Unlocking Revenue: Lead Nurturing Examples and Strategies

If you're a B2B marketer, you grew up with lead nurturing. In fact, on your very first day in your very first job as a marketer, your boss might have said to you, "We need a lead nurturing campaign - here's the login for our email marketing platform - see you in an hour."

Don't get me wrong, lead nurturing (and all the B2B marketing tools that go with it) as a concept has great intent: to stay top of mind for our prospects, and be there when they're ready to buy. But the old exercise in building a 9 email campaign that "nurtures" leads from one buying to stage to another over the course of 10 days is a bust at best, and embarrassing to the brand at worst.

This comprehensive guide explores effective lead nurturing strategies (beyond email examples), leveraging real-world stories to help marketers optimize their marketing campaigns and maximize revenue potential.

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Measure the impact of your lead nurturing with our Marketing Budget Template for Outstanding ROI

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Personalized Email Marketing Campaigns

Overview of Personalized Email Marketing Campaigns

There's a very specific reason I didn't title this section "email drip campaigns", and the reason is because when I hear "drip campaign" I do a full on body cringe. The reality is that lead nurturing emails can be an incredible way to engage your leads until they are ready to buy. However, the buying journey isn't linear (see below image from Gartner), and building an email drip campaign that has the dreaded "send the book a demo email four days after the introduction email" is a terrible way to build trust. Let's look at what works.

Example of a Personalized Email Marketing Campaign

Ishaan Shakunt, Founder of Spear Growth, knew that segmentation was going to be key in his nurturing strategy. He and his team run a monthly newsletter that goes to an email list made up of anyone who has ever scheduled a call with their sales team. From this list, they remove unqualified leads and existing customers, leaving a list of quality leads for engagement. Through trial and error, they found the content that worked best for this is a specific type of case study that focuses on a campaign or initiative their agency can serve their clients with. The call to action is clear and asks viewers to schedule a call. This newsletter generates 1-3 calls a month for Ishaan and his team and has proven to be a highly successful lead nurturing email campaign.

Webinar Series for Education and Engagement

Importance of Webinars in Lead Nurturing

Webinars are one of the best channels marketing teams can use in building relationships with their audience. As one of the few two way communication channels available to marketers, webinars are central to any SaaS marketing strategy that aims to drive engagement. (Check out other engagement marketing examples.) They serve every part of the marketing and sales funnel, not only for new customers, but for retaining and upgrading existing ones.

Example of a Series of Webinars for Education and Engagement

At the request of customers, Banzai customer marketing manager, Tiara Yracheta-Udziela and senior customer success manager, Kristen Gray Psychas (KGP) launched a new content marketing program in the form of educational webinars. Webinar topics and content are sourced from customer questions and areas of opportunity they identify via usage data, ensuring each webinar produces relevant content for the target audience. With sessions hosted weekly, a diverse group of Banzai-sourced subject matter experts contribute to further establishing thought leadership and increasing engagement through live discussions about the content with audience members. Webinar content ranges from strategic samplings to feature deep dives and best practices which gives the team a wealth of metrics to track for each individual webinar. Overall, they’re aiming to impact NRR, improve adoption of advanced usage features, and identify expansion opportunities. Webinar lead scoring allows this customer experience team to identify those most engaged in the sessions. Following its initial live presentation all content is repurposed as automated webinars for public access in a customer educational Showcase. These webinars can be found as supplemental learning resources throughout the onboarding experience and in targeted moments of the entire customer journey.

Video Marketing for Lead Nurturing

Creating Video Content for Different Stages of the Buyer's Journey

Like webinars, video marketing content serves every stage of the marketing funnel and is a powerful lead engagement strategy. Whether you're looking to convert high intent prospects into customers via demo videos, introduce your brand through a personalized ABM video campaign, or leverage a customer testimonial video to share with new leads, this channel offers a powerful lead nurturing opportunity.

Example of a Personalized Video Marketing Campaign at Scale

Warmly had a goal to boost reply and meeting booking rates by integrating personalized videos into their email nurturing process. Using Sendspark, they were able to showcase their product and key value propositions, and then personalize each video's introduction for every prospect. The use of these personalized videos significantly increase lick and response rates compared to their standard email nurturing. Warmly reported a doubling in engagement metrics, substantial increases in open rates, click-through rates, and reply rates, leading to more effective lead nurturing and customer conversions.

Social Media Engagement Strategies

Leveraging Social Media for Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing happens on every marketing channel, and social media is no exception. “Be where your audience is” serves as the oldest known marketing adage, and with billions of people on social media, it’s sure to include your audience.

Real-World Example of Successful Social Media Lead Nurturing

To capture the attention of their target audience, Gianluca Ferruggia, Managing Director of B2B marketplace DesignRush, leveraged LinkedIn and Instagram, knowing those were the platforms most frequented by their audience. Their content was crafted to capture attention and spark curiosity about the advantages of working with agencies. The content they presented on social media was the gateway to their website and dedicated landing pages, which was where the actual nurturing process began, offering more in-depth information and resources. They made sure to segment this audience based on their industry as it largely dictated what kind of agency their audience actually needed. Once these potential clients landed on DesignRush's pages, they provided them with tailored content that helped them recognize their unmet needs and how agency partnerships could fill these gaps.

DesignRush knew that many retail and e-commerce businesses use Instagram as part of their marketing strategies. Once these prospects were directed to DesignRush, they used HubSpot's advanced segmentation tools to categorize leads based on their industry. This ensured that the content they received was highly relevant and tailored to their specific needs. They saw a 15% increase in qualified leads from retail and e-commerce businesses on Instagram alone. The overall engagement on their landing pages improved by 20%, and their conversion rates saw a significant uptick.

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Measure the impact of your lead nurturing with our Marketing Budget Template for Outstanding ROI

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Personalized Direct Mail Campaigns

Incorporating Direct Mail into Lead Nurturing Strategies

Direct mail is an often-overlooked opportunity amidst digital campaigns. Executing personalized direct mail campaigns as your lead nurturing strategy can serve not only on its own, but as an integrated, omni-channel amplification strategy.

Personalizing Direct Mail Campaigns via ABM

Campbell Tourgis, Executive VP & Chief Operating Officer at Wainbee, knows first hand the power of a personalized direct mail campaign. Wainbee's main goal was to secure meetings with high-value prospects, and nurture them toward conversion. With a targeted Account based marketing approach, Campbell and team executed a direct mail package containing industry-specific case studies, product samples, and an invitation to an exclusive online executive briefing.

Simultaneously, they leveraged sponsored content and InMail messages on LinkedIn to reach the C-suite executives in our target companies.

This multi-channel campaign's success was evident in the engagement metrics. The personalized direct mail achieved an impressive 21% response rate, leading to 15 scheduled executive briefings. LinkedIn engagement exceeded industry benchmarks by 25%, and the InMail messages boasted a 13% conversion rate, resulting in direct inquiries and further discussions.

Paid Advertising Campaigns

Utilizing Paid Ads to Stay Top-of-Mind with Leads

Dive into the world of paid advertising to keep your brand in front of existing and potential customers. An effective lead generation strategy, paid advertising can also be used to re-engage leads who are already familiar with your brand.

Example of Effective Paid Advertising Nurture

Corrina Owens, Chief Evangelist at purple cork, had a goal of breaking into net-new Enterprise accounts - accounts that sales had historically struggled to break ground with. She also recognized that many of her brand's champions were leaving their SMB jobs and moving to accounts that were upmarket. Knowing that these individuals were already familiar with the product and company, she organized a multi-channel campaign using direct mail, email, and paid ads to target these individuals. Once a previous user changed jobs and landed at a target Enterprise account, Corrina's prospects went through a sales cadence that combined different touchpoints and offered a personalized experience. From personalized messaging to celebratory gifts, Corrina's nurture showed the audience that her company wasn't just looking for a quick conversion but was looking to develop a long-term relationship. The campaign influenced millions of dollars for the brand.

Conclusion

As you optimize your lead nurturing journey, remember that unlocking revenue is not just about closing deals and measuring marketing performance —it's about building lasting relationships. By implementing the strategies and examples outlined in this guide, you can foster meaningful connections with leads, optimize campaigns, and drive substantial revenue growth. Engage, educate, and elevate your lead nurturing efforts to unlock the full potential of your business.

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Measure the impact of your lead nurturing with our Marketing Budget Template for Outstanding ROI

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