their activity during the free trial, leads are automatically segmented or flagged for follow-up. Depending on their use of the product, leads may be assigned to additional email nurturing campaigns or directed to a sales team member for a personal meeting to answer questions and close the sale.
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