Blogs are fantastic inbound marketing tools to acquire new leads and prospects. Email is a fantastic tool to nurture and sustain these relationships. In this Automated Lead Nurturing Primer, learn how marketers are combining these two tactics to not only acquire new leads but nurture them into closed business. Statistics show that marketers using corporate blogging as part of their social media mix improve search engine results and generate a higher volume of targeted leads. So, now that you’re capturing all that traffic, what can you do to cultivate them and turn them into closed business? Download this free eBook now to learn how you can nurture the leads that come in from business blogging, with a step-by-step guide to turning those prospects into actual sales.

1. Beyond Business Blogging:
Getting Started with Automated Lead Nurturing
A marketing automation primer from
Right On Interactive
136 E. Market Street, Suite 400
Indianapolis, IN 46204
www.rightoninteractive.com
Copyright 2010 Right On Interactive 1

2. Beyond Business Blogging: Getting Started
with Automated Lead Nurturing
Blogs are fantastic inbound marketing tools to acquire new leads
and prospects. Email is a fantastic tool to nurture and sustain
these relationships.
In this Automated Lead Nurturing Primer, learn how marketers
are combining these two tactics to not only acquire new leads
but nurture them into closed business.
Statistics show that marketers using corporate blogging as part
of their social media mix improve search engine results and
generate a higher volume of targeted leads.
Now that we’re capturing these leads through our business
blog, how do we best cultivate them to become closed
business and ultimately to become brand ambassadors?
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3. Customer Lifecycle Marketing
To answer that question, let’s step back a moment and look at a
framework for customer lifecycle marketing. This is a strategy
that looks to increase customer revenue and profitability over
the lifetime of the relationship. In other words, we’re looking to
maximize each customer’s lifetime value to our organization.
Customer lifecycle marketing recognizes that buyers move
through stages in their relationship with a company – from the
first contact they make with us, to the point where they are
enthusiastic advocates.
At its most basic level, the customer lifecycle is divided into two
distinct phases: Acquisition and Retention. From a relationship
standpoint, you’re either engaging leads or engaging customers
in a continuous dialogue throughout the life of the relationship.
Within each phase, there are a number of stages people move
through as their relationship develops. The framework shown
here is typical for a business-to-business company; whereas, in a
consumer business, the lifecycle framework might look very
different.
Let’s look at the six stages in this example.
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4. Initiate Stage
A person in the Initiate Stage has interacted with the company – Initiate – A constituent is identified or
maybe identifying themselves; maybe not. Our objective is to initially engages with the company.
engage them further.
Develop Stage
If we’re successful, they move to the Develop Stage. Based on Develop – Based on their behavior, etc.,
their behavior, demographic data, their actions, timing, or lead out-bound communications continue
score, our outbound communications are tailored with relevant
messages. to engage the constituent.
Convert Stage
The Convert Stage represents the buying cycle. Marketing Convert – The constituent moves into an
transitions these “sales ready” leads to the field.
Communications center on the buying process to support the active buying cycle.
lead’s evaluation and selection activities.
Download the Whitepaper
7 Steps to Effective
Customer Lifecycle
Communications
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5. Adopt Stage
In the Adopt Stage, we’re focused on helping new customers Adopt – The new customer begins to use
report success early and often. or consume the product or service.
Value Stage
Communications in the Value Stage center on maximizing the
value customers receive with our products, services, and Value – The customer gains tangible
support. value through the product or service.
Advocate Stage
And then we reach the pinnacle when the customer becomes a
brand ambassador for us. In the Advocate Stage, we’re engaging Advocate – The customer actively
them further in the brand and in promoting the brand to others. promotes the company and products
to friends and colleagues.
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6. Visually Manage the Lifecycle
Customer lifecycle marketing is a journey through these stages.
And what better way to stay on course than with a map?
This is a Lifecycle Map, a screen shot from our ROI Customer
Lifecycle Marketing product. Individuals are mapped on two
dimensions: Their engagement and their target audience
profile. The Lifecycle Map gives you a bird’s eye view on
whether you’re engaging the right people and the degree to
which each is engaged.
Lifecycle marketing is all about engaging people and advancing
them forward in the lifecycle. The Lifecycle Map is an important
tool for campaign planning.
More than a dashboard, the Lifecycle Map is a dynamic
campaign manager, enabling marketers to quickly create target
audience segments for use in multi-channel marketing
campaigns.
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7. From Blog Conversion to Lead Nurturing
In this primer, we’re focusing on converting blog leads to closed
business. In context of the Lifecycle Map, we’re talking about
the Develop Stage where we cultivate leads until the point there
is an active sales opportunity.
In this example, we’re looking at a demonstration company
called Front Office Plus. They publish several blogs that
correspond to groups of keywords. When this person searched
a keyword phrase related to rental office furniture, they found
this blog near the top of the organic search engine results.
Once the person completes a registration form, they are
automatically entered as a Lead in the Front Office Plus CRM
system. This Lead’s Campaign History is also updated with the
campaign tactic associated with the rental furniture blog.
View the online demo of ROI
Customer Lifecycle Marketing
automation software
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8. In a lot of companies, what happens next is that a lead
qualification team reaches out to the prospect. If the prospect
meets the qualification criteria, they are converted to a Sales
Opportunity. Often, these folks are removed from all marketing
communications. Unfortunately, if the opportunity fizzles, a lot
of companies don’t have a process for automatically reclaiming
or recycling leads for further nurturing.
If the lead qualification team is not able to qualify the prospect,
they usually end up on a newsletter list, which is typically a
monthly, quarterly, or even a sporadic “group” communication
rather than individualized.
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9. What should happen is an automated drip campaign that
cultivates each individual with dynamic content and cadence,
and it should automatically recycle inactive sales leads.
This type of nurture campaign can be time-based as you see
here.
Or, it can be response-driven, where, based on how the lead
responds to each step, a new path or paths are taken, perhaps at
a different cadence.
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10. The outcome of multi-step marketing campaigns is significant
over the results of those with a single-step. Of the several
thousand incoming web leads that completed six steps of one of
our own nurture campaigns, the engagement with this group
quadrupled over what it would have been in a single-step
campaign. Overall, we’re seeing a 20 percent response rate.
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11. Returning to our friends at Front Office Plus, they track the
conversion results for each blog in their CRM system. They can
quickly see the response to each blog and ultimately the number
of sales opportunities that result.
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12. Once Tom submits the registration form, he enters an
automated nurture campaign.
Using the lead scoring software capability, Marketing transfers to
Sales the leads that exceed an agreed upon threshold. This
alignment with sales ensures that the highest quality leads are
converted.
For those that aren’t ready for an active sales cycle, we continue
to cultivate. Any sales opportunities that go inactive are
automatically picked up again by the nurture campaign. The
value of this is that without any additional resources or effort,
leads move through the campaign at an individualized pace, and
can exit and enter the communication flow as appropriate…No
manual list management, no manual uploading of lists into the
email system, no reliance on Sales to change statuses on Contact
records when they go inactive.
Let’s look at how the system can automatically recycle sales
leads.
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13. Recycle Sales Leads: One
When Tom responds to the “Nurture 2” communication, he
triggers the lead scoring threshold, and Marketing passes the
Lead to sales for follow up. In the nurture campaign, each Lead
receives “Nurture 3” fourteen days after they receive “Nurture
2.”
Recycle Sales Leads: Two
We want to ensure that “Nurture 3” only goes out to each
person if there are a reasonable number of days since the last
touch. We configure the “Nurture 3” step to check for other
communications within the previous 7 days, although this can be
configured for as much time as you want.
Recycle Sales Leads: Three
The sales rep logs their phone call and follow-up email in the
system… Both are outside the yellow zone, so “Nurture 3” is still
on track to drop on day 14.
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14. Recycle Sales Leads: Four
But, a few days later, the salesperson connects with the
prospect.
Recycle Sales Leads: Five
The system automatically pushes out the delivery of “Nurture 3”
another 7 days.
Recycle Sales Leads: Six
As long as there are no further touches logged within the new
yellow zone, “Nurture 3” drops on day 21.
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15. Configuring each step in the nurture campaign is a
matter of a few clicks.
Step 1
Within ROI, we select a segmentation source, which can be from
any combination of one or more databases, whether it be your
CRM system, your email provider, a web analytics system, or any
other, including the native marketing database in ROI. In this
case, our segmentation source is Salesforce.com Reports.
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16. Step 2
We create the segment, or bucket as we call it, by selecting
Salesforce Reports to include people or exclude them. Here, we
are including a report that contains all of today’s candidates
eligible to receive Nurture 6. To avoid over-communication, we
exclude people whose last activity or last campaign was within
the past week.
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17. Step 3
Finally, we configure this segment’s schedule. At the top, we
select the segment we just created… indicate the action, which
in this case is sending an email from our email provider… and
then schedule it to run daily at 10 a.m.
Automatically each day, ROI updates the segment with the group
of people who qualify to receive Nurture 6 on that day, and
sends the Nurture 6 email to them. With ROI, this action could
be configured to send a communication through channels other
than email, such as sending a voice message, a text message, a
fax, or sending the list to a print fulfillment center for direct
mail.
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18. Improve Marketing Effectiveness
By automating multi-step nurture campaigns, you are able to
dramatically improve your business results. Programmed
campaigns engage more people more often and enable you to
convert leads to the sales team at the right time.
They allow you to run automated “lights-out” campaigns that
communicate with each lead individually at a cadence that
matches their level of interest using highly relevant, personalized
content.
Sales and Marketing work as a coordinated team, ensuring the
lead management process is consistent and effective while also
ensuring that inactive sales leads continue their journey in the
customer lifecycle.
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19. Lead Nurturing Example
By way of summary, I’d like to illustrate two examples of how
marketers can use ROI to automate multi-step campaigns
throughout the customer lifecycle.
The first is a healthcare provider that drives leads through their
website. They nurture two types of leads – those that have had
a personal consultation, but haven’t made a decision, and those
who have not yet requested a consultation. The first campaign
targets the segment of prospective clients who have not had a
personal consultation. It includes a telephone touch and a
newsletter series discussing nutrition, exercise, and success
stories of past clients.
The other campaign targets the segment of people who have
had a consultation. It includes a series of informational articles
that address common fears and objections. Those who commit
to the service can then automatically receive the appropriate
faxed forms and on the day prior to the service, receive an
automated voice reminder message.
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20. Customer Nurturing Example
The second illustration is Compendium. This is an example of a
sophisticated customer communication program in the Adopt
Stage. They call it, “Content Quest.” This 8-week campaign is
designed to help new clients reach a critical mass of blog posts
in the shortest time possible. Account administrators are on one
track; the bloggers are on another where they receive tutorials
and blogging tips 3-times a week.
Since implementing Content Quest, new customers are reaching
critical mass in record time. On average, clients are seeing an
increase in posts per week of over 40 percent compared to all
customers.
Content Quest is an excellent model for on-boarding new clients.
Compendium is systematically helping everyone get the most
out of the product and helping them gain the momentum they
need for a successful blogging program.
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21. Next Step
If you would like to start a dialogue, feel free to contact me
directly. And if you’d like to read our new whitepaper, visit our
homepage, at rightoninteractive.com.
Richard Cunningham
Vice President, Marketing
About Right On Interactive
ROI Customer Lifecycle Marketing software helps you win more rcunningham@RightOnInteractive.com
customers, retain them, and increase repeat sales. Unlike
conventional marketing automation solutions which typically 317.225.5868
focus on lead acquisition, ROI focuses on the individual buyer
and how you can effectively communicate with them regardless
of where they are in their relationship with the organization – New whitepaper
from initial contact to brand advocacy.
Action Guide to Lead Management
The patent-pending technology and methodology behind the
ROI Lifecycle Map™ dynamically charts each buyer in the
Success
customer lifecycle based on their profile and engagement level www.rightoninteractive.com
in each distinct lifecycle stage. As a result, ROI uniquely enables
you to visually identify and act on opportunities to cultivate
deeper, more engaged relationships. Solutions in the ROI suite
include campaign management, email marketing, lead scoring,
lead nurturing, customer nurturing, multi-channel marketing,
and sales and marketing systems integration.
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