lead nurturing best practices in tough times

Why Marketing Must Nurture Leads for Maximum Sales Success

Loren McDonaldVP, Industry RelationsSilverpop

January 13, 2009

Loren McDonaldVP, Industry RelationsSilverpop

January 13, 2009

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Speaker/Agenda

AgendaTiming is Now for Lead NurturingScoring & RoutingLead NurturingQ & A

Loren McDonald

VP, Industry Relations

Silverpop

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Vtrenz, a Silverpop Solution

Marketing/Lead Automation SaaS provider

Founded in 1999

Part of Silverpop, top provider of permission based marketing solutions

350+ employees with offices in Atlanta, Fargo, Irvine and London

Top tier ranking by Jupiter Research and SiriusDecisions

Integration with leading CRM solutions

Salesforce.com

Microsoft Dynamics

Batch API

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From Too Many “Leads” … to Not Enough?

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Recession: The Question is For How Long?

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What Does a Recession Mean to B2B Marketers?

Marketing Budgets? Typically – frozen or cut

ROI/Spend Decisions? Cut marketing activities that don’t lead to near-term sales

Revenue? Management focuses on immediate/short-term revenue

Resources? Make do with what you have

Measurement? Real-time, accurate – hard, not soft- ROI focused

Targeting? Increased focus on existing relationships

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What Does This Mean? – Opportunities for B2B Marketers

Automate marketing processes

Optimize campaigns

Focus on:Nurturing the “A” and “B” lead poolCross-selling/Up-selling existing customers

Focus measurement on outputs:Revenue# Sales-ready leadsCost per win/Cost per sales-ready leadEtc.

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Marketing’s Opportunity & Responsibility

82.5% are ready to buy or will buy

70% are long-term opportunities – Marketing Territory

An estimated 70-90% of leads generated by marketing are never followed-up with by sales

Source: MarketingSherpa

Leaky Sales Funnel Increases Customer Acquisition Costs

Mature Marketing Processes Close the B2B Lead Management Gap

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So…Marketing’s Role Has to Change

Need to be “lead developers” not just “lead generators”

Generate Capture Qualify/Score Distribute Nurture Report

Need to focus on Metrics and Accountability

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Keys to Maximizing the Sales Lead Process

1. Common definition of a “lead”

2. Scoring leads – assigning priorities

3. Timely lead routing and follow up by sales

4. Automating the lead nurturing process

5. Measuring marketing effectiveness

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What is a Lead?

White Paper Download

Tradeshow Attendee

Webinar Attendee

Web Site Inquiry

Etc.

• Has Budget allotted

• Has Authority to purchase

• Has a Need that we solve

• Has defined purchase

Timeframe

Agreed upon

Lead Qualification

Definition

Suspect, Prospect or Lead?

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Score Leads Based on Sales Readiness

Clearly defining “sales ready” results in less lead waste

Ensure both sales and marketing agree on definition to align goals

Requirement: Lead Scoring based on: Budget Authority Needs Timeframe Size Profile Email/Web Behavior

Route to Strategic Sales

Nurture

Discard

1

2

3

Route to Inside Sales2

Lead Definition

Sales Ready Now High Score

Unqualified Low Score

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Lead Scoring- Explicit Data

Defines the right lead based on your target market segment

Scoring performed on a unified database to ensure consistency across all leads

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Lead Scoring- Implicit Data

Scores Activity

Recency and frequency scores with automated discounts

Apply points for important interactions indicative of interest

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Using lead scoring, map communications to prospect’s buying cycle with agreed-upon action plans

Search for Solutions

Evaluate Solutions

Recognize Need

Justify Solution

Purchase

Evaluate Decision

Interaction

Create Interest- Whitepaper

Edu-sell communications- Case Studies

Purchase and Validate- Free Trial, Discount Offers

1

3-X

X+

Consider Solutions- Webinars & Demo2

Lead Scoring - Now What?

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Routing: Ensure Follow-up Within 48 Hours

• Over 7x improvement in sales if leads are responded to within 48 hours

• The likelihood of reaching a

prospect on a follow-on call goes

down by 90% within one week from

the initial inquiry

• Automate lead routing decreases

follow-up times

*Vtrenz Marketing Research Survey 2005

Com

mu

nic

ati

on

Eff

ecti

ven

ess %

Reaction Time In Days

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

20%

40%

60%

80%

Florida Lead East Sales Rep

Nebraska Lead Central Sales Rep

California Lead West Sales Rep

Slow reaction time, decreases response

effectiveness

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What is Lead Nurturing

Leveraging a series of communications to maintain ongoing contact with prospects identified as not yet ready to make a purchase

Keeps your prospects engaged throughout buying process

Provides opportunity for more relevant and timely communications

Improves ROI of marketing spend by ‘plugging the leaks’ in lead management

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Utilize Rules-Based Marketing to Eliminate “One and Done” Marketing

Understand your sales cycle and map your communications to your sales cycle

Leverage a rules-based marketing engine to set-up and deliver multi-track, multi-touch, multi-channel communications

Well-executed multi-channel marketing

campaigns generate a sales lift ranging from 7-

34%.Source: Internet Advertising Bureau

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ControlScan’s Typical Drip Campaign

Campaign Objectives: Increase compliance rate for Partner’s merchants and the marketing team’s productivity

Bring in campaign members based on

defined criteria

Email #1Intro to program

Direct Mail #1Intro to program

Email #2Reminder

Direct Mail #2Reminder

Email #3Reminder

Outbound Call Campaign

Contact removed from

campaign once compliance is

achieved

2 weeks

2 weeks

2 weeks

1 week

2 weeks

2 weeks

Achieved 14% compliance rate in 2 month pilot – average compliance rate is typically ~1% - in one year!

2-3 touch points within first month

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Drip Campaign Contents

Email #1 Email #3

Email #2

Call to actions became increasingly more urgent.

All action is directed to the Partner’s microsite.

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Drip Campaign Contents

Direct Mail Content

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Drip Campaign Contents

Campaign Microsite

Call to action is to enroll in mandatory program.

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Lead Nurturing Tip #1

Communicate

Keep your company top-of-mind as prospects move through the buying cycle

Contact everybody at least once Do not let prospects go an entire sales cycle without having received a

touch

Offer prospects the opportunity to identify themselves as “ready to buy”

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Message Creation

Know Your Audience and Ask Yourself

How can we build credibility with our prospects

How can we show that our products/services will help them achieve their goals

How can we differentiate ourselves from our competitors

Become a trusted advisor/expert to your prospects

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Lead Nurturing Tip #2

Engage in Meaningful Two Way Conversations

Cut through the “noise” and be relevant

Send communications that include questions with several possible answers

Base subsequent communications on these answers for increased message relevancy

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Lead Nurturing Tip # 3

Target High-Potential Leads

Hone your targeting

Offer value Whitepaper relevant to an indicated area of interest Webinar invite to a topic of interest

Know your own criteria Have clearly defined criteria to know exactly when you want to push a

lead to sales

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Usher the Lead Through the Sales Cycle

Lead Nurturing supports all stages of the lead management process

Marketing Qualified

Inquiries

Sales Qualified

Sales Accepted

Impressions

Marketing

Sales

New Business

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Stay Involved

Avoid lead waste

Have processes in place ready to fold a lead back into the nurturing cycle if necessary

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Summary

Effective lead nurturing Communicate!

• Know your audience Have two way conversations to add relevance Further hone your targeting

• Craft communications that add value, not more noise Identify the criteria you want to use to bubble nurtured leads to sales

once they become Hot Have a plan

• Identify a process to fold leads back into the nurturing process if necessary

And focus on converting the 70 percent long-term leads, to near-term opportunities!

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Q & A

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Contact: Loren McDonald

lmcdonald@silverpop.com

www.silverpop.com www.vtrenz.com