Lead Nurturing Glossary of Terms

Up to 95% of prospects on your website are not ready to speak with sales. Lead nurturing empowers B2B marketers to build vital relationships with these qualified prospects before passing them to sales.

Lead nurturing involves sending triggered, targeted messages to prospects based on behavior, as well as educating and pre-selling prospects with personalized communications.

Get started on the road to nurturing sales leads by first understanding these terms and definitions:

Lead Nurturing -- The process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy, with the goal of earning their business when they are ready

Seed Nurturing -- The process of building relationships with qualified prospects before you have their contact information

Incoming Lead Processing Campaigns -- What you do and how you act when you first meet someone will affect how he or she perceives you from there on out

Stay in Touch Campaigns -- Campaigns that “drip” out relevant content to prospects over time, helping to educate them and build trust and credibility for your company

Accelerator Campaigns -- Campaigns that attempt to move prospects along the buying cycle faster by providing relevant “nudges” triggered by specific buyer behaviors or sales updates

Lead Lifecycle Campaigns -- Campaigns that ensure movement and interaction with prospects, even if they are not ready to buy or sales does not engage

Lead Handoff -- The process of passing a lead from marketing to sales

Marketing Lead -- A lead generated by marketing, which has not yet being qualified as a sales prospect

Sales Ready Lead -- A lead that has been qualified by marketing based upon criteria agreed upon by both sales and marketing

Closed Loop Marketing -- Campaigns that send communications based on a prospect’s previous actions and their place in the buying cycle

Drip Campaign -- A series of scheduled emails that deliver thought leadership to prospects that have opted in to receive marketing communications

Lead Recycling -- The process of passing a lead from sales back to marketing because a lead was not yet ready to buy