Any marketer worth their salt understands the importance of nurturing leads to drive conversions. However, what many marketers do not realize is that there are no one-size-fits all solutions to lead nurturing. Applying the same lead nurturing strategy to all leads does not work. Success depends on identifying the category or type of lead and initiating a systematic lead nurturing campaign to cater to such category of people.
There is no hard and fast rule regarding segmenting leads into categories. What is appropriate for one company may be inappropriate for another. Some common category types for multi-channel B2B marketers however include general prospects, channel partners or resellers, and existing customers.
The first challenge is to prioritize the type of prospects to be nurtured. For instance, if the focus is on expanding or broadening the sales channel, then the priority should be to nurture general prospects. However, if the focus is to strengthen or deepen the sales channel, the priority is on nurturing channel partners or resellers.
The second challenge pertains to communicating with each category of leads. For instance, new prospects may have to be enticed with communications that drive home the possible benefits and revenues that accrue on becoming a reseller. Existing channel partners would already be aware of such information and the focus of the communication should be on new information, reminding them about something they have overlooked or how best to optimize the existing offers for their benefit. Again, while it is easy to communicate to existing customers and channel partners, communicating with new prospects require the extra work of identifying their preferred communication medium.
