What is lead nurturing software?

Lead nurturing software is a subset of lead management software that has many similar features and functionalities. However, lead nurturing software is designed specifically for building a relationship with the lead through every stage of the sales funnel.

The software allows sales and marketing professionals to set up a series of trigger-based communication modes via email, SMS, social media, or call reminders throughout the buyer’s journey. The tool also helps them score and filter leads as well as access a lead’s response to the organization’s sales and marketing campaigns.

The benefits of lead nurturing software

Lead nurturing software helps you monitor leads through the sales process, cultivate their interest in your brand, and ensure that no prospective customer is lost. Here’s a list of the benefits you can gain from using this software: 

• Deliver a high-quality brand experience: The solution ensures that each lead receives a consistent, high-quality experience when they interact with your business. It helps you enhance your brand-building efforts and develop a relationship with the leads so that when they are ready to make a purchase, your business is one of their top choices.
• Automate time-consuming tasks: Lead nurturing software automates tasks such as sending follow-up marketing and sales emails, scheduling appointments, and responding to social media messages. This eliminates numerous time-consuming, recurring tasks from your teams’ daily activities, saving valuable time and resources. 
• Score and filter leads: The software makes it easier for you to track and monitor each lead’s progress through the sales process. You can score leads based on various parameters and then filter the leads as per their responses. This helps you manage the vast pool of leads and focus on the ones who are truly ready to convert. 
• Assess the effectiveness of your campaigns: The solution offers actionable insights into how your leads respond to your marketing and sales campaigns. Leverage this information to assess the effectiveness of your campaigns, do A/B testing, and reorganize your outreach.

Typical features of lead nurturing software

• Campaign management: Plan and execute a series of campaigns to target your leads and track each communication channel to test the success of the campaign. 
• Lead segmentation: Organize leads into different groups as per the predefined characteristics; allow them to be automatically moved from one group to another if their characteristics change.
• Drip campaigns: Create email campaigns that target leads in each stage of the sales funnel, and automatically move leads between the different stages based on their responses. 
• Personalization: Tweak your communication based on each lead’s characteristics, preferences, and interactions with the business; automatically incorporate a lead’s personal details, such as their name, into the communication. 
• Lead engagement: Keep leads engaged with promotional, targeted content delivered via multiple communication channels.

Considerations when buying lead nurturing software

• Give due consideration to alternative options: While some solutions offer specialized lead nurturing, various sales automation, marketing automation, and customer relationship management solutions help you achieve the same goals. Before you choose a solution, explore each alternative and decide whether you want a core lead nurturing software or you prefer to add this functionality to any of your existing systems. 
• Ensure that the solution includes all the features you want: Some lower-tier solutions and plans offer limited functionality. To make the right choice for your business, list all your requirements and match these to the features in different plans and solutions.
• Review usability and interface: The jargon used by some lead nurturing software can be complicated for buyers. So could the user interface. Before purchasing a solution, opt for a trial. Review the solution’s usability and interface to ensure that your team can adapt to it and doesn’t face any issues. 
• Check for social media integration: Even though most lead nurturing solutions support integration of social media platforms, there are some that offer only email capabilities. Therefore, ensure that a solution supports integration with your social media pages and preferred ad platforms.

Relevant lead nurturing software trends

• Analytics to power lead nurturing: Lead nurturing software providers have begun exploring multiple uses of analytics to measure the effectiveness of their outreach. This helps users get granular insights into the target audience’s interaction with the business and improve conversion rates. As analytics remains critical for lead management , vendors’ applications of analytics is expected to evolve further.
• AI to augment lead scoring: Some solutions offer artificial intelligence (AI) to use an algorithm-based approach in lead scoring. This is known as predictive lead scoring and helps users predict when a lead is going to make a purchase. While some lead scoring models depend on the expertise of your sales and marketing teams, predictive lead scoring functionality does the research and calculations automatically.