Savvy organizations are beginning to automate lead nurturing for complex sales. This process often includes some type of integration with a CRM (customer relationship management software). By leveraging client data, a marketer can create both rules-based and event-based triggers that will communicate with a client. This automated communication can be in the form of print, email, text messages or any number of other web based channels.
One example might be in a lead generation/lead nurturing campaign that includes several of these touch points. Perhaps your campaign will start with a direct mail piece to a prospect that drives them back to a personalized web site where they can take a short survey to determine where they are in the buying cycle. If they are ready to buy now, the lead can be routed to a sales person. But if they will not be in the market for another six months, a series of communications can keep the prospect engaged until they are ready to purchase. This may include channels like a monthly e-newsletter, a two touch direct mail campaign targeted to their area of interest, or electronic invites to a webinar.
A typical lead nurturing strategy should include a lot of different ways to communicate with prospects – a series of letters, emails, voicemails, case studies, success stories, articles, events, white papers, webinars, videos – anything that might be meaningful and informative to your potential customers. Whatever you choose to send to your prospects should be relevant, thought-provoking and consistent. The strategy you use and the frequency with which you send it will depend on your sales process and the buying cycle of the prospect.
The key to success in this process is to have an automated approach to the process. By creating these “triggers” that are based on how the prospect interacts with your marketing efforts you can eliminate the need for a lot of involvement from your sales and marketing teams, freeing up valuable time and resources. By implementing a lead nurturing strategy, your lead generation strategy will realize more qualified leads and build a much more predictable and sustainable sales pipeline. A lost prospect is a lost opportunity. Any one of the prospects that come to your website could be your next biggest client!
For more information about building a lead nurturing strategy, contact Allegra Marketing & Print.
