You have probably heard a lot about lead nurturing and its related techniques. Marketing discussions are abuzz with lead nurturing processes, best practices and its advantages. But, the components of lead nurturing are as varied as the concept itself. This articleprovides introduces you to the basic concepts of lead nurturing and provides insights into the lead nurturing process so that you can create a unique lead nurturing process that suits you and your company the best.

1. LEAD NURTURING – QUESTIONS
ANSWERED

2. Executive Summary
You have probably heard a lot about lead nurturing and its related techniques. Marketing
discussions are abuzz with lead nurturing processes, best practices and its advantages. But, the
components of lead nurturing are as varied as the concept itself. This whitepaper provides
introduces you to the basic concepts of lead nurturing and provides insights into the lead
nurturing process so that you can create a unique lead nurturing process that suits you and your
company the best.
What is lead nurturing?
Educate, Converge, Convert…
Lead nurturing is the process of educating your leads, gradually nudging them towards your
company as they are about to make a purchase decision and finally, pass on the lead to your sales
team for conversion.
Does your company need lead nurturing?
The answer is yes.
Every year your company spends a sizable amount on demand generation efforts. These include
e-mail campaigns, promotions, tradeshows and so on. But, have you noticed what happens to the
leads that flow-into your database as a result of these activities? In most companies, these leads
are passed on to sales, 80% of which are often dropped by sales for being unqualified. In reality,
the dropped leads are just not ready to buy yet, but most of them do eventually make a purchase.
Lead nurturing will help your company convert a majority of those 80% leads into sales.
How does lead nurturing help?
Simple…it puts you on the same side as your lead.
The traditional marketing model discussed above focuses on demand generation. Marketing 2.0
is all about interaction. B2B buyers are gathering information about sellers and the options
available to them, through various means such as the web searches, peer review, social media,
internet research etc. However, these buyers don’t wish to be contacted by the seller until they
are in the last few stages of the sales cycle. In such scenario, how do you make your presence felt
without being obtrusive? This is where lead nurturing helps. Engaging in lead nurturing is
different from engaging in a demand generation campaign, as the former allows you to become
an ally of the prospect by handholding them through the learning and decision-making steps that
they go through before making a purchase. In a B2B environment, where the stakes are high
behind every purchase decision, becoming an ally or a trusted partner increases your chances of
closing a deal.

3. Is there a specific lead nurturing formula that you can follow?
The answer is no.
While lead nurturing best practices have been established, new lead nurturing techniques are
created every day. As the term denotes, lead nurturing is all about the leads—the prospects. So,
the process of nurturing leads is as unique as the leads themselves. What works for one set of
leads may not work for the other. You have to study your business, its prospects, operating
environment and then pick the lead nurturing processes that work best for your company. In fact,
some companies have more than one lead nurturing program in place, depending upon its target
audience.
What are the main components of a lead nurturing process?
Marketing-Sales alignment, competent lead scoring model, automation
Lead nurturing requires a seamless integration between the marketing and sales processes of an
organization. Every demand generation campaign, all the marketing and sales collateral, every
interaction that the marketing team has with the prospect must be in conjunction with the sales
team’s objectives. Marketing must groom the leads even if they are not ready to buy, educate
them about the company’s offerings and just when the leads are about to make a purchase
decision, transfer them to sales for further follow-up. However, this transition should be so
smooth and glitch-free that the prospects don’t have the slightest clue that they were interacting
with two separate departments in the company. Any jerk as a cause of misalignment between
marketing and sales can cause the company to fall off the prospect’s list of preferred vendors.
Not all leads develop equal interest in your offering. That is why lead scoring becomes
important. Lead scoring is a key element of the lead nurturing process, which allows you to
categorize your leads according to their engagement levels. Most lead scoring models have
multiple dimensions to them. For example they should be able to gauge prospect’s interest levels
based on various elements such as prospect attributes, behavior, Prospect Company attributes
etc. Like in the case of lead nurturing, there’s no single lead scoring model that can be adopted
by all. The lead scoring model would change depending on numerous factors such as industry,
business environment, prospect segments, company size etc, thus demanding custom lead
scoring models. To develop a powerful lead scoring model, marketing and sales have to work in
tandem and define who would be the ideal prospect for the company. The next step would be to
assign scores to each of those attributes which will finally add up to generate the prospect score.
Most companies have lead-scoring models in place, but the challenge is to keep them updated at
all times. It is recommended that you review your company lead scoring model from time to time
in light of changing business environment. For example; suppose Massey motors, a company
manufacturing small segment cars, ventures into manufacturing SUVs. Massey’s lead scoring
model would have to be updated with respect to the new prospect segment for SUVs. Constant
review and update of the company’s lead scoring model is a great way to set up a reliable lead
scoring model to base the organization’s lead nurturing efforts upon.
As an indispensible part of the lead nurturing process automation not only integrates marketing
and sales and but also plays a key role in the success of your company’s lead scoring model.

4. Automation bridges the gaps between your marketing and sales processes, thus minimizing
chances of lead leakage. It also helps you connect the lead scoring process with your company’s
lead nurturing programs, thus allowing you to design and implement elaborate lead nurturing
campaigns that are customized to the preferences of your target segments. Automation can help
your company map its content to appropriate prospect profiles, thus enabling you to provide the
prospect with relevant content, which is the base of any lead nurturing campaign.
What are the characteristics of a successful lead nurturing campaign?
Value adding, interesting & dynamic
Buyers today look to educate themselves before making a purchase decision. They will welcome
any communication from you, which adds value to their quest for information. At the same time,
today’s B2B buyers are wary of blatant marketing messages and overzealous salespersons. So,
the aim is to ensure that your lead nurturing materials are actually informative and value adding,
and not just poorly concealed marketing promotions.
The success of a lead nurturing campaign depends on its ability to hold the audiences’ attention.
Touch upon areas that are of concern to them and personalize your communication with the
audience. Personalization has to be at various levels to be effective. These include industry level
personalization, demographics based personalization, prospect behavior based personalization
and personalization based on prospect attributes or company attributes.
Lead nurturing campaigns have to be dynamic in order to be effective. That means as your
prospect moves along the sales cycle, the lead nurturing program should also change
accordingly. For example, if a prospect’s behavior indicates that they are very close to making
the purchase, then, such prospect should be smoothly handed over to sales and need not go
through the entire lead nurturing process. Similarly, some prospects may have to be transferred
from one lead nurturing program to another depending on their behavior. Automating the lead
nurturing process will allow you to set triggers and events based on which such transitions can
take place automatically.
Lead nurturing provides your company with the opportunity to tap leads that are otherwise
wasted
Lead nurturing helps you cut costs that are associated with acquiring a new customer
Effective lead nurturing campaigns are informative, value adding and dynamic
Marketing-Sales alignment and a competent lead scoring model are essentials of a successful
lead nurturing campaign
Automation helps simplify and lend efficiency to the lead nurturing process by allowing for
event based triggers and personalization

5. For the past 14 years, MindMatrix has been aligning sales and marketing
functions for over 20,000 sales and marketing professionals ac ross 200
companies, from diverse verticals through its innovative sales and
marketing software and solutions.
Unique to the industry, MindMatrix offers Next Generation Marketing
Automation software on a single unified platform for Sales and Marketing.
Our solutions bring about a seamless integration of the 2 functions helping
our clients derive the maximum benefit from their investment in marketin g
and sales automation.
Contact me today to know more about how MindMatrix solutions can help
you align your marketing and sales processes for improved results.