Lead nurturing is a core component of successful MSP marketing and sales. It involves staying in touch with prospects even if they are not ready to buy. The fact is, that approximately 80% of the leads you get are not ready to make a purchase decision immediately. The key is to always remain on their radar and help them make the decision—in your favor…and this is called, Lead Nurturing. Here’s are some Lead Nurturing best practices that you can deploy.

• Offer relevant content: You know what the prospect is looking for, but you also know they are not sales-ready. This is the perfect stage to send them relevant content that will help them in the decision-making process. For example, if someone is looking for disaster and recovery solutions, then you could send them an article about what they need to look for when investing in a disaster recovery solution.
• Don’t stick to a single medium: Who says lead nurturing happens only via e-mail? To get the right results, you need to have a right mix of marketing channels including PPC ad retargeting, print, videos, social media and web.
• Track and score: What’s the point of lead nurturing if you don’t track and score your leads! Tracking leads and scoring them is the only way to know whether they have moved higher up in the sales cycle and are ready for you.
• Don’t push it: Sometimes when you are nudging a lead towards making a decision in your favor, it’s very easy to cross the line. But resist that temptation and don’t push too far, so that when it’s time to make a purchase, the prospect thinks positively of your brand.
• Newsletters and greetings: Newsletters and greetings are great ways to stay in touch with prospects throughout the sales cycle without creating an overbearing presence. Make sure you add all your prospects to your holiday and newsletter mailing/e-mail list.
• Day Zero Alerts: Day Zero Alerts are great lead nurturing content pieces. They alert recipients of any vulnerabilities so they can safeguard themselves against them. As an MSP/IT service provider, here are a few typical Day Zero Alerts that you can share with your prospects.
• Information about any malware attacks
• Latest information on internet frauds and scams
• Patch releases for malwares that will help your recipients combat them effectively
• Information on any bugs, version redundancy, support withdrawal, etc

Lead nurturing involves an all-round effort in the areas of content creation, designing, lead tracking and scoring. It also demands consistent efforts. Deploying a good MSP marketing and sales automation software can help you nurture leads effectively.