Shrink Buy Cycles With Lead Nurturing & Contagious Content. Use Twitter Hashtag #LLwebinar

Transcription

1 Shrink Buy Cycles With Lead Nurturing & Contagious Content Use Twitter Hashtag #LLwebinar

2 Presenters Lisa Cramer President & Co-founder, Leadlife Solutions Recognized in the top ten of SLMA s 50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management Professionals (2009 and 2010) Ardath Albee B2B Marketing Strategist CEO of Marketing Interactions, Inc. Author of emarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

3 Webinar Agenda Lead Nurturing What is it Why you need it Benefits Content for Effective Lead Nurturing Current Practices A Better Approach Contagious Content Checklist

4 Lead Nurturing

5 Current Marketing to Sales Process Spreadsheets / CRM Database Website Google Banner Ads Events Existing Lists Social Media Generate & Qualify Leads??

6 Case for Lead Management "An estimated 70-90% of leads generated by marketing are never followed-up by sales." - Marketing Sherpa If only 2% to 10% of leads are converting to closed sales, that means 90 to 98% of the leads are leaking out of the funnel offering plenty room for performance improvements." - Jim Lenskold, Lenskold Group Companies that automate lead management processes can increase revenue by at least 10% within 6-9 months, despite the uncertain economy. - Gartner

7 What is Lead Management? , Adwords, Banners, Webinars, Offline Events Lead management software allows marketers to automatically track, score, prioritize and nurture leads. You won t find a lead management system in your current CRM system. This software integrates into your existing CRM system. Why is a lead management system important? Because the Internet has changed the buy and sell cycle Marketing needs to reach further into the pipeline Sales needs to sell Marketing Nurture Inquiries/Suspects Conversions Sales Ready Leads Qualified Opportunities Closed Sales Sales Nurture Sales

8 What is Lead Nurturing? Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships with prospects that are not yet ready to speak with sales. Know your goal sales ready lead Send messages based on a prospect s behavior, title, industry, what they recently downloaded, etc. Your content should be designed to spark your prospect s interest and leave them wanting to learn more Speak their language Map to buying cycle What the Prospect Needs Your Thought Leadership Content Engagement

9 Lead Nurturing Process Develop a plan. Outline an effective lead nurturing process per target /campaign Example: Day 1: Thank you for downloading a whitepaper Day 10: recommending article/whitepaper of related interest Day 20: Send another about area of interest linking to landing page Day 30: Send an invite to webinar Next series of touches -Dependent on registration and attendance of webinar Day 40: If attended webinar, phone call follow up Day 50: a recent customer win case study Rule based on sales ready definition sends lead to sales

10 Bottom Line Results/benefits LeadLife customers have found: Increase in qualified leads by 78% Decrease in sales cycle from months to weeks Increase first call contact success rate by 85% Decrease in cost of sales by 10% Improved conversion rates up to 3x 60 day ROI

11 Content for Effective Lead Nurturing

12 Marketing Goals Out of Sync

13 What Marketers Think

14 Too Much Information

15 How Your Prospects Feel

16 Content is Marketing Currency Immediate Relevance Recognizable Value Payment with Attention Payment with Action Buyer Perception Buyer Perception Buyer Response Buyer Response Marketing Content Vendor Currency Engagement Level Buyer Currency 2011 Marketing Interactions, Inc.

17 Campaigns vs. Lead Nurturing One End-to-End Lead Nurturing Process Awareness Consideration Purchase Theme #1 Theme #2 Traditional Theme #3 Campaigns 2011 Marketing Interactions, Inc.

18 Answer Buyers Questions Status Quo Why should I care? What will happen if I do nothing? Priority Okay I get it. What else do I need to know? How are others resolving this issue? Research What are best practices? What kind of expertise is needed?

19 Simulate Conversations Your prospect may ask a question about X. Your response prompts them to say, Yes, but how does X apply to Y? You answer them and then they may throw an obstacle up, such as Oh, but I can t do that because To which you say, Sure you can, here s how And they re engaged again and say, So tell me how this would affect Z. You say, Here, let me show you.

20 Align Goals with Offers & Metrics Goal: Acquaint the target audience with our solutions and expertise by showing them we understand their challenges and objectives. Metrics: Clicks and page views Time spent on page Continuous interactions > next steps taken Content Offers: 3 rd Party Expertise white papers & research What s wrong with this picture?

21 Goal: Align Goals with Offers & Metrics Acquaint the target audience with our solutions and expertise by showing them we understand their challenges and objectives. Metrics: Clicks and page views Time spent A Better Approach Continuous interactions > next steps taken Content Offers: Series of articles that answer buyers questions Education, expertise and evidence content to support our assertions based on their specific needs. Supported by 3 rd party white papers and research.

22 Think About the Words Courtesy of We Make Clouds By Mike Farah & J. Longo

23 Write About the Audience YOU Role Title Industry Consider transfer to Influencers Incite conversations Be Human!

24 Hook Them Fast & Keep Them Establish Why first. They won t work this hard! Simplify language use vs. leverage No Chest Thumping Give context to statistics

25 Address Workarounds How are they doing it today? What s the cost? What s at risk? What can they gain?

26 Show Them Next Steps Telling Teasers Takeaways Transitions

27 Read Content Out Loud

28 Contagious Content Checklist 1. Hook them fast. 2. Conversational in nature. 3. Write about the audience. 4. Focus on what they get. 5. Follow a logical flow. 6. Repetition is good. 7. Set expectations with next steps. 8. Simplify their effort. 9. Align goals with offers & metrics. 10.Orchestrate the handoff. 11.Be Human!

29 Q&A

30 Thank You! Lisa Cramer President, LeadLife Solutions Web: Blog: Ardath Albee CEO, Marketing Interactions Web: LinkedIn Group: B2B Marketing Gurus