How to Warm Up Cold Leads, Aged Leads, and New Leads with Effective Engagement
So you’re generating leads for your sales team—but what’s next? Though you may have produced enough interest to draw them to your website, 96% of website visitors are not ready to buy. With successful lead generation, it’s crucial that you get the next steps to engagement right—for every lead. Cold leads, for example, may have shown interest in the past, but well…went cold. If you’re wondering what to do with leads like these, including cold or aged leads, or even how to proceed with lukewarm or warm leads, you’re in the right place. In this blog, we’ll provide 10 steps to warm leads from cold to hot and maximize your conversion rate.Cold leads vs. warm leads
What are cold leads?
Cold leads generated by your business are often people who initially expressed interest, but have since stopped engaging with you. For example, a prospect may have signed up for your marketing newsletter, but have had little to no interaction since. For cold leads like this, it’s always a good idea for sales and marketing to attempt to re-engage and warm them up.What are aged leads?
Similar to cold leads, aged leads are exactly what they sound like. Aged leads are leads that are more than two weeks old—but often they are months old, up to a year old. Though most salespeople will either dismiss or forget about aged leads, persistence and follow-up are key to making the sale. Even if an aged lead already went with a competitor, they may not be having the best experience. It can be beneficial to reach out to see if they are open to switching—especially if they’re about to renew with a competitor that they aren’t enthusiastic about. At the end of the day, salespeople are leaving money on the table by failing to re-engage aged leads who may be looking to buy—they just need a nudge from you.What are warm leads?
Warm leads have shown more interest than cold leads, but are still high in the sales funnel, meaning they are not ready to buy. They are aware of your offering, but are still considering their purchase. Closing warm leads involves warming them further into hot leads: bringing them to the decision-making stage. Hot leads are highly interested, and ready to buy, requiring an active sales approach. With hot leads, the biggest risk is that because they are ready to buy, they may choose a competitor. For this reason, once leads are hot, they require an active approach from your sales team. This includes timely, attentive communication tailored to them, which showcases your value, addresses their pain points, and answers their questions.
So how do you take your cold, aged, and even warm leads, and heat them up?
10 strategies to warm up leads
Though cold, aged, and warm leads are all at different stages in their buying process, there are ten best practices for engagement that can be useful for all leads. By engaging thoughtfully and persistently—at the right times, with the right messaging, on the right channels—you can warm up your leads and convert more of them into paying customers.#1 Use multiple channels
One of the first rules of engagement is to communicate on multiple channels. Using multiple channels increases your chances of connecting with your leads and rekindling their interest. With the amount of information exchanged today, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. It’s vital that your messaging reaches potential customers on whatever channel they prefer. For example, some people want to talk on the phone, while others will almost never pick up. If your leads keep going cold, it may be because you’re not reaching them on the right channels, so they simply stop engaging. The most-used channels for most consumers include email, phone call, text, and social media. Emails are an nonintrusive and efficient way to contact leads, so provide them with tailored updates on a reasonable basis. With marketing automation, marketing can create automated email tracks for cold leads and aged leads with varying frequencies, giving them breadcrumbs of information to ensure that they don’t forget that your business is an option. Sales teams can also create email templates for cold and aged leads to encourage re-engagement and address any concerns. For cold leads that may still be developing interest in your business, ensure you’re communicating your value on their preferred channel. For aged leads who may have forgotten about you over time, attempt re-engagement through all possible channels.#2 Text leads
If your cold leads aren’t responding, it might be time for you to experiment with SMS. With proper customer consent and compliance with legal guidelines, texting can be a game-changer for your lead outreach. Text messaging, or SMS, is very popular for its ease of use, convenience, and high open rates. For busy customers, texting can be extremely helpful for reaching them and maintaining communication on their platform of choice. Texting is most consumers’ highest-preferred channel. Texts boast a 98% open rate, while emails hover around 20-25%. In addition, 58% of consumers say texting is the best way for businesses to reach them. For cold or aged leads who seem to have ghosted you, try attempting re-engagement through texting (if you have obtained their full consent), which can be an easy way to re-open communication.#3 Use short messaging
When texting customers, be sure to keep your messages concise. With texting, there is no need for long introductions or formalities. Avoid writing texts as you would an email. Here is an example of what not to do in your re-engagements: “Hello! I hope you’re doing well. Just a friendly reminder that we’re able to address any queries or provide further information you may need.” This example from Verse research was responded to 9x less than a text that simply said “Let me know”. For businesses, shorter texts have exponentially higher answer rates than longer texts. It’s always best practice to keep text messages under 320 characters. At Verse, we most often keep our text messages in the 30-39 character range—especially when talking to leads that have yet to engage.#4 Have two-way conversations
Whatever communication method you choose, be sure to encourage two-way communications. Rather than talking at the customer, aim to talk with them. Always leave your messages open to response. Whether using email, text, or phone call, be sure that it’s obvious that the recipient can reply to your message, reaching you on the same channel or any other. For emails and texts, it can be more effective to pose a question rather than writing a wall of text without a clear direction. It’s best to make sure the recipient knows what you want from them. Though it’s tempting to “check in” and leave things open for the recipient, Verse text data shows that people are more likely to reply to actual questions. For example, texting prospects direct questions like “Is now a good time to chat?” boosted replies by over 5x that of “Just checking in, let me know when’s a good time to chat…”
If your leads are going cold, try asking questions rather than sending check-ins.
#5 Be strategic about calling
Depending on the customer, calling can be extremely useful. By speaking to the customer directly, you establish a human connection. Some customers prefer this and are more likely to develop trust over the phone. However, it’s vital that you are strategic about your calls in order to get the best results. When calling prospects, be sure to:- Wait at least 48 hours between calls. It’s great to be persistent, but not too much.
- Be sure to leave a voicemail if they don’t pick up, leaving your name, reason for calling, and contact information.
- Text before calling. This can help ensure that the prospect actually wants a phone call, improving answer rates and building trust.
- After the call (whether it went through or not), send a follow-up email. If they don’t see your call, they might see the email.
- Be sure your calls have caller ID, which helps establish credibility and can improve answer rates by 4x.
#6 Personalize communications
Whether your leads are aged, cold, or even warm, people are more likely to respond to personalized messaging. Personalization can be as simple as adding their name to your intro to the text, email, or phone call. It can be taken one step further by referencing earlier interactions; for example, the ebook they downloaded or the request they initially filled out on your website. If the lead is aged, you can even point out that it was a long time ago, but you can still help. According to McKinsey research, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. Use whatever data you can gather to show that you are paying attention to who they are, what they are interested in, and what they might need. If you’ve been taking notes in your customer relationship management platform (CRM), this is the perfect time to use that information. If your leads keep going cold, you may not be personalizing your messaging enough.#7 Address pain points
In the realm of personalization, address customer pain points and how your solution can help. Bringing up potential pain points shows that you understand customer needs, which is one of the first steps to demonstrating value. Use any information you have about the lead to inform your approach and offer help that suits your prospect’s needs. This goes for the initial outreach, as well as any later re-engagement attempts. For example, a financial services company could reference the difficulty of financial planning alone, and how their services can help. If the lead is cold or aged, this approach can still work well—the lead may have never solved the pain point, or they are with a competitor who isn’t meeting their needs in one way or another.#8 Don’t give up
No matter what channel you are using or what kind of lead you are pursuing, persistence is key to successful engagements and re-engagements. 80% of sales are made after the fifth contact attempt, but most salespeople give up after one or two attempts. Six to eight attempts is recommended to try to reach a lead. Though it can be difficult to persist when met with silence, those who stick it out win more in the end. Employ all the engagement techniques we’ve talked about so far: keep using multiple channels, and pay extra attention to channels that are working the best. Keep in mind that aged leads are less likely to reply because they are older. However, this doesn’t mean you should stop trying. If your leads keep going cold, you may not be following up enough to warm the leads up. Be consistent in your engagements and don’t give up.#9 Nurture leads
If you are not employing a lead nurture strategy, you’re missing out on a critical aspect to warming up your leads. Lead nurturing focuses on slowly warming up leads—or at the very least, keeping them warm. By nurturing, companies can build a relationship with potential customers and guide them down the sales funnel. In a practical sense, lead nurturing means marketing to and maintaining contact with the lead. Ideally, nurture continues until the lead converts by taking an action such as purchasing or booking a consultation. The vast majority of leads aren’t ready to buy right away, so marketing teams need to continue to serve them personalized content, such as guides and resources. Cold and aged leads can both benefit from lead nurturing, as it serves as a reminder of your brand, its services, and its value. With lead nurturing, they are more likely to warm up to your brand over time. If the lead is warm, but not quite ready to buy, nurture is a great solution. Rather than constantly hear from salespeople, prospects are usually much more responsive to receiving marketing content that may interest them. Some industries and products have a much longer decision-making phase, meaning that leads require more nurturing over a longer period of time. Life insurance, for example, requires a high level of nurturing and trust-building than other products or services. In industries with high-cost solutions and/or long decision-making phases, it’s especially important to nurture leads over time.#10 Focus on value
When trying to re-engage cold or aged leads, avoid going right into a full-on sales pitch. This is also true for warm leads, but especially important for a lead that has previously disengaged. Unless the lead is hot, your goal is to encourage engagement before attempting to move onto a sale. Clearly remind them who you are and what company you are from, and keep things short and simple. If texting, you can try something like: “Hi [Name], it’s [Your Name] from [Company]. Are you still in the market for [Product/Service]?” If it lines up with your industry, you could offer a free quote or consultation—but keep it free of obligation. Your goal is to focus on the value you can offer, without asking anything in return. For an email, keep similar ideas—here, you can include a link to helpful marketing content, like a blog or article, that aligns with their potential needs. This lines up with a nurture strategy; always try to provide value with no obligations from them. Warm the lead up by keeping the pressure off and encourage re-engagement.Warm up cold leads effortlessly with Verse
Do you wish all the leads you worked were warm, qualified, and ready to talk? Verse makes that wish a reality. At Verse, we understand how much effort it takes to warm up cold, aged, and new leads. That’s why we’re dedicated to doing it all for you. We combine expert script design, 24/7 conversational AI, and a team of human concierges to supercharge lead outreach for every single one of your leads. We fully manage your customer conversations, meaning that we engage with, follow up with, and qualify any opted-in lead for you. You just give us the list. Boost conversion rates with:- 24/7 instant response via SMS to ensure that every lead is contacted immediately, maximizing the chances of conversion right when interest is high.
- Lead nurture and follow-up, providing customizable, ongoing outreach for up to six months.
- Automatic lead qualification to give your team time back to focus on high-quality leads, while efficiently nurturing those who may need more time.
- Omnichannel communications via text, phone call, and email with optional live call transfers to your team.
- Customizable aged lead campaigns to help you make the most out of your database.
