Engaging with your target audiences, both current and potential, is extremely important when it comes to planning and executing any sort of integrated marketing plan. Another term for this type of strategy is nurture marketing, which can be defined as constant engagement and involvement with your audiences with the end goal to convince them that they want or need your product or service, and then hopefully gain a brand loyal customer.1 There are many essential elements to consider when practicing nurture marketing in order to achieve the best results.
Learn as much as you can about exactly who your target audiences are.
A full understanding of the person or group of people you want to reach is key when focusing on nurturing relationships in order to yield the desired results in your marketing efforts. Understanding their basic demographics (age, gender, ethnicity, income, education etc.) as well as other information that could be significant to your product or service, such as where they shop in store and online or which social media platform they spend most of their time on, is extremely beneficial when navigating how best to engage with them. The end goal is to get the consumer to also interact with your organization back, therefore; this information will help you develop a plan to make that happen.
Determine where those audiences are in their purchasing journey with you.
There are five steps to a consumer’s purchasing journey; it begins with awareness, then leads to consideration, which ignites an actual purchasing decision, then segues into retention (or repeat buying), and finally creates advocacy or this person becoming an ambassador of your brand.2 Therefore, once you know where each consumer is on this roadmap, you will have a better understanding of their needs and what your messaging should then be to nurture a lead or purchase. Someone who is just now hearing about your company is of course going to need different messaging than someone who is purchasing from you for a second time.
Decide what platform is best for your nurture marketing campaign.
Once you have an in-depth understanding of your target consumer, the next step is to decide where is best to begin nurturing that audience. Whether it be a specific social media platform or through an email marketing campaign, you must develop a strategy for this constant engagement to happen. Sending emails in thought-out intervals and including a call to action that motivates taking advantage of an offer and/or asking for consumer feedback, as well as engaging with consumers on relevant social media content paired with targeted ads that also include a call to action, are both great ways to get in front of your audience and continue to build brand loyal relationships.
Measure and keep track of what is working and make changes accordingly.
Keeping track of exactly how your audience is responding to your nurture marketing efforts is essential to a successful campaign. You can measure this in multiple ways including tracking what percentage of the audience is actually clicking through to your call to action in an email or a digital ad, how many new subscribers versus unsubscribers do your emails have, and what do your social media analytics tell you about the level of engagement of your followers.2 Understanding these types of metrics will help you continue to reach your goals and nurture new and existing audiences.
Nurture marketing is essential when developing your marketing plan, as it keeps current customers engaged and interactive, while also creating new relationships for your organization and its target audience that can lead to increased brand loyalty.
Visit our Deep Ads Thoughts blog to learn more about current advertising, marketing, and public relations tips and trends. Plus, check out our Push n’ Pull blog for all things in the world of digital and social media.
Sources:
1Educaba – https://www.educba.com/nurture-marketing/
2Campaign Monitor – https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/knowledge-base/what-is-a-nurture-campaign/
