Lead Nurturing: How to Do It and Why It Matters
Nurturing leads is a vital strategy for turning potential prospects into loyal customers. In a recent #USAMfgHour chat on X, Dave Meyer of BizzyWeb, a growth marketing agency specializing in generating leads for manufacturing, brought together industry experts to discuss the nuances of lead nurturing and its impact on growing sales. From understanding customer pain points to using email effectively and assessing lead quality, participants shared valuable insights and experiences highlighting the importance of building meaningful relationships with prospects.
How to Tailor Your Marketing to Address Customer Pain Points
The chat began with host BizzyWeb asking participants to share how they tailor their marketing efforts to address the pain points of their prospects.
“We try to segment our marketing based on the buyer’s persona and tailor the message on how we resolve specific pain points they may be having,” said Kirsten Austin from DCSC, Inc.
“Love this!” Dave Meyer from BizzyWeb exclaimed in a reply to Austin. “Quick tip for those struggling with personas – try http://makemypersona.com – it’s a super-easy tool to help you generate clear, compelling personas for your sales + marketing team.”
“Know WHO you’re talking to so your message is not tone-deaf to their WHATs,” answered Ruby Rusine from Social Success Marketing. “Once you figure that out you will be able to create messages that encapsulate the ‘what’s in it for them.’”
Phil Samuels from Intuilize responded: “We have an ICP (ideal customer profile) and primarily cultivate lists from association events we attend.”
“I am not marketing or sales really,” said Kati “The Manufacturing Hypegirl” McDermith from Manufacturers’ News, Inc. “BUT I like to talk about the problems. If I can shed light on a problem, then I can share answers to the problems…”
“If you know your customers well enough you will know their pain points,” said Nigel Packer from PelaTis Online. “Sell what they are buying, not what you are actually selling. Create content that engages them, solves their problems and makes them happy.”
“Bingo!” affirmed Meyer. “Love this – nobody cares what YOU do, they want to know how you can HELP them.”
“You have to have well-defined customer personas so you know what their pain points are and where they spend their time online,” Whitney Koch from Keystone Click chimed in. “That information will inform your marketing.”
To conclude the first portion of the chat, host BizzyWeb shared how they tailor their marketing.
“[W]e focus on personalized content based on market research on our target audience. We also use customer feedback to refine messaging and segment our audience,” host BizzyWeb said.
How to Use Email for Lead Nurturing
Participants were then asked to share the role email plays in their lead nurturing and any tips they may have for staying in touch with prospects.
“Email is usually a follow-up after meeting someone in 3D (live event),” said Packer. “We use it for client information, to arrange meetings and ongoing work. We do not use it for blanket marketing due to European legislation GDPR.”
“Gonna listen to our email experts here. Personally, I see value in it,” answered Rusine.
“My way is just to share value in every touch point: blogs, posts, free leads, connections, etc.,” responded McDermith. “Whatever I can do to make someone eager to open my emails vs annoyed/deleting them – that’s my goal.”
“Email is [the] primary method of customer contact,” said Samuels. “We believe that even if the email goes unopened, our prospect has seen our name again. We provide valuable content to encourage them to engage with us on LinkedIn, text or phone. Our customer engagement is [via] ZOOM.”
“Email is still an important channel for outreach and lead nurturing,” Koch said. “With our clients, we like to do email newsletters.”
“Email is a vital role for following up calls or voicemail as well as discussions,” said Rick Gunnarson from DCSC, Inc. “It can help build rapport, too.”
Host BizzyWeb described how they use email for lead nurturing: “We use drip campaigns for consistent touchpoints, we personalize emails based on user behavior, and we always provide value in newsletters.”
Responding to host BizzyWeb, Meyer shared resources to give more context to their email usage.
“To see what I mean about the content we like to produce, check out our blog here – https://marketing.bizzyweb.com we have dozens of useful resources. We also run a podcast – look for http://dialitinpodcast.com for great chats with sales, marketing and manufacturing leaders.”
How to Assess and Refine the Quality of Sales Leads
The chat then shifted into a discussion about assessing and refining lead quality.
“We evaluate their annual volume, the number of salespeople, purchasing/supply chain personnel, customers and SKU’s to identify complexity,” said Samuels. “Their engagement with us is also noted. Do they open emails? Accept LinkedIn connection requests? Return phone calls?”
“I have a knack for sensing the quality of leads!” declared McDermith. “After 16 years in Lead Gen – that might be a superpower of mine!”
“We seek only a few concurrent clients, so we determine how much we want to work with the client,” Packer answered. “It is then up to us to win them by bringing them up to the boil.”
“Some marketing platforms have automations you can set up to calculate an engagement score based on a prospect’s interactions with your content,” responded Koch. “That is a great place to start!”
“Yes!” validated Meyer. “I just wrote about 5 key automation to install in your marketing. This is HubSpot-focused, but you can use on any automation-friendly marketing platform https://marketing.bizzyweb.com/5-examples-of-inbound-marketing-automation.”
To describe their process, this is what host BizzyWeb wrote: “BizzyWeb uses lead scoring to rank our best leads and share with sales/marketing teams monthly. We also regularly review and update what makes a good lead, and analyze conversion rates from different channels.”
How to Find New Leads for Your Business
Assessing lead quality is key to informing your marketing efforts. This data can help you determine new ways and platforms for finding new leads. Host BizzyWeb invited participants to share how they are currently identifying new prospects to nurture.
“A client recently developed an eBook, and we helped them develop a landing page and drip email campaign to go along with it,” said Koch. “They are pairing that with paid advertising.”
“Shameless plug for a few #USAMfgHour Besties. We worked with @KatiMcDermith on getting good data of manufacturers & suppliers for us to call into,” responded Austin. “We have also worked with Ruby & Team @SocialSMktg on analyzing our #SocialMedia efforts. We can always use more leads though, Dave!”
“Personal contact with prospects,” stated Packer. “Networking after speaking events. Responding to Q&A on social platforms. This is backed up with research into the prospect and finding their pain points, difficulties and competitors. When we meet with them we are fully informed.”
“Oh, making sure that we appear in search via our SEO efforts. Hello optimized blogs!” answered Rusine.
“We attend industry events, we write articles for industry magazines (thought leadership), we send a newsletter, we post on LinkedIn and comment on prospects’ posts, we are developing a partner program and just did our first co-hosted webinar,” listed Samuels.
“Webinars are one of my favorite ‘secret weapons,’” Meyer replied to Samuels. “[W]e run a monthly ‘BizzyWebinar’ on our YT channel. I think I’m on episode 300 or so? Here’s what we do for reference https://www.youtube.com/live/bJP1iiWXOXM?feature=shared.”
“One of my faves is @MfrsNews – we get great contacts and leads from them, and their research is top-notch,” Meyer said. “Plus, @KatiMcDermith is dang delightful.”
“When I was doing lead gen, I used IndustrySelect by @MfrsNews which I loved – that’s why I work here now!!!” declared McDermith.
“Networking and LinkedIn among others,” Gunnarson said.
To find new leads for your business, host BizzyWeb recommended: “[b]log content and SEO to make sure you show up in search, LinkedIn and social media in your target markets, and CRM tools for tracking and engagement.”
Success Stories: How Lead Nurturing Led to Deals and Relationships
Discussing the hows and whys of lead nurturing is necessary, but what is often missing from the conversation is the result. To that end, host BizzyWeb asked participants to share a success story of lead nurturing efforts that closed a deal or sparked a key relationship.
“About 1/2 of our DCWarehouse Clients came from years of nurturing and calls,” Austin said. “We try to give people great advice or tips and not bombard them with a sales pitch. Similar to what you discussed. #PitchSlapping = No Sales.”
“Ooooh – I HATE #Pitchslapping!” commiserated Meyer. “I also call it ‘LazyLinking.’ Do your homework and add value or I’ll nope right on out.”
“I am currently working with a client who attended a seminar some 8 years ago,” said Packer. “They bought my book, read my posts and commentary, indulged in online conversations and when they needed services they came to me.”
“Thought leadership, valuable content and patience! Themes are emerging,” Samuels responded to Packer.
“I think you are one, @dave1meyer,” McDermith said. “@DCSCInc & @whitney_m_koch just to name a few 😜 I just build these fun relationships with awesome connections and then we all want to play together!!! We all love to see each other succeed and we want to help the cause!”
“I find phoning to be largely inefficient, too many barriers,” said Samuels. “I left a message (after I was well into a DRIP campaign) and said we guarantee an ROI and have 100% customer retention. They returned my call and signed a deal in less than a month.”
“How has phoning changed over the years, Phil?” Rusine asked Samuels. “I hate doing that, TBH.”
“You nailed it ‘I hate doing that,’” Amy Anderson responded to Rusine. “[T]here was a time phoning was the latest and greatest communication technology, and while it could be intimidating, it opened worlds instantly. Know your customers…”
“There’s still plenty of room for phones – it’s more of an art form now than ever,” Meyer added. “We actually teach a phone prospecting class. When nobody is picking up the phone anymore, eating that frog can be a big differentiator.”
“Here’s a fun anecdote: We recently had a prospect come back to us (and join us as a client) after 10 YEARS – they had been subscribed to our content that entire time, and the timing was finally right,” Meyer shared. “That’s a long conversion! Hey, slow and steady wins the race.”
To be able to even recognize lead nurturing success stories, host BizzyWeb emphasized the importance of lead tracking: “We track every interaction in our CRM and on our website (both powered by HubSpot). When someone reviews our content, we follow up and offer additional helpful information.”
Effective Tools for Automated Lead Nurturing
To close the discussion, host BizzyWeb asked participants to name the tools or platforms they have found most effective for automating their lead nurturing efforts.
“Like you we use a CRM, we also use @Mailchimp and it works well for our lead nurturing,” said Austin.
“Okay, don’t laugh…I just purchased an Excel lead tracker from a lady on Etsy & it’s amazing!” declared McDermith. “Next I am getting @mailshakeapp to better automate and track my email outreach. Also, the Fathom app has helped tremendously!”
“We are a HubSpot house,” answered Samuels. “Our website was revised a few months back and it is producing new engagement. Webinars are done 3-4 times a year.”
“Our proprietary marketing automation platform Bamboo Reach (formerly BoostGenie)!” said Koch.
“There are a plethora of tools available for automation,” responded Packer. “Choosing the right one for your needs is all important. I have found many are overly complicated and we have to change the way we work to suit the tool. It is a complex area. My best tool has always been my brain.”
As a HubSpot partner, it’s no surprise that host BizzyWeb uses HubSpot for their lead nurturing and automation. However, they recommended “[choosing] what works for you and customize for your needs!”
Host BizzyWeb concluded the chat with this reminder: “Lead Nurturing is about building relationships with your prospects. Use a proper CRM, and connect with a pro if you need help.”
Summary
This #USAMfgHour discussion underscored the significance of personalized approaches and thoughtful strategies in nurturing leads to drive sales. As the participants shared their success stories and tools for automation, it became clear that nurturing leads is not just about maintaining contact—it’s about providing value at every touchpoint. Whether through email campaigns, CRM tools, or personalized content, the key takeaway is that consistent, relationship-focused lead nurturing is crucial for long-term business growth.
About #USAMfgHour
Anyone who champions U.S. manufacturing can join in on a new conversation each week on Twitter using the hashtag #USAMfgHour. The chat starts at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time/2 p.m. Eastern. Share positive blog posts, helpful articles, news, important information, accomplishments, events, and more with other manufacturers and supporters from throughout the country.
Are you interested in hosting a #USAMfgHour chat? Contact organizers @DCSCinc, @SocialSMktg, and @KeystoneClick.
To learn more about how Keystone Click can help you level up your online presence, contact us.