So you’re back from a conference, or you’ve recently completed a lead generation campaign. But how do you work out who is the keenest, and who is going to be happy to hear from you? Here are our three top tips.

1. One step at a time

Resist the temptation to jump all over your new leads straight away. As in any relationship, if you rush things you might put the other person off.

Of course, if you’ve got people inquiring and wanting a response on your website, or you met them at a trade show and they were keen, you should get in touch straight away.

But if they tell you they’re not ready yet or just browsing, or you’ve a bunch of leads from a raffle you held on your expo stand, or an online lead generation campaign, then you need to take it back a step.

A really good nurture track should take people on a journey. The starting point is when they first engage with you – for example, when they gave you their details at a trade show, or when they downloaded your white paper. Your end stage is to get them to become a customer. So your lead nurture process needs to provide a path from the first step to the last step. Like any sales funnel, you will lose people along the way, but at the end of the process, you will be left with the people who are most interested in working with you.

An example nurture track for leads generated from a whitepaper might look like:

  • First, you could follow up with another related piece of content that ties in with the white paper
  • Next, if they engage with that article, you could then provide a case study showing your expertise in that area
  • Then you could ask them to take a quick survey on that topic
  • Then finally, provide an offer to get in touch or make a purchase

 

2. Track, measure, repeat

By looking at how often, and what, your leads engage with, you can get a good sense of how keen they are.

Seeing how many links people click, and what they click, is a great way to determine not just their level of interest, but specifically what topics or products are resonating with them. If they regularly click links on a certain offering you have, this could be a good indicator this is what they’re most interested in, and you could then send them more info on this.

The number of opens can also be a good indicator of interest. Often a large number of opens on an email will mean that it has been forwarded to someone and has kicked off an internal conversation. Each time someone replies to that email it will register another open.

Also watch out for both false positives and false negatives. Some email programs will block any tracking of opens and clicks, so just because you can’t see someone has clicked, it doesn’t mean they definitely didn’t. Other programs will register a click for every link, so they can suggest people are keener than they look. If you’ve someone who looks like they click each link in an email exactly once every time, it’s probably the email program doing it automatically.

 

3. Closing techniques

So you’ve been patient, you’ve sent more quality content, but at some point, it doesn’t hurt to push a little, to find out who is ready to take the next step. Some of the most common ways you can do this include:

  • Asking directly

Have a link they can click to book an appointment or get a call if they’re ready. You could offer a free consultation to qualified leads for example.

  • Special offer

Include a discount, which may be for a limited time, or limited to a certain number of customers. Depending on your offering they may be able to click through directly and buy, or click to get more information, giving you a warmer list of people to follow up with. 

  • Survey or quiz

You can also use surveys or quizzes to get a more detailed view of what that customer might be interested in, or what their objections or buying criteria might be, and then target them with a specific nurture track on that topic.

  • Follow your leads

In order to make the most out of your leads, you need to tread carefully, and make sure you nurture appropriately. And using the tips outlined above, you might just find the golden lead that becomes your next customer.