Lead Nurturing Best Practices in Tough Times

Why Marketing Must Nurture Leads for Maximum Sales Success Loren McDonald VP, Industry Relations Silverpop January 13, 2009

Speaker/Agenda
Agenda
Timing is Now for Lead Nurturing
Scoring & Routing
Lead Nurturing
Q & A
Loren McDonald
VP, Industry Relations
Silverpop

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

From Too Many “Leads” … to Not Enough?

Recession: The Question is For How Long?

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

What Does This Mean? – Opportunities for B2B Marketers
Automate marketing processes
Optimize campaigns
Focus on:
Nurturing the “A” and “B” lead pool
Cross-selling/Up-selling existing customers
Focus measurement on outputs:
Revenue
# Sales-ready leads
Cost per win/Cost per sales-ready lead
Etc.

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

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

Keys to Maximizing the Sales Lead Process
Common definition of a “lead”
Scoring leads – assigning priorities
Timely lead routing and follow up by sales
Automating the lead nurturing process
Measuring marketing effectiveness

What is a Lead?
White Paper Download
Tradeshow Attendee
Webinar Attendee
Web Site Inquiry
Etc.
Has B udget allotted
Has A uthority to purchase
Has a N eed that we solve
Has defined purchase T imeframe
Agreed upon Lead Qualification Definition Suspect, Prospect or Lead?

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 1 2 3 Route to Inside Sales 2 Lead Definition Sales Ready Now High Score Unqualified Low Score

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

Lead Scoring- Implicit Data
Scores Activity
Recency and frequency scores with automated discounts
Apply points for important interactions indicative of interest

Using lead scoring, map communications to prospect’s buying cycle with agreed-upon action plans
Interaction Create Interest- Whitepaper Edu-sell communications- Case Studies Purchase and Validate- Free Trial, Discount Offers 1 3-X X+ Consider Solutions- Webinars & Demo 2 Lead Scoring - Now What? Search for Solutions Evaluate Solutions Recognize Need Justify Solution Purchase Evaluate Decision

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 Communication Effectiveness % Reaction Time In Days 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 20% 40% 60% 80% Slow reaction time, decreases response effectiveness Florida Lead East Sales Rep Nebraska Lead Central Sales Rep California Lead West Sales Rep

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

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

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 #1 Intro to program Direct Mail #1 Intro to program Email #2 Reminder Direct Mail #2 Reminder Email #3 Reminder 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

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.

Drip Campaign Contents Direct Mail Content

Drip Campaign Contents Campaign Microsite Call to action is to enroll in mandatory program.

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”

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

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

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

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

Stay Involved
Avoid lead waste
Have processes in place ready to fold a lead back into the nurturing cycle if necessary

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!

Q & A
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Contact:
Loren McDonald
[email_address]
www.silverpop.com www.vtrenz.com

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Lead Nurturing Best Practices in Tough Times

by Silverpop on Jan 14, 2009

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