A few weeks ago I was conducting training for about 50 B2B organizations. At one point, I asked all the participants a very simple question: “How do you use digital marketing?” Most of the participants who responded shared that they use digital marketing to generate new leads. Once the organizations obtain leads, marketing forwards the information to sales and the job of marketing is done. Sales departments, however, can’t always close the lead on a first try, and lead nurturing is required. This is where marketing can step in again.
Lead nurturing can take a significant amount of time, and requires a sequence of marketing touches. Brian Carroll, Executive Director of Applied Research, MECLABS and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale says:
“Most lead nurturing programs don’t begin to impact conversion before at least five meaningful touches, and it’s important to continue nurturing leads whether it takes five touches or 25 touches to get them to the sales-ready point. If you have a nine-month sales cycle, you should nurture a lead in those nine months, and that’s at a minimum level. So that means nine nurturing patterns during the course of that lead.”
Let’s examine 3 tactics that organizations can use to nurture existing leads and move them down the funnel.
1. Leverage Third Party Content
Let me share a personal example. In the summer of 2011, I met with an executive from a large manufacturing organization. He expressed his desire to establish a corporate social media strategy that will include corporate training, creation of a social media playbook for all the employees, strategy for leveraging social technology to improve marketing, customer service and recruitment. After our meeting, he put this campaign on the back burner and promised to get back to me in a few months.
Immediately, I established a calendar and began to nurture this lead. In the first month, I sent a copy of the JobVite Social Recruiting Survey with my summary of findings. Next month, I sent a copy of the ROI of Social Media in the Enterprise by SelectMinds. The following month, I sent an invitation to a webinar on Social Media Policies. Several times, I got an email back with a few questions on the documents that I shared and how the findings would affect his organization. In December when we met again, four months after our first meeting, he had copies of these reports printed on his desk with a list of questions. Later that month, we began working together.
The most important item is building a calendar and finding content that can help your leads make better decisions. Your goal is not to overwhelm them with information but rather add value.
2. Design a Highly Targeted “Tips” Email Series
A newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with prospects and leads. The challenge is that a newsletter is often not targeted towards specific needs that leads have, it is generic. Chances are you already know what services your leads are interested in. In my line of work, I often know that a company is interested in an analytical assessment of their marketing efforts, in conversion optimization or in a CRM integration services. Sort these leads into different email lists based on the services in which they are interested. Then, begin sending automated emails to these contacts. The goal is not to necessarily generate direct conversations, but rather maintain contact by sharing tips, expertise and work examples.
3. Leverage Social Media
Social media is a great way to stay in touch with leads. Give your leads a compelling reason to join your Facebook page and use it to build conversations and answer questions. A good tactic is to position your page as a source of industry related content; share events, news, resources, articles. However, do not overdo it. Here is a great chart by ExactTarget that addresses why people unlike Facebook brand pages.
Even in B2B sales, you are selling to people. Research your connections on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN and try to build a social profile of your potential client. Connect with your audience on LinkedIN, follow them on Twitter and keep an eye on what they are posting. Free tools like SocialMention, Google Alerts, Twilert and BackType can help monitor the market.
Summary
Marketing is not just for generating new leads, it can also help you build relationships with qualified prospects with the goal of earning their business when they are ready. The number one step in lead nurturing is establishing a schedule where marketing can touch their contacts a number of times.
