Presentation by Paul Everett from the B2B Marketing Summit on 14 June 2012. Looking at experiences of the ROI of lead nurturing, what's involved in setting up a programme, what content/channels work best and some myths/tips for successful programmes. A favourite quote from the presentation: "I’ve yet to see a situation where a marketing automation budget wouldn’t have been better spent (or matched) on data, core CRM system or sales integration processes."

1. SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL LEAD
NURTURING
B2B Marketing Summit, 14 June 2012

2. Over the next 40 minutes…
Experiences based on programmes with companies including
Canon, Oracle (Best Lead Nurturing Campaign 2010) and O2
(Best Lead Nurturing Campaign 2011)
What’s involved What does it Some of the
in setting up a looks like from biggest potential
lead nurturing the audience’s pitfalls/myths of
programme? point of view? lead nurturing

4. Sales & marketing infrastructure challenges
• Poor client and prospect information
– Lack of marketing intelligence systems
– Lack of data management expertise
• No planned and consistent client and prospect communications strategy
– One-off campaigns that deliver an oversupply of high volume and low
quality leads (or none at all)
– Too many tactical demands on too little time
– Not enough advantage made of potential ‘inbound’ contacts (e.g.
website visitors, referrals, social media respondents)
• Sales prospecting resource is variable
– Driven by bid priorities
– No time to keep marketing ‘leads’ warm
– Potential opportunities not converted

5. SETTING UP LEAD NURTURING
PROGRAMMES

6. The ROI case
Marketing Investment Marketing Investment Marketing Investment
£580k £250k £600k
Generated: Generated:
March 2011 to date Weighted pipe - £5.37m Weighted pipe -
Unweighted pipe 68 face-to-face £12m
£55m meetings Unweighted pipe -
£40m
Unweighted ROMI Weighted ROMI Weighted ROMI
94 times investment 20 times investment 19 times investment

7. Building the ROI model
• Tracking conversion rates
through the funnel
• Factoring in profitability to
see true ROI (and set a target
cost per lead)
• Sense-checking that market
size will support the target
results

8. Individual contacts converting to leads over time
Of the sales qualified leads generated from lead nurturing programmes, how long had the
contacts been in the programme?

9. ROI illustration of lead nurturing vs One-off campaigns
Sales Average size of deal
Number of Cost over the Average cost Number of
conversion (1 Cost per sale (20% uplift with Value of sales ROI
leads year per lead sales
in x leads) nurturing)
One-off
55 £126,000 £2,291 6 9 £13,745.45 £400,000 £3,666,667 2910%
campaigning
Lead nurturing 100 £208,000 £2,080 4 25 £8,320 £480,000 £12,000,000 5769%
• Plus, large elements of a nurturing programme can be set up once to work for
ongoing inbound contacts (marketing as an investment not a cost!)

10. Content-led approach & nurturing
• Chordiant customer experience management: signed Vodafone as a client and attributed
£32m pipeline in EMEA to a 12 month programme
• Research and benchmarking tool promoted via LinkedIn, Google, Wikipedia, blog sharing,
employee social media advocates and direct outbound communications
• 90 ‘enquiries’ per month converting to 180 sales leads over 12 months

11. Canon Prospect Engagement

12. Planning methodology
Discovery: Sales alignment Strategy: Data audit
Sales objectives and business targets Review current data strategy and coverage
Marketing objectives and responsibilities Gap analysis against full potential prospect universe
Handover points and process (in both directions) Define strategy for augmenting/optimising data
Discovery: Proposition insights Implementation: Process design
Market and proposition maturity Inbound contact capture
Buying process stages Outbound nurturing delivery and website integration
Buying knowledge/content requirements at each stage Lead qualification and handover to sales (and back)
Discovery: Audience definition Implementation: Campaign design
Segmentation (by sector/size/customer/prospect...) Select inbound channels
Functions comprising decision-making unit Design first nurture flows and website use
Typical attitudes/expections from supplier Define how personalisation/segmentation will be used
Discovery: Audience access research Implementation: Team & Governance
Channel preferences Internal team requirements
Social Media usage Integration with other activities
3rd party and influencer knowledge sources Reporting requirements specified
Strategy: Content plan Implementation: System design
Existing content audit - what is suitable? Is there a gap between existing and required systems?
Plan headline content hooksand message hierarchy Review potential solutions to support the plan
Align to buying process and promote next steps Implement selected solution
Design creative execution concepts

13. MYTHS & LEGENDS OF LEAD
NURTURING

14. Marketing Automation
I’ve yet to see a situation where a marketing automation budget
wouldn’t have been better spent (or matched) on data, core
CRM system or sales integration processes
Nirvana:
Nurturing and
Automation
Reality:
Targets, Data, Content,
Propositions, Systems...

15. Some misconceptions...
• That it’s anything different from good prospect marketing
– Same content, same calls to action, same plan
– It is a useful way to encourage thinking about long-term
journeys
• That the telephone is a channel to save until the end
– Teleservice not telemarketing – the mentality is critical
– Focused on the right prospects (by demographics or
behaviour)
– Makes scoring a lot less relevant
• That scoring or BANT criteria are everything
– Not necessarily what sales really need
• Content aligned to the buying cycle
– Can’t assume we know everything they’re doing

16. Varying types of content...

17. The best marketing doesn’t always look like marketing
And the best content can come from Sales

18. Or it could look a lot like marketing…
• UK (19% conversion
rate), Spain (24%
conversion rate) and
Portugal (33%
conversion rate)
• A success rate of
meetings with almost
1 in 2 organisations
targeted

19. The power of compelling content: O2 Business readiness
“It’s rather
refreshing to see
a big tech
company
actually do this
kind of thing
rather than just
talk about it.”

20. Taking into account the rise of digital interaction, do
you value the following forms of traditional
communication more, less or the same as in the past?
Less Than You Have Done The Same As You Have Done More Than You Have Done
60
49 50
50
45 44
43 43
40 38
35
33 33
31 30
30
22 22 23
19 20 20
20
10
0
Networking at eventsto face meetings with suppliers business activity (E.g. Dinners, hospitality, team building) speakers at conferences and semin
Face “Social”
Telephone conversations Innovatively presented physical material from suppliers
Hearing from

21. Tactical tip: lead generation in the summer
• It’s working in the UK…
• …can report back on the Nordics next year!

22. Closing thoughts
• Tom UpfoldTM ‘Natural’ calls to action
– Selling the benefits of the next step rather than the end proposition
– ‘Why should I give up my time to meet you?’
– Capture their interest first, then qualify them (not vice-versa)
• Aligned with Sales, not necessarily just to Sales
– Not a black and white handover: 90:10 => 10:90
– Find out what they’re bonused on
– If you can’t find out, maybe don’t try nurturing!
– Most important alignment is day-to-day (and lead follow-up)
• Plan Year 2 from Day 1
– How we will prove success? (don’t start without it)
– What else will we want technology to do?
– What will we do when data’s a year out of date?
• Holistic, real-time…
– Holistic: look at company level, not just contact level (who else do we know that we should be targeting?)
– Real-time: monitoring starters/leavers or rapid response (aligned with PR)
– Holistic & real-time: all channels need to work together – the audience doesn’t see channels, they see
journeys

23. THANK YOU