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Beyond Business Blogging: Getting Started with Automated Lead Nurturing

Copyright 2010 Right On Interactive 1

A marketing automation primer from

Right On Interactive136 E. Market Street, Suite 400Indianapolis, IN 46204www.rightoninteractive.com

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Beyond Business Blogging: Getting Started with Automated Lead Nurturing

Blogs are fantastic inbound marketing tools to acquire new leads and prospects. Email is a fantastic tool to nurture and sustain these relationships.

In this Automated Lead Nurturing Primer, learn how marketers are combining these two tactics to not only acquire new leads but nurture them into closed business.

Statistics show that marketers using corporate blogging as part of their social media mix improve search engine results and generate a higher volume of targeted leads.

Now that we’re capturing these leads through our business blog, how do we best cultivate them to become closed business and ultimately to become brand ambassadors?


Customer Lifecycle Marketing

To answer that question, let’s step back a moment and look at a framework for customer lifecycle marketing. This is a strategy that looks to increase customer revenue and profitability over the lifetime of the relationship. In other words, we’re looking to maximize each customer’s lifetime value to our organization.

Customer lifecycle marketing recognizes that buyers move through stages in their relationship with a company – from the first contact they make with us, to the point where they are enthusiastic advocates.

At its most basic level, the customer lifecycle is divided into two distinct phases: Acquisition and Retention. From a relationship standpoint, you’re either engaging leads or engaging customers in a continuous dialogue throughout the life of the relationship.

Within each phase, there are a number of stages people move through as their relationship develops. The framework shown here is typical for a business-to-business company; whereas, in a consumer business, the lifecycle framework might look very different.

Let’s look at the six stages in this example.



Initiate – A constituent is identified or initially engages with the company.

Develop – Based on their behavior, etc., out-bound communications continue

to engage the constituent.

Convert – The constituent moves into an active buying cycle.

Initiate StageA person in the Initiate Stage has interacted with the company –maybe identifying themselves; maybe not. Our objective is to engage them further.

Develop StageIf we’re successful, they move to the Develop Stage. Based on their behavior, demographic data, their actions, timing, or lead score, our outbound communications are tailored with relevant messages.

Convert StageThe Convert Stage represents the buying cycle. Marketing transitions these “sales ready” leads to the field. Communications center on the buying process to support the lead’s evaluation and selection activities.


Download the Whitepaper 7 Steps to Effective Customer Lifecycle Communications

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Adopt – The new customer begins to use or consume the product or service.

Value – The customer gains tangible value through the product or service.

Advocate – The customer actively promotes the company and products

to friends and colleagues.

Adopt StageIn the Adopt Stage, we’re focused on helping new customers report success early and often.

Value StageCommunications in the Value Stage center on maximizing the value customers receive with our products, services, and support.

Advocate StageAnd then we reach the pinnacle when the customer becomes a brand ambassador for us. In the Advocate Stage, we’re engaging them further in the brand and in promoting the brand to others.


Visually Manage the Lifecycle

Customer lifecycle marketing is a journey through these stages. And what better way to stay on course than with a map?

This is a Lifecycle Map, a screen shot from our ROI Customer Lifecycle Marketing product. Individuals are mapped on two dimensions: Their engagement and their target audience profile. The Lifecycle Map gives you a bird’s eye view on whether you’re engaging the right people and the degree to which each is engaged.

Lifecycle marketing is all about engaging people and advancing them forward in the lifecycle. The Lifecycle Map is an important tool for campaign planning.

More than a dashboard, the Lifecycle Map is a dynamic campaign manager, enabling marketers to quickly create target audience segments for use in multi-channel marketing campaigns.


http://www.rightoninteractive.com/multi-channel-marketing-software.html



From Blog Conversion to Lead Nurturing

In this primer, we’re focusing on converting blog leads to closed business. In context of the Lifecycle Map, we’re talking about the Develop Stage where we cultivate leads until the point there is an active sales opportunity.

In this example, we’re looking at a demonstration company called Front Office Plus. They publish several blogs that correspond to groups of keywords. When this person searched a keyword phrase related to rental office furniture, they found this blog near the top of the organic search engine results.

Once the person completes a registration form, they are automatically entered as a Lead in the Front Office Plus CRM system. This Lead’s Campaign History is also updated with the campaign tactic associated with the rental furniture blog.


View the online demo of ROI Customer Lifecycle Marketing

automation software

http://www.rightoninteractive.com/view-roi-demo.html

http://www.rightoninteractive.com/view-roi-demo.html

In a lot of companies, what happens next is that a lead

qualification team reaches out to the prospect. If the prospect meets the qualification criteria, they are converted to a Sales Opportunity. Often, these folks are removed from all marketing communications. Unfortunately, if the opportunity fizzles, a lot of companies don’t have a process for automatically reclaiming or recycling leads for further nurturing.

If the lead qualification team is not able to qualify the prospect, they usually end up on a newsletter list, which is typically a monthly, quarterly, or even a sporadic “group” communication rather than individualized.


What should happen is an automated drip campaign that

cultivates each individual with dynamic content and cadence, and it should automatically recycle inactive sales leads.This type of nurture campaign can be time-based as you see here.

Or, it can be response-driven, where, based on how the lead responds to each step, a new path or paths are taken, perhaps at a different cadence.


http://www.rightoninteractive.com/lead-nurturing-software.html

The outcome of multi-step marketing campaigns is significant

over the results of those with a single-step. Of the several thousand incoming web leads that completed six steps of one of our own nurture campaigns, the engagement with this group quadrupled over what it would have been in a single-step campaign. Overall, we’re seeing a 20 percent response rate.






Returning to our friends at Front Office Plus, they track the

conversion results for each blog in their CRM system. They can quickly see the response to each blog and ultimately the number of sales opportunities that result.


Once Tom submits the registration form, he enters an

automated nurture campaign.

Using the lead scoring software capability, Marketing transfers to Sales the leads that exceed an agreed upon threshold. This alignment with sales ensures that the highest quality leads are converted.

For those that aren’t ready for an active sales cycle, we continue to cultivate. Any sales opportunities that go inactive are automatically picked up again by the nurture campaign. The value of this is that without any additional resources or effort, leads move through the campaign at an individualized pace, and can exit and enter the communication flow as appropriate…No manual list management, no manual uploading of lists into the email system, no reliance on Sales to change statuses on Contact records when they go inactive.

Let’s look at how the system can automatically recycle sales leads.


http://www.rightoninteractive.com/relationship-scoring.html

Recycle Sales Leads: OneWhen Tom responds to the “Nurture 2” communication, he triggers the lead scoring threshold, and Marketing passes the Lead to sales for follow up. In the nurture campaign, each Lead receives “Nurture 3” fourteen days after they receive “Nurture 2.”

Recycle Sales Leads: TwoWe want to ensure that “Nurture 3” only goes out to each person if there are a reasonable number of days since the last touch. We configure the “Nurture 3” step to check for other communications within the previous 7 days, although this can be configured for as much time as you want.

Recycle Sales Leads: ThreeThe sales rep logs their phone call and follow-up email in the system… Both are outside the yellow zone, so “Nurture 3” is still on track to drop on day 14.


Recycle Sales Leads: FourBut, a few days later, the salesperson connects with the prospect.

Recycle Sales Leads: FiveThe system automatically pushes out the delivery of “Nurture 3” another 7 days.

Recycle Sales Leads: SixAs long as there are no further touches logged within the new yellow zone, “Nurture 3” drops on day 21.


Configuring each step in the nurture campaign is a matter of a few clicks.

Step 1Within ROI, we select a segmentation source, which can be from any combination of one or more databases, whether it be your CRM system, your email provider, a web analytics system, or any other, including the native marketing database in ROI. In this case, our segmentation source is Salesforce.com Reports.


Step 2We create the segment, or bucket as we call it, by selecting Salesforce Reports to include people or exclude them. Here, we are including a report that contains all of today’s candidates eligible to receive Nurture 6. To avoid over-communication, we exclude people whose last activity or last campaign was within the past week.


Step 3Finally, we configure this segment’s schedule. At the top, we select the segment we just created… indicate the action, which in this case is sending an email from our email provider… and then schedule it to run daily at 10 a.m.

Automatically each day, ROI updates the segment with the group of people who qualify to receive Nurture 6 on that day, and sends the Nurture 6 email to them. With ROI, this action could be configured to send a communication through channels other than email, such as sending a voice message, a text message, a fax, or sending the list to a print fulfillment center for direct mail.


Improve Marketing Effectiveness

By automating multi-step nurture campaigns, you are able to dramatically improve your business results. Programmed campaigns engage more people more often and enable you to convert leads to the sales team at the right time.

They allow you to run automated “lights-out” campaigns that communicate with each lead individually at a cadence that matches their level of interest using highly relevant, personalized content.

Sales and Marketing work as a coordinated team, ensuring the lead management process is consistent and effective while also ensuring that inactive sales leads continue their journey in the customer lifecycle.


Lead Nurturing Example

By way of summary, I’d like to illustrate two examples of how marketers can use ROI to automate multi-step campaigns throughout the customer lifecycle.

The first is a healthcare provider that drives leads through their website. They nurture two types of leads – those that have had a personal consultation, but haven’t made a decision, and those who have not yet requested a consultation. The first campaign targets the segment of prospective clients who have not had a personal consultation. It includes a telephone touch and a newsletter series discussing nutrition, exercise, and success stories of past clients.

The other campaign targets the segment of people who have had a consultation. It includes a series of informational articles that address common fears and objections. Those who commit to the service can then automatically receive the appropriate faxed forms and on the day prior to the service, receive an automated voice reminder message.


Customer Nurturing Example

The second illustration is Compendium. This is an example of a sophisticated customer communication program in the Adopt Stage. They call it, “Content Quest.” This 8-week campaign is designed to help new clients reach a critical mass of blog posts in the shortest time possible. Account administrators are on one track; the bloggers are on another where they receive tutorials and blogging tips 3-times a week.

Since implementing Content Quest, new customers are reaching critical mass in record time. On average, clients are seeing an increase in posts per week of over 40 percent compared to all customers.

Content Quest is an excellent model for on-boarding new clients. Compendium is systematically helping everyone get the most out of the product and helping them gain the momentum they need for a successful blogging program.


http://www.rightoninteractive.com/customer-nurturing-software.html

Richard Cunningham

Vice President, Marketing

[email protected]

317.225.5868

New whitepaper

Action Guide to Lead Management Success

www.rightoninteractive.com

Next StepIf you would like to start a dialogue, feel free to contact me directly. And if you’d like to read our new whitepaper, visit our homepage, at rightoninteractive.com.

About Right On InteractiveROI Customer Lifecycle Marketing software helps you win more customers, retain them, and increase repeat sales. Unlike conventional marketing automation solutions which typically focus on lead acquisition, ROI focuses on the individual buyer and how you can effectively communicate with them regardless of where they are in their relationship with the organization –from initial contact to brand advocacy.

The patent-pending technology and methodology behind the ROI Lifecycle Map™ dynamically charts each buyer in the customer lifecycle based on their profile and engagement level in each distinct lifecycle stage. As a result, ROI uniquely enables you to visually identify and act on opportunities to cultivate deeper, more engaged relationships. Solutions in the ROI suite include campaign management, email marketing, lead scoring, lead nurturing, customer nurturing, multi-channel marketing, and sales and marketing systems integration.


http://www.rightoninteractive.com/action-guide-to-lead-management-success.html&campID=70160000000AFiB

http://www.rightoninteractive.com/action-guide-to-lead-management-success.html&campID=70160000000AFiB


http://www.rightoninteractive.com/campaign-management-software.html

http://www.rightoninteractive.com/email-marketing-software.html

http://www.rightoninteractive.com/relationship-scoring.html


http://www.rightoninteractive.com/customer-nurturing-software.html




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eBook - Beyond Business Blogging - Getting Started with Automated Lead Nurturing - Right on...

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