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Companies that have mastered the art of lead nurturing generate, on average, 50% more warm leads than others, at an acquisition cost that is 33% lower[i].
When supported by a robust database, high value-added content and a well-honed sales mechanism (triggered at the right time), lead nurturing can accelerate the speed of the pipeline and shorten sales cycles that sometimes tend to drag on in B2B. Here’s how it works…
What exactly is lead nurturing?
Lead nurturing is a marketing process, often automated, that involves providing leads with relevant and personalized content throughout their purchasing journey to help them progress through the funnel and trigger a conversion.
To achieve this, the process relies on a series of planned interactions, typically through emails, targeted content, and multi-channel touchpoints, to maintain the prospect’s engagement, strengthen their relationship with the brand, and ultimately reassure them in their purchasing decision.
Unlike direct sales approaches, lead nurturing focuses on delivering value over time by tailoring each message and piece of content to the interest level and maturity of each prospect in the buying cycle.
Beyond maximizing conversion opportunities, lead nurturing is also a way to better qualify leads so that the sales team engages only with those contacts most likely to take action.
💡It’s important to note: unlike B2C, which generally favors quick transactions, B2B lead generation involves longer sales cycles and more complex buying journeys that require the development of more meaningful relationships. Lead nurturing helps establish and maintain trust between both parties while fostering brand recall and embedding the brand in the lead’s mind.
What types of content are best suited for lead nurturing?
In principle, any content can be part of a nurturing sequence, except perhaps for social media posts. The formats that perform best in this context share three key characteristics:
They are substantial and highly valuable. Generic content, which merely rephrases what is already available online (or on an AI), will not advance the lead in their journey. Instead, focus on offering unique data from a study, in-depth analysis, a new approach, or your perspective on a real issue;
They are sequential and fit into a logical nurturing sequence. Each piece of content sets the stage for the next and guides leads through different stages of the buying journey (or sequentially addresses multiple objections they may have).
They are (more or less) customizable and can be quickly adapted based on the prospect’s profile, industry, or interests (especially if you are targeting very different audiences). Nurturing content shares this characteristic with the content used in ABM campaigns.
They are particularly engaging, even interactive. Short videos, for example, make excellent nurturing content because they feel more authentic, more human, and address the lead personally, which enhances engagement.
What tools are needed to launch and manage a B2B lead nurturing campaign?
Excluding the tools needed for content creation and hosting, lead nurturing campaigns require two complementary tools:
A Marketing Automation Platform
This is the core of the setup. It centralizes most of the necessary functionalities to create, execute, analyze, and refine your campaigns:
- Manage and send targeted, personalized emails to your different lead segments;
- Creation of nurturing sequences, with automated paths to guide leads through the conversion funnel;
- Segmentation of leads according to various criteria (behaviour, demographic and firmographic data, engagement, etc.) to personalize communications;
- Scoring leads according to their interactions to prioritize the most promising prospects;
- Creation and management of conversion-optimized landing pages;
- Analysis and reporting to adjust campaigns according to the results obtained, almost in real-time.
👉 Examples of marketing automation platforms: HubSpot Marketing Hub, Adobe Marketo Engage, Pardot (Salesforce), ActiveCampaign, and Eloqua (Oracle).
CRM
It complements the Marketing Automation platform by allowing salespeople to engage directly with the most promising leads to drive conversions.
- In summary, when a lead becomes “too qualified” for an automated sequence, sales representatives see it in the CRM and trigger a sales action (call, demo, etc.).
- The information gathered during direct interactions with the lead (by sales representatives or Business Development Representatives – BDRs) is recorded in the CRM and can be used to adjust and personalize the automated nurturing sequences.
- Finally, the CRM displays to sales representatives the nurturing content each lead has received and their interactions with that content, allowing them to align their follow-up actions with the lead’s nurturing journey. This is an aspect of Sales and Marketing alignment.
How do you measure the success of a lead nurturing campaign?
The marketing automation platform and CRM usually provide raw data to evaluate the success of the lead nurturing campaign:
Open and Click Rates: These metrics gauge whether the nurturing content captures the leads’ attention and encourages them to take action.
Unsubscribe Rate: This helps verify the alignment of content with the target audience’s interests and ensures that the sending frequency is not perceived as aggressive.
Lead Qualification Score Trends: Monitoring changes in lead qualification scores helps ensure that nurturing progressively qualifies prospects.
Conversion Rates from MQLs to SQLs: This evaluates how effectively the nurturing prepares leads for the sales team.
Average Sales Cycle Duration: This metric assesses whether nurturing accelerates decision-making for prospects.
Final Conversion Rate: The conversion of leads into clients serves as a clear indicator of a lead nurturing campaign’s performance and, more broadly, of lead generation effectiveness.
Campaign ROI: Calculating the return on investment involves comparing the revenue generated by converted leads against the costs of the nurturing campaign.
The 10 Steps of B2B Lead Nurturing (Illustrated with a Concrete Example)
The table below summarizes the 10 typical steps of a B2B lead nurturing campaign, using the example of a company that offers a cybersecurity solution for a target audience of “Large Enterprises”.
Step
1. Lead generation
Explanation
Creation of high-value content to attract leads
Concrete Example
Publication of a white paper on “The 5 Cyber Threats That Threaten the Sustainability of Large Enterprises in 2025”.
2. Lead Acquisition
Obtaining the lead’s contact information in exchange for the content.
The CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) of a multinational company downloads the white paper by entering their email in a form.
3. Segmentation
Categorization of the Lead Based on Profile and Behavior
The lead is classified as “CISO of a large company”.
4. Sending Targeted Content
Sending relevant content based on the lead’s profile
An email is sent with a case study on preventing a cyberattack in a similar company.
5. Gradual Engagement
Offering deeper interactions
An invitation is sent to a webinar on “How to Implement a Robust Cybersecurity Strategy Using AI”.
6. Scoring & qualification
Assessment of the lead’s interest and maturity
The lead participates in the webinar and downloads several resources, which increases their qualification score.
7. Transmission to Sales
Handing over the qualified lead to the sales team
The lead reaches the threshold score and is passed on to a sales representative specializing in large accounts.
8. Personalized Follow-Up
Targeted actions to convert the lead into a customer
The sales representative offers a personalized demonstration of the cybersecurity solution.
9. Conversion
Transformation of the lead into a customer
The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) signs a contract to deploy the solution in the company.
10. Post-Sale Nurturing
Customer retention and relationship development
Regularly sending updates on new features and best practices in cybersecurity.
[i] https://blog.hubspot.com/customers/marketing/16-automated-lead-nurturing-scenarios