subject: Content The Engine That Drives Lead Management [print this page] Content The Engine That Drives Lead Management
More and more companies are starting to use content to drive lead generation, but what about lead management? There is no question that great content is the #1 way to generate leads in today's Internet marketing. But how are you converting these leads into sales?
Many companies are just handing these unqualified leads off to the sales team. Sales may call them the first time, but then may find that it is a waste of their time and then never call again or maybe call when,or if, they have time. We know that initial inquiries become cold within hours. This "one and done" results in poor lead conversion ratios, wasted time and, more importantly, wasted money.
Without an automated lead management program with a well-prepared nurturing plan, prospects can easily lose momentum, become stuck at a stage, and have to drop off. The following is a simple process to help you develop a content-based lead nurturing plan.
Step 1 - Understand Your Prospects What you need to do first is look at the content that these suspects have read/downloaded and look at what it tells you about where they are in the buying cycle. Are they just starting and doing general search, or are they shopping around or, even better, are they ready to buy? By looking at the content, you start to fill in the gaps about who the prospect is, and what they are looking for.
Step 2 - Develop a Strategy From there, you can decide what the next communication is, such as a white paper that maybe takes them from general searching to active shopping. These types of leads are not ideal to hand off to sales until they have been nurtured to an active buying stage. You can use content to interact with prospects; as they consume each step in the process they also demonstrate to you that they are moving down the/their buying process. When you provide them with content that guides them down the buying process, you also position you and your organization as knowledge experts - and makes you the natural choice when they actively enter the buying stage. One of the things I see in a lot of lead nurturing plans is that they jump straight to the close and do not allow prospect to move at their own pace. It's kind of like say "Hello, thanks for meeting me, now can I have your credit card number please". It would never work in person, so why do so many marketers think it would work online?
Step 3 - Build a System You need to develop a system and content that nurtures the prospect. Nurturing is about fostering and developing a relationship. It is not the old "ABC" model of Always Be Closing. If the content your prospects have consumed is general how to information, how likely to you think they want a pushing salesperson bugging them. Instead, share more content with them that moves them along. They have already demonstrated that they do like to consume information in this form, so continue to build on that.
Common Mistakes One of the other things I see a lot of the time is nurturing programs that just send messages on a scripted time line. Meaning, one day after downloading content I get email one, then two days after I get email two and so one, irrelevant of what actions I have taken. This does not match to my or your prospects buying process and causes disconnect. Instead, you need to monitor when they consume that content and then communicate with them the next step in the process. If they do not consume it, that probably means that this prospect is not moving forward and not worth sales peoples time anyways. On the other hand, maybe they take one-step back. If you continue to move forward you again are going to lose a connection with them. By developing a process and system to monitor this you can see these behaviours and then adapt accordingly.
It takes a lot of effort to acquire new and initial relationships. Before deploying that whitepaper, conducting that webinar, or attending that trade show, it only makes sense to first plan the downstream nurturing activities that will maintain prospect momentum as they navigate their buying process with the aid of your content.
Effective lead nurturing takes real effort. If it's not part of well-defined content publishing plan and program, the urgency of immediate activities will overwhelm activities you and you will complete this content engine that is critical to achieve your desired outcomes. It has to become baked into the process, the "this is how we do this." Left to individual discretion, it will seldom occur, and will not happen with the required quality and consistency of a best practice.
To learn more download our free-ebook: How to Convert Inbound Leads into Sales Performance.
