Lead Nurturing Playbook: How to Align B2B Content with the Buyer’s Journey

Effective B2B lead nurturing requires a wealth of informative and relevant touchpoints to meet diverse buyer needs and interests, and ultimately, encourage their progression throughout the sales funnel.

Therefore, understanding the most suitable content to address a buyer’s evolving needs as they advance in their buyer’s journey is essential to resonate with prospects and retain them.

This lead nurturing playbook breaks down the most effective content for each sales funnel stage and includes five best practices for engaging buyers and driving conversions.

When designing your B2B content marketing strategy, it is important to develop a variety of assets that engage buyers according to their unique needs, as they develop according to their progression through their buyer’s journey. Therefore, developing a keen understanding of your buyers is essential to strategize your content marketing and secure its role in supporting lead nurturing.

Below are content recommendations for each stage of the sales funnel (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU, and Post-Sales), with a breakdown of common pain points and how to address them in your lead nurturing strategy:

The top of the sales funnel (also known as the awareness stage), is when leads learn more about their business challenges and the potential solutions to address them.

The middle of the sales funnel (also known as the consideration stage) is when leads have a firmer grasp of the available solutions in the marketplace and are actively investigating to determine the best option for their needs.

The bottom of the sales funnel, (also known as the decision stage) is when prospective buyers are clarifying any remaining doubts and concerns to determine the best course of action.

Therefore, content that is authoritative and cements the alignment between your organization and the client’s objectives, is key for supporting conversions at this stage.

At the post-sales stage, clients want to be guaranteed that they made the right decision and will meet their expectations. Onboarding and dedicated support are therefore essential for addressing this need and encouraging retention and greater client lifetime value as a result.

Ensuring that content is aligned with sales funnel stages and caters to specific buyer pain points is essential, calling for a strategic lead nurturing approach to achieve positive outcomes.

Below are five lead nurturing best practices to keep in mind:

Ensuring relevance is key. Your lead nurturing cadences should feature memorable touchpoints that meet specific buyer needs and interests to encourage continued buyer engagement.

Therefore, establishing separate nurturing tracks per buyer persona is ideal for addressing unique challenges with messaging that resonates with their organizational goals and personal aspirations.

Content should be personalized, but it is important to consider the feasibility of customizing content at your organization. Some assets can be repurposed for different personas, with minor tweaks to address relevant pain points. This is a common approach for Account Based Marketing Experiences (ABX) to engage strategic accounts at scale.

While email lead nurturing is the principal channel for engaging target buyers, amplifying your channel mix can be a powerful tactic for reaching your buyers where they are.

Lead scoring processes help to determine buyer progression along their buyer’s journey and when they should receive specific touchpoints or advance funnel stages.

Lead scoring can be enhanced with buyer intent data to form a clearer understanding of your buyers’ behavior, as well as their priorities and position in the sales funnel.

This is imperative for informing engagement strategies and assigning prospects to the correct nurturing cadences, as well as sharing relevant content.

Monitoring the sales hand-off process is essential to ensure that prospective buyers have a good experience and are engaged by sales teams at the right time.

Routing leads to sales too early can decrease the likelihood of conversions, as well as risk alienating leads rather than encouraging them to engage further with the brand. Therefore, monitoring the sales hand-off process and the subsequent meetings is paramount to optimizing this process and improving conversion rates.

According to the INFUSE Insights Voice of the Buyer 2024 report, 66% of buyers rely on consultants and subject matter experts when researching and evaluating solutions. Therefore, adopting a “consultative” approach is ideal for motivating sales conversations and opportunities rather than pressuring buyers to commit to a purchase decision.

To ensure your lead nurturing meets its expectations and engages prospects, make sure to follow these three takeaways: