Marketing campaigns often start well and attract good leads. However, this the easy part. Keeping those leads happy while guiding them through the path that leads to the sale is the hard part, particularly if your sales cycle is a long one.

Don’t make the mistake of bombarding potential customers with content and disturbing them with unsolicited calls. It is annoying and counterproductive and only ends up pushing them away. Rather nurture these leads with valuable content that gives them a true understanding of the benefits your products or services offer – before your salespeople make the call.

Step in automated lead nurturing. Although marketing practitioners believe their nurturing campaigns are working, too often they are not. Harnessing the power of automated lead nurturing as a core element of your inbound campaigns guarantees that all your leads receive quick responses and receive the content that works for them. In this way, no lead is neglected, and no content goes to waste.

Remember that although many leads may be qualified, they aren’t always ready to make the purchase. They may well be willing to learn more, and happy that you understand their challenges, but are not ready to sign on the dotted line. The trick is getting them there, which is far more difficult with long sales cycles, as is often the case in the ICT industry.

Sometimes, there just isn’t enough content to last the full length of the sales cycle. Sometimes leads fall off the radar. Too often, leads become annoyed by being spammed with the same old information. Bottom line? You’ll end up with wasted effort and lost sales opportunities.

Automated lead nurturing is the answer to these challenges. Leads that are nurtured are far more likely to translate into sales, and automating the lead nurturing process that used to be laborious and time consuming really works. It enables the systematic and ongoing nurturing of all leads with the appropriate content, at the appropriate time, and it tracks exactly where each lead is within the sales cycle. This makes feeding your future customers the right information at the right time child’s play and ensures that no lead is forgotten, and no opportunity missed.