Like trees, leads have roots. Some businesses focus on capturing the lead info and then wait for the phone to ring without ever nurturing their newly generated prospects. But this isn't wholly effective. If you want your leads to blossom into loyal, repeat customers, keep them healthy by engaging in nurturing. Develop a lead nurturing strategy and make sure all your website visitors feel nourished and happy as soon as they reach out to you!
Many businesses are oblivious to the difference between lead generation and lead nurturing Here's a quick rundown...
Here's what you need to know! Below is a brief explanation of each term:
Lead Generation
A lead generation is a form of marketing that focuses on attracting potential customers online. Lead generation is primarily focused on looking for new leads, rather than engaging or interacting with current ones.
The lead generation process is very important in Internet Marketing because it generates interesting prospects for your website. Many sites may design these leads such as a content marketing strategy, social media campaign, or email marketing campaign. It’s important to understand how this works so that you can create effective Inbound Marketing campaigns.
Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing focuses on those customers who already have an existing interest in your business beforehand. It involves more assimilating with the given audience from a business perspective and building mutually beneficial relationships with them over time. Lead nurturing refers to a behavior that has already been proven through past experiences, whereas cold leads refer to new clients whom you are trying to establish contact with outside of any prior relationship.
The difference between lead generation and lead nurturing is at the very core of their definitions. Lead generation commonly begins sooner in the sales process, while lead nurturing does so after the inevitable lull period of uncertainty. In short, lead generation means casting out a net to find people who are sincerely interested in your company. Lead nurturing on the other hand encourages potential buyers to purchase by guiding and persuading them with helpful information or knowledge graphically or via other visual means.
Lead generation and lead nurturing are both vital aspects of inbound marketing. The two go hand-in-hand in fact, as lead nurturing is closely related to the lead generation process itself! By choosing to implement a strategy that utilises lead nurturing, you will be able to give your business an edge against its competitors in today's fiercely competitive market. Let's explore the pros and cons.
Advantages
Online lead generation is an excellent opportunity for businesses to share interesting content! Creating valuable and interesting resources related to your industry that customers find very useful will help win their trust.
The types of content could include blog posts, social media updates, offers, or other online resources like an eBook or checklist template. Furthermore, creating high quality fully optimised links on the internet with relevant information that benefits customers and enables them to do something they wouldn't otherwise be able to do can help improve Google’s ranking.
The more high-quality full optimised links you have online the possibility of your website being flagged in the search results for certain keywords increases!
Last but not least, Lead generation and nurturing are two of the best methods of promoting your company and increasing sales. Being relatable and ready with contextually relevant content will most definitely work in your favor when it comes to generating more leads for your company.
Finding opportunities to connect with a large base of consumers that have shown an interest in the sort of product or service you're offering is very important because if they convert into paying customers then that can only mean one thing - a boost in sales!
Plus, just imagine if these new customers find your services completely awesome so much so that some may even be willing to become brand ambassadors for you!
Disadvantages
Lead generating and lead nurturing take time, so don't expect to be signing clients in a short period. If you're working with a small, targeted audience, it may take you weeks - or even months to convert that person from a stranger into a qualified lead. Lead generation is often time-consuming, but the advantages of securing new leads will far outweigh the downside of candidates not converting. Patience is a virtue!
In addition, lead generation and nurturing can be costly, especially when the campaign's results aren't what you were hoping for. Some businesses invest money in generating leads in the hope that it will attract a significant number of potential customers.
Do you know what steps you should take if your lead generation techniques aren't as effective as those of your competitors? If a lead moves on to something else or no longer shows interest, would it be worth your time to follow up?
To help companies determine if a certain marketing strategy is effective, businesses should pay close attention to key performance indicators (KPIs). What is your reach in a given timeframe as a KPI? Is your offering of value to those individuals? Can you reach out to any of those leads? What do they think about your offer after contacting you? By analysing this data, you can determine whether lead generation and nurturing were worth your business' time, effort, and investment.
Overall, lead generation and lead nurturing are intertwined. The main purpose of both marketing strategies is to ensure you are providing enough valuable content to the right audience for them to get to know, like, and trust your business.
A large part of this process involves identifying who your best prospects truly are for you to know where you should focus your efforts first. The key lies in presenting value upfront, rather than simply blasting out promotional messages.
If a lead is interested in potential solutions without having identified a problem yet, they most likely will not return once they do- so it's important to provide information that offers value before asking them for their details - otherwise you risk getting flagged as 'spammy' or worse- completely ignored.