5 Techniques to Help Reengage Leads That Have Gone Cold

Much like many of our half-baked New Year's resolutions, it's easy for the leads in your database to plateau.  

Without proper lead nurturing in place, they lose interest, they feel their needs are being left unmet, or worse, they begin to forget about you entirely. 

"What does your business do again?"

Aware that inactive leads have the ability to disarm the results of your future marketing efforts, a plan for reengagement is important. 

With that said, below you'll find 5 lead nurturing techniques designed to help you dust off your old leads, and start moving them closer to a sale. 

1) Experiment with timing

According to Wordstream, the best time to send emails is on Thursday between 8-9 AM. 

While this sounds like valuable information, it's important to note how many other marketers have gotten wind of this advice. 

If you're struggling to reengage leads, it could be because you're simply piling on. 

While there is no cardinal rule when it comes to optimizing the send time for your marketing emails, we suggest that you consider the way you handle email interactions. 

For example, often times people (ourselves included) are ruthless with their emails on Monday morning. After a weekend of build up, if it's not absolutely pressing, it's probably going to get deleted.

Based off this notion, you'll want to experiment with some unusual timing to get these stagnant leads to take action. 

2) Explore different formats

While you may have seen a positive response to your latest ebook, it's likely that not every lead in your database took action. 

We've found that often times the lack of engagement isn't a reflection of the quality of the content, but rather the format. 

While 60% of your database might prefer to consume information via ebooks, the other 40% may not have a schedule that is conclusive with book learning. 

With that said, consider reformatting your content into something that requires less heavy lifting, such as a webinar. 

While your cold leads may not have time to work through an ebook, it's easy to pop in a pair of headphones and tune into a live (or recorded) broadcast. 

The best part is, reformatting means you don't have to start from scratch. 

3) Set up a drip campaign 

Sometimes all it takes it one off-base email to turn off a lead. 

Rather than let inappurtenant emails put off your potential customers, consider the benefit of employing a targeted drip campaign. 

A drip marketing campaign can be set up using marketing automation software (like HubSpot) to create, schedule, and send a series of marketing emails designed to speak to the interests of your leads. 

This could be in the form of something like a 5-day email course or it could take shape more dynamically if you set up "triggers" to alter the communication based off a recipients actions. 

This approach to email marketing helps to ensure that the emails your leads are receiving are relevant to them. The more value they get out of your emails, the more likely they'll be to keep opening them. 

4) Test your email subject line

It's hard to drum up interest amongst your old leads when they're not even opening your emails in the first place. 

In order to pull these leads out of their slumber, you need to put forth subject lines that make it hard to say no to action. 

With inboxes becoming more and more unruly by the day, it's important that you're armed with a strong idea of what's going to get noticed (and what's going to get trashed.)

To inspire your efforts, here are a few ideas. 

• How to: Subject lines that lead with a "how to" help to establish the fact that your email is going to teach them something. 
• Lists of three: The rule of threes implies that lists of three serve as an effective method because they are both digestible and persuasive. 
• Urgency: Using words that aim to convey a sense of urgency or time sensitivity often stand out in a busy inbox, increasing the likelihood that they get opened.  

5) Revisit your list segmentation

In order to effectively target your old leads, you have to be sure that you know exactly who they are. 

To start, it's important that you define what an "old" lead means to your business. Is it someone that hasn't interacted with you in 3 months? 6 months? A year?

While sales cycles vary depending on your industry, product, or service, the term will mean different things to different businesses. 

Once you've separate your old leads from your active ones, you'll want to look for ways to further segment them to ensure that every interaction they have with you is both applicable and valuable.