The Nuts and Bolts of Lead Nurturing

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June 2010, Issue 76

Featured Article
The Nuts and Bolts of Lead Nurturing
Excerpt from a Bulldog Solutions White Paper, "Using Lead Nurturing to Build an Ongoing Dialog that Drives Prospect Conversion"

Lead nurturing is a BtoB marketing "buzzword" of the decade, and with good reason: A successful nurturing campaign generates impressive returns and is particularly appealing when budgets are under pressure. Research firm SiriusDecisions notes, "Lead nurturing has grown in popularity as organizations look to squeeze value out of the demand waterfall."¹ The overall impact on return on marketing investment is a positive development for marketers, providing ammunition for discussions with the C-Suite.

Lead nurturing can help you identify up to 200% more qualified leads from your existing activities.

Take the Lead Nurturing Diagnostic, and get a customized report showing how your lead nurturing activities compare to recommended practices.

Take it here.

But the bridge between the concept of lead nurturing and the development of an effective, repeatable program can be complicated. The very characteristics that make lead nurturing impactful—targeted communications and calls to action, and time- or activity-driven engagement—also make nurturing programs a challenge to build.

This white paper excerpt outlines three of the seven types of lead nurturing most impactful for BtoB marketers. For a complete definition of lead nurturing and the other four types, you may download the complete white paper here.

And, for a comprehensive assessment of how your organization's lead nurturing strategy is performing compared to best practices, you can take our complimentary lead nurturing diagnostic. After you submit the diagnostic, we'll send you a report that will help you begin or refine your Iead nurturing activities. Take the Lead Nurturing Diagnostic.

The Seven Types of Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing, as an ongoing dialog, takes a variety of forms. On a tactical level, there are seven kinds of lead nurturing, relevant at different stages of the pipeline (see below). While they are best used in conjunction with each other, it is certainly possible for an organization to start small with a well-defined test program, selecting an area of the pipeline from which they anticipate being able to drive the most return with the least risk.

Note that each type of lead nurturing refers to the objective, not the vehicle. The specific communications vehicle used to engage with prospects and clients may vary from program to program, and in fact, within programs. E-mail, Webinars, in-person seminars, tele-prospecting—all of these tactics can be used. Marketers must select communications based on relevance to prospects’ needs and habits.

Perpetual Nurturing

Ongoing marketing communications designed to position a brand as top-of-mind with prospects. Examples include weekly, monthly or time-triggered newsletters with thought leadership content and engagement opportunities. Perpetual nurturing often fulfills a role of earning "permission" to communicate with prospects by offering an opt-in with a minimum request for profile information. A newsletter, for example, may ask only for name, company and e-mail.

Perpetual nurturing goes hand in hand with building and growing a house database. It creates a regular communications stream that can be as customized as the organization has time and data to drive. For example, a newsletter program can be segmented into communications for "new" members (recent additions) that contain a welcome message different from the newsletter received by existing members. A newsletter can also be segmented by industry or title, depending on business rules for the organization.

A regular social media program also contains elements of perpetual nurturing. The Email Experience Council, for example, has successfully built an ongoing Twitter presence that can be leveraged, when needed, for acquisition nurturing and engagement nurturing (see next sections).

Acquisition Nurturing

Outreach activities focused on capturing registration and securing permission to communicate with a prospect. The value exchange is stepped up here compared to perpetual nurturing: Marketers may ask for a little more information but give a little more in return. Examples include content syndication (offering white papers or briefing documents behind a gated registration page) and a content center or content library. Paid and organic search also fall into this category if they are designed to drive to a conversion. The house database mentioned in the section above can be a focus for acquisition nurturing. So can external sources, including co-marketing with partners and working with third parties.

Spotlight: Content Center

A content center is a prospect-driven resource that gives users access to a range of assets. A content center is an "always-on" acquisition nurturing program that allows marketers to target prospects based on the prospects’ interests and stage in the buying cycle—they explore what they are interested in. A content center can be organized by buyer persona, geography or other factors relevant to business rules.

A content center:

Increases and eases availability of assets to potential and current customers and sales executives by offering them in one place, increasing up-sell and cross-sell potential.
Gives visibility into the interests and persona profile of a specific prospect by allowing them to choose their own path.
Reinforces thought leadership with content available through paid and organic search.
Standardizes communications efforts and reduces campaign variance—once someone engages with an asset through a content center, they receive follow-up communication in a consistent manner (rather than uncoordinated e-mails or phone calls with a range of conflicting designs and messages). The marketer also gets apples-to-apples data to determine the next steps for engagement, because all of the assets are behind a unified registration form.
Increases visibility into the efficacy of current assets. A content center can be a message test: If 10 white papers are made available next to each other, the organization can see which is performing best, identify holes and figure out the need for additional assets.

Engagement Nurturing

Early-mid buying cycle activities designed to welcome new prospects and generate interest. Examples include specific product line marketing via Webinars, white papers and rich media offerings, and activities meant to tease out BANT qualification (do they have the budget, authority, timeline and need to be good prospects?).

Many of the vehicles used for acquisition nurturing can also be used for engagement nurturing. The driver of success isn't the Webinar or white paper per se, but the message with which it is delivered, and the following call to action that moves prospects a step farther in their buying journey.

This article is an excerpt. Want to read the whole thing?

Read the complete white paper, "Using Lead Nurturing to Build an Ongoing Dialog that Drives Prospect Conversion."

Download now.

¹ SiriusDecisions, "The Care and Feeding of Leads," May 2009

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Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, an online marketing agency that changes the way BtoB companies define demand-generation strategy, engage prospects and convert leads to customers. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Amy Bills, director of Field Marketing.