Technology companies increasingly recognize the value of adding lead-nurturing activities to their marketing mix. The purpose of lead nurturing is to stay top-of-mind and help buyers through a purchase process that often involves considerable upfront research over a long time period—and engaging with sales reps late in the process. However, many technology companies engage in lead nurturing as if were a one-off campaign. This approach can lead to a disconnect between what marketing provides and what buyers need.
What Companies Do Right
When I work with technology companies who are running lead-nurturing campaigns, it’s clear that they’ve done their homework.
Since different people tend to absorb information in different ways, these companies provide information resources using different media. For example, they may try to reach people initially through a mix of calls/voice mail, direct mail and email. And their informational offers will include a mix of industry research reports, white papers, webinars, videos, case studies, datasheets, brochures, and even podcasts.
These companies also do a great job of providing information that’s appropriate for buyers at different stages in the buying process. These campaigns progress from offering educational or thought-leadership content to materials discussing the company’s product and its benefits to case studies that prove the company’s claims to online demos that help the buyer evaluate alternative solutions. Often, companies provide multiple offers for each touch; for instance, an email will offer both a thought-leadership white paper and a video that discusses a similar topic for people with different learning styles.
Where Companies Can Improve
While the information does address the learning styles and informational needs of buyers, typical lead nurturing campaigns take place over a relatively short period of time—often four to eight weeks, depending on the complexity of the campaign.
Yet the buying process takes place over many months or even years. A lead-nurturing process that extends only over a month or two is not nearly long enough to keep in touch with buyers who are not yet ready to take the next step. In order to keep in touch with these same prospects, companies may resort to a series of campaigns, but that approach can be confusing as they jump back and forth between the various steps of the buying process in the different campaigns.
A better approach is for marketers to design lead-nurturing programs that take into account the length of the typical buying process for their products, prepare a number of touches for each step of the buying processes, and allow use of an automated system that allows prospects to select which types of material they wish to see in the next installment and at what interval they’d like to see it.
Lead-Nurturing Campaign Resources
Many excellent resources are available to help marketers design lead-nurturing programs. The granddaddy of these tools is Brian Carroll’s book, “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.”
Additional online resources include:
Ardath Albee’s “Design Nurturing Programs to Drive Sales”
Marketo’s “The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing”
What has your company done to nurture leads over the full length of your customers’ buying process?
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