Lead nurture
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A series of automated communications that guide leads through the funnel over time. Building trust and intent until they are ready to buy.
Lead nurture is the practice of staying in touch with leads who are not ready to buy yet. They match your ICP. They showed initial interest. But they do not have budget, timeline, or urgency right now. Instead of forgetting about them, you nurture them with relevant content until they are ready.
Nurture sequences are typically email-based, automated, and personalized by segment. A lead from the fintech industry gets fintech case studies and content. A lead who attended a webinar on monitoring gets monitoring-specific content. The goal is relevance, not frequency.
Nurture works because B2B buying cycles are long. A prospect who is not ready today might be ready in six months. If you have been sending them useful content for six months, you are the first vendor they contact. If you went silent after the first interaction, they start their search fresh and you might not be included.
Examples
A nurture sequence after webinar attendance.
Day 1: webinar recording and slides. Day 5: related case study. Day 12: technical guide on the topic. Day 20: ROI calculator. Day 30: invitation to a live demo. 8% of nurture recipients request a demo. Without the sequence, the rate is 2%.
Nurture re-engages a dead lead.
A lead went cold 8 months ago. A nurture email about a new feature catches their attention. They reply: 'We just got budget approved for this. Can we schedule a demo?' The nurture sequence revived a deal that appeared dead.
Over-nurturing drives unsubscribes.
The marketing team sends 3 emails per week to the nurture list. Unsubscribe rate hits 5% per month. The list shrinks 40% in a year. They reduce to 1 email per week, focus on quality over quantity, and unsubscribe rate drops to 0.8%.
In practice
Read more on the blog
Frequently asked questions
How long should a nurture sequence be?
Match it to your sales cycle. If deals take 3 months, nurture for 3-6 months. If deals take 12 months, nurture for 12-18 months. After the sequence ends, move leads to a lower-frequency newsletter unless they show new engagement signals.
How many emails should a nurture sequence include?
5-12 emails over the course of the sequence. Space them further apart as the sequence progresses (weekly at first, then biweekly, then monthly). Each email should provide standalone value, not just push for a demo.
Related terms
An automated email sequence that sends pre-written messages on a schedule. The simplest form of marketing automation.
Software that automates repetitive marketing tasks: email sequences, lead scoring, campaign management, and lead routing.
Assigning numerical values to leads based on their fit and engagement to determine which ones are ready for sales follow-up.
A lead that marketing has scored and deemed ready for sales follow-up based on fit and engagement signals.
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