Lead Nurturing Best Practices in Tough Times
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Transcript of Lead Nurturing Best Practices in Tough Times
Why Marketing Must Nurture Leads for Maximum Sales Success
Loren McDonaldVP, Industry RelationsSilverpop
January 13, 2009
Loren McDonaldVP, Industry RelationsSilverpop
January 13, 2009
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Speaker/Agenda
AgendaTiming is Now for Lead NurturingScoring & RoutingLead NurturingQ & A
Loren McDonald
VP, Industry Relations
Silverpop
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Vtrenz, a Silverpop Solution
Marketing/Lead Automation SaaS provider
Founded in 1999
Part of Silverpop, top provider of permission based marketing solutions
350+ employees with offices in Atlanta, Fargo, Irvine and London
Top tier ranking by Jupiter Research and SiriusDecisions
Integration with leading CRM solutions
Salesforce.com
Microsoft Dynamics
Batch API
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From Too Many “Leads” … to Not Enough?
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Recession: The Question is For How Long?
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What Does a Recession Mean to B2B Marketers?
Marketing Budgets? Typically – frozen or cut
ROI/Spend Decisions? Cut marketing activities that don’t lead to near-term sales
Revenue? Management focuses on immediate/short-term revenue
Resources? Make do with what you have
Measurement? Real-time, accurate – hard, not soft- ROI focused
Targeting? Increased focus on existing relationships
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What Does This Mean? – Opportunities for B2B Marketers
Automate marketing processes
Optimize campaigns
Focus on:Nurturing the “A” and “B” lead poolCross-selling/Up-selling existing customers
Focus measurement on outputs:Revenue# Sales-ready leadsCost per win/Cost per sales-ready leadEtc.
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Marketing’s Opportunity & Responsibility
82.5% are ready to buy or will buy
70% are long-term opportunities – Marketing Territory
An estimated 70-90% of leads generated by marketing are never followed-up with by sales
Source: MarketingSherpa
Leaky Sales Funnel Increases Customer Acquisition Costs
Mature Marketing Processes Close the B2B Lead Management Gap
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So…Marketing’s Role Has to Change
Need to be “lead developers” not just “lead generators”
Generate Capture Qualify/Score Distribute Nurture Report
Need to focus on Metrics and Accountability
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Keys to Maximizing the Sales Lead Process
1. Common definition of a “lead”
2. Scoring leads – assigning priorities
3. Timely lead routing and follow up by sales
4. Automating the lead nurturing process
5. Measuring marketing effectiveness
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What is a Lead?
White Paper Download
Tradeshow Attendee
Webinar Attendee
Web Site Inquiry
Etc.
• Has Budget allotted
• Has Authority to purchase
• Has a Need that we solve
• Has defined purchase
Timeframe
Agreed upon
Lead Qualification
Definition
Suspect, Prospect or Lead?
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Score Leads Based on Sales Readiness
Clearly defining “sales ready” results in less lead waste
Ensure both sales and marketing agree on definition to align goals
Requirement: Lead Scoring based on: Budget Authority Needs Timeframe Size Profile Email/Web Behavior
Route to Strategic Sales
Nurture
Discard
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Route to Inside Sales2
Lead Definition
Sales Ready Now High Score
Unqualified Low Score
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Lead Scoring- Explicit Data
Defines the right lead based on your target market segment
Scoring performed on a unified database to ensure consistency across all leads
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Lead Scoring- Implicit Data
Scores Activity
Recency and frequency scores with automated discounts
Apply points for important interactions indicative of interest
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Using lead scoring, map communications to prospect’s buying cycle with agreed-upon action plans
Search for Solutions
Evaluate Solutions
Recognize Need
Justify Solution
Purchase
Evaluate Decision
Interaction
Create Interest- Whitepaper
Edu-sell communications- Case Studies
Purchase and Validate- Free Trial, Discount Offers
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3-X
X+
Consider Solutions- Webinars & Demo2
Lead Scoring - Now What?
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Routing: Ensure Follow-up Within 48 Hours
• Over 7x improvement in sales if leads are responded to within 48 hours
• The likelihood of reaching a
prospect on a follow-on call goes
down by 90% within one week from
the initial inquiry
• Automate lead routing decreases
follow-up times
*Vtrenz Marketing Research Survey 2005
Com
mu
nic
ati
on
Eff
ecti
ven
ess %
Reaction Time In Days
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
20%
40%
60%
80%
Florida Lead East Sales Rep
Nebraska Lead Central Sales Rep
California Lead West Sales Rep
Slow reaction time, decreases response
effectiveness
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What is Lead Nurturing
Leveraging a series of communications to maintain ongoing contact with prospects identified as not yet ready to make a purchase
Keeps your prospects engaged throughout buying process
Provides opportunity for more relevant and timely communications
Improves ROI of marketing spend by ‘plugging the leaks’ in lead management
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Utilize Rules-Based Marketing to Eliminate “One and Done” Marketing
Understand your sales cycle and map your communications to your sales cycle
Leverage a rules-based marketing engine to set-up and deliver multi-track, multi-touch, multi-channel communications
Well-executed multi-channel marketing
campaigns generate a sales lift ranging from 7-
34%.Source: Internet Advertising Bureau
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ControlScan’s Typical Drip Campaign
Campaign Objectives: Increase compliance rate for Partner’s merchants and the marketing team’s productivity
Bring in campaign members based on
defined criteria
Email #1Intro to program
Direct Mail #1Intro to program
Email #2Reminder
Direct Mail #2Reminder
Email #3Reminder
Outbound Call Campaign
Contact removed from
campaign once compliance is
achieved
2 weeks
2 weeks
2 weeks
1 week
2 weeks
2 weeks
Achieved 14% compliance rate in 2 month pilot – average compliance rate is typically ~1% - in one year!
2-3 touch points within first month
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Drip Campaign Contents
Email #1 Email #3
Email #2
Call to actions became increasingly more urgent.
All action is directed to the Partner’s microsite.
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Drip Campaign Contents
Direct Mail Content
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Drip Campaign Contents
Campaign Microsite
Call to action is to enroll in mandatory program.
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Lead Nurturing Tip #1
Communicate
Keep your company top-of-mind as prospects move through the buying cycle
Contact everybody at least once Do not let prospects go an entire sales cycle without having received a
touch
Offer prospects the opportunity to identify themselves as “ready to buy”
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Message Creation
Know Your Audience and Ask Yourself
How can we build credibility with our prospects
How can we show that our products/services will help them achieve their goals
How can we differentiate ourselves from our competitors
Become a trusted advisor/expert to your prospects
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Lead Nurturing Tip #2
Engage in Meaningful Two Way Conversations
Cut through the “noise” and be relevant
Send communications that include questions with several possible answers
Base subsequent communications on these answers for increased message relevancy
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Lead Nurturing Tip # 3
Target High-Potential Leads
Hone your targeting
Offer value Whitepaper relevant to an indicated area of interest Webinar invite to a topic of interest
Know your own criteria Have clearly defined criteria to know exactly when you want to push a
lead to sales
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Usher the Lead Through the Sales Cycle
Lead Nurturing supports all stages of the lead management process
Marketing Qualified
Inquiries
Sales Qualified
Sales Accepted
Impressions
Marketing
Sales
New Business
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Stay Involved
Avoid lead waste
Have processes in place ready to fold a lead back into the nurturing cycle if necessary
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Summary
Effective lead nurturing Communicate!
• Know your audience Have two way conversations to add relevance Further hone your targeting
• Craft communications that add value, not more noise Identify the criteria you want to use to bubble nurtured leads to sales
once they become Hot Have a plan
• Identify a process to fold leads back into the nurturing process if necessary
And focus on converting the 70 percent long-term leads, to near-term opportunities!
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Q & A
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