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Lisa Shepherd

You can also intersperse calls from the sales team to add
another dimension to your lead nurturing process.

When a lead is first engaging with your company, it’s important
to confirm that they want to receive communications from
you in the future—the laws are getting more stringent about
this (see Chapter 34—Email Marketing). Once you have
permission to communicate with a lead, you’re able to send
them email updates on product innovations, new installations,
and invitations to webinars and other events. The key to
effective lead nurturing is content. A good program will need
ten to fifteen pieces of content (e-books, white papers,
articles, case studies, etc.) to send to prospects. The system
will indicate who is opening which emails, so you can see
what content is most compelling to prospects and also which
prospects are most engaged with you. Lead nurturing allows
you to intensify your communication with those who appear
closer to a purchase decision than others—for example, if a
lead has opened and read all of your newsletters and attended
the webinar you held last week, they’re likely more qualified
for a sales call than a lead who hasn’t opened your last three
newsletters.

There are a growing number of lead nurturing/marketing
automation systems. They vary in their strengths and
weaknesses. For small and mid-size B2B companies, the most
popular systems are:

• Marketo (Spark Edition)
• Hubspot
• Silverpop
• Infusionsoft

If you’d like an outline to help you set up your lead nurturing
program, download one at www.marketsmartb2b.com.

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© 2012 Lisa Shepherd