Getting Started with Lead Nurturing

Editor's Notes

• #7: 1:30Hi Everyone. Linda West at Act-On here. Now before I hand the reigns over to Scott, I want to just take a few minutes to talk about why this move from traditional batch and blast emailing to lead nurturing is so important. So I’ll jump right in with a couple of statistics. Email is still undoubtedly a staple in the marketing diet. But marketing has fundamentally changed over the last several years, and email is certainly not immune to that. Because consumers have become quite skilled in tuning out marketing messages, we’ve had to move away from saturating marketing channels with a single, sales-oriented message. Now, the messages that sell are more specific, more personalized, and more timely. Those are the messages that will break down the barriers that consumers have built up to block out marketing messages, and trigger the engagement that will ultimately lead to revenue.And this is what that looks like in hard numbers. Over 75% of email revenue is generated by alternatives to one-size-fits-all email campaigns. That’s 2/3rds of all email revenue, coming from non-traditional uses of email. For example, trigger email campaigns account for 21% of email marketing revenue. This stat is referring to emails that are triggered by some sort of customer behavior. For example, if a potential customer starts looking at your pricing page, you may want to set up an automated message to that person encouraging them to take a next step or to contact a sales rep.
• #8: 1:10One more bit of statistical fodder on this subject:Segmentation, personalization, recommendations and the inclusion of custom database fields in email copy drive 360% higher conversion that a generic email message with a personalized salutation. So these types of messages and uses for email are really where we as marketers need to focus. These are exactly the types of communications that marketing automation and lead nurturing help make repeatable. Creating a lead nurturing program leverages all of these tactics, and does so in a systematic way that is scalable, and managable by even the smallest marketing teams. In days past, this level of sophistication with email was only realistic in large enterprise businesses with lots of tech resources, and database resources to make it all possible. There was this huge divide between the marketing capabilities of the one man shop vs. the multi-national enterprise. But now, marketing automation is closing that gap. It makes these types results achievable across all sizes and types of enterprises.
• #9: :30Next stat for you. B2B marketers who have successfully deployed lead nurturing programs average a 20% increase in sales opportunities from nurtured vs. non-nurtured leads. So that’s a big big jump. 20% more sales opportunities. And there are other studies out there that put this number even higher than that.
• #10: :30And one last stat for you. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost. So not only can you generate more sales-ready leads, but you can do it at a lower cost, because lead nurturing is a way of automating your email interactions and reducing the time and resources needed for implementation.
• #11: :60Content marketing is something you’ve probably heard a lot about recently. The types of segmentation and methodology we’re looking at today needs good content to really work effectively. So it’s important that you develop a content curriculum that maps to your buyer persona’s. Use the intelligence you have about your buyers to become a trusted advisor to your customers. Remember, they are in control, they drive the bus. You just need to position yourself along the way, so that they turn to you for answers, and not to your competitor. Lastly on this slide, re-inforce content across multiple channels. Not everyone wants the same type of content, and you want to make the most of the content you have available, so write a whitepaper, but then also write a blog post on that topic, and maybe turn it into a podcast as well! And use all of that content in your lead nurturing program to encourage engagement.
• #12: :60Where to start:Build multi-stage assets—10 Steps/5 Keys/7 SecretsTie related offers together in a logical progression to educate and accelerate prospects through the buying cycle
• #28: Ready to Learn MoreWe already have quite a few questions coming in, so really quickly before moving to Q&A, you probably are ready to learn more, so please feel free to give us a call, send us an email, or visit us on the web to get more information on what Act-On’s marketing automation solution can do for you and your business.