Beanstalkdata's Blog

Marketing for Success – Lead Nurturing Part 2: The Content Phase (or “Pain Funnel”)

beanstalkdata — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:38:30 +0000

Executing a successful customer acquisition campaign can be one of the more challenging tasks that any marketing professional may face. In part two of this series we will examine the second phase of a lead nurturing campaign, the content phase, or as I like to call it, the “Pain Funnel.”

As you will recall, phase one of our campaign was the “branding phase.” Leads were introduced to our brand: the logo, colors, the focus of our business and possibly a mascot (or, for large companies, something they sponsor).

Now that we have warmed the leads up to our brand, we are ready to educate them with some content. We can accomplish this through a variety of methods:

Information regarding a specific product or service
White papers
Case studies
Blog entries
Other educational content

Some of you may be thinking: Hey, this list is pretty obvious, what gives? How is this process any different from my drip marketing campaign? The difference lies in the way the educational material is delivered to the lead. As I mentioned in part one of this series, a traditional drip marketing campaign uses attrition to stay front of mind with a lead and wear them down over time. In our approach we will create a “pain funnel” and attempt to elicit a response from the lead.

The pain funnel works like this:

First sit down and identify 6 pains that your typical customer will experience. (You could also do 3 and just come up with two solutions for each). Then select a white paper, case study or description of a product or service that you sell that solves this pain. Create six emails that clearly state the pain in the subject line and opening paragraph. Then place a paragraph or two below the pain that introduces the solution. But don’t give everything away. Instead, provide a link to a landing page, blog or your website where your lead will discover the rest of the solution. Now we are ready to load up the pain funnel.

Each month, over the next 6 months, your leads will receive an email that addresses a pain that they might experience. If they identify with a pain they are very likely to respond and read about a possible solution. Those that respond will be identified through lead scoring (we will talk about this in a future article) and selected for calls and direct mail. Depending on your budget, you can introduce direct mail simultaneously with the calls or use the calls and additional emails to select only those with the most interest for direct mail. It is important that the branding phase occurred first (see article one) so that the emails have a greater likelihood of being opened resulting in more pain-solutions in the funnel.

By introducing multiple pains-solutions through emails, calling those who respond to reinforce the pains, and finally utilizing direct mail to drive the point home, you are building the “Pain Funnel.” As more pain and solutions are fed into the funnel those that need your services or products will begin to self identify.

In the next part of this series we will discuss lead scoring and automating this process.

Wishing you success in marketing,

Gilbert Bailey

Gilbert Bailey is with Beanstalk Data, a really cool marketing automation company, based in Charlotte, NC. He can be reached at 800-892-3997 or gilbert@beanstalkdata.com - http://www.beanstalkdata.com

Marketing for Success – Lead Nurturing Part 1: The Branding Phase

beanstalkdata — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:06:21 +0000

Executing a successful customer acquisition campaign can be one of the more challenging tasks that any marketing professional may face. In this series we will examine how lead nurturing, completed in phases, can be employed to acquire new customers.

Lead nurturing is a process of automating contact, or “touch points”, with a prospective customer over time. You might be asking isn’t that drip marketing? Not really. A phased lead nurturing campaign has considerably more depth than traditional drip marketing.

Leads are acquired through lists, trade shows, the web and the like. With traditional drip marketing, you begin touching the leads each month with something that has your logo on it (and everybody receives the same message). The goal is to stay front of mind and wear the leads down through attrition. Your sales people begin, day one, calling down through the vast list of leads. Calls are prioritized (if at all) by list segmentation.

Lead nurturing on the other hand is a process where leads will be warmed up before ever being turned over to sales. Rather than attrition, the process of staying front of mind with a lead is thoughtful and serves a greater purpose. The nurturing process itself will prioritize the calls, determine the messages a prospect will see and ultimately determine the amount of marketing dollars spent on a lead.

Phase one, “the branding phase”, consists of leads receiving email or print material from you which speaks to your brand. These “touch points” should familiarize the lead with your name, logo / mascot, type of widgets or services (broadly described) that you offer. Think of it in terms of the following: would you rather a sales person call a lead and say this is Joe with company ABC and the lead says AB Who? Never heard of that…what in the world is AB-what was that? Or would you rather the call went – yes Joe, I have heard of ABC or Joe, aren’t you the people who sell widgets XYZ? The sales call is one step ahead if the branding phase has occurred.

This phase can last from 3 to 6 months depending on your market space. Two things will happen to leads during this phase:

Leads that respond quickly to your branding message will be pulled automatically through “lead scoring” (which we will talk about in another series), given to sales for an immediate call and then placed into phase two (the content-educational phase) – no more phase one marketing dollars will be spent …or…
They will complete phase one (the branding phase) and then flow into phase two (the content-educational phase) without receiving a call. These prospects will receive all of phase one’s marketing dollars

In the next part of this series we will discuss phase two: the content-educational phase…

Wishing you success in marketing,

Gilbert Bailey

Treating your website as an asset

beanstalkdata — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:46:03 +0000

Are you and others in your marketing department frustrated by the lack of available funds for your website? If so you may want to change the conversation during your website’s budgeting process. Ask those involved in reviewing your website’s budget to step back for a moment and think about the following:

Should your website be treated as an asset or an expense?

Your company owns building(s) that sit on property you own…your website sits on a domain that you own.
Your building requires utilities, upkeep and the occasional remodel-you might even need to build a new building…your website requires hosting fees, upkeep to content and the occasional remodel, new design or even a new site.
Buildings are sold as an asset, often for a profit…websites are generally sold and often for a profit.
You spend considerable dollars on getting people to your store and having a great environment for them while they are there…you spend a lot of dollars on driving people to your website and their experience while there.

I could go on and on with direct comparisons but let’s take this conversation to the next level. Today’s consumer is an educated consumer. They are more likely to visit your on-line store and conduct some research versus calling a sales person or visiting your location. Why would you spend so much on your building, lobby and fixtures to appeal to customers when many more will be turned off by your out of date website and never make it to your physical building?

To illustrate this point think about a college recruiting students. Let’s say college ABC has a strong architectural program, a division leading soccer program and has just finished an exhausting 5 year capital campaign to build a new student gym that would rival a downtown private health club. There is quite a bit of content about the new health club on the development (alumni – fundraising) section of the website and only a small news release about the opening on the main site. The soccer team’s page is fully updated. The faculty are swamped with all they do and update their pages every few years.

As a prospective student I visit college ABC’s website (main section – not the alumni section) along with three others. I pick college XYZ because their site tells of an awesome architecture program, internships with award winning graduates and their state of the art work out facility. I ponder working out in the facility while playing for their equally good soccer team…get the point? College ABC had all of the same elements but they did a poor job in telling their story on-line.

You need to turn the thinking around:

You budget, build a building, place it on your balance sheet and depreciate the asset…budget, build a website, place it on your balance sheet and depreciate the asset.
Now that you have your new building you budget for utilities, upkeep and pay your taxes…you pay for hosting, an internet connection, content refresh and pay for your security certificates and domain renewals.
You spend marketing dollars dressing up your building and driving people to the location…you spend marketing dollars dressing up and driving people to your website.
You budget in 5 year cycles for big ticket items, like roof, a/c, repairs, new editions etc… you budget in 5 year cycles for major overhauls, remodels of the website or leveraging new technology like the social media and the like.

The bottom line is that your website will have more “foot traffic” than your physical building(s) will ever have. Shouldn’t your website have equal treatment during the budget process?

Wishing you success in marketing,

Gilbert Bailey

Thinking of cutting your ad budget?

beanstalkdata — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:26:47 +0000

In a famous study of U.S. recessions, McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies from 1980-1985. The results showed that firms that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth, both during the recession and for the following three years than those that eliminated or decreased advertising.

By 1985, sales of companies that were aggressive recession advertisers had risen 256% over those that didn’t keep up their advertising.

Integrate Sales and Marketing for Increased Revenues

beanstalkdata — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:30:29 +0000

We hear a lot about how marketing and sales should work hand-in-hand. But what does it mean to integrate sales and marketing efforts in your business? And is it really worth the effort?

The average business uses several different marketing tools such as participation in trade shows, e-mail, direct mail, company Web sites and so on. Similarly, businesses utilize various sales tools including telephone calls, personal visits and contact management or customer relationship management software. The use of multiple tools often results in valuable information that is useful to both marketing and sales but is separated and not shared efficiently or effectively.

Integration occurs when the data collected through these marketing efforts becomes part of the sales tools being utilized and the data collected through the sales tools is fed back to your marketing machine. This cross-pollination of data enables sales and marketing to work in harmony towards a common goal – increased revenues.

Several studies, including one by the Aberdeen Group (The Convergence of Sales and Marketing, December 2007) show double-digit increases in bid-to-win ratio, lead conversion, average revenue per account and return on marketing investment as a direct result of integration between marketing and sales technologies. The challenge is figuring out how to accomplish integration in a way that is relevant and easy for people in marketing and sales to use.

Meeting the challenge: tips for successful integration

Decide what you want to accomplish. Do you want to increase qualified leads and reduce the time it takes to close a sale? Whatever your objectives, list them and prioritize them so you can eventually measure the success of your integration efforts.

Identify the data to be shared. What marketing information does your sales force need to meet stated objectives. What sales data should be entered into the marketing system to better target your audience?

Automate wherever possible. Automatic communication systems that tie in to your current customer relationship management (CRM) system are designed react to pre-defined triggers by sending appropriate marketing material to the potential customer. This is done by establishing a set of business rules that act on pre-assigned criteria to push out a desired piece of mail, e-mail or telesales call to the prospect, in many cases within days of the trigger. Lead prioritization tools can automate the flow of leads from marketing to sales. The biggest gains from automation are seen in improved return on marketing investment that is driven by better response rates to marketing campaigns. More efficient prospecting is achieved as automated processes provide a vehicle for continuously gathering, testing and refining data increasingly accurate customer information.

Immediacy Is Key to Marketing Automation

beanstalkdata — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:29:24 +0000

The technological innovations which most affect small businesses’ marketing automation are those which enhance and aid immediacy and relevance. In today’s marketplace, your product is relevant to your customer base now, not two months beforehand or afterwards. In order to successfully implement marketing automation within your business, you need to consider relevance and immediacy when developing a marketing and delivery plan. Keep the following tips in mind when you do so.

Keep Your Database Active.
In order to deliver immediate products, updates, and best practices to your clientele, you need to maintain an active customer information database. By integrating your marketing strategy with an such a database, you can deliver marketing materials that speak to customer needs of the moment. Being able to meet your customers’ immediate needs as well as their long-term needs makes you relevant in a way that helps to ensure loyalty and future sales.

Strike While the Iron is Hot
Now that your customer information database is an active, living part of your marketing strategy, you need to make sure that immediate needs are met immediately. The longer you wait to reach a prospect – or even a regular customer – the more likely it is that they will find an alternative. After all, if you’re a loyal Jack-in-the-Box patron but your local restaurant isn’t serving food right now, you’ll probably find another fast food option. You’re hungry now. So are prospects and customers.

Target and Focus
Today’s email and communications technology allow you to send targeted messages at specific times rather than generic mass-mailings on a periodic basis. With the proper database automation, you can pick and choose which marketing materials to send to which prospects and clients, and at the perfect time. Why send your entire catalog if you know that John Q. Customer wants a specific product within that catalog? Why not just send the item description? New technology makes it cost-effective to send out over a hundred pieces of material on Monday, less than a dozen on Tuesday, and more than 500 on Wednesday. At the same time, use your database research to alter the message based on what you know about each customer or prospect.

Automate and Walk Away
Many businesses make the mistake of continually fiddling with their marketing automation processes if results are not perfect instantaneously. The important thing is that you automate tasks which can be handled by a database solution more efficiently and effectively than by employees. This will free up man-hours, reduce costs and restore productivity. Once you’ve automated your database, walk away. Let it do the job you programmed it to do. Database programs self-update, so allow yours to do so. Modify it on a periodic basis in order to ensure effectiveness, and use your new resources – both temporal and financial – to grow your business.

A steady drip can result in a flood of new business

beanstalkdata — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:32:24 +0000

You receive a personalized postcard from a local office supply company, glance at it and put it aside. A couple of weeks later, you receive an email from that same company notifying you of special pricing on copy paper. You just purchased enough paper for six months so you forget about it. A personalized brochure arrives in the mail the following month inviting you to view additional information on the office supply company Web site via a Personalized URL. You decide to check it out. After you view the site, a representative of the company calls you to thank you for visiting the site and leaves her contact information should you decide you’d like to purchase office supplies from them. An informative electronic newsletter arrives from the office supply company two months later, followed by another postcard with a coupon for a 25 percent discount on copy paper. Your paper supply is running low and so you purchase from the office supply company that has been continually touching base with you over the past dozen or so weeks.

This method of sending out planned and sequenced marketing messages over an extended period of time is affectionately known as “drip” marketing. The theory behind drip marketing is that repetition and a slow building of brand awareness is a powerful way to build sales.
A prospect might not be considering purchasing life insurance on the day he receives your first postcard. But if a second, fourth or tenth communication happens to hit at a time when the prospect is planning for his financial future, chances are good that he will take action and call you. A combination of direct mail, emails, newsletters, telephone calls, blogs, podcasts and video clips can effectively reach a prospect in a meaningful way about a product or service they need at any particular point in time.

Planning a drip campaign requires understanding your audience and how to best reach it. Decide who will receive communications, which communications channels you will use, in what sequence and frequency as well as specific messaging for each communication.

Be creative and deliver value. Relevant messages delivered in a creative way will work best to capture the attention of your audience. Varying your offers and messaging will also spur interest but be sure your brand is consistent throughout the drip campaign.

Stick with it! Drip marketing works when you use consistent messages distributed on a regular schedule. Consider using an automated marketing system that is simple to execute to ensure the drip continues regardless of how busy you get.

Tracking response to your communications is critical. Be sure to invest in appropriate customer relationship management (CRM) and Web site traffic tracking programs or engage an external marketing services firm to track and report on results.