Alas, even with buyer preferences and winning first-party data at your fingertips, a good lead only has so much shelf-life.
Leads can stale in as little as 48 hours, making it difficult for the sales function to get to all of them. Give even a little more attention to those jumping in at the top of your funnel, and all the fruitful outcomes will fall into place.
Just like building a relationship over time, carefully nurturing a lead means engaging with trust, relevance, and intention. Show up where the prospects are when they can be attentive – through content, incentives, or experiences that offer real value.
Try these 4 digital nurturing tactics and you won’t regret it.
1. Segment your lists to the max.
Assuming you were able to capture good data during the lead-gen process, use variables like operator type, size of operation, geo location, and buyer needs to organize your email communications accordingly and create content specifically for them. Personalize your communications as tightly as possible and send targeted emails (every 2-3 weeks is a solid cadence) that will resonate with each individual segment.
2. Go confidently with a three-pronged approach.
Lean into utility, education, and entertainment. Help your leads solve problems or improve their operations. Show them what they might be missing. Keep it fun. This could include ideas and inspiration, LTO concepts, case studies, contests, how-to guides, special offers, BOH videos … just to name a few. Share this engaging content through email, social, and via the sales force. The gist of this effort is to get prospects inbound to your website, where they can continue spending quality time with your brand and feeling like you get them.
3. Use the Big 3 Operator Archetypes as a lens.
Speak to these broad-sweeping mindsets when building your buckets of content and communication touchpoints.
- The Culinarian – These operators are here to leave their mark on the culinary landscape. They lead with their senses and put their culinary vision above all else.
- The Pleaser – Some operators and foodservice directors are truly in it for those they serve. Their greatest motivation is feeling a sense of satisfaction from having delivered on a core value.
- The Earner – Other operators are masters of lining up countless moving pieces to maximize the ultimate profitability. They will listen when you speak directly to the bottom line and present clear sales solutions that drive customer engagement and overall earnings.
4. Demonstrate BOH aptitude with digital cuttings and “tastings”.
There’s nothing like an in-person cutting to drive sales. Draw on the same sensory-rich and practical appeal in your digital samplings, too:
- How does your featured product perform/hold up in the kitchen, with environmental considerations such as high heat, etc.?
- How does it store in the kitchen so the operator can manage inventory and food waste effectively and comparatively?
- Provide taste/texture notes in comparison with known competitors – what’s the next best thing to being able to demonstrate to them live? Do that.
