A Kuno Creative ebook LEAN DIGITAL MARKETING

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1 A Kuno Creative ebook LEAN DIGITAL MARKETING

2 Lean Digital Marketing Lean processes involve continuous improvement, or kaizen, to operate more efficiently and to instill a sense of ownership by all of the process stakeholders. Traditionally, we think of manufacturing as the primary beneficiary of lean, but any process can be improved, and marketing is no exception. In this brief, we will take a look at the evolution of marketing to the present day and identify component processes that can be continuously improved. We will suggest strategies and tools for implementing kaizen in digital marketing and for assessing results. Kai = change Marketing has earned a bad reputation over the past half-century, a reputation for excessive cost without direct, measurable benefits. During the pre-internet years, the challenge was reaching as many households and businesses as possible, regardless of fit or relevance. The theory was that at least some percentage of advertising would get through, and some fraction of the recipients would express an interest in our products and services and pick up the phone. If not, we would instruct our armies of telemarketers to call everyone on a rented list at all hours of the day or night and hope for forgiveness. As for the bill for mass advertising and telemarketing, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars each year with low success rates and effectively poisoned the well for future sales. zen = good Enter the Digital Age, and what have we learned? We ve learned how to carry on our worst marketing practices and adapt them to new tools , paid search ads, mobile and social media advertising. The mantra continues to be, Get in front of them, and they will come. Unfortunately for most marketers, consumers now reject invasive marketing tactics of all kinds and have become adept at blocking unwanted and online advertising. In recent years, however, a new style of marketing has emerged that discards these outbound tactics in favor of earned media and relationship building online. The new approach, called inbound marketing, focuses on attracting rather than reaching buyers and nurturing them with interesting, helpful content. Many studies have shown that inbound marketing has become far more effective than traditional outbound methods as consumers continue to reject the old ways. 1

3 What is Inbound Marketing? Inbound Marketing seeks to attract likely buyers by publishing free content that is easy to consume online and that fulfills a need or desire. In the B2B world, we publish helpful how-to s, industry updates and educational materials that are relevant to people in our target markets to the online channels they favor, such as blogs and social networks. B2C marketers may offer something more tangible, like discounts or free trials for a limited time, and they may seek a broader reach, but the approach is the same. In either case, content or offers are not pushed out to a mass . Instead, they are posted on blogs, websites and social networks as part of a daily flow of useful and creative content that interests consumers. Search engines like Google favor this type of content now and are more likely to include it in searches for relevant keywords and phrases by our likely customers. Inbound Marketing is still marketing; however, the primary objective is to capture qualified sales leads and pass them on to your sales team. Research shows that more than 80 percent of captured leads are lost as sales opportunities because they are not yet ready to buy or are ignored, so they move on to other resources to solve their problems..1 To solve these problems, digital marketers use lead nurturing campaigns to stay in touch and nurture leads with additional, helpful content that gradually convinces leads your product or service is the right solution for their needs. Inbound Marketing fills the top of the sales funnel with potential buyers attracted to your website by free content that helps them solve their problems or pain points. Once a visitor signs up to download or view your top-of-the-funnel content, they become a marketing lead. As leads enter the top of your funnel, they begin to sort themselves out into three categories. 25 percent are fully qualified sales leads that are ready for a call by your sales team. It s up to the marketing team to make sure these leads get passed immediately to the sales team with as much information as possible. Another 25 percent are unqualified and should never be contacted by sales. These people include competitors, students, tire kickers and companies that don t fit your buyer profile economically or strategically. We need to find a way to identify these leads at an early stage and redirect them off your sales radar screen. 25% Fully Qualified Leads 25% Unqualified Leads 2

4 cont. What is Inbound Marketing? That leaves a full 50 percent that are in limbo. You don t know whether they are interested or qualified for your sales process. It s our job to help these leads find their way to the right status and pass them along to the appropriate channel, either moving down the funnel to the sales team or just staying in touch until they are closer to a decision point. Modern marketing automation software, such as HubSpot, Marketo and Eloqua, enables capturing top-funnel leads via landing pages and placing them automatically into lead nurturing campaigns for further development. 50% of Your Leads are in Limbo Lead nurturing campaigns are step-by-step automated workflows that send out periodic s to each lead with more content that is relevant to their needs (based on the content they have already downloaded), providing a pathway for continued communication and nurturing. In each , we provide additional opportunities to learn more about our products and solutions and gradually move them closer to a sale. This low friction approach can increase lead conversion rates as much as 32 percent compared to lead generation without lead nurturing..2 Companies that automate lead management processes can increase revenue by at least 10% within 6-9 months, despite the uncertain economy

5 What are the Benefits of Inbound Marketing & Lead Nurturing? Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing 3 Customer acquisition reported through 57% 66% 48% 42% of buyers indicate that consistent and relevant communication provided by both sales and marketing organizations is a key influence in choosing a solution provider 4 Nurtured leads have a Nurtured leads have a 23% 9% 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that shorter sales cycle higher average deal size responds first to an inquiry 4

6 What are the Costs of Inbound Marketing & Lead Nurturing? First, let s define what goes into an effective inbound marketing and lead nurturing program. In traditional outbound marketing, we are spending a lot on advertising and distribution to a mass audience. In inbound marketing, we are creating content and distributing it through a variety of online channels including websites, blogs, social networks, industry forums, and paid search. We are creating landing pages and call-to-action graphics to attract and convert leads. We are analyzing data collected via marketing automation systems and making recommendations for new content and new strategies. In effect, we are replacing the spending on advertising and media with creative talent and digital natives who know how to create content, share it online and operate marketing software. A typical team of Inbound Marketing & Lead Nurturing experts might look like this: Senior Marketing Strategist: Senior Consultant: Content Marketing Manager: Content Creation Team: Senior Graphic Designer: Enterprise Marketing Data Analyst: Web Designer/Developer: experienced marketer with both digital and non-digital experience and deep knowledge of the industry sets the tone and high level strategy knows the digital side as an expert with superior communication skills handles the daily planning, execution and contact with stakeholders journalism background with an emphasis on marketing handles all of the content editing and management 1-5 copywriters creating blogs, white papers, ebooks, videos, webinars, social media updates experienced in corporate marketing responsible for all digital content design responsible for operating and analyzing all data captured and updated by marketing automation system(s) adept at rapidly updating websites, blogs, social network profiles, creating s, optimizing for SEO 5

7 Additional Costs: Demand Generation Services Search Engine Optimization Professional Video PPC (paid search) and external costs for marketing and press releases Search engine optimization on website pages, blogs, videos, downloads, social profiles, and press releases Professional video production costs Bottom Line Digital Marketing, with an emphasis on inbound marketing and lead nurturing, requires a serious investment in talent and experience that can be as expensive in the long run as traditional outbound marketing. Positive ROI can take many months to achieve, depending on the size of your company, current brand visibility and the competitiveness of your marketplace, but the investment is worthwhile for several important reasons: You can actually measure ROI, something that is notoriously difficult with traditional outbound marketing methods Inbound marketing is sustainable over time and works by building a loyal following of interested leads. Outbound marketing does not Inbound marketing and lead nurturing have been shown to be highly effective in reducing customer acquisition costs and churn and by increasing customer lifetime value 8 By creating targeted content at the top of the sales funnel, there is a higher probability that your leads will become qualified earlier in the process By lead nurturing, you have a higher probability of reaching qualified leads before they leave your sales funnel By lead nurturing you have a higher probability of converting leads into customers by reaching them with the right message at the right time Inbound marketing and lead nurturing deliver more qualified sales leads to your sales team, requiring less time following unqualified leads and prospecting for new leads Inbound marketing and lead nurturing are lean processes compared to traditional outbound marketing tactics because the investment in talent pays dividends going forward and because fewer qualified sales leads are lost due to premature direct contact or inattention. 6

8 Applying Lean Principles to Inbound Marketing & Lead Nurturing The classic kaizen concept of Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) is perfectly applicable to digital marketing. Processes within each component of Digital Marketing can be broken down into individual PDCA loops, worked on by a kaizen team, and improved on a continuing basis. Here are some examples of how this can work at several levels. PLAN DO CHECK ADJUST EXAMPLE 1 Lead Nurturing Campaign 3D Dental Imaging Concept: A dental equipment manufacturer wants to attract new customers for its 3D imaging systems. It wants to target dentists who have never used any form of dental imaging or who have used 2D imaging and convince them to contact the manufacturer for a demonstration of 3D. We will nurture them slowly with general education about the benefits of 3D to both their practice and to their patients. In a sequence of lead nurturing s, we will gradually introduce them to the product line, testimonials, demonstration videos and a calculator to show the economic benefits. At each stage, we will offer them something new and helpful but also give them an opportunity to immediately reach out to a sales person. PLAN Identify and describe customer persona(s) through discussions with sales team and interviews with current customers. Identify and create content for each persona and each part of the sales funnel (top, middle and bottom); create a content map. Create a digital asset list and identify existing content that can be repurposed or updated to fill the content map; identify content that will need to be created from scratch. 7

9 DO CHECK ADJUST Create an initial offer campaign, usually an to a targeted list of opted-in subscribers or a PPC campaign that invites dentists to download the content identified as a top-of-the-funnel offer. Create several follow-up s with invitations to download or view each of the sequential content pieces in your content map for the campaign. These should be spaced at intervals to cover the normal sales cycle. For example four s (one per week) to cover a one-month sales cycle. Create landing pages to capture the leads from each Lead Nurturing . A/B split test the landing pages to find the highest conversion rates. Create call-to-action graphics to also capture leads from website pages, blogs and social networks. A/B split test the calls to action to find the highest conversion rates. Launch the campaign and begin to monitor results. Monitor website traffic, inbound leads, form conversions on the landing pages, clicks from s, individual landing page conversion rates, A/B tests and any other KPI identified in the planning stages. Create monthly score cards that track KPI s and compare the measured results to projected numbers; highlight wins and losses and assess overall trends. Identify campaigns that are and are not performing well versus expectations. Pinpoint components of each campaign s, landing pages, calls-to-action and the content itself to find good and bad performers. Analyze the root cause of each poorly performing component. For example, was the step from one lead nurturing to the next too aggressive in terms of branding and sales pitch? Adjust the campaign with revised content and/or workflow to improve results and double down on messages and content that are performing well. This is done on an ongoing basis, nominally every two weeks. 8

10 Impact on Lean: By executing a marketing lead nurturing campaign in a structured, repeatable way, we can make the entire process more efficient and amenable to further analysis for purposes of continuous improvement. By monitoring results via score cards and by holding periodic kaizens, we can grow sales revenues while achieving positive ROI for our marketing budget. EXAMPLE 2 Lead Nurturing Campaign Twisted Files Concept: A second dental equipment manufacturer wants to promote its patented line of advanced shaping files to endodontists. We start by creating a new white paper, Recent Advances in Rotary Instrumentation in Endodontics. We know from feedback from the sales and marketing team that endodontists want to stay on top of the latest trends, so this topic is likely to be popular. At the top of the sales funnel, we refrain from promoting the specific brand and focus instead on an overview of technology and trends. Converted leads are added to a Lead Nurturing campaign that offers a second white paper, Patient Referred Endodontics. Each time we introduce a new download, we ask for additional information that augments the information we have previously gathered, and so further qualifies the lead for a sale. Further down the funnel, we invite them to participate in continuing education courses and videos content that requires more of a commitment in time and further introduces them to the product and its benefits. PLAN DO CHECK ADJUST The Plan-Do-Check-Adjust steps are essentially the same from campaign to campaign; only the content and timing are different. Impact on Lean: By creating a reproducible process for lead nurturing, we can execute these campaigns quickly and efficiently, with less wasted time on process steps and faster time-to-market. If there are problems encountered with any of the steps in the process, we can hold a kaizen meeting with the sales and marketing teams to find their root causes and implement creative ways to solve them. We are continuously improving each campaign using the Check and Adjust process steps.

11 Lean Digital Marketing Tools Inbound Marketing Software The essential components of inbound marketing are blogging, website updates, social media updates, SEO, paid search (PPC), marketing, landing pages, calls to action and marketing analytics. A few years ago, each of these tasks had to be performed using a separate piece of software, requiring expertise in each application and knowledge of how to import, export and maintain data between them for analysis. Now there are a few integrated inbound marketing platforms that combine all of these tasks into one easy-to-use dashboard. Available platforms include HubSpot, Optify and Spectate. We recommend HubSpot as the inbound marketing platform of choice due to its user-friendly interface and robust treatment of marketing data analytics. Impact on Lean: By using a state-of-the-art inbound marketing software platform, your team can avoid wasting time pulling together data from diverse applications and formulating reports for analyzing and adjusting inbound marketing strategy and campaigns. Visualizing data from diverse marketing channels, segmented by campaign and content, allows your marketing team to understand and reach more accurate conclusions faster than would otherwise be possible. 10

12 cont. Lean Digital Marketing Tools Marketing Automation Software & CRM In recent years, marketing automation software platforms have been developed to help companies build lead generation campaigns (usually by ), capture leads and place them in appropriate lead nurturing campaigns to move them down the sales funnel as they consume top, middle and bottom funnel content. These platforms usually do not include any form of content creation, such as blogging or social media they are geared specifically toward demand generation campaigns tied to lead nurturing s. Market leaders in this space include Eloqua, Infusionsoft, HubSpot and Marketo. Of these, only HubSpot includes inbound marketing, content marketing, lead generation and lead nurturing capabilities under a single integrated application. The better known marketing automation packages have tight integration with industry leading customer relationship management systems, such as Salesforce.com. This enables closed loop marketing, i.e. closing the information gap between sales and marketing teams and automating the process of handing off leads to sales reps with critical information to assist in closing more sales. Impact on Lean: Marketing automation allows you to focus on lead generation and lead nurturing content while automating many of the processes involved with communicating with leads. Automated lead nurturing campaigns with high-quality content, appropriately mapped to buyer personas and buy-cycle stages, have been shown to deliver more qualified sales leads to sales teams when the buyers are ready. Lead nurturing can make your entire sales and marketing process more efficient and lean by identifying sales opportunities when they are ready to buy. With CRM integration, your marketing and sales teams can work together more effectively, and sales reps have the information they need to close more sales. 11

13 Summary In days gone by, marketing was more of an art than a science. We relied on copious amounts of money to leverage mass media in order to reach more people. Marketing has evolved as consumers have learned how to reject unwanted spam and invasive advertising. Modern digital marketing focuses on earned media and voluntary participation in blogs and social media. By opting in to your content streams, marketing leads are more willing to read more and learn more about your solutions to their problems. Companies that embrace inbound marketing and lead nurturing benefit from the lean nature of these marketing processes and set themselves on a course for continuous improvement for the long haul. Sources: 1 MECLABS asks: Are you losing 95% of your leads? 2 Lead Nurturing: Pilot campaign increases conversion 32.6% with automated s 3 The Benefits of Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC] 4 Marketing Misalignment [WEBINAR] 5 Hard Data to Justify Your Marketing Automation Investment 6 9 Benefits of Lead Nurturing 7 Finding, Creating and Managing Leads 8 HubSpot s Best Practices for Managing SaaS Inside Sales American Way, Suite 2A, Avon, OH Phone: (440) Toll-free: (800)