At Content.First Marketing, one of our favorite things is to see businesses grow.
There is nothing more satisfying than helping a client attract new customers, increase their revenue, and establish a strong brand identity.
We have a lot of small business owners come to us with similar objectives. They understand their brand, but translating it to their audience is a whole other story. What makes sense or seems “obvious” to a business owner may go completely over the head of a prospect.
To this, we turn to nurture marketing.
It’s probably a phrase you’ve heard tossed around here or there, but what does it really mean?
It is just a fad or is there something deeper to it?
What Is Nurture Marketing?
In our opinion, nurture marketing is the heart and soul of a content marketing strategy. It’s more than just putting out content, sending an email, posting to social media or creating a website.
It’s an avenue for building strong, meaningful customer relationships that drive revenue and client satisfaction. Hopefully, you’re already doing this in other ways. But nurture marketing takes things to the next level, by expanding your reach and solidifying your presence in your particular marketplace.
We like to think that we are in the business of great follow-up. With nurture marketing, we endeavor to position your brand at the forefront of a prospect’s mind. So, at the moment they are ready to buy, they think of you first.
How Does It Work?
To accomplish this, we offer them FREE value through various forms of content (blogs, social media, eBooks, webinars, free downloads, emails, etc.) When you offer something of extreme value to a prospect, without asking for anything in return, you naturally create a basis of trust.
Once you’ve gained the trust of a prospect, it’s time to listen. By using data and analytics to see how they respond and interact with the content you share, you’re able to give them even more of what they love.
For example, say we create a series of three emails, all including links to different blog posts, targeting different topics. If a prospect opens email #2, discussing the best times to post on social media, we can be pretty sure they’re interested in learning more about social media. Thus we can send them additional content tailored to their interests.
Nurture marketing, although heavily reliant on automation, is an extremely personal form of marketing. It takes into consideration the actions and engagement of a prospect or client, in order to serve them even better.
Who Should Use Nurture Marketing?
To help you understand if your organization should use nurture marketing, consider the following:
1. Where do you get your leads?
By far, the best way to get leads is through referrals.
Nurture marketing generates warm leads by way of building trust and repertoire
before you even hint at a sale.
2. What is your follow up mechanism?
Once you have a lead, how do you keep in touch with them? Oftentimes, you give them a call, right?
But what happens when they don’t pick up or you’re sent to voicemail? Do you keep calling?
Nurture marketing is a more time efficient way to interact with a prospect every couple of days or weeks via email, social media and so on, without anyone falling through the cracks.
3. What happens to those who don’t close?
Maybe your prospect isn’t ready to buy now. But who’s to say in 2, 3, 4 months, things won’t be different? How do you stay in touch?
Nurture marketing makes sure you show up, so when they’re ready to buy, you’re there.
If you liked this post, here is another one we think you’ll like too!
If you would like to know more about nurture marketing, or just growing your business in general, contact us.
We Can Help!
