(sales x marketing) to the power of technology = extraordinary results

“How will social media change lead nurturing?”

Great question that was asked at Focus.com.  It also came up tonight at dinner with my sister, Ardath.

It all boils down to CONTENT. If you want to participate on social media sites to drive interest, the only way to do that is through having relevant and engaging content.

Social Media is a distribution channel. 
You Tube is a distribution channel.
iTunes is a distribution channel.
Your Website is a distribution channel.
Your Blog is a distribution channel.
 Email is a distribution channel.
 Direct Mail is a distribution channel.

For your content.

I think it's safe to say that effective online marketing and lead nurturing is completely dependent upon how relevant your content is, and leveraging all of the different media (text, video, audio) in your content strategy. In social, you can post discussions, or status updates that point to content that you make available, so you continue to build your reputation. Then other content is available to people who "opt-in" to learn more, or otherwise show interest, which you deliver through email, direct mail, etc.

Is there a difference between content that drives traffic and interest, and content that nurtures leads who are actively expressing interest and providing you with their information? I believe that the answer is Yes.

Which gets at the critical aspect that underlies the ability to produce relevant content, which is having an intimate understanding of your target market -- their pain, their needs, their interest, etc. Without this, developing a content strategy, that both drives traffic and interest, as well as nurtures those that have expressed interest, will be a guessing game -- no matter whether you use social to distribute that content, or other nurturing tactics and channels.

Read all the answers at: http://www.focus.com/questions/marketing/how-will-social-media-change-lead-nurturing/

For interviews with Joe Pulizzi and Ardath Albee about how to put together content that drives results, check out:  InternetMarketingCompete.com/content-strategy

Lead Scoring Made Easy

I am at the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, and I spoke on the Demand Generation & Sales 2.0 Panel yesterday.  It was a great conversation, with great questions from the room -- people are definitely engaged in how to generate more quality AND quantity leads -- that is for sure.

When the audience was asked, "How many of you are implementing lead scoring?" only 4 people in the entire room raised their hand.  In a scan of the room, I estimate there were about 75 people in the session.  When asked how many people had plans to implement lead scoring, about 8 additional people raised their hands.

WOW!

Then I reflected on conversations that I've had with Genoo customers about lead scoring and getting it implemented, and I realized that people are making this far too difficult, and in the process, just never getting it implemented, or telling themselves they'll get to it some day.  They're like a deer in the headlights when it comes to putting it in place.  Result:  No Action.

The impact of no lead scoring is easy:  You have no way, at-a-glance, to separate out your most responsive leads, or know how many of them you really have, and where they are in their buying process (or sales cycle).  A follow-on impact is that you are also using some manual means of gauging a lead's readiness to buy -- which means your Sales force or Inside Sales folks are making unnecessary touches (and possibly unwelcome touches) on leads -- wasting valuable resources that could be much more optimized and focused.  You are paying a lot more for each lead than you need to.

The bottom line is:  You are losing revenue and lowering your margins!

Inside a larger context, yes, you want to dialog with Sales and figure out what the term "lead" actually means.  Yes, you want to find out how Sales defines a "sales-ready" lead.  Yes, you want to be on the same page -- absolutely! 

But -- you can get started with this easily -- while you are working out all of the above items and issues - because truth-be-told, lead scoring is a fluid process.  It is something that you aren't going to get right the first time, and it's more like horse-shoes than hand grenades -- so you can iterate and improve the process -- but you need to START.

Here's an easy 3-step process to get started with lead scoring:

1.  Put a score of 1 on all of your website pages that contribute to a lead moving through the sales process.  For example, if you have a jobs page, you may not want to score that page - since the visitor to your site might be more interested in getting a job than in purchasing your products and services. 

2.  If you have the ability for folks to download assets from your site and/or landing pages, then put a score on the asset so when it's downloaded, it adds to their score.  Give them 3 points per asset.

3.  If you do webinars, give them 5 points for signing up for one.

OK.  Now you will be able to see who your most responsive leads are!  It will open your eyes!  You will be able to start to understand how people move through your site and engage with you -- and you'll be able to target those leads more effectively. 

As you follow up with them, start to pay attention to when they become ready for a sales conversation, and then adjust your lead scoring threshold accordingly.  As you close deals and win customers, take a look through their pathway of what marketing they responded to and what they downloaded, and start to tweak and tune your lead scoring system.

It will also help you tweak your content strategy in ways that pull your leads through the buying process much more effectively.

DO NOT DELAY!  As my father used to say, "You either have everything you want in life, or all the reasons why you don't." -- give yourself a way to see and pay attention to your most responsive leads.  You cannot improve what you do not measure.

Emails, Offers, and What Makes Buyers Click

I'm reading new research from Marketing Sherpa about how buyers rank the most valuable content and offer types, and it's very interesting.

As marketers, we're all so used to hearing it's about educating your buyers, providing relevant content -- so it's fun to see how marketers responded to the questions, and contrast that with how buyers responded.  I think the marketers were all answering with the "right" answers -- you know, based upon all of the things that they've been hearing -- it's not about the products -- it's about the customer!  Educate them, etc.

Suprisingly, when reading an email, buyers say there's an increased likelihood they'd click on News and Articles, Competitive Comparisons and Buying Guides, and Promotional Content (yep, spot #3), more than any other type of content and offer (ahead of educational content, research reports, online tutorials and demos, blogs, and live social media conversations which were at the bottom of the list).

Marketers, on the other hand, thought that Educational Content, Free Research Reports, and Peer Best Practices topped the list for what would be the most compelling content that would lead to a click.

Even more suprisingly, when buyers were asked how much more likely they would be to click on certain types of offers, buyers gave the highest rank to promotional content!  Buyers do want to know a vendor, who they are, what they do, etc.  It isn't always about the buyer.

So, here's some useful tidbits from the study:

1.  If you're sending a product/service offer via email, the sort of links you should include, that will make the emails more useful to your audience, in order of importance: (1) provide links to relevant content, (2) ability to navigate within the email to more detailed content, and (3) highlight keywords and points.

If you've been inundated with all the buzz about social media and it's importance,  you might be suprised to learn (as I was) that at the bottom of the list, coming in at #11 was Links to Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks, followed by #12: Links to Active Social Conversations on the Topic, at just 18% and 16% respectively.

But here's a better question -- given that information.  And maybe a better way to consider it all -- which will require that you have some of your own email metrics, history and conversion metrics:

Are those 18% and 16% who click through on social media converting?  If so, is it at a higher rate than others who are converting?

Basically, if the 80/20 rule applies to your leads (and it does, trust me), then 20% of your leads are providing 80% of conversions.  Given that, are those 18% that are clicking through to social media the ones that are converting?  If so, you don't want to start excluding those sorts of options from your emails, right?

And while it's interesting what buyers are saying -- I'm curious how what they're saying maps with what they're doing.  Studies have shown that how we say we act is very different from how we actually act in the moment.  How much of the study should I really pay attention to?

This is why it's important to have your own metrics and understand your target market in an intimate way.  Better than any generic study, your actual metrics on your target market can tell you what "buyers" are clicking on -- that is, what was their pathway to purchasing or converting?  what content did they look at?  what did they consider?  Your lead tracking metrics ought to provide you with that snapshot, so you can understand how buyers typically move through the process with your organization.

What takeaways are there?  I have three:

1.  ABT.  Always Be Testing.  It's the only way you will know for sure what is working and what isn't - what there is to tune and tweak.  This report gives you some ideas to try.  Test them and make your own determinations re: what works in your market.

2.  Listen.  Know your target market intimately. Recognize that you are not  your target market - so what you think while it will get you in the game, isn't necessarily going to bring home the bacon in terms of responses and conversions.  Establish effective listening strategies that feed your content strategy.

3.  Measure.  Everything that you can.  Have them available to you in real time, so it can inform your efforts today.  If it takes you a month to get the metrics on what you did, then you'll always be driving through the rear-view mirror.

If you're interested in the Marketing Sherpa Research article - you can find it here.

If you're interested in learning more about how to establish an effective listening strategy, click here.

If you want to discover how to automate your marketing, and get the metrics that will allow you to test and tune easily, click here.

Create Leverage and Engage Your Leads

Getting valuable content to your target market is important.  It helps you build relationship and regard.  But putting together compelling content takes more than just providing information to your leads.  It’s also taking into account and triggering four Key Engagers.

I ran across this idea while reading a book I picked up years ago, called “The Power To Get In” by Michael A. Boylan.  It’s a book about access.  Gaining access to those leads and prospects that are important to your sales efforts – and getting right to the decision makers.  While designed for Sales folks, the ideas in the book translate into the Internet marketing age and can be used when putting together your content and approach for reaching your target audience.

The idea is to develop a content strategy that builds leverage with your leads.  If you think about the types of people that make up your target audience, and think about the four Key Engagers, as you construct your personas, you can create a more compelling content strategy.

So what are the four Key Engagers?

1. Fear of loss.  Think about it, when we were kids, we’d mis-behave and only stop and straighten up when the adults around us threatened us in one way or another.  As human beings, we pay attention when we think we could lose something important to us.   
2. Curious Insecurities.  Everyone wants to get ahead.  We pay attention to who’s up, down, ahead, behind, etc.   We’re concerned that someone will pass us by; that we’ll get left in the dust.  We look out for number one.  That is true of each of your leads as well.  Everyone is curious to know where they stand and how we or our organizations compare with others.  
3. Competitiveness.  Our society is extremely competitive – just think about it – with our jobs, schooling, homes, and in social environments, whatever the flavor of it, we “compete” with our peers.  If anything, this has become more pronounced in recent years, not less.  Most people want to be better at their jobs, or be rewarded or recognized for their contribution.  
4. Strong Desire to be a Serious Player.  Many of your leads have a strong desire to be connected, to be in the loop or in the know.  It allows them to feel they are important and have something to contribute.  They want to be viewed as a major player.  Someone who’s approval or knowledge is important if not critical to whatever is happening.  When they sense this could “go away”, they will immediately scramble to catch up.

Understanding these aspects of your target market can allow you to build content that engages your leads at their core.  After all, it’s about gaining access and trust with your leads in a way that affords your organization a shot at winning their business.

Agitation Can Make The Difference In Your Messaging

I recently listened to an interview between Perry Marshall, a marketing expert that I follow and Joshua Russell a Professor of Screenwriting and Film Aesthetics at DePaul University. It was a fun and interesting conversation where they explored the power of stories from both a screenwriter's and marketer's perspective.  While there was far too much to cover in a single email, there is an essential idea that made an impact on me that I'll share with you.

A well told story will captivate and control the audience.  As Joshua Russell said, "It will take people to a place that is beneficial." What's beneficial of course, being determined by the story teller.  As marketers, our job is weaving a story compelling enough that our audience can't leave in the middle.  Given the multi-tasking nature of people today, it can be challenging to cut through the clutter that is clamoring  for their attention.

So how do we hold their attention and keep them interested?  As we read, our perception is constantly changing and being revised as we work through the material we're reading.

Paying attention to critical points of perception can help when we are constructing our stories.

When telling a story, there are three essential steps:

1.  Establish a subject.
2.  Introduce conflict with the idea of the subject (revising our understanding).
3.  Come to a new understanding (i.e. new subject).

Said another way:

1.  Introduce a Problem.
2.  Agitate the itch of the problem.  identify with it.
3.  Offer possible solutions to the problem.

If we skip step #2 and go right to #3, we aren't allowing our audience to naturally progress and follow the story.  By including step #2, we are allowing the audience's perception to identify with the problem for THEMSELVES, and naturally evolve THEIR perception of the need, so when they reach #3, they're saying "Yes!" in their head.  That is what defines engaging content.  If we skip step #2, and jump right to step #3, we will be forcing our point of view on our audience, which creates conflict, not engagement.

As Perry said, people can have problems for years and do nothing about it.  But when it gets to a boiling point, then we'll change.  As the stakes of the problem get higher and higher, it starts to look easier to change than to stay the course.

Agitation is the glue that connects the problem with the solution. 
How well are you agitating?

The 6 Influencers of Human Behavior

I was listening to an audio that came with a subscription to a series of panel discussions called "The League of Extraordinary Minds".  it was a conversation that the organizers of The League had with Tony Robbins.  In this conversation, he outlined the 6 influencers of human behavior:

1.  Certainty - people like to know what they're getting, what they can count on.
2.  Uncertainty - people like suprises and need variety.
3.  Feeling signficant, unique, special, or needed.
4.  Connection & Love
5.  Growth & Development – making progress
6.  To Contribute Beyond Yourself (you can't just get, you must give).

It works like this:  As you increase the number of influencers that you fulfill for your leads, prospects, and/or customers given your product and/or service, you can move them from mere interest to Raving Fan.

(In terms of knowing whether you're fulfilling them or not, for each influencer, you’re scoring a 7 on a scale of 1-10).

The game/goal is to fulfill multiple influencers with your leads, prospects, and/or customers - and as you increase them, their regard  shifts in terms of their relationship to your company, as follows:

1 = Interest
2 = pretty excited / satisfied
3+ = addicted to your product/service (i.e. RAVING FAN).

How does this boil down?  If you meet people's needs, you will have raving fans.  This must happen in the way that you acquire them, share information with them, and deliver your products and service to them.

How valuable would raving fans be to your business?

If you are curious about The League of Extraordinary Minds, here's a link so you can find out more.

Jumpstart Your Lead Nurturing Campaigns

The tools are available, and the companies who are using them are reaping the benefits of more qualified leads in their pipeline.  But many of the folks I talk with every day, are not sure how to get started or what to say.

I got an email in my inbox from Perry Marshall, a marketing expert that I follow, with a download on jumpstarting the process of writing autoresponders (also known as lead nurturing emails), put together by John Fancher, a world-class copywriter and auto-responder expert, entitled "99 Questions to Jumpstart Your AR Brain".

I downloaded it, because we not only work with our customers to utilize our marketing automation toolset, but we also put them together in our own marketing process.  Figuring out how to crack the code on putting these email sequences together and getting them written would help not only our efforts, but those of our customers -- so we're always on the lookout for great insights or tips.

John then sent out a challenge:  write 30 emails in 30 days - no sales pitches - just something in the area of your expertise and interests.  So I took the challenge, and will be writing one email every day for the next 30 days (starting tomorrow).  If you're interested in receiving these emails, and providing feedback on them, I'd welcome it -- again, there will be only my thoughts on marketing, business, etc.  for 30 days. 

NOTE:  The origiinal 30-day challenge has ended.  If you would like to receive the 30 emails - I would welcome the feedback -- and at the end, will send you the results and learnings after you complete a brief survey of your experience receiving the emails.

If you're interested in signing up to receive my series of emails - and participate in the process, just click the link:

Participate in Kim's 30-day Challenge!

If you're interested in getting John Fancher's "99 Questions to Jumpstart Your AR Brain", click this link:

99 Questions to Jumpstart Your AR Brain

What I'd love to hear are  questions, comments and experiences re: putting together lead nurturing sequences -- this is a big area that we all need to start mastering!

Marketing Automation Can Help Sales Build Relationships

I ran across a post at TSL Marketing's blog, entitled "Lead Nurturing in 5 easy Steps" that outlines 5 things that Sales folks can do to nurture their leads -- those that aren't ready for the sales conversation quite yet.

It occurred to me that the first 4 items of the 5 mentioned, could be done easily with Marketing Automation software -- whether the lead nurturing is managed from Marketing or Sales (and I've seen it done/owned in either of these, depending upon the structure of an organization), and achieve the same results -- Here is my take on how:

1. Marketing Automation integrated with CRM allows for knowing whether a lead/contact is in a nurturing stage or is an actual opportunity that can be worked by the Sales person. 

2. Staying in tune -- if Marketing IS planning any of those events, then emails should be going out to all leads (where it's relevant), and Marketing Automation software 'should' be able to be "sent from" and "signed by" the sales person for that lead -- without that sales person actually having to do anything. If the lead responds, the reply email would go directly to the sales person. Imagine the time savings if the sales person didn't have to put all those individual emails together! 

3. Spend 1 hour a month -- With a great marketing automation system, tracking the responses to efforts, and interactions, the lead could essentially "self-select" into Nurturing sequences that keep the lead in touch -- and all of which could go out from the sales person (automatically) - again, without the sales person having to formulate all of them individually. This occurs to the lead as a personally sent email -- saving that 1 hour per month for working on leads that are in the sales conversation now (and could cover many more leads in the funnel). 

4. Personalize Emails -- All of the emails going out of the marketing automation system can be personalized, and sent from the assigned sales person -- building relationship all along the way.

Again -- the 5 easy steps for lead nurturing are good, but if they can be implemented with/by Marketing (or Sales if that is where lead nurturing is managed), using available marketing automation software, then the hour each week can be spent touching base with those leads that are ready to buy!

Making Online Marketing: Lead Generation and Lead Nurturing Work

When considering what might be an obstacle in the adoption of online marketing tools (you know, marketing automation, lead generation, lead nurturing tools on the market today), what are the barriers to having greater adoption of these technologies?

I think that beyond executive management, and sorting through vendors, that it is really a matter of understanding how to put together an online marketing strategy (or a lead generation and nurturing strategy) and the content necessary to keep it effective and productive. Once you have that, you can select tools that will work for you.

So many of the companies that I talk to are grabbing leads, and tossing them to sales, and that is it. Companies are only starting to realize that there are much more effective ways to proceed that will yield higher results and improve the ultimate goal - increase revenues and contribute to growth.

Some of this is fairly simple to evaluate:

1. When your target markets search for your company -- do you come up in the search results? If not, there is work to be done -- because 80% of customers surveyed said they found their vendor, not the other way around. So either you will work to come up naturally given your high priority search terms, or you will use Paid Search strategies to put you on those pages. A combination of both is optimal.
(note: there are a lot of ways to get yourself optimized -- whether that's through a single site, or a microsite strategy, blog, etc), the key is to ensure that you are optimized.

2. Do you have relevant and engaging content at your site once a prospect finds you? Do you have eBooks, whitepapers for download, or webinars to attend that will enable you to capture lead interest? Can you easily manage the content and lead capture forms at your site?

3. Once you capture a lead, do you send them other relevant materials and track their response so you can determine whether they are more likely to be sales ready, or continue to nurture them until they fit the "sales ready" profile?

4. Do you have a way to easily segment your leads into their interest areas so they receive messages from you that are relevant and interesting to them? Can you easily create the drip campaigns so this is easy to accomplish?

If you have that sort of an approach laid out, then conversations with vendors, or free trials that you can utilize will provide you with the information you need to understand which vendor will deliver what you need, and which vendor will provide the best "bang-for-the-buck" given how you want to drive your efforts.

Lead Nurturing and Niche Marketing - More Cost Effective?

In the world of Lead Nurturing, the goal is to build relationships with your leads so when they are ready to buy, they pick your organization.  At a minimum, you want to be considered and have intelligence that will help your sales folks close the deal.

In this blog, I've talked a lot about being relevant in your lead nurturing efforts.  Now there is growing evidence that being relevant and targeting your audience to their interests is also more cost effective.

Marketing Sherpa's "Online Advertising 2008: What Works, What Doesn't and Why" report, shows that niche marketers don't spend as much as mass marketers.  In the companies surveyed, the niche marketers spent as little as $9,000 in a month.  None of the mass marketers surveyed spent as little, with one-third spending as much as $1 million in a month!

eMarketer.com put together a chart that depicts the amount the US Marketers spent on online marketing by target audience in February 2008, by the respondents to the Marketing Sherpa report, which shows the following:

Niche B2B Target: spending between $10,000-99,000 constitutes 41.3% of the niche marketers.
General B2B Target: spending same amount, constitutes 7.1% of the general B2B marketers.

Contrast this with spending between $100K - 999K:

Niche B2B Target: 21.3%
General B2B Target: 64.3%

As I wrote my blog post, "Marketing's New Currency: Influence" - the ability to target relevant messages is the emerging necessity.  It's no longer about blasting to as many eyeballs as possible, it's about targeting and relevance: sending a relevant message to a targeted audience.

With the cost of paid search rising as more companies engage in those efforts, the ability to target, segment, and provide relevant messaging will distinguish the successful and effective organizations from the rest of the pack.  75% of marketers will use behavioral targeting in 2008, up from 64% in 2007.  My question remains: What do you do after you get the lead?  How do you continue to market to them? Does your ongoing marketing consider your lead's behavior and interests?