The onset of marketing automation has truly changed the way we reach out to, build relationships with, and sell to customers. Technology has made it possible for companies to gain traction and scale quickly.

While many companies have moved away from traditional outbound marketing, many companies find the transition overwhelming, leading to inaction and remaining with the status quo.

The problem? Most agencies offer a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing automation, although, in reality, there is a strong need for adaptable, flexible, and measurable approaches to building momentum and getting you results!

Lead nurturing as a concept isn’t new at all. It is the process by which cold visitors are “warmed up” and developed into sales-qualified leads, leading to product or service purchases.

Traditionally, lead nurturing was done over a series of calls or face-to-face interactions. However, the blitzkrieg of information inflow these days has rendered cold calling ineffective. In fact, unsolicited calls might also negatively hamper brand perception.

That is when permission based email marketing comes to the rescue!

As alluded to earlier, due to a large number of moving pieces, marketing automation can either act as the fuel that propels you into deep space or the fuel that causes an explosion right in front of you, if handled incorrectly.

There are certain key factors you’ll need to consider before embarking on a lead nurturing campaign.

Who are you targeting?

The initial response to this question might be that you’re targeting a ‘segment of users’, but in order for the campaign to be more effective, you’ll need to know in precise detail who your ideal customer is.

One of the biggest challenges in B2B marketing and sales today is knowing exactly who your core customers are.

Peak performance coach and thought leader Anthony Robbins speaks of the law of life: 80% of success in life is psychology and 20% is mechanics. So before diving into the software and tools, you’ll need to create a persona for your ideal customer, including her name, age, psychographics, demographics, likes, dislikes, and pain points.

To see an example of a few customer personas click here.

On a side note, when Abraham Lincoln said ‘Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe’, he was probably highlighting the importance of Buyer persona research before marketing strategy execution!

Context Beyond Content

Someone once said Content is what you make for them.
Context, on the other hand, is what you mean to them.

While creating content is important, sharing that content with the right person, at the right time, via the right medium is far more important.

If you don’t get the right combination, your audience engagement may suffer because you have not established a strong connection with them.

Ryan Levesque’s book ‘Ask’ features a really amazing case study. One of Ryan’s clients was marketing based on the assumption that the target segment was between the age of 40 and 50. Interestingly, upon conducting a survey, it was discovered that the target segment was actually between the age of 50 and 60. Wow!

Heeding the call, Ryan and his team made a few changes to the website, including the images, the phraseology, and the colors to induce a sense of nostalgia.

The results were phenomenal because both the engagement and the sales conversion increased dramatically. This spike was a result of ensuring that the content was targeted towards the ideal customer.

Ask for the sale – Engaging, connecting and building relationships with your audience are excellent practices, but if you don’t ask for the sale, at some point on the journey, your prospect might become frustrated.

Of course, this works both ways! You may lose the business if you ask for the sale too soon or if you never ask at all.

By strategically segmenting your audience and scoring your leads based on clicks and actions performed, you will not only increase conversions but also increase the average value of each sale.

Even after the initial purchase, when the lead has stopped visiting your website, lead nurturing allows you to rekindle the relationship and continually remind the customer about your business.

If you love extra content, here’s a bonus 4th factor for you to consider!

Test, Test, Test – While this may seem pretty obvious, testing is absolutely critical if you want to improve results. The best campaigns are ones that are considered a ‘work in progress’ because there is always room for higher engagement, higher open rates, and more sales.

Make sure you experiment on a regular basis with CTAs (calls-to-action), subject lines, email length, and content. Proper marketing automation tools have powerful A/B split testing features that allow you to isolate the key factors for sales success.

However, at the end of the day, it’s not about ‘what’ you do, but how you do it. Our most successful clients have seen major results because at one point they made a conscious decision to stop trying to reinvent the wheel, seek help, and dramatically reduce their learning curve.

Momentum B2B Marketing offers comprehensive Inbound Marketing strategy and service coupled with our powerful agency-grade Momentum Marketing Automation software – all for less than a monthly subscription alone for other leading SAAS solutions.

Invest your precious marketing resources into inbound marketing strategy and training that will drive your business and your team forward.
Let the work begin.

At Momentum, we put your financial and organizational success at the center of everything we do. Congratulations on your commitment to this process and on your continued path for growth, success, and measurable results.

Your Inbound Marketing program from Momentum begins with a simple conversation.

Fill out this form and we’ll follow-up with you personally.