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A common perception that our sales team comes across while talking to marketing managers at relatively smaller companies is “we are too small for marketing automation technology or implementing a lead nurturing program”. It’s not always easy to break that perception even though a solution like Nurture is just as ideally suited to a small business or startup with a few leads as a bigger company. It’s not uncommon to hear thoughts like “we would love to setup a lead nurturing program of our own some day but we just have about 150 inbound leads in a year” or ” we are a small company and don’t have the budget to invest in something like marketing automation technology as yet so we’ll stick to email for now”. If you are one of those companies that haven’t considered setting up a lead nurturing program for your leads because you thought you were too small for it…I hate to break it to you but lead nurturing is not exclusively for the big guys
.
Sure, a large company with tens of thousands of leads from various sources needs some form of marketing automation to help them identify which ones are ready to be engaged but the beauty of what lead nurturing technology is capable of happens at the individual lead level and not just what it can do if you can feed in a huge list of leads. As a one man marketing and sales team of a startup, armed with a list of 200 target accounts and 400 decision makers can lead nurturing technology help? Ofcourse it can. For example, if emails were sent out to all these 200 contacts, it would still be possible to track how they respond to the emails and study their level of interest. Personalized emails can be sent to individuals and tracked too. Knowing interest levels and open times can go a long way in indicating when to pick up the phone and get in touch with a prospect or even when not to connect with them till they are ready. It’s a great way not just to keep connecting with prospects who are not at the buying stage of the cycle but also to help sell smarter with more insight to the ones who are ready.
So what makes so many believe that it’s out of reach or they are too small to use something like this? Is it the price? Just because one often reads case studies and news articles on how global giants managed to drive millions in additional revenue by nurturing their large databases of previous leads it doesn’t mean it’s so expensive. When we launched Nurture, we kept in mind it needs to be priced keeping in mind that it should be accessible and cost effective to both small and large companies. The Nurture Express version
is a great way to start a lead nurturing program without needing big budgets and similarly there are other hosted Saas out there which can get you started without putting a hole in your pocket.
It need not be too complicated. It need not be expensive. It can still be just as effective as it has been for the big guys but it’s certainly not exclusively for them.
A recent article I read published on DemandGenReport “New Study Supports Payback Of Lead Nurturing, But Raises Questions Over Touch Count” made me question “how much is too much when it comes to the multi-touch approach of lead nurturing?” The study conducted and published by published SmartLead which you can find and download here
published some interesting findings which were brought out well in the DemandGenReport
write up. In a nutshell, these findings included:
- Lead Nurturing is useful and effective
- Two nurturing touches to a prospect or lead are optimum producing better conversions
- Four touches or more can be potentially damaging to the conversion prospects
Now the findings are subjective to the type of companies and products surveyed in the study but lets look into this a little further. The ability to touch leads regularly with communication is a huge part of what makes lead nurturing software useful or the process of lead nurturing so effective. The software simply helps automate improve a process that would be carried out even by a single sales person and is based on what works in the marketing and sales process.
For example, the other day, I sent an introductory email to a prospect I thought fits our bill as a good lead. He showed some level of interest and said he will take a look at it although there was no immediate requirement. I followed up with some work samples of how we have helped previous customers tackle certain issues with links to more case studies on our website. Since the emails were trackable
, I was able to view clicks to our website and views for certain case studies. Since there was no response about 2 weeks later, I sent an invite to an online demo we were doing followed by another email a few weeks later. About a month and a half from the first email, he finally replied saying he would be interested in exploring what we had to offer a bit more.
This is the same approach lead nurturing download sphere dvd takes by constantly keeping a channel of communication open and touching leads regularly with useful information until they are ready to be contacted directly and ready to be engaged. As a customer, I know I must have received at least something from Dell once every two weeks for the last one year before I decided to buy one of their laptops. I wasn’t annoyed by the regular communication because I did have the option to opt out of receiving them. Their nurturing program worked on me. I can’t say it would have worked if they had given up after two trys though I could understand how several people would find too many touches from them annoying. The point is, I’m not sure if its possible to universally define how many touches are optimum and every company would have a very different threshold for this.
If sending two emails or pieces of communication was the ideal way to nurture leads, would we really need marketing automation and lead nurturing products
at all? Wouldn’t just two bulk email send outs do the job? So how much is really ideal and how much is too many when it comes to nurturing messages?
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There is a myth floating around that lead nurturing technology or marketing automation software are tools for the large organizations who have a million customers and a zillion leads to process. The truth: lead nurturing is just as applicable and benficial to small and mid sized businesses as it is to the large companies. There was a time when having a CRM software solution was also known to be an expensive investment large companies could make to better manage their marketing and customer data processes but that has changed drastically with so many smaller to mid sized companies having Salesforce and SugarCRM accounts.
Let’s consider a local corporate travel services business which caters to travel needs, ticketing and car rental to organizations within the vicinity. They would probably generate a decent database of prospects and leads FleshEater from cold calling, participating in conferences, holding promotional events events such as competitions, online inquiries off their website and so on. Like many other businesses, companies have a need to approach them only when they have a need to make travel arrangements and identifying when they may need it is what lead nurturing technology can help do. The key is to be in front of the organization whenever they may need travel services and building a lead nurturing program which reaches out to the companies within the area with updates, messages, offers and other content helps to stay fresh in their memories.
I have been receiving email messages from a newly opened business service apartments chain which recently popped up a few hundred meters away from our office. I opened the introductory email for the first time and scanned through it but never really bothered to click links, check out the website or explore further. They followed up with messages on food festivals they were holding, discount offers during off seasons and so on but I didn’t open those. Recently there was word that a potential customer was coming down to our city and we needed to come up with options on where he could be put up for a few days and preferably close to the office. That hospitality chain came to mind and I searched my inbox, went through previous emails, clicked through to their website and browsed a lot of information they had put up. I can’t help but think if that business had a lead nurturing system in place and had visibility into the enthusiasm with which I consumed their web content they would have called me before I had a chance to look at other options.
Setting up lead nurturing programs
are not as expensive or complicated as one would have believed and just like Salesforce threw the doors open to several small and mid sized businesses with their CRM, we can expect to see lead nurturing and marketing automation
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take a similar path.
“Lead nurturing and marketing automation technology you said? No thank you, we are good. We have been using Salesforce CRM for our leads and its working well for us, we don’t need marketing automation software to do the same. Thanks for reaching out though.” Click! That was a transcription of a prospect our inside sales executive spoke to a few days ago and it wasn’t the only one in which lead nurturing or marketing automation software was confused with CRM software. Comparing marketing automation technology to CRM technology is comparing apples and oranges. There is a difference!
Wikipedia defines CRM or customer relationship management as follows:
Customer relationship management
(CRM Hush movie full
) consists of the processes a company uses to track and organize its contacts with its current and prospective customers. CRM software is used to support these processes; information about customers and customer interactions can be entered, stored and accessed by employees in different company departments. Typical CRM goals are to improve services provided to customers, and to use customer contact information for targeted marketing.
Although CRM software like Salesforce can have myriads of additional functionality built into it by adding on appexchange applications, its primary objective is to effectively track and organize accounts and lead data effectively through the marketing and sales cycle. To better understand Marketing Automation, have a look at this insightful post by Terry Hedlund on the Demand Gen Biz Blog titled Marketing Automation and Circular Saws keywords or dfeatures to look out for in a software to identify if it’s really a marketing automation tool. A lead nurturing or marketing automation tool will typically help you:
- Create and run email campaigns
- Automate responses or trigger responses and reachouts
- Program rule based campaigns and follow-ups
- Track lead activity streams
- Assign a grade or score to leads based on their ’sales readiness’
- Provide reporting and analytics
The primary objective with such technology is to automate the process of reaching out and communicating regularly with the leads and identifying which ones are ready to be engaged (based on response activity and interest shown). Eventually the two technologies work hand in hand. CRM’s are needed to manage the data, lead nurturing and marketing automation is needed to keep those leads engaged and generate warm or more qualified leads and communicate this to the CRM. They are interlinked but solve a different challenge and provide tremendous value each in their own way.
So the giant companies have their complex marketing automation solutions which are programmed to nurture millions of existing and prospective customers to gush out a flow of qualified leads to the salesforce and make sure they meet their multi million dollar quotas every month. How does lead nurturing and marketing automation software and technology apply to the one man marketing/sales team in a start-up or a smaller company? The multi-role professional who can be CEO, VP of Marketing & VP of Sales all rolled into one and looks for business contacts and sends emails while simultaneously making phone calls to prospects. Does it have any relevence at all? cialises
It does. In fact lead nurturing is just as well suited to the one person or small team setup as a large global corporation. Working in a smaller setup, you tend to divide your time across multiple activities all of which need attention. At some point you may need to focus on building marketing data and locating business contacts at target accounts. Other times would involve sending emails and making contact with these leads to see if they have an immediate requirement. Often, if they are not ready they stay in the database till the time comes to follow up and check on them again. Beyond a certain number of prospects it becomes difficult to touch base with every lead or prospect every month or very periodically as the number of contacts you add to your ecosystem of leads grows and even if you are methodical, it takes longer to get back to leads and do that regular check for readiness.
This is where lead nurturing technology can provide great support for a smaller team. It can’t replace a call but what it can do is help you keep the communication with every lead you touched active till they seem ready to be engaged again personally. Once you have created a nurturing program with a series of emails and content which can keep your customer engaged, you have that system in place which can do those follow-ups for you to some extent and moreover you need not be overwhelmed by the volumes of leads that build up within your database. It lets you keep your focus and selling time on the qualified and sales ready leads and spend it on other aread such as inbound marketing. With the help of a lead nurturing application to support some crucial activities you can still do a lot without a big team.
Here is a paragraph from the Aberdeen Group press release
for their recent research study, “Lead Nurturing: The Secret to Successful Lead Generation buy cialis “:
“Successful organizations cannot afford to spend money generating qualified leads that slip through the pipeline when they do not result in immediate opportunities,” said Michiels. “Lead nurturing is a powerful example of how every organization can maximize lead generation efforts.” The top business pressures causing organizations to focus resources on lead nurturing initiatives are the need to increase top-line revenue (56%) and the need to improve sales productivity (60%). “The goal of lead nurturing is to solidify your company as a trusted advisor and a source of thought leadership for your prospects and customers,” says Michiels. “By doing so, you will ensure your company’s products and services are top of mind when prospects or customers are ready to spend. Successful companies will embrace lead nurturing techniques, especially during economic downturns. Laggard organizations will continue to look for excuses for why lead nurturing is too difficult. These organizations will choke on the dust of their competitors when the economy begins to grow again and spending starts to increase.”
The importance of being able to run lead nurturing programs has been quite clear for some time now and marketers looking to build a sustainable lead generation machine which churns out qualified and actionable leads have lead nurturing and marketing automation a the top of their lists. It’s also widely predicted by fellow marters that lead nurturing will be one of the key areas to see development and wider adoption in 2009. However, among those who have stood back from exploring a nurturing solution, there is a perception that implementing a lead nurturing program would involve a sizable investment or cost which is somethiing that just can not be considered when budgets should be focussed on generating new leads and opportunities.
Now perhaps its a matter of perception but investing only
in new lead generation can create waste. Lead that are generated from campaigns and various other marketing investments that do not convert to sales immediately fall through the cracks and end up sitting in a database forgotten. Remember, there was a cost to generate each one of those leads and by not converting those to revenue, they simply build up cost as more money is poured into generating new leads. Lead nurturing programs ensure your leads are still being tapped and are still working for you even when there is no immediate conversion into sales which really makes you realize the potential of your lead spend and prevent waste. With a host of lead nurturing applications available with flexible pricing models, it need not be as expensive and investment as it may have seemed earlier and in the long term, think of it as increasing the efficiency of your lead program and not just as adding cost.
Just before the new year dawned BtoB marketers put down their predictions and trends for the coming year. From what’s going to be hot in 2009 to what we may see burn as business to business marketing evolves along with the technolgy that drives it. Based on what we saw last year, one of the predictions that I would put my money on is that more marketers will look towards marketing automation and lead nurturing solutions over their current email campaigns.
Towards the earlier half of December 2008, Robert Lesser of Direct Impact Marketing wrote a really insightful post titled “The Evolution of Email for Lead Generation” based on a survey the company carried out. The findings were really interesting and showed that 86% of the responders did use email campaigns for lead generation. What was more fascinating is that other than email solutions such as Vertical Response and Constant Contact, more comprehensive lead generation and nurturing solutions such as Vtrenz , Marketo
and Eloqua were gaining ground.
Email campaigns have been a staple for b2b marketers and while its unlikely to become any less popular for quite some time to come, there is a clear interest to have a lead generation system which does more than send out emails and track responses. Lead nurturing applications can provide that automation and more comprehensive system of reaching out to prospects periodically, tracking their activity and measuring their readiness to buy not to mention continuing to nurture those who are not yet ready. Nurture was specifically built to help bridge that gap between simpler email marketing tools and much more comprehensive lead generation applications and provide a cost effective alternative to running one off email campaigns. The benefits are very significant and more marketers are becoming aware of how effective the nurturing technique is.
Only time will tell just how much of a share lead generation software will take from email tools but it will be an interesting one to track through 2009.
Lead nurturing is the process of reaching out to your potential customers on a consistent basis across multiple channels to build a conversation with them, engage them and build trust that makes them think about your company and offering when they are ready to buy. Once it is conceptually understood, the next big challenge is how to create lead nurturing campaigns and messages that truly feel like a conversation and not just another keyword-filled marketing message or a press release-like hyperbole.
Its easier said than done, I know, but here are a set of ideas that can help you to ensure your messages feel conversational:
- Use a language that is more like an email conversation rather than like a press release
- Write about relevant industry news and updates that helps make the message feel like a discuss of that recent news update
- Use a personal tone and touch in the language you use
- Using a lead nurturing application, construct messages that relate to the potential customers’ previous activity with your messages or website so it feels personalized
- Structure your email, direct mail and telemarketing follow-ups so they center around a particular topic area to create a multi-channel conversation
- Structure successive lead nurturing messages to be related and building on previous messages to create a conversation that engages potential customers
These are just a few ideas that we have experimented at Nurture and I will update this message with more as we find newer ones that work. In the meantime, I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts and ideas on what has worked for you so all our readers can benefit from it.
B2B marketing and lead generation has becoming increasingly challenging over the past 5 years. While marketers have employed a range of initiatives to drive demand, including trade shows, direct mail, email marketing, webinars and search marketing, buyers have evolved further to block out these messages to focus on what’s most important to them. Yet, the marketing tactics have stayed almost the same without much evolution. Here are a few reasons that current one-way mass marketed messages do not and will not deliver results:
- Buyers rarely pick up their desk phones and are extremely difficult to reach on the phone.
- Buyers buy only when they have a need. Else they have learnt to shut off their minds to any and all of your reachouts.
- Buyers do a lot of their homework online and know a lot more about their exact requirements, their options and what they are exactly looking for. So they end up responding to only those messages that hit their focused requirements. Today marketers don’t know much about their buyers based on one-way feedback-less outreach marketing.
- Buyers are looking for sources that educate and inform them about a solution that they are looking for and tend to turn off pure salesy messages.
- Buyers respond much better when they know that you know their specific requirements and are helping them with a personalized approach.
Here are a the core elements of what you need your marketing to be like going forward:
- You must identify and connect wtih your buyers in a way that they trust you and look forward to hearing from you.
- You must have a systematic way of understanding the spectrum of problems that your buyers face and how to educate them about potential ways of resolving those. You need a suite of education and information tools like webinars, white papers, case studies and industry research that helps your buyers decide what to do about their pain points.
- You must have a system for personalizing the interaction with every buyers and to treat them separately.
- You must have a system for tracking and measuring your buyers’ response to your messages and interaction to create a feedback look to help you understand your buyers.
- Lastly, you must leverage the feedback to further personalize the interaction with every buyers as you hand hold them towards a qualified lead and revenue.
This, in essence, is the core of automated lead nurturing that creates personalized lead activity streams for every buyer. Most importantly, atleast a percentage of buyers will be well engaged with you via this process and will turn to you when they are ready to buy. And since you are essentially in continuous, incremental and presonalized touch with the buyer, you are their easy first choice vendor. While they have been early solutions in this market, I believe, automated lead nurturing will evolve rapidly in the coming years and will define the furture of B2B marketing and sales.
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