This time of year it's critical to evaluate your legitimate integrated marketing strategies, especially since the client/ad agency dynamic is being scrutinized like never before.
Customer Relationship Marketing section.1
Back in 1997 when the demand generation business was just beginning I was happy if someone on the Web would correctly complete my form and send it back to me. As a marketer a completed form equaled one new lead.
At the time, I was hired to generate leads online for this new dot com. I would carefully work to build programs that would comb the Internet for particular names and job titles. Once a day I would look at what my spider program had harvested to see what I had.
If I was lucky enough to have found an impressive name or title I would then send them out a well crafted e-mail introducing the company and asking them, to please return to me their contact information.
If the name was affiliated with a particular company or sported an impressive title, I thought I had struck gold for the company. Unfortunately too often my excitement was short lived because once this prized lead was given over to the sales department, who knew if it would actually amount to anything.
Here is where the problem lies, the theory of the sales people was that a lead was "someone ready to buy." My personal theory on all of our marketing was a lead was "someone who, with a little tender care might buy. The sales department only wanted sales leads, I was developing marketing leads. So how could I bridge the gap? I had to take on the duty of properly developing a lead nurturing program.
So I developed the following guidelines. We all can build better relationships with our prospects that will stand a much better chance of converting them into buyer's. After all, you want to build a more assured and engaged customer base in 2007 and beyond:
Step One: Understand where they are in the process
That is to say, every
prospect or customer you will encounter is at some
point of the customer purchasing funnel. To start
we will identify and become familiar with the different
stages within the funnel: Awareness, Consideration,
Preference, Purchase, and Loyalty. The marketer's
objective is to develop an environment of lead nurturing
that lines up with this funnel and encourages a buying
cycle.
Each organization will be slightly different. Working with a sales department or candidly with customers is a great way to find out with no delusions what exactly that company looks like from the consumer's point of view. It often is a very eye opening experience. Typically this can mean a series of emails, letters, articles, buying tools and even webcasts or podcasts timed across the sales cycle.
More often than not your target prospect will not be the sole decision maker, often they will need to sell the idea to associates or family members, give them the right tools and ammunition. Seduce and motivate with prime information that will aid them in addressing and overcoming their issues in time.
For example, you may want to deliver a category sales message to a woodworker for a "table saw", giving them reason to consider a space saving model over a conventional model. You could phrase the tagline something like "Professional quality table saw which takes up 60% less space in your home cabinet shop." Later, when the prospect shows up at a review site, you could serve up a message that indicates customer satisfaction among woodworkers. When he starts pricing out models, it will be time to offer up a "discount for first-time buyers" message.
By identifying your prospects motivations, internal obstacles and their place in the funnel. It becomes much easier to move them forward toward a positive purchase decision.
Step Two: Develop and stick to a nurturing plan
I have personally found that some clients often go to market without as much as a single nurturing plan. They actually believe if they build and deploy their ad there will be an immediate rush of customers to their door. First, it's common knowledge that it takes eight to nine impressions for prospects to "perceive" who you are and what you do.
Your marketing approach must have an enduring quality combined with an integrated marketing approach. It doesn't matter whether you're a little guy or a major player, this is where you can make a real difference.
The real secret is to think long term an don't fall victim to the customary traps. Entering your so-called warm lead into the dark abyss of sales and call-back silos, it's a pretty safe bet that they will lose the personal connection and be lost to the process.
I find that the best practice approach for a nurturing plan requires reoccurring targeted outreach, making every effort to ensure that the prospect continues to see a different side of you on each encounter. Don't just e-mail them your latest offering and not have a follow-up plan.
Always keep in mind what comes next. What message do you want them to have next or what do you want them to think about after they have received and read your latest offer? If it's a particularly important prospect, I will often hand write a letter or card. I may even do a little custom digital printing to address a few concerns or motivations.
After they get their second e-mail, keep your focus on what you want them to be thinking about at the next point of the process. It can sometimes be a slow process. But remember, even if you must for some reason compress the sales cycle remember there is no shortcut through the sales funnel.
Making it all work for you
I find a best practice policy for creating a nurturing application is to have in mind that these campaigns should be considered as a long-term project. Also keep in mind you're not alone, there's lots of marketing wizards out there.
Almost all of us are going after a pretty tight market, and our poor prospects are being bombarded by the same competition time and time again. The secret is to have a superior plan -- and with that you'll stand a much better chance of landing that Big Deal.
You might even be able to bring together Sales and Marketing to operate as one team. And in my opinion that alone will make all the difference in the world when it comes to succeeding.
