Posted by: Megan Amick, Marketing Coordinator

Lead nurturing is a process aimed at developing mutually beneficial, long-term relationships between a business and its prospects. Of course, a lost relationship can’t be nurtured, so nurturing efforts must be delivered carefully and always with the needs of the prospect in mind.

According to research by Brian Carroll, up to 95% of prospects on your website are not yet ready to talk with a sales rep. Rather than forcing an early connection between them, through a lead nurturing program, a company gradually builds a prospect’s profile over time. The sales team isn’t included in the process until the timing is right. As a prospect’s profile is created, offers are presented based on his indicated preferences. This allows the business to effectively target each prospect by extending the most relevant and compelling offerings.

The online introduction of a prospect to a business typically occurs when he registers for an offer on a landing page. In many lead generation programs, a prospect is required to fill out a detailed registration form to download his first offer, whether it is a white paper, case study, brochure or webinar. Of course, many users see the long form and abandon the page. Too much, too soon.

Instead, by taking into account that the majority of the prospects are in the earliest stages of their purchase process – such as awareness and research – lead nurturing programs often employ registration forms where users complete only the most basic information (such as their name and email) at first. With this step, a prospect is able to maintain a sense of privacy while still indicating an interest in and receiving an offer.

With each additional point of contact, a little more information is collected and added to the prospect’s profile. Eventually, the profile is as complete as can be, and the business understands the prospect’s level of interest. Once a prospect is identified as a qualified lead, he can then be contacted in a more direct and immediate fashion. The profile provides useful information about the person to the sales rep, and as a result, she has a better shot of closing the deal. An added bonus of the approach – the business can focus its attention on the most high-potential prospects first.