4 lead nurturing roadblocks to avoid

The same lead nurturing roadblocks are stopping marketers from achieving the lead nurturing results they want. So we examined the top 4 lead nurturing roadblocks, and how B2B marketers can avoid them to ensure conversion success.

Sending too often

The more frequently you send emails, the more likely you are to be marked as spam. The more likely you get marked as spam, the more likely you are to get blacklisted. It's a vicious cycle, once you've become trapped. To succeed, you must schedule your communications in order to not overwhelm your interested leads with too much information too soon.

In order to do this, stagger your content levels, introduce wait times and conditions within your email campaigns. I.e. don't send email 2 until a prospect has gained a lead score of 10 points. (Which means they'll have interacted with at least two blogs before receiving an email on a whitepaper they might enjoy.) It's about sending relevant emails at the relevant time.

Not double opting-in contacts

With the EU General Data Protection Laws coming into effect in May 2018, you’ll want to start looking at building up a double opt-in database. Prospects who give their consent to your marketing communications will be far more receptive to your email campaigns, meaning you'll see an improvement in your engagement and conversion rates in the long run.

Take a look at how you can encourage a double opt-in database here.

Sleepy subscribers

If your subscribers aren’t engaging with your emails, you need to wake them up. Change up your design and approach. Personally, we've found emails that look like they come from an individual in a plain-text, Outlook style performs better – but it depends on your audience. Most importantly, the more relevant the content you send to them, the more likely your subscribers are to sit up and take notice. Using a preference centre you can reconsider what email information would actually interest your leads.

Wanting results NOW!

Lead nurturing is not an overnight success story. If you want to see results, you must invest and constantly monitor the process. Those who check in with their lead nurturing progress monthly or quarterly are more apt to improving their campaigns and, as a result, their conversion rates.

The marketer who is constantly changing their tactic weekly will not be able to truly measure campaign success. Let automation work in the background for your colder leads, while you run more targeted, high-value campaigns for hot, sales-ready leads. Then focus on performance and improvement – you'll see more measurable results at the 3, 6 and 12 month marks.

For more lead nurturing best practices, use our guide to lead nurturing in 2017.