It is a common experience for B2B marketers to encounter warm leads who suddenly lose interest in their offerings. Despite having positive initial interactions and follow-up efforts, these sales leads become unresponsive, leaving marketers puzzled about what went wrong.

There are several reasons why leads become cold, such as bad timing, budgeting limits, a change in personnel, or a lack of follow-up communication from the sales team. 63% of businesses find it challenging to generate traffic and leads, and 44% of marketers show an active tendency to stop after a single rejection. 

Now how to re-engage old customers? There is a solution – lead recycling.

However, re-engaging with old leads requires a strategic approach to ensure the conversation restarts on the right foot. 

Here are some tips for exploring actionable ways to bring in the spark again and turn old leads into recurring customers.

Unlocking hidden revenue: The power of re-engaging old leads

Successful lead nurturing involves communicating with potential customers personally and providing relevant content over time. While many businesses focus on nurturing leads until they become customers, it’s important to note that lead nurturing doesn’t end there. In fact, established clients are just as important to nurture to build long-term relationships and encourage repeat business.

Unless a company has been employing targeted lead-generation strategies for some time, there’s a strong possibility that thousands of old leads have remained largely forgotten. Many businesses make the mistake of giving up on old leads after one or two attempts at converting them into customers. 

Re-engaging with old leads through appropriate lead nurturing tactics helps businesses maintain customer relationships and create opportunities for conversion. Recycling old leads can also save cost and time, as businesses can generate more sales leads from people already in their database.

Resurrecting sales: 7 tips to re-engage old leads and maximize ROI

Re-engaging old leads may be low-hanging fruit, but it can be highly effective if done correctly. By correctly utilizing some lead nurturing tactics, businesses can remind old leads of the value they can provide and create opportunities to rekindle the relationship.

1. Research past correspondence with old leads 

When re-engaging old leads, it can be helpful to review past correspondence to understand any pain points that may have been missed or could be re-addressed. This can help tailor a personalized approach to win back their business. 

Some tips to follow:

• Invite old leads through professional platforms. Refrain from using any casual language or casual platforms like social media pages, inboxes, or comment section

• Research indicates that the average person receives 147 emails daily, and productive individuals are unlikely to read long messages. Getting direct messages to help prospective leads make quick decisions is crucial.

• To reach the audience base effectively, studying and understanding their problems is important. One can study previous conversations with them to find patterns and insights to help draft a more effective email. Additionally, an email template to reconnect with clients can effectively remind leads of the offering and nurture the relationship. 

2. Segment your leads for effective re-targeting

To effectively retarget leads, one strategy is to segment them based on their behavior and interests. In fact, as much as 77% of the email marketing ROI comes from segmented and targeted campaigns. Therefore, sending the same message to all cold leads is unlikely to be effective. Instead, retargeting sales leads based on their specific interests, pain points, or industry can do the trick.

• Custom offers: In any case, if a business can tailor custom products or services according to the customer’s needs, extend the offer to the old leads. This would increase the chances of lead conversion with a greater appeal to the ROI.

• Drip campaigning: Drip campaigns can effectively re-engage cold leads by sending follow-up emails that feel personal and relevant to them based on their actions or lack thereof. One can follow a three-phase email sequence to create a successful drip campaign. 

• The first phase is indoctrination and personalization, where the business introduces itself and its values to the leads while personalizing the message to each recipient. 

• The second phase is engagement and conversion, where one can try to engage the lead and convince them to take action.

• Finally, in the third phase, re-engage and clean, try to re-engage those leads who haven’t converted and remove those no longer interested in the product or service.

3. Adopt a personalized approach to communication

Personalization is critical in engaging with leads, especially those who have previously shown interest in the product or service. Businesses can tailor their communication and re-engagement strategies to increase the likelihood of conversion by utilizing information about their pain points, needs, and resources. 

• Send a personalized guide, workbook, ebook, or checklist: Offering free, valuable content can work like a charm.

• Invite for free webinars: Organize informative webinars and tutorials, and invite previous leads to join. This can reestablish their confidence in the brand and result in conversions

• Organize light contests or sweepstakes: Organizing small contests and inviting old leads to participate can be a great way to re-engage them and potentially convert them into customers. 

• Offer large discounts on essential products if leads complete fun quizzes or questionnaires with a promise of a reward upon completion.

• Add a powerful call-to-action that leads subscribers to the contest’s landing page, where they can learn more and participate. 

4. Provide social proof 

Providing social proof through customer success stories, case studies, and testimonials can be a powerful way to re-engage old sales leads. Such social proof can help demonstrate the value of the product or service and create trust in potential customers.

• Customers may share their experience with the product or service through a reference statement or testimonial, which can be shared on social media, websites, or other marketing materials. 

• Case studies can provide a more in-depth look at a customer’s experience with the product or service, highlighting their challenges and how the solution helped overcome them.

• User testimonials provide a vote of confidence in the product’s value and demonstrate the real-world benefits that other customers have experienced. 

Businesses can create social proof about the successes their customers have had using their product or service to show the impact of their offering.

5. Use a multi-channel approach to reconnect with past leads

Here are some tips for implementing a multi-channel approach:

• Connect with the old sales leads on various social media platforms. Send them a direct message, respond to their social posts, or react to their comments.

• Take a survey or opinion poll to find out what went wrong or not so well with the old leads. Connect with them through simple surveys or online polls.

• Utilize lead magnets and SEO efforts to generate qualified leads in different channels. The right lead generation approach will depend on the company’s needs and the type of leads they want to target.

6. Use trigger events to re-engage old leads

Trigger events are significant changes that occur in a prospect’s business or personal life, and they can be leveraged to reconnect with and convert old leads. To use trigger events effectively, it is essential to understand them and develop timely and relevant messages that speak to the lead’s situation. 

An effective approach for using trigger events depends on the type of lead and the trigger event in question. Some tips for using trigger events include identifying and finding sales trigger events, perfecting timing, and reviewing the most critical trigger events for the prospects. By leveraging trigger events, businesses can create relevant messages that capture the lead’s attention and help to re-engage them in the sales process.

7. Re-engage and nurture old leads with valuable content 

Content marketing is one of the effective ways to rekindle old sales leads. According to a McKinsey survey, 78% of respondents said that personalized content prompted them to repurchase a brand, and over three-quarters believe it is a significant factor.

• Free blog posts: Offering free instructional or product-related information that establishes professional expertise in the field and increases the exposure of the brand.

• Exclusive content: Another effective strategy to foster loyalty among the existing community by making them feel appreciated, even if they haven’t converted, is to grant them followers or mailing list access to unique information such as previews, business advice, or e-guides.

• Podcasts, webinars, and thought leadership: Webinars and podcasts provide valuable insights and education. A business can position itself as a thought leader and build trust with its old leads by hosting webinars or podcasts on topics relevant to the target audience. They can also use these platforms to answer questions and address the old leads’ concerns, helping to re-engage them and move them closer to becoming potential sales leads.

Conclusion

While hard selling may seem like a quick way to close a deal, it is important to remember that it can also have negative consequences if not done correctly. Hard-selling tactics, such as cold calls, unsolicited sales pitches, and abrupt language, can put undue pressure on potential customers and damage their trust in the brand. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on building relationships with prospect lists by providing them with high-quality content that demonstrates their expertise and builds their trust in the brand.

Marketboats Consulting helps businesses identify, nurture, and qualify leads to ensure optimal lead enrichment by using comprehensive insights and data analysis to focus marketing efforts on the most promising prospects. 

Our multichannel content syndication service can simplify the lead generation and follow-up process by providing a consistent message across multiple channels, improving the chances of converting leads into customers. In addition, our use of intent and firmographic data can increase the effectiveness of account-based marketing efforts,  leading to more closed deals. 

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