Category: Answering Service, Lead Response
Use Lead Nurturing Emails to Expedite Sales Funnel Success
The strategic use of email can optimize sales efforts when using lead nurturing techniques
Leads go in the top of your sales funnel and sales drip out the stem at the bottom. With proper management, you can nurture these leads to move them through the funnel faster and speed up the identification of unqualified prospects that will otherwise clog the funnel and waste time. Email can play a key role in this when you send lead nurturing communiques.
“Lead nurturing focuses on listening to prospects and providing the information they need,” explains Adam Berkson, president of LiveVoice, a boutique phone support service that specializes in lead response services. “Email is a fast and effective way to make this happen.”
To support this assertion Berkson cites two research conclusions made by HubSpot, experts in the area of lead nurturing. HubSpot, which provides inbound marketing and sales software to help businesses attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers, knows this subject well.
The first item is that lead nurturing emails enjoy a higher click through rate of 8 percent compared to only 3 percent for general email campaigns. “This is nearly three times the click through rate,” enthuses Berkson. “A threefold increase in engagement is significant and can’t be overlooked.”
“The higher click through rates are a reflection of the trust that lead nurturing efforts establish with prospects,” says Mike Novak, chief technology officer at TeleServices Direct, a worldwide provider of outsource call center services. “Prospects are more likely to read and respond to an email message from a company that has established a rapport with them.”
The second finding from HubSpot may seem counter intuitive at first, but it isn’t.
They have learned that lead nurturing emails result in a higher unsubscribe rate of 1 percent for lead nurtured prospects compared to a mere .5 percent for regular emails. This is twice the unsubscribe rate.
“On the surface, this seems like a negative,” says Berkson, “but this indicates the effectiveness of lead nurturing emails in removing unqualified leads from the sales funnel.” This saves wasted time and effort, allowing the sales and marketing focus to rightly reside on solid leads.
“While causality was not investigated,” adds Berkson, “the likely explanation is that lead nurturing emails are more likely to be read by prospects, which allows mismatches to be discovered quicker. Because of the trust established through lead nurturing, prospects wishing to end email communications are more likely to actually unsubscribe, versus just flagging the message as spam, which hurts the sender’s email reputation.”
By removing unqualified leads, the quality of the remaining list improves. “As these marginal email addresses are deleted from the list, the resulting interaction with the remaining prospects increases, with the positive results increasing the reputation of the list,” Berkson concludes. “This improves deliverability and overall effectiveness – all because of lead nurturing.”
LiveVoice understands how important every call is to your business. Contact them about customizing their flexible, premium phone support service so you can turn opportunity into profit.
Peter DeHaan, PhD, is a freelance writer, call center authority, and publisher of Connections Magazine, which covers the call center industry.
