5 Tips to Nurture Leads

According to a recent survey, 69% of marketers say nurturing high-quality leads is their #1 challenge. But lead nurturing doesn't have to be as difficult as it seems. Especially if you have the right tools to get there.

Below are five tips to keep in mind when nurturing leads:

1. Do you have an automated way to keep in touch with "just-interested" prospects over time until they are "sales-ready?"
   
   
2. Can you systematically direct prospects to the appropriate next touch based on their response or lack of response?
   
   
3. Do you have an easy way to capture their needs and interests (via a webform or landing page) to help drive future communications?
   
   
4. Are you able to manage different campaigns across each client efficiently and effectively?
   
   
5. Are you capitalizing on new technologies that allow you to be more efficient in campaign management?
   

There are a lot of CRMs out there, but lead nurturing is more than that. It's about creating a dialogue with your prospects and exchanging information to better understand their interests and needs and then respond appropriately to those needs. And in today's market, that's what will set you apart from the rest.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Sell: When Personalization Goes Wrong

The other day, I was talking to a colleague about personalization and how important it is to get it right. He used the example of his wife who recently purchased some new baby items online for her daughter’s new baby boy. Since purchasing these items, the store has sent her numerous offers.

As far as the practice of relationship marketing goes, the store sort of got it right: they continually send his wife postcards and emails for new baby items such as diapers, blankets and strollers. But here’s where they got it wrong: they continue to send his wife/the baby’s grandmother, meaningless offers that don’t pertain to why she purchased those items in the first place. Why? Because they didn’t ask.

Unfortunately, lots of companies make this same mistake. They miss opportunities to provide relevant offers to their customers and prospects based on customer needs and behavior. Asking questions upfront and learning what your customers want and need are the keys to a profitable, long-lasting relationship. Studies show that, “tailored pieces increase response rates by more than 500 percent over a basic, non-personalized piece.” (source: Digital Printing Council Survey)

In this case, here’s how the store could have used personalization to get more sales:

1. Drive respondents to a web form. You can do this with postcards, email, business letters, text messages, etc. The goal is to get prospects to fill out a form and gather their information.
   
   
2. Ask them relevant questions about their needs, wants and reason to purchase. In this case, the web form questions would be: why are you here today?, with the following drop-down menu options: I’m shopping for my new baby; I’m a new grandmother; I’m attending a baby shower, etc. Ask what items are the most important, such as strollers, cribs, clothing, etc.
   
   
3. Use the information received from the web form to personalize future multi-media communications. Send out a postcard with the message, “Dear (first name), congratulations on your new (baby, baby girl, grandson)! Here are a few items for your during (her, his) first (few days, few weeks, few months, year) .” The following email could say, “Exclusive offer for new (moms, grandmas, grandparents): (10, 15, 25)% off .
   
   
4. Continue the dialogue with relevant offers. Now that you know why the purchase occurred and for whom, continue to send emails and postcards over time with additional relevant offers.
   
   
5. Don't forget to continue to ask questions. Buyer needs change over time - baby formula today may not equal baby formula tomorrow. Continue to ask what your buyers want and need so you can present relevant offers while continuing the conversation.
   

7 Steps to Relationship Marketing

As a marketer, you’re probably familiar with the concept of relationship marketing. But do you practice it? Here’s why you should and 7 steps to implement relationship marketing– now.

Relationship marketing is about having multi-media, multi-touch programs in place that enable you to stay in touch with prospects, customers, constituents, donors, volunteers and members over time so they eventually convert.

However, as you may be painfully aware, relationship marketing campaigns can be difficult to implement. Staff distractions, time, budget constraints and lack of support are common culprits, plus keeping track of it all can be frustrating. Instead, many marketers go for the “low hanging fruit,” because these folks are ready to buy and they’re an easy sell.

Turns out, this can be a costly mistake. Reaching for low hanging fruit leads to 50% less sales because you ignore the “just-interested” prospects who aren't quite ready to buy right now but will buy from you eventually. Marketing Sherpa estimates that, “more than half of the leads in the typical marketing database are viable, qualified leads – even if those prospects aren't yet ready to buy.”

Ignoring potential leads is like ignoring someone who is “just-looking” in a store. You need to identify what their needs are and help them understand how your products or services can fulfill those needs.

The process of identifying, nurturing, retaining and maintaining customer and prospect relationships may take some work, but it’s worth it.

Here are the 7 steps to a relationship marketing campaign:

1. Realize the need. Let’s say you've been a long-time customer of Frankie’s Pizza, but lately the service has been less than stellar and the pizza isn't as warm and cheesy as it used to be. You want to try another place but you don’t know where to go.
   
   
2. Get in front of your customers. In your mailbox, you get a flyer from Louie’s Pizza, a new pizzeria just down the street. The flyer invites you to visit their website to register to win a free extra large pizza with unlimited toppings. You fire up your laptop, visit the website and register.
   
   
3. Drive them to a webform to get their information. The form asks you for your name, email and address, plus your birthday and favorite kind of pizza, which you say is “pepperoni.”
   
   
4. Reward them for their time with relevant offers. After you fill out the information, you receive a confirmation email and a coupon for 20% off your next order of “pepperoni” pizza. You save the coupon for later because you’re still not sure you want to try it out yet.
   
   
5. Embrace multi-touch, multi-media. In addition to the flyer and email, you also get a postcard a couple days later. Louie's Pizza now has cheesy breadsticks and three different kinds of salads. You’re intrigued, so you save the postcard for later.
   
   
6. Offer immediate gratification. About a week later, you receive an email from Louie himself, the owner of Louie’s Pizza. He’s giving away a free medium “pepperoni” pizza to new customers only, tomorrow from 5-7pm. Bingo! The next evening, you drive to Louie’s Pizza and see Louie at the counter, handing out free medium pizzas to the growing line of his new customers. You also pick up the cheesy breadsticks and a salad for a mere $5.
   
   
7. Continue nurturing your customers. Louie hands you a BOGO coupon for your next visit.
   

Relationship marketing doesn't have to be difficult. You just need to plan ahead, incorporate compelling, relevant offers and use personalized communications to stay in front of those who have raised their hand. And when prospects are ready to buy, they’ll think of you – instead of one of your competitors – first.