What’s my idea of a perfect world? That’s easy: having unlimited funds, living in a mansion in Calabasas where my neighbors are the Karadashians and Justin Bieber and having only hot leads in my database.
Okay, maybe that last one wasn’t always a part of my dreams; however, it would make my actual life a lot easier. In reality, you’re always going to have leads in your CRM that aren’t hot prospects, and it’s important to keep in mind that you have to communicate with these cold leads differently than you would your others.
Before we can dig into ways to effectively communicating with your cold leads, let's explain the different types of leads.
Cold Leads vs. Warm Leads vs. Hot Leads
Cold Leads
Cold leads are most likely your most difficult ones (but don’t worry, we love all leads here :)). They’re the leads that are unfamiliar with your brand and never showed interest in you before. They aren’t likely to purchase your product or service, and depending on how you reach out to them, they can easily be annoyed by you. You want to strategically move these leads into the warmer territory.
Warm Leads
Warm leads have expressed some sort of interest in your brand. They don’t know what they want yet, but they do know that you can potentially help them. You’re probably communicating with these leads through email marketing or other digital communication.
Hot Leads
Hot leads are the leads that are most likely to purchase from you. They’re familiar with your brand; they know that you can help them. All they need is just a little more persuading before they make their purchase. These leads are also referred to as qualified leads.
Get to Know Your Lead
Remember, these cold leads don’t really know who you are or how you can help them, so it’s important for you to research and learn as much information about them before you initiate communication. First, make sure you’re communicating with the right contact at the company. You don’t want to waste your time or theirs when they aren’t going to be an influencer or decision-maker down the road.
Also, keep in mind that there is a good chance this lead will be irritated by another cold outreach email, so you need to make yourself stand out as much as possible. Do some research on their company, industry and pain points, so you can tailor your messaging to differentiate yourself from the rest. When you can be empathetic to their challenges without being pushy on why they need to purchase from you, they’re more likely to trust you and be open to future communication.
Tailor Content for Your Messaging
Once you’ve done some research on these leads, start by leveraging the content you already have as an additional resource in your communication. Use content pieces that are in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey.
What’s the awareness stage? It’s when the prospect is aware that they have a problem, but they have no idea where to begin to fix it.
This type of content is perfect for these leads because it won’t make them feel pressured to make a move immediately. This will educate them on what you do while not overwhelming them.
Repurposing this content for your other channels is another tactic to help keep you in the front of your lead’s mind. Rotate these pieces of content on social, use them as CTAs at the end of your blog posts or incorporate them into an interactive questionnaire on your website. This will help them continue to get to know your brand better, plus you'll gain their trust.
And Keep Track of Where Your Leads Are With Lead Scoring
Once you’re starting to more frequently market and communicate with your cold, warm and hot leads in your CRM, you’ll want to ensure you’re segmenting these contacts. Otherwise, you might inadvertently send the wrong messaging to the wrong person.
Lead scoring is a way to rank the leads in your system based on activities they complete or information provided and can be set up in a marketing automation tool like HubSpot. Lead scoring will segment contacts in your database by groups, so you can easily find who is worth following up with versus who isn’t.
Feel like you can’t tackle these cold leads on your own? Let us be your guide! Contact us today to learn more on how we can help you turn these cold leads into hot prospects.
