One of the places you will see the biggest impact from stepping up to a marketing automation approach is putting together a thoughtful and buyer-centric email lead nurturing program. This is not about sending emails every few days leading to frustrated buyers, potentially negative brand impact, and disappointing open/click performance. That is doing lead nurturing wrong.
To do lead nurturing correctly and to guide you as you implement lead nurturing emails keep the following three things front and center:
1. It’s not about you
Yes, we know you really, really, really want new customers but understand that you have to earn someone’s business and that means doing more than pummeling them with emails. Ask for and act on meaningful information when they sign up for your product or request more information. Don’t over do it on the forms but give yourself the ability to segment inquiries and then send them off on their own track. For example, if you know you have a high close rate with people who use a certain product along with yours or favor an iPhone over an Android device then capture that information and act on it.
2. Focus the content on the problem the prospect has or outcome they are seeking
We are sure that your widget is the best thing since sliced bread and that you have an amazing feature/benefit matrix that you’ve worked diligently on but please don’t lead with that. Demonstrate your knowledge of the problem the prospect has that brought them to you in the first place. How can you solve a problem you don’t understand? Then show them how they can work with you to get to their desired outcome. What is the pain and what does it look like when you remove that pain?
3. One size does not fit all
Marketing automation systems like LoopFuse have a great deal of flexibility and configurability when it comes to designing and implementing lead flows. Remember – technology is the enabler. You need to start with a solid understand of what you are trying to accomplish then use the underlying technology to support that.
We’ll be doing some follow up posts that highlight the essentials of lead nurturing so stay tuned for more details but in the meantime, think about where in the buying process you lose the interest of your prospects then figure out why that is happening, what you can share to address it, and how you’ll measure success or failure.
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