Nurture marketing refers to the marketing strategy wherein marketers stay connected to prospective customers by offering them worthwhile, relevant data in tune with the latter’s preferences. This form of marketing allows for the progression of leads via an open dialogue consisting of a steady flow of non-obligatory messages which will be structured according to how the customer responds to the information in them.
How does Nurture Marketing Work?
Nurture Marketing is not like traditional marketing techniques which consider all customers to have the same interests and preferences. While traditional marketing techniques focus on literally shoving the product in the face of the customer, nurture marketing follows a more systematic approach that focuses on being there when the customer needs it.
It follows the basic principle of starting a conversation first and continuing it with low obligation messages. These messages work on not only increasing the chances of a soft sell becoming a hard sell, but also target customer wants and needs in particular.
Benefits of Nurture Marketing
Also called as the Laissez Faire approach, nurture marketing has the following benefits.
It helps the marketer distinguish himself from other marketers who connect with the customers only the obligation of making a purchase. In doing so, it helps the marketer achieve a higher mind awareness with prospects where in the former will be treated with respect rather than annoyance.
Nurture marketing allows a marketer to generate many touch points during the course of the conversations with the customer. This will help create an automatic jump in customer’s interest at any point during these conversations.
Perfecting Nurture Marketing Skills
Here are some useful tips that can help marketers perfect their nurture marketing skills effectively.
- Starting Small
Adopting a simplified approach to customer personalization is considered essential for newbies. A super complex nurture program may not only be hard to understand, but may turn out to be harder to implement as well. So while a marketer has to think big in the long run, he will need to take one step at a time when it comes to understanding nurture marketing and perfecting the same.
- Proper Data Collection
Nurture marketing is data driven. This means it relies heavily on customer data for proper functioning. Marketers adopting this approach will therefore need to take extra measures to collect information about customers and prospects. This information may include details on age, locations, industry, company size and interests, etc. and will have to be stored in a centralized database for easy retrieval as and when the need arises.
- Use of Multiple Channels
While nurture marketing is considered very effective via email, there are plenty of other channels a marketer can use to engage his customers. Some of these alternate channels include phone calls, snail mails, SMS messages and even social media messages to name a few.
Integration of CMS with Digital Marketing Platform
This is a really simple and effective way to perfect nurture marketing. Marketers can make use of content management system to build content related to individual users. The CMS can be integrated with the digital marketing platform to build content blocks on social media and websites. This way, when a customer or prospect visits these areas, he/she will be able to view unique content pertaining to his/her preferences. This can be done by matching a visitor with pre-set rules, and is a sure shot way to personalize the messages sent to a customer or prospect.
Nurture marketing involves following a unique approach to customer acquisition by offering more personalized marketing messages in lieu with customer preferences and interests. The technique makes use of customer data to facilitate the progression of leads in a more streamlined, slow paced manner.
