The process of building a relationship with potential customers through relevant communication over time.
A way to help leads progress toward a decision without forcing an immediate sale.
Short and sweet:
The process of building a relationship with potential customers through relevant communication over time.
A way to help leads progress toward a decision without forcing an immediate sale.
See also: Marketing Automation, Email Marketing, Qualified Lead
Lead nurturing guides a prospect through a relationship over time with relevant, staged content and outreach, rather than pushing for a sale the moment someone first shows interest, recognizing that most leads simply aren’t ready to buy on day one. It typically responds to specific signals, like which pages someone visited or which emails they opened, tailoring the next message to where that individual actually seems to be in their decision process. Businesses with longer or more considered sales cycles tend to rely on nurturing especially heavily, since abandoning a lead too early because they didn’t convert immediately often means losing someone who simply needed more time.
A B2B software company might practice lead nurturing by sending a prospect a helpful case study two days after a demo request, followed by a customer testimonial the following week rather than an immediate sales pitch.
Real estate agents often rely on this same slow-and-steady approach, sending monthly market updates to someone who inquired about a listing months ago but wasn’t ready to buy right away.
HubSpot built much of its reputation on best practices in this area, teaching marketers to guide a cold contact through educational content long before ever mentioning price.
