The
Lead Nurturing
Cookbook
– Brian Hansford, President of Zephyr 47 and author of the Zephyr 47 blog – Carlos Hidalgo, CEO of The Annuitas Group – Craig Rosenberg, Vice President of Products and Services at Focus and author of The Funnelholic blog
– Tibor Shanto, author of Shift!: Harness the
Trigger Events that Turn Prospects into Customers
and CEO of Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. Whether you are just starting to think about lead nurturing or looking to refine your existing processes, it’s time to put on your chef hat and give it a whirl. Implement our recipes and let your sales team know you’ll be serving up some qualified leads. Bon Appétit! Emily Mayfield Manticore Technology
Lead Nurturing Cookbook
Foreward
ny chef will tell you that there are three components to great cooking: 1) fresh ingredients 2) solid technique and 3) excellent timing. While it sounds relatively simple, it takes a great deal of practice, expertise and finesse to yield a good, repeatable result, which is why many of us rely on recipes—at least as a starting point for our culinary journey. Similarly, to execute lead nurturing programs effectively, b2b marketers must have the right ingredients, the right techniques and the right timing. While there’s an abundance of information out there on lead nurturing, very few resources offer a step-by-step guide for creating a specific lead nurturing program as clear-cut as a recipe—until now.Our goals in writing The Lead Nurturing Cookbook
were simple: 1) deliver step-by-step guidance for creating proven-effective nurturing programs that B2B marketers can implement in real-world scenarios and 2) inspire you to put on your “chef hat” and have a little fun with your marketing automation solution. I think you’ll agree we’ve been successful. From the Tantalizing Tradeshow Follow-up with a
Revenue Demi-Glaze recipe to the Classic Customer Education with Retention Remoulade, I’m confident
you will not only be entertained but educated on how to build effective nurturing processes that can have a significant impact on your bottom line. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our Sales & Marketing “Expert Chefs” for their time and commitment to this project:
– Ardath Albee, author of eMarketing Strategies for
the Complex Sale and the Marketing Interactions
blog – Michael Damphousse, Founder and CEO of Green Leads and author of Smashmouth B2B blog – Jeff Erramouspe, President of Manticore Technology
A
Lead Nurturing Cookbook
Explanation of Ingredients
1. Customer Relationship Management System (CRM): widely-implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. 2. Demand Generation: the focus of targeted marketing programs to drive awareness and interest in a company’s products and/or services. Commonly used in business to business, business to government, or longer sales cycle business to consumer sales cycles, demand generation involves multiple areas of marketing and is really the marriage of marketing programs coupled with a structured sales process.
3. Dynamic Content: content that has been
customized for each individual viewing or rendi-tion or that continually updates information as the page is displayed to the user.
4. Gated Content: content that requires a
person to register on a landing page providing information, such as name, company and title, to gain access to it. Examples include white-papers, e-Books and analysts reports. 5. Landing Page: a single web page that appears in response to clicking on an offering. The landing page will usually display a form to input your information and in exchange grant access to a link with the desired offering. 6. Lead Nurturing: the process by which leads
are tracked and developed into sales opportu-nities. Lead nurturing usually begins with an unqualified lead (suspect) entered into a CRM system. Leads are categorized based on their behaviors and subsequent offers are made based on that categorization. Leads either move into the next step in a sales process or are set aside for future development/ nurturing.
7. Lead Scoring: method of assigning points
to prospects based on specific criteria you set—those attributes you’ve identified as being most aligned with your ideal prospect profile. The higher the score, the more likely they’re the right target for your organization and should be routed to sales. 8. Marketing Automation: software platform designed for marketing departments and organizations to simplify processes by auto-mating repetitive tasks.
9. Progressive Profiling: preserves and re-uses
profile information enabling organizations to accumulate high quality profiles over time. 10. Un-gated Content: content that does not
require a person to submit their information through a landing page to gain access to it. Examples include blog posts, case studies or data sheets.
Directions
Create a profile of your ideal prospect. Be sure
to work with Sales on this exercise. Once you and Sales have agreed upon what makes a prospect an ideal buyer for your product, build a list of pros-pects using those characteristics to guide you. Lists can be built from your internal database, rented or purchased. (NOTE: If you purchase a list, be sure to purchase from a reputable vendor and comply with anti-spam laws.)
Choose or create 4 pieces of un-gated, related content. An e-Book with multiple stand alone
chap-ters is ideal for this lead nurturing process. Chapchap-ters can be offered as teasers with the primary call-to-action being a complete e-Book download. Content
should be related enough to trigger interest in the next piece but independent enough for each to have a valu-able take-away.
Choose or create one piece of valuable content
related to the un-gated content you offer in the lead nurturing process. This could be a whitepaper, webinar, podcast, e-Book, or analyst report. The un-gated content can be excerpts or chapters from this piece. CliCk here for an example. Build a landing page to gate this content, and ask prospects to fill out qualifying information to gain access to it. (Note: This is your primary call-to-action and goal of the nurturing process. Once a prospect fills out this landing page, they become a lead and should be removed from the process.)
3
2 1
Ingredients:
• 1 landing page
• Robust marketing automation • 1 list of prospects
• 4 pieces of un-gated content • 5 follow-up emails
• 4 marketing-generated emails • 1 piece of gated, valuable
content
Optional:
• 1 follow-up lead nurturing process • Additional landing pages for
progressive profiling
Delectable Demand Generation
with Seasonal Fresh Leads
SUMMARy:This recipe is designed to entice your audience to engage with your company by taking the
desired call-to-action. Statistics show that the average number of touches it takes to propel
a prospect into action is between three and seven. The goal of this lead nurturing process is to prove
your value by freely providing your prospects with content that makes them want more. Each email
touch should include a takeaway, a secondary call-to-action and a cliffhanger, which baits the reader
to open your next email. Remember, this recipe is designed to get prospects into the top of your funnel.
Once they take the desired call-to-action, they should be removed from this nurturing program. Enjoy!
Figure 1:1
Recipients should be given the opportunity to register for the gated piece of content at every touch point. Different un-gated chapters, excerpts or related content will resonate with different prospects. Giving them the opportunity to provide their information to you at any point in the process—not just at the end— will increase your number of registrants.
Additional Options
For enhanced flavor, consider adding these additional steps to your recipe.
Depending on your organization’s sales process, prospects may need to take more calls-to-action to become sales qualified. If this is the case for you, once a prospect registers for your gated piece of content, they should be removed from the process and added to another lead nurturing process to further qualify them.
If you’d like to provide your team with additional qualifications, consider creating additional landing pages gating the content you are offering in your follow-up emails. This could be an online demo, a webinar or a whitepaper. With the right marketing automation system, your forms will pre-populate with the information you already have on file, and you can create fields to further qualify them—budget and timeline are examples of additional fields to add to your subsequent landing pages.
Create an email to engage your recipients and
interest them in the content you’re offering. Repeat 3 more times for each piece of content. Then create a fourth email offering your gated piece of content. This should be the last step of the nurturing process.
Write a follow-up email for downloading the
non-gated content you offered. The email should thank the recipient for their download and give them the opportunity to register to receive your gated piece of content. Create an additional follow-up email for recipients that register and download the gated piece of content. This email should thank them for registering and provide a new call-to-action that advances them in their buying process—additional resources about your organization, an online demo, or contact from a sales rep are some examples.
Timing
Since your goal is to get prospects to engage with your company by taking an initial call-to-action, you need to walk the fine line of not irritating your prospect but getting your name in front of them frequently enough for them to notice. Touches spaced 5–7 days apart are ideal.
Send follow-up emails immediately after a down-load of un-gated content. Wait 3-4 days after the recipient registers on your landing page to send a follow-up email with a new call-to-action.
3 4 5 1 1 2 2
Directions (continued)
CRAIG ROSENBERGVice President of Products and Services, Focus
The lead definition described in the recipe
is one of the most important exercises and must be done before you “cook”. The lead definition sets expectations with Sales on what you will deliver to them and therefore must be signed off by sales leadership. The lead definition assists not only creating the right type of list but will help you define personas and craft messaging and offers that work for that particular audience.
Also remember, different buyers have different tastes in the
“type” of content they consume. Not what’s in the content, but how it is presented (whitepaper, e-book, webinar, video, etc). When optimizing the program, don’t just test message, test content type as well.
Finally, always plan for what happens “after” the
down-load. Marketing program success isn’t always based on what happens during the campaign. For example, how and when is Sales following up, what do they say, etc. Figure 1:1 CliCk to see entire proCess
Directions
The secret to this recipe is your lead scoring model, which enables you to rank the quality of
leads based on how well they fit your ideal lead profile. Working with your sales team, identify key criteria (demographic and behavior) that denote a SQL. Do they have timeline, budget and authority? Have they taken a call-to-action that indicates interest in your product? Using the criteria, build a lead scoring model assigning a numeric value to the demographic and behavioral information you are able to capture with your marketing automa-tion soluautoma-tion. Agree with your sales team on what numeric value indicates a lead is a SQL. Every lead with a score below that value should be considered a non-qualified lead.
Using your marketing automation platform set up a two-track system. The lead scoring model
discussed in Step 1 will be the criteria used to assign leads to the appropriate track. Track 1 will be a process to manage SQLs. Track 2 is a process to nurture non-qualified sales leads.
Configure Track 1 as a simple process for leads equal to or above the SQL score. Set your marketing
automation platform to schedule a task for the sales rep to follow up with SQL leads. Next, set the system to send a sales-driven email follow-up to the prospect. The email should thank the prospect for their interest and notify them that a sales rep will be contacting them shortly. Track 1 is now complete. It is up to
3 2 1
Ingredients:
• 1 lead scoring model
• 1 sales-driven follow-up email • Robust marketing automation
• Tight CRM integration • 2 pieces of compelling
marketing content
• 1 cup of Sales and Marketing alignment
• 2 emails to deliver marketing content (sales or marketing
driven)
Optional:
• 1 stick of dynamic content • 1 landing page
Inbound Lead Qualification
with Sweet Sales Optimization
SUMMARy:Do you have plenty of inbound leads flowing in from your website? Are your SEO, PPC, and
thought leadership initiatives paying off in droves? If so, congratulations—you’ve solved one
of the number one challenges marketers face. However, filling the top of the funnel is only part of the
equation. To get the most out of your demand generation efforts, you need a process for handling all
those incoming leads. Use this tantalizing recipe to identify sales qualified leads (SQLs) and route them
to sales, while nurturing non-qualified leads to move them to the next phase in their buying process
and increase their sales-readiness.
Figure 2:1
Timing
For Track 1, the follow-up email should be sent immediately after the lead registers on a landing page. Depending on the nature of the inquiry on your website and your process, set a timeframe for your sales reps to follow up. If possible, it should not be more than 3 business days from the date the SQL registered on a landing page.
For Track 2, emails should fall about 5–7 business days apart. If no action is taken, leads should enter the long-term nurture and follow the corresponding timeline.
Additional Options
Once you’ve nailed steps 1–7, consider adding these steps to spice up your recipe.
Instead of delivering the same email content to all prospects, harness the power of dynamic content to deliver content that is more relevant to the recipient. For example, if the lead is in the Financial Services industry, configure the dynamic content to deliver content that would specifically address issues related to that industry.
For Track 2, consider gating one of your content pieces with a landing page. Pre-populate the infor-mation you have already captured from the prospect and ask an additional question to further qualify the prospect and enable your sales team to be more effective. For example, you could ask a prospect to identify their number one pain point related to your product.
the sales rep to continue the nurture process with scheduled live touches during the prospect’s buying cycle. To support them throughout the sales process, Sales can drop the lead into a sales-driven lead nurturing program (See Recipe 4 in this Cookbook) after they’ve made contact with the prospect and are actively working it.
To configure Track 2 identify two compelling pieces of thought leadership content that you
believe early stage non-SQL leads will find valu-able. Pieces that help prospects learn more about the problem they’re trying to solve and offer solutions for it are ideal.
Create two emails that correspond to the content you’ve chosen in Step 4. Depending on your sales
process, you can choose to either make these emails appear to be directly from a sales rep or position them as marketing-driven. If your email is delivered as a direct message from a sales rep, remember to keep the email simple and conversational—this is the beginning of the lead and sales rep’s relationship.
If the leads in Track 2 take the desired call-to-action, configure your lead nurturing process to increase their lead score. At that point, they will
become an SQL, be removed from Track 2 and sent to Track 1 for sales engagement. See Figure 2:1 for configuration.
For leads in Track 2 that do not become SQLs,
set your marketing automation system to send them into a long-term lead nurturing process (see Recipe 3 in this Cookbook) to continue the dialog with your company. 7 4 5 1 1 2 2 6
Directions (continued)
MICHAEL DAMPHOUSSE Founder/CEO, Green LeadsTo spice up your inbound lead recipe:
Personalize the experience: It’s very
important to blend human touch points into this lead nurturing process. A personal phone call to the right person that is free of sales hype is the best way to build relationships that lead to positive sales results. You can make their experience more personal based on your insights and their level of engagement.
Keep the courses moving: Buyers don’t want to be sold
too anymore—they want to move themselves through the buying process. However, that doesn’t mean that Marketing and Sales don’t play a critical role in moving them through the buying phases. Nurturing and education all work towards the same goal—to eventually engage the prospect in a conversation.
CliCk to see entire proCess
Directions
Identify five compelling pieces of thought leader-ship content that will help early stage prospects
identify the value of your product and/or offering. Make sure the content is posted online for easy access. Your corporate blog is an ideal location. Choose content pieces that aid in the progression of their buying cycle. Start with an offering geared toward helping them identify the business problem they’re trying to solve, and end with one that helps them choose the right solution. (NOTE: The content should not be gated—that is registration should not be required to access to it.)
Create five enticing emails with each one offering one of the pieces of content cited in Step 1.
Remember, keep the emails simple. They’re going to be delivered on behalf of a sales rep. Avoid marketing fluff and heavily designed templates. Personalize emails with mail merge fields and keep them conversational and succinct.
2 1
Ingredients:
• 5 compelling pieces of thought leadership (blog posts are
ideal)
• 5 enticing sales driven emails • Robust marketing automation
• Tight CRM integration • 1 cup of Sales and Marketing
alignment • Pinch of patience
Optional:
• 5 teaspoons of dynamic content • 1 serving of lead scoring
Extended Lead Nurturing
with Succulent Results
SUMMARy:This long-term lead nurturing process is a Manticore Technology family favorite. It harnesses
the power of your existing content library to nurture leads through automation. The beauty of
this recipe is that while it is marketing generated, the campaign is run out of Sales. Sales reps can add
and remove prospects from the campaign as needed. Done right, the automatically generated emails
appear to be emails directly from a sales rep. The result is a delicious, long-term process that keeps
your product top of mind as your leads identify their pain points and search for a solution. This recipe is
bound to be a sales team favorite!
Figure 3:1
BRIAN HANSFORD CEO, Zephyr 47
Refresh time-tested content recipes:
Freshen you popular, high-value content recipes with new ingredients. Try a dash of updated content, layout and formatting. Fantastic content recipes don’t always have to be built from scratch!
Try comfort food: The best content and campaigns are often
the simplest and easiest to consume. Try a short podcast or video clip that is easy yet satisfying.
Avoid too many chefs: Make sure you track the touch points
each prospect receives from Sales. Too many touches with too many spicy messages will overwhelm the palate. Your marketing automation system with tight CRM integration will ensure just the right balance to entice interest in another course of the meal.
Directions (continued)
This is a six-month lead nurturing process. If pros-pects make it to the end of the lead nurturing process without engaging with a sales rep, consider adding a few more steps to the process. It may take some prospects more than six months to take action. When they are ready, you want to ensure you’re the one in front of them.
Additional Options
If you’ve mastered steps 1-4, consider adding these enhancements to increase your effectiveness:
Use dynamic content to deliver more personal and relevant email content to the recipient. For example, if the prospect is in IT, configure the dynamic content to deliver content that would be important to an IT buyer.
Add lead scoring to the process so that Sales will be able to prioritize leads and follow-up with the highest qualified leads first.
Using your marketing automation platform, set up a process to deliver one email every 20-30 days. Configure your marketing automation system
to check to see if the prospect viewed the content you sent them. If they did, set up the system to schedule a task within your CRM for your sales rep to follow up with the prospect via phone. See Figure 3:1 for an example.
Measure how many leads convert from the lead nurturing process and report accordingly. Track
process statistics, such as which offerings get the most views, or when prospects seem most ready to engage with Sales. Over time you may start to see trends that enable you to revise and improve your process.
Timing
This process is designed for leads in an early phase of the buying process. They may still be trying to identify a solution to their pain point. They probably will not have timeline and budget for your product yet. Therefore, your touch points should be less frequent and extended over a longer period of time.
3 4 1 1 2 2 CliCk to see entire proCess
Directions
Develop this lead nurturing process with your sales
team. Since this is a sales-driven process, buy-in from Sales is critical. Marketing and Sales need to agree on the content offerings and the content of each email. Preparation time with your sales team will really payoff in the final results.
Identify 4 pieces of valuable content. This process
is designed for leads in the late phases of their buying processes. Therefore, the content should be around helping them make the right decision. Comparison charts, customer reviews of your product, customer success stories, and positive news articles are good content choices. Each piece of content should provide new information and add value preparing them for their next meeting with their sales rep.
Create 4 personalized emails. Because a
relation-ship has already been established between the lead and sales rep, it is imperative that the email appears to be a direct email from the sales rep. Use merge fields and dynamic content to tailor the email to the recipient. Keep the emails short and conversational providing un-gated access to the content you’re offering through a link or attachment.
Using your marketing automation platform, set up a lead nurturing process to deliver emails
to leads. Use decision trees to manage the flow of emails and determine the content of the following email. See Figure 4:1 for an example.
3
4 2
1
Ingredients:
• Leads in the sales pipeline • Marketing automation
platform
• Tight integration between your CRM and marketing automation platform • Strategic sales follow-up
• 4 pieces of brand-focused content • 4 personalized emails
Optional:
• 1 video testimonial • 1 available referenceSales-Driven Lead Nurturing
with a Buying Cycle Reduction Sauce
SUMMARy:This simple and quick recipe allows your sales team to keep in touch with their leads throughout
their sales cycles. With many sales reps managing hundreds of leads at any given time, auto-mation is critical to successfully communicating with them between one-on-one meetings. This recipe
yields a 2-week to 2-month lead nurturing process designed for late-phase buyers. Human touch points
are an important part of the process and should be frequent.
Figure 4:1
Directions (continued)
Additional Options
For the buyer with a discerning palette, consider adding the following:
Choose video testimonials from customers for a couple of your content offerings. Use dynamic content to select a video testimonial of a customer in the same industry as the buyer. This type of content has proven to be very effective with buyers in the late phases of their buying cycles.
If you have a customer reference available and willing to be a part of the nurture program, consider introducing them in one of the emails and providing contact information. This is a simple addition to the process and can be a very effective selling tool for your sales reps.
Activate your lead nurturing process and
configure it to be accessible to Sales through your CRM system. This gives Sales the ability to drop leads into the process on a one-off basis directly from their lead/contact record in the CRM.
Configure your marketing automation system
to notify the lead owner any time their lead takes a call-to-action in an email. The sales rep can either follow up immediately with a phone call or discuss the content viewed in their next meeting.
Timing
Depending on your sales cycle and frequency of human touch-points, this lead nurturing process can be set up to last anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.
Emails can be sent as frequently as twice a week or as infrequently as bi-weekly. Consult with your sales team on length and frequency. As long as you’re offering valuable, relevant content and the emails appear to be directly from the lead/contact owner, you should not be concerned with oversaturation.
6 5 1 1 2 2 TIBOR SHANTO Principal,
Renbor Sales Solutions Inc.
Give them a complete experience: Since these leads are in
late phase, make sure you offer up flavors that satisfy the deci-sion palate not just brand or product palates.
Timing is key: While working from a common recipe book,
it is important that Sales manage the timing of each of the 4 courses to ensure desired impact and outcome
Flexibility is the secret ingredient: Both chef (Marketing)
and waiter (Sales) must be prepared to respond to requests for special ingredients by the lead in order to ensure satisfaction.
Share your good reviews: Your menu should include opinions
of current customers who enjoyed the same dish.
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Directions
Create a landing page giving a brief description of
the lead nurturing process and a form to capture leads’ basic information. Keep your form as short as possible to ensure accurate information and maximize your opt-ins. (NOTE: At larger tradeshows, in which scanners are provided, this step can be skipped as the landing page in unnec-essary. A follow-up email to the attendee can confirm opt-in.)
Choose 3 pieces of existing content or create new content relevant to the tradeshow or event you’re
attending. Blog posts interviews or webinars featuring speakers at the conference or covering similar topics are ideal. Content should advance the lead in their buying process and offer a clear problem-to-solution path.
Using mail merge field and on-behalf of signa-ture functionality create 5 personalized emails.
Emails should be simple and appear to be a direct communication from the sales rep that owns the account. Basic email topics include: 1) thank you for visiting our booth and lead nurturing opt-in, 2) first offering, 3) second offering, 4) third offering, 5) reward notification and/or sales rep contact noti-fication. For maximum engagement, each email should have a cliffhanger alluding to content in the next email. 3 2 1
Ingredients:
• 1 landing page• Robust marketing automation • Integrated CRM platform
• Strategic Sales follow-up • 3 pieces of relevant content
• 5 personalized emails • 1 scheduled tradeshow
Optional:
• 1 cup of additional budget • Additional landing pages for
progressive profiling
• Enticing reward for leads that take the call-to-action on every step
Tantalizing Tradeshow Lead Follow-up
with a Revenue Demi-Glaze
SUMMARy:This recipe will set you apart from your competitors by continuing the business conversa-tion with your tradeshow leads after they leave your booth. At crowded tradeshows where
leads are meeting hundreds of people in a few short days, staying top of mind after the show is over
is the difference between success and failure. Marketing automation is critical to successful, ongoing
communication. Leads will ideally opt-in to lead nurturing while at your booth or receive an immediate
follow-up email inviting them to opt-in. Recipe should yield higher-quality tradeshow leads and a very
grateful sales team. Depending on the nature and size of the tradeshow, your preparation, timing and
ingredients may need adjusting.
Figure 5:1
JEFF ERRAMOUSPE
President, Manticore Technology
Cook with your recipient in mind: Since
you’ve had the opportunity to meet these prospects face-to-face, your recipe should reflect their tastes and preferences. The more you can personalize your follow-up, the more successful you’ll be with this recipe.
Create a
journey: A talented chef will use courses to trans-form a meal into a culinary journey. Rather than creating a nurturing program that merely enables you to stay in touch with your prospects, create one that moves your prospects through their buying phases—each touch point should build on the last.
Make your dish memorable: Remember, your prospects are
not just yours—they are also prospects for many other compa-nies who were at the tradeshow. Make your organization stand out by taking a creative follow-up approach, integrating the human touch into your nurture program and/or offering a reward for participating in the nurturing program.
Directions (continued)
Additional Options
For enhanced flavor, consider adding these additional steps to your recipe.
Many organizations offer a giveaway in exchange for attendees’ information. If you have the budget, consider enticing leads to complete the entire nurture track in exchange for an award or a chance to win an award. You do not want to make the reward so appealing that you attract unqualified leads, but it does give leads an incentive to follow your lead nurturing track versus a competitor.
If your sales team is inundated with inbound leads and you’d like to sift through leads and provide your team with additional qualifications, consider creating additional landing pages gating the content you are offering. With the right marketing automation system, your forms will pre-populate with the infor-mation you already have on file, and you can create fields to further qualify them—budget and timeline are examples of additional fields to add to your subsequent landing pages.
Using your marketing automation platform, setup a process to deliver emails to the recipient.
Based on the leads’ responses to your emails, schedule tasks in your sales team’s CRM system to follow-up with them accordingly. See Figure 5:1.
Establish criteria with your sales team to
deter-mine lead quality and compare leads that go through the lead nurturing process to those that don’t. Create a report for your Executive Board for continued buy-in and budget.
Timing
Your first email should be sent immediately after the tradeshow ends while your company is still top of mind.
The next 4 emails should follow 2 business days apart.
The final email should be sent immediately after the call-to-action is taken in email four.
Sales rep follow-up timing is crucial to this recipe. Tasks should call for immediate follow-up upon completion of the process.
4 5 1 1 2 3 4 2 CliCk to see entire proCess
Directions
Create an email that gives the recipient a brief
introduction to the customer success program—the nurturing process. Use this first email to set the stage. Let them know that they will be receiving a periodic email on best practices to help ensure that they get the most out of their investment. Additionally, offer a high-level best practices piece available for download.
Choose 5 additional pieces of best practices and/ or customer support content that you think would
be of value to new customers. Perhaps it’s a “getting started” piece followed by pieces that delve into different aspects of your product.
Using mail merge fields and on-behalf of signa-ture functionality, create 4 personalized emails.
Emails should be simple and appear to be a direct communication from either a) the customer support rep that owns the account or b) the executive that owns the customer support organization. Each email should drive the customer to content on your website or customer support portal. For maximum engagement, each email should allude to the content offering in the next email to create a cliff-hanger effect.
3
2 1
Ingredients:
• 5 pieces of best-practices and/ or customer support content • Robust marketing automation
• Integrated CRM platform • 5 personalized emails
Optional:
• Additional best practices content as needed to continue nurturing your customers
Classic Customer Education
with Retention Remoulade
SUMMARy:You’ve worked hard to win prospects’ business, now it’s critical to put a nurturing program
in place to educate your new customers on how to get the most value out of your product.
Your customers’ satisfaction—and in turn, your retention rate—is most likely affected by how success-
fully they’re able to use your product. Building a nurturing process that will deliver valuable, educa-tional material to customers on a periodic basis will enable them to be successful. As you become
more sophisticated, build separate tracks to match the knowledge level of the customer. This recipe is
healthy for your customers and your bottom line.
Figure 6:1
Directions (continued)
Additional Options
For enhanced flavor, consider adding these additional steps to your recipe.
Not all customers use your product in the same way. They have different needs and various levels of sophistication. To more effectively meet your customers’ needs, create different tracks in the customer nurturing program that deliver content that better meets the needs of the specific customer. Segment your customer list and insert the appropriate list into the targeted nurture campaign.
Continue to deliver content to customers beyond the 5 touches discussed in this nurture. Once the process is in place, adding new steps is simple and will help ensure you stay connected with your customers.
Using your marketing automation platform, set up a process to deliver emails to your customers. Establish criteria with your customer support team to determine if a customer may need
addi-tional follow up from their account owner to make sure they’re getting the most out of their investment.
Create a report in your marketing automation platform to track customer engagement with the
nurture. Your executive team will love the insight into how you’re proactively engaging with the customers to ensure their success.
Timing
Your first email should be sent within days of the customer signing your contract. This will set the bar in your customer’s mind that you plan to be proac-tive in helping them succeed.
The next 4 emails should follow at 2–4 week intervals.
Try to send out the emails at consistent intervals. The consistency and reliability could improve response rates and build your customers’ trust.
4 5 1 1 2 3 6 2 ARDATH ALBEE
CEO, Marketing Interactions
There are a few techniques that can make this recipe even tastier:
Go easy on the seasoning: Create your email message in a
peer-to-peer style, but don’t go overboard. Also make sure you don’t ruin the flavor with jargon, buzzwords or the empty calo-ries of company swagger.
Plating counts: Make sure the combination of the email
message and related content work together to make one key point. Keep things clean, neat and professional with a clear and compelling call to action.
Monitor the tasting: Make sure that Marketing is monitoring
response rates. If your customers aren’t engaging, you need to learn why not quickly and adjust your recipe.
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Directions
Start by reviewing your lead qualification and routing process. For lead qualification, you should
work with Sales to develop definitions for every stage of the buying cycle and determine what quali-fies a lead to move through it. Likewise with lead routing, Marketing and Sales also need to work together to define the routing rules that govern when a lead should be sent back to Marketing for further nurturing. These Business Rules define the allotted timeframe Sales has to qualify the leads and/or re-route them.
The next few steps have to do with outlining and defining your campaign. First, define your overall
messaging strategy. Keep in mind you’ve already made contact with these leads at least once if not multiple times, so don’t “reintroduce” yourself. Assume there is an interest (since they’ve already taken some action) and message appropriately.
Next outline or diagram the touch flow of the campaign. This will include a mix of both email
and telemarketing steps for when a lead responds or
3 2 1
Optional:
• Special offer topping
Revival Lead Nurturing Stuffed
with Sales’ Leftovers
SUMMARy:Inevitably when launching any new campaign, you’re bound to have an abundance of leads,
many of which end up being overlooked, ignored or for better lack of terms, “spoiled” via Sales.
Many studies state that as many as 80% of all leads do not receive the proper follow-up. However,
these leads still hold value and included in the right nurture campaign, will yield lucrative results. This
recipe is designed to re-engage inactive leads that have been discarded or left to spoil in the sales data-base. According to Marketing Sherpa, 79% of leads never become sales opportunities. However, an
additional study by Gartner states that 45% of leads will purchase within 12 months, providing a more
compelling case to nurture. In today’s challenging economy, organizations can’t afford to be wasteful,
and building a recycle nurture program specifically for leftover leads helps ensure that no opportunity
is left to “spoil in the fridge”. Done right, Sales won’t even realize they’re being served leftovers.
Ingredients:
• Inactive leads identified in the CRM database
• Lead qualification definitions • Lead routing rules
• Marketing automation platform • 1 cup of messaging strategy
• 1 offer map
• 1 scoop of activity history • 3 targeted emails
• 3 compelling pieces of content • 1 landing page
• Pinch of dynamic content
Figure 7:1
CARLOS HIDALGO CEO, The Annuitas Group
To make the most of this recipe ensure the following:
This is not a one “chef” recipe: The best nurturing will
be a product of Marketing and Sales working together. Add one part collaboration, one part listening and one part of Marketing understanding Sales has great insight, and you will have a great nurture recipe.
Define your ideal personas (or customer profile) in advance: Winging it on the measurements and ingredients
could ruin this recipe. Knowing those who are most likely to respond to your messages and conducting the proper segmen-tation will improve your success.
Seasoning will make your campaign: Utilize dynamic
content to engage in a one-to-one dialogue with your pros-pects. Provide them with a unique experience based on their actions, interests and buying stages.
Directions (continued)
Using your marketing automation platform, set up a nurturing process to deliver emails to leads. Use
decision trees to manage the flow of emails and deter-mine the content of the following email. Set up sales alerts to notify sales reps when one of their leads or accounts responds to a call-to-action. See Figure 7:1 for an example.
Timing
Your frequency of touches should allow the lead time to read and process the information. Weekly emails are optimal for this type of lead nurture.
Sales follow-up should be immediate for leads that either respond to an offer or make it to the end of the process.
Additional Options
To sweeten the dish:
Add an additional email with a special offer to entice the reader to engage with a sales rep again. It could be a migration special or something unrelated to your product. Remember, you have nothing to lose with these leads—this could be the extra push they need. doesn’t respond to an offer. For example, it’s often a
good idea to place a “check-in call” somewhere in the middle of the nurture campaign regardless of whether the lead has responded to see if Sales can engage.
Once you have your touch flow in place, you need to define your content/offer strategy. Again, you’ve
already talked to these people so a mix of offers may be appropriate. For example, by offering two pieces of content in the initial email, one that might appeal to someone in the later stage of the buying cycle, as well as one that appeals to someone in the awareness stage, you’ll be able to interpret the data to determine what stage they are in. The subsequent pieces of content should be based on which offer they respond to or their answers to questions on the landing page.
Create a landing page. Since these are leads are
already in your database, your form should pre-populate the existing information you have for them. Create an additional field to determine if they are using a competitor or still have not selected a vendor with your product.
Personalize your emails. If the lead or account is
owned by a sales rep, the emails should be “from” the sales rep. Use merge fields to tailor the email to the recipient. Keep the emails short and conversational. The first email should reference the date of their last activity and then invite them to view the new piece of content. Using dynamic content, tailor your second email content according to whether they are using a competitor or have yet to select a vendor. The last email can be an invitation to engage with a sales rep or opt-in to future lead nurtures.
4 5 1 1 2 7 6 CliCk to see entire proCess
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