Archive for the ‘Lead Nurturing’ Category

Seven ways not to suck at lead nurturing

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

We recently had a discussion with Mac McConnell of Bluebird Strategies about how to do lead nurturing the right way.  Mac knows a thing or two about his given his previous senior sales experience at Sun Microsystems.

You can watch the replay of the webinar by clicking here.

Mac walked us through some great tips and examples during our discussion.  Here are seven things that will keep you from sucking at lead nurturing:

  1. Focus on creating value for the buyer by putting yourself in their shoes and asking “how is this solution going to improve my worth at work.”
  2. Ensure the content offered meets the expectations of the audience.  Content for the sake of content is a frequently repeated early mistake in lead nurturing programs.
  3. Don’t rely too heavily on past accomplishments (case studies, etc.) because they may not apply to the current customer’s situation.
  4. Lead nurturing is not a “set it and forget it” process.  Keep it simple but constantly assess both the content and timing of your nurturing program.
  5. The best nurturing program is one that focuses on the prospects area(s) of interest and creativity can “shake up a sleeping” database of leads.
  6. Don’t forget about retention and the role nurturing plays in that process especially if you are a subscription-based business.  Nurturing doesn’t end once someone becomes a customer.
  7. Seek first to educate and demonstrate your knowledge of the customer’s problem and it flows more naturally that you have the solution to that problem.

Great points Mac!  Be sure to watch the whole thing here.

Lead Nurturing with Education

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

If your buyer is not educated, then they will feel unready to engage the sales conversation with your team.  Filling this gap with strategic marketing automation lead flows in Loopfuse that help the buyer to ask the right questions sets up a qualified lead for your sales team.

If you sell a sophisticated product or service, expect that much of the focus of your marketing automation campaigns will revolve around education.  If you provide this value to potential buyers, then your expertise becomes established in their mind.

Here are some approaches we have used to in our marketing automation consulting to help our clients funnel their prospects through the buying process which will help you design your own processes: (more…)

Loopfuse and Bluebird Strategies Present Free Lead Nurturing Webinar

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

More than an automated email drip campaign, lead nurturing is a coordinated set of planned messages, content and tactics that guide a lead through the buying cycle. Poorly constructed and planned lead nurturing programs can do a great deal of harm, from alienating leads by giving them the wrong information or being annoying by contacting them too often.

Join us as Mac McConnell, MBA, and partner and founder of BlueBird Strategies, presents “Lead Nurturing: How Not to Screw It Up.”  McConnell teaches you how to design a lead nurturing program that provides leads with the content they want and you with increased sales.

We will cover:

  • Motivating the B2B buyer
  • Preparing a lead for a sale
  • Developing quality content
  • Scoring leads to track progress
  • Review real life examples that worked

Click here to REGISTER NOW!

Lead Nurturing Campaigns For New Site Visitors

Friday, March 4th, 2011

Loopfuse lead nurturing can help create a sales pipeline which never expires.  As your site visitors are attracted from your inbound marketing or outbound sales efforts, use Loopfuse to capture leads via web forms for compelling value in the form of content.  This middle of the funnel approach continually brings value and builds trust with your prospective buyers before they decide to engage your sales process.

Consider the following three campaigns to implement as general marketing automation campaigns within Loopfuse to start. (more…)

Keys to Lead Nurturing Success

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

I hope you enjoyed our interview with Andy Ellicott from Implementing Lead Nurturing – A Practitioner’s Perspective.  If you are thinking about implementing Lead Nurturing, I would highly recommend reading the full interview which can be found in our white paper, Lead Nurturing Best Practices for Small to Medium sized Businesses (SMBs).  To close out this series on Lead Nurturing, I would like to leave you with: (more…)

Real World Examples of B2B Lead Nurturing

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Finally, we are up to what everybody has been waiting for – examples of B2B Lead Nurturing from Implementing Lead Nurturing – A Practitioner’s Perspective.  We asked Andy Ellicott, a B2B marketing expert, to describe some of his lead nurturing programs.  Here’s what he said: (more…)

How to Get Started with Lead Nurturing

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

So we are now up to the fifth Q&A with Andy Ellicott, a B2B marketing expert for several early-stage B2B software companies, from Implementing Lead Nurturing – A Practitioner’s Perspective and we will soon get into a few examples of Lead Nurturing.  If you are new to Lead Nurturing, the thought of starting from scratch could be a little intimidating, so we asked Andy: (more…)

Knowing Which Leads To Nurture

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Working up to the fourth Q&A from Implementing Lead Nurturing – A Practitioner’s Perspective with Andy Ellicott, a B2B marketing expert for several early-stage B2B software companies including Vertica, VoltDB, and Nexaweb.  Knowing which leads to nurture is a question on the minds of SMB Marketers, so we asked Andy: (more…)

How to Get Internal Buy-in for Lead Nurturing

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

So we are now up to the third Q&A from Implementing Lead Nurturing – A Practitioner’s Perspective with Andy Ellicott, a B2B marketing expert for several early-stage B2B software companies including Vertica, VoltDB, and Nexaweb.  Getting internal buy-in for lead nurturing can sometimes be tricky so we asked Andy: (more…)

Is Lead Nurturing for Everyone?

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Following up from my post earlier this week, Implementing Lead Nurturing – A Practitioner’s Perspective, we are on to the next Q&A with Andy Ellicott, a B2B marketing expert for several early-stage B2B software companies including Vertica, VoltDB, and Nexaweb.  Since lead nurturing is a topic bouncing around the halls of many SMBs, we asked Andy: (more…)