Lead Nurturing in Six Simple Steps

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”  How many times have you heard that phrase?  When it comes to creating effective lead nurturing programs nothing could be truer. The reality is most seasoned marketers have felt the pain of not planning properly at one point or another.  So how do you set yourself up for success?  Below are six simple steps to follow.

Step 1 – Define The Goal

There are many types of nurture campaigns marketers can leverage.  The key is knowing how a nurture campaign can support a specific business goal or objective in order to choose the most effective type.  Do you need to introduce a new prospect to your company?  Has a prospect engaged with content and you want to further educate them on a topic or solution?  Has a lead been disqualified by sales and you need to nurture them further along?  Are you onboarding a new customer?  By starting with the goal, you can design a nurture campaign that is highly relevant and can be measured.

Step 2 – Define The Audience

Understanding who you will be communicating with is crucial for developing engaging content.  Buyer personas can be a marketer’s best friend because they provide insights on the needs of the audience, rather than the needs of the business.  Don’t have personas?  Don’t worry, even understanding a few key points about your audience will help you tailor the message.  Start by asking a few simple questions; are they a prospect or an existing customer?  What is their title, function or role?  How do they fit into the decision-making process?  What problem or need do they have? What industry are they in?  The key is to know who you are targeting so you can create personalized experiences.

Step 3 – Map Your Content

Armed with the goal of the campaign and the needs of the audience, you can determine the content that is most appropriate for the nurture program.   Journey mapping is an effective method many marketers are leveraging today.  The purpose is to have a better understanding of the buyer’s process (not the selling process) from initial awareness through to purchase, and beyond, to help identify the key messages along the way.  By aligning content to these stages, you can create highly targeted and relevant nurture campaigns, that support the business goal.

Step 4 – Get Your Marketing Geek On

Once you have the campaign goal, audience insights, and the buyer’s journey, it’s time to design the campaign flow.  This is where the power of marketing automation really shines.  Below are a few considerations for your campaign design:

• How will contacts enter the program? From a segment, a filter, or maybe from a form submission.  There are many options to consider.
• Should any contacts be omitted from the campaign? Suppressing competitors or removing contacts in open opportunity stages with sales are two common options.
• How will contacts progress through the campaign? If a contact opens or clicks an email do they advance faster than contacts who don’t engage?  Will you resend an email (with a new subject line) to non-responders?
• Will contacts skip any steps in the campaign? If a contact has already engaged with a piece of content do they skip an email?  Is there an alternate piece of content to share?  If the engage and have a qualifying activity do they continue in the program?
• When do contacts exit the campaign and where do they go next? There should be no dead ends for your audience.

Step 5 – Align Your Channels

For modern marketers lead nurturing is not isolated to email, just as your buyers aren’t limited to the number of channels they can engage with you.  Assess your organizations ability to coordinate messages across channels for your audience.  Target the segments with the same offers across channel to increase engagement.  Also plan to adjust course.  For example, if prospects don’t engage via email, reach out via social.  And most importantly, be sure the experience from email, social, or display ads are consistent with the website.  Nothing will turn off a prospect who just clicked on an offer faster than a disjointed experience.

Step 6 – Measure & Optimize

Before the campaign launches determine what metrics matter most.  Going back to step one, how will you measure success?  Are there variables you want to test along the way, such as subject lines or CTAs?  Data driven decisions don’t just happen, make them part of the planning process.

There are many other factors to consider when creating a lead nurture campaign but taking the time to properly plan first will help create a framework for success.  Once the plan is in place you can focus on the other details such as design, mobile rendering, personalization, deliverability, and compelling subject lines and calls to action.  Interested in learning more about these topics? Be sure to check out our other blog resources for helpful advice and tips.