Going from cold prospect to closed deal is all about strategy. And in a world where everyone is trying their best to close sales deals, one-channel outreach just doesn’t cut it anymore for the majority of B2B businesses.
To increase your chances of landing qualified leads and move them through the funnel faster, you need to nurture them across email, phone, and social media. But how do you create a successful lead nurturing strategy that works across multiple channels? This is what we’ll talk about in this guide.
Why Lead Nurturing is Critical for B2B Sales
While B2B sales may feel cold and robotic at first glance, it’s far from it in 2025. Nowadays, prospects crave personalisation and a human approach to sales, moving beyond just cold outreach like cold calling or cold emailing. Yes, those tactics worked in the past, but the game has changed.
Effective lead nurturing for B2B sales is about building relationships and guiding prospects through the journey. Whether it’s nurturing leads via email, phone-based lead nurturing campaign, or using outbound sales techniques, the key is empathy.
Cold to warm lead conversion happens when businesses personalise their lead generation strategies and truly connect with prospects, accelerating deal closure and optimising the sales funnel.
Email Follow-Ups that Convert
Cold emailing is still one of the most used outbound sales techniques, but only 1 to 5% of cold email campaigns get a response. Marketers have found that personalisation can significantly increase these rates.
After sending over 20 million cold emails, Woodpecker discovered that the average response rate of highly personalised emails is 17%, compared to just 7% for those lacking advanced personalisation.
This proves that personalising your email follow-up for sales can massively improve your conversion chances. To nurture leads via email effectively, use multi-step sequences and include personalised outreach.
Lead nurturing best practices also suggest using B2B sales follow-up to keep your marketing communication consistent, moving cold to warm lead conversion faster. The key? Consistent, tailored communication that speaks directly to your prospect’s needs.
Phone-Based Lead Nurturing Tactics
Phone-based lead nurturing, often a part of a multi-channel lead nurturing strategy, is a powerful way to build trust with your prospective buyers. Cold calling without personalisation gets an average success rate of just 2.3% (according to The State of Cold Calling in 2025 by Cognism).
But with personalised outreach and strategic B2B sales follow-up, phone-based lead nurturing can significantly increase your conversion rates. Using strategic follow-up calls as part of an integrated sales communication plan allows sales teams to better align with prospects, ensuring the message remains relevant and timely. And by combining sales outreach tactics with personalised communication, you can accelerate the cold to warm lead conversion process.
Lead nurturing best practices suggest using these calls to guide prospects through their buyer journey and ultimately drive faster deal closing, aligning with your overall lead generation strategies and B2B lead conversion goals.
Social Selling Strategies for Warmer Leads
Social media is the hub for B2B lead generation, offering an ideal space for businesses to engage with prospects where they spend a lot of their time. Although B2B brands won’t get much traction on heavily entertainment-oriented platforms like Instagram or TikTok, LinkedIn is the goldmine for B2B sales and lead nurturing.
With advanced social selling strategies, businesses can turn social media into a powerful tool for building relationships and generating qualified leads. LinkedIn outreach tips, such as sending personalised messages and participating in relevant conversations, allow for targeted, organic engagement.
When integrated with other lead generation strategies, social selling supports multi-channel lead generation, amplifying your B2B lead conversion efforts and boosting your overall sales outreach tactics.
Optimising the Lead Qualification Process
The key to higher cold to warm lead conversion rates is pre-qualifying your leads. Having a lead qualification process in place that filters out prospects who aren’t ready to buy will inevitably lead to faster deal closing and more effective lead nurturing, because you’ll only be nurturing the leads who are actually qualified to become your customers down the line.
Especially if you’re implementing a multi-channel lead generation strategy – whether you nurture leads via email, do phone-based lead nurturing, or implement social selling strategies – you must align your qualification criteria with each touchpoint.
This ensures your sales outreach tactics are focused, your funnel stages are optimised, and your sales team isn’t wasting time chasing dead ends. The result? Higher B2B lead conversion rates and more efficient pipeline movement from cold to closed.
From Cold to Closed with Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing, especially if you’re implementing a multi-channel lead generation strategy, is the key to moving prospects from “just curious” to “ready to close.” Without it, you risk ghosting, dead-end convos, and a painfully long sales cycle.
But lead nurturing goes beyond simply staying in touch. It’s about creating meaningful, personalised touchpoints – via email, phone, and social – that build trust, qualify leads effectively, and drive B2B lead conversion.
If you’re looking for a highly personalised lead generation strategy that fits your business like a glove, our experts at J2 Group can help. Get in touch or see how we’ve helped other businesses boost conversion rates and close deals faster.
FAQs
Q1: What is lead nurturing, and why is it important in B2B sales?
Lead nurturing is building relationships with potential buyers at every stage of the sales funnel. It helps move leads from cold to warm, boosting trust and conversion rates.
Q2: How do I nurture leads effectively across email, phone, and social media?
Use a personalised, consistent approach across all channels. Share value, follow up strategically, and engage in real conversations.
Q3: What are the best email follow-up practices for lead conversion?
Keep it short, relevant, and personalised. Always provide value and follow up multiple times without spamming.
Q4: How can social selling strategies help turn cold leads warm?
By engaging authentically on platforms like LinkedIn, sharing useful content, and starting real conversations.
Q5: What role does multi-channel outreach play in faster deal closing?
It keeps your brand top of mind, builds trust faster, and reaches prospects where they’re most active, shortening the sales cycle.
