--- title: Don’t Drive Your Prospects Away With Lead Nurturing Missteps description: Keep your leads by avoiding lead nurturing missteps. image: https://www.jonespr.net/hubfs/Blog_Images/Lead_Nurturing.jpg --- [![](https://www.jonespr.net/hubfs/Blog_Images/Lead_Nurturing.jpg) ](https://www.jonespr.net/eight-arms-blog/dont-drive-your-leads-away-with-lead-nurturing-missteps) # Don’t Drive Your Prospects Away With Lead Nurturing Missteps BY:   [ Kristin Jones ](https://www.jonespr.net/eight-arms-blog/author/kristin-jones) ![Don’t Drive Your Leads Away With Lead Nurturing Missteps](https://www.jonespr.net/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog_Images/Lead_Nurturing.jpg?width=550&height=330&name=Lead_Nurturing.jpg "Don’t Drive Your Leads Away With Lead Nurturing Missteps")   Lead nurturing — those automated emails that are meant to guide a lead through the sales funnel and closer to a buying decision — can have a big impact on your business. (Think a 23 percent shorter sales cycle and 47 percent larger average spend.) But it has to be done right. First, keep those lead nurturing emails short and sweet. Don’t worry now about fonts, images or fancy HTML coding in your lead nurturing emails. Your lead should be able to glance at your email and, within five seconds, know the value it provides to them. [(Click to Tweet)](http://ctt.ec/ae4co) If you pack your lead nurturing emails full of secondary calls-to-action or unrelated links you risk sending leads into information overload. Keep it quick and to the point, with an offer clearly related to their original interaction and with the benefits clearly stated. Otherwise you risk increasing your unsubscribe rate and diminishing the effectiveness of your campaign. Another mistake that will send leads searching for the unsubscribe button is emailing too often. Daily emails are too much like a mom nagging her child about chores, or the commission-only sales person who hovers over you as you shop. Responding right away is good — 78 percent of sales that start with a web inquiry are won by the first company that responds. [(Click to Tweet) ](http://ctt.ec/F8da4)But pestering leads is bad. While making a sale is your top priority, buying right now may not be what is important to your lead. You can use a few simple tools to help you plot a path down which to guide your lead, starting by thinking through a content strategy that reaches all stages of the buying cycle (also called the [sales funnel](https://www.jonespr.net/content-strategy-for-all-stages-of-the-sales-funnel)).   Use a few simple tools to help you plot a path. Plan a variety of content: something meant to inform, content that can be used to solve a problem, and then eventually, content that can help a lead make a buying decision. This might mean initially offering an introductory ebook or video, then following up with lead nurturing emails offering a worksheet or template, and if the lead accesses that offer, you move on to materials such as product comparisons or ROI calculators. Our [campaign planning calendar](https://www.jonespr.net/campaign-planning-calendar-template) is a great way to visualize and brainstorm offers that fall under various campaign categories. Once you know the path, fine tune the timing. We use a [nurturing workflow template](https://www.jonespr.net/lead-nurturing-workflow-template) to plot out the timing between emails. We want to send them often enough that the lead doesn’t have time to forget why they visited our website in the first place, but not so frequently that leads begin to think of them as spam. Here’s an example of how a workflow might look as you set it up: | **Sales funnel stage** | **Lead’s Action** | **Email Response & Timing** | | --- | --- | --- | | Stranger/Visitor (Awareness) | Downloads educational ebook | Immediate email with link to ebook, also offering related checklist | | Visitor (Awareness) | - | 10 days later offering related template | | Lead (Early Engagement) | Downloads template | Immediate email with link to template, also offering a case study | | Lead (Early Engagement) | - | 10 days later offering related problem/solution paper | | Lead (Consideration) | Downloads problem/solution paper | Immediate email with link to problem/solution paper, also offering a product comparison sheet | | Lead (Evaluation) | Downloads product comparison sheet | Immediate email with link to comparison sheet, also offering a free consultation | | Lead (Opportunity) | Schedules consultation | Immediate email with confirmation |   At that point, the lead has been [nurtured](https://www.jonespr.net/lead-nurture) and the consultation will confirm if they are [sales-qualified](https://www.jonespr.net/qualify-leads) and can move on to a sales call. Obviously, this is a simplified version. You may have many more offers to include at each level of the [sales funnel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaKjXfoXALI), and some leads may never take action to move beyond the awareness or early engagement stage. The key, however, is to have thought through the timing of your emails offering targeted, related materials. And when you use an automated system such as [HubSpot](https://www.jonespr.net/request-a-demo-of-hubspot) to implement inbound marketing and schedule lead nurturing emails, you only have to think about it once. Then the system does the rest.   The key is to have thought through the timing. There are more ways to make your lead nurturing efforts more efficient and effective in our free ebook, [Introduction to Lead Nurturing](https://www.jonespr.net/introduction-to-lead-nurturing). Download it now to begin the transformation of website visitors into leads and customers.   ## 6 Steps To Creating Enviable Brands Download our guide 6 Steps to Creating Enviable Brands to learn the crucial steps you should follow to create an enviable brand for your company. 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Meet up with me when I’m in your city. Where will I be next? [Meet Kristin](https://www.jonespr.net/meetings/kristinjones/networking-call-with-kristin-jones) ## Subscribe to Eight Arms Subscribe to the Eight Arms blog to get our most recent content. 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