Allegra Marketing AZ

Savvy organizations are beginning to automate lead nurturing for complex sales.  This process often includes some type of integration with a CRM (customer relationship management software).  By leveraging client data, a marketer can create both rules-based and event-based triggers that will communicate with a client.  This automated communication can be in the form of print, email, text messages or any number of other web based channels.

One example might be in a lead generation/lead nurturing campaign that includes several of these touch points.  Perhaps your campaign will start with a direct mail piece to a prospect that drives them back to a personalized web site where they can take a short survey to determine where they are in the buying cycle.  If they are ready to buy now, the lead can be routed to a sales person.  But if they will not be in the market for another six months, a series of communications can keep the prospect engaged until they are ready to purchase.  This may include channels like a monthly e-newsletter, a two touch direct mail campaign targeted to their area of interest, or electronic invites to a webinar.

A typical lead nurturing strategy should include a lot of different ways to communicate with prospects - a series of letters, emails, voicemails, case studies, success stories, articles, events, white papers, webinars, videos - anything that might be meaningful and informative to your potential customers. Whatever you choose to send to your prospects should be relevant, thought-provoking and consistent.  The strategy you use and the frequency with which you send it will depend on your sales process and the buying cycle of the prospect.

The key to success in this process is to have an automated approach to the process.  By creating these “triggers” that are based on how the prospect interacts with your marketing efforts you can eliminate the need for a lot of involvement from your sales and marketing teams, freeing up valuable time and resources.  By implementing a lead nurturing strategy, your lead generation strategy will realize more qualified leads and build a much more predictable and sustainable sales pipeline. A lost prospect is a lost opportunity. Any one of the prospects that come to your website could be your next biggest client!

For more information about building a lead nurturing strategy, contact Allegra Marketing & Print.

One of the biggest marketing issues in the business-to-business (B2B) space is that clients often have a long and very complex sales cycle. That’s why it is critical to build a good lead nurturing strategy.  This article will provide you with information about creating a successful lead nurturing strategy that why and how to turn leads into qualified buyers.

Lead nurturing is the process of building a relationship with a prospect by initiating dialog that helps to move qualified prospects that are not yet sales-ready, regardless of budget, authority or timing through the sales pipeline. Building a lead nurturing strategy is basically about maintaining consistent and meaningful communication with viable prospects until they are ready to buy.  How do you nurture leads and keep your company at the top of their mind when they’re finally ready to buy?

Unfortunately, many businesses find that their sales and marketing teams are at odds about the quality of leads produced by their lead generation efforts, and lack a defined lead nurturing process.  All too often, the lead is a quality prospect, but they have been identified at a time when they are not ready to buy. Apply too much pressure and the lead will simply move on to another company that makes them feel more comfortable.  Apply too little pressure and the lead will forget about your company altogether.  That’s where lead nurturing comes in. Qualified leads that are not yet ready to buy need to be nurtured, much like a farmer nurtures their crop.  When the lead is “ripe” it can be passed to a sales person to “harvest” the sale.

For more information about building a lead nurturing strategy, contact Allegra Marketing & Print.

What is lead nurturing?

Lead nurturing is basically about consistent and meaningful communication with viable prospects until they are ready to buy.  Lead nurturing is the process of building a relationship with a prospect by initiating dialog that helps to move qualified prospects that are not yet sales-ready, regardless of budget, authority or timing through the sales pipeline.

You see, in order to effectively nurture a lead, they must know who you are, what you do and why they should buy from you. They may gain that information from your website, but you have to keep in mind that they are probably visiting at least 10 other websites for the same (or better) information. By nurturing leads, you can keep your company at the top of the prospect’s mind, give them more information and build a relationship based on trust. Lead nurturing is not about “following-up” every few months to find out if a prospect is “ready to buy yet.”

How to nurture leads?

A typical lead nurturing strategy should include a lot of different ways to communicate with prospects - a series of letters, emails, voicemails, case studies, success stories, articles, events, white papers, webinars, videos - anything that might be meaningful and informative to your potential customers. Whatever you choose to send to your prospects should be relevant, thought-provoking and consistent.  The strategy you use and the frequency with which you send it will depend on your sales process and the buying cycle of the prospect.

Why nurture leads?

Lead nurturing will help your company yield more sales-ready leads, gain higher close ratios and shorten your average sales cycles. By implementing a lead nurturing strategy, your lead generation strategy will realize more qualified leads and build a much more predictable and sustainable sales pipeline. A lost prospect is a lost opportunity. Any one of the prospects that come to your website could be your next biggest client!

For more information about nurturing leads for better sales success, contact Allegra Marketing & Print.

Did you know that most of the prospects generated on your website are not yet ready to talk to a sales person?  In fact, most of them are searching for information and are soft leads at best. This article will provide you with information about creating a successful lead generation strategy that includes nurturing leads and turning them into qualified buyers.

Increasing lead generation success is a top priority for nearly half of marketers in the U.S.  Many marketers generate leads through forms or surveys on their respective websites and unfortunately, up to 95% of those prospects are not yet ready to talk with a sales rep, according to research by Brian Carroll, renowned lead-gen author.

The truth of the matter is that many of your website visitors are just looking for information about your products, your services, your brand or your industry. Perhaps you have an offer of some kind tied to your lead qualification survey and the prospect is simply trying to take advantage of the offer.  Either way, as a marketer or sales rep, you’re stuck with a soft lead at best and it’s hard to know where to go from there.

Well, you should keep in mind that those same prospects could end up buying from you (or your competitors) down the road. The challenge is hanging onto them and using a process called “lead nurturing” until they’re ready to buy.

For more information about nurturing leads for better sales success, contact Allegra Marketing & Print.