by Joseph Freeman | Updated Dec 27, 2023
So, you're getting "leads," but they're not turning into sales conversations.
This is the number one complaint I hear from marketers.
Whether they're a team of one, a team of many, or work with an experienced agency, tying revenue back to an inbound lead seems to be a pretty rare occurrence these days.
Moving someone who's interested in your download to being interested in hopping on a call is not a one/two punch.
It's more like a one, two, three...eleven punch.
😓 The problem with your email nurturing is...
Even though you know you should be loving on these leads, at best, you're sending them an occasional newsletter and a promo email.
But, you wouldn't want that. And they don't want that either. You have to be loading them up with a meaningful journey that:
- Gets them closer to solving their problem with every touchpoint
- Keeps you positioned as the expert for that day they do start looking to talk to someone. You don't want them Googling your competitor six months after you gave them their first "ah ha!" through a download.
👉 Try this simple B2B email nurturing process instead...
- DAY 1:
- Send them that download they requested.
- Also send them a separate email welcoming them to who you are, who you serve, and a "heads up" that they'll be getting more educational info from you every week.
- DAY 2: Send them an invite to a webinar that takes them a step further into the conversation they downloaded.
- Day 3: Send them a "gift," another free download, and remind them about the webinar.
- Day 5: Final webinar reminder. If they don't bite, don't worry.
- Days 14, 28, 49, 63, 77: Send them a short recap of a helpful blog on your website, and give them a link to go read it. Be the link so you can measure engagement. And don't add any other links to the email. Just one.
- Day 91: Send them a pitch to "speak with an expert" on your team.
At this point, you've given them a full quarter's worth of valuable content. They've also had time to warm up to working with a vendor...
...and it only took 11 emails!
You can start calling them if you want. Even better — you should continue building out a year's worth of nurturing. Just rinse and repeat days 13 through 91 three more times.
Email nurturing can be complicated. But it doesn't have to be. Just start by doing something better than you're doing now.
