Converto - B2B Lead Nurturing Best Practices - March 2016

Converto - B2B Lead Nurturing Best Practices - March 2016

• 1.
  Best Practices inPlanning a B2B Lead Nurture Program Converto
• 2.
  WH Questions • WHY:what’s the end game? • WHO #1: personas and segments • WHO #2: sender details • WHO #3: response handling chain • WHEN: entry & exit criteria, cadence • WHAT: flow & contents • WHAT HAPPENED: reports & KPIs
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  WHY? Always have an‘end game’ in sight
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  Suggested ‘End Games’ •Person requests a direct contact • Person signs up for the product or a trial • Inside sales receives ownership of the lead • Lead becomes Sales Qualified / converts to Contact • Tip: implied intent signals (e.g. via scoring) should be handled with care. Digital footprints not enough.
• 5.
  Personas – keepthings pragmatic • Most B2B marketers can speak of job titles, organization influence span, decision making roles  good, not enough • Strive for deeper understanding of your personas: • Professional challenges • Fears • Likely objections to listen • Tip: • Go to online forums/groups where your personas interact and note the words and phrases they use • Use Converto’s Lead Nurture Planner to document your personas
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  Who will messagesgo out from • Question may seem innocent, but the ‘from’ labeling, as well as the signature, packs some serious power • Tips: • Use the person with the most authority & credibility vis-à-vis the message • Never use ‘no-reply’ as the reply-to address
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  When do leads/contactsenter and exit nurturing? • Usually your answer to the ‘why’ question would determine this • Err, why exit?! • Lifecycle stages are your best friends • Organization politics often affect this decision • Tip: in general, resist temptation to use implicit digital behavior signals (except form submissions) as lifecycle stage gateways
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  Breaking down interactionsby lifecycle stages Soft CTAs (educate to engage) Soft CTAs (educate to qualify) Auto Responders PROSPECT LEAD MQL SQL CUSTOMER ‘Harder’ CTAs (make direct offers)
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  Who should beinvolved in handling responses • A nurture email could be: • Ignored • Opened • Clicked • Out of office’d • Replied • Unsubscribed • Spammed • Tip: make sure lead owners fully aware of emails going out in their names Automated scoring + alert to lead owner (optional) Lead owner handling Lead owner handling Automated handling Attention marketing N/A N/A
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  CTA Follow-ups andAlerts • Use this simple table to note what happens when recipients respond to lead nurture emails: Behavior Email Alert CRM Task Interesting Moment Clicked main CTA in email -- -- Yes Achieved a threshold score Marketing Ops -- No Submitted CTA Form Lead Owner Yes Yes
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  Determining Content &Flows: by Persona 1. Create a simple Content Asset/Persona inventory matrix Persona Content #1 Content #2 Content #3 Content #4 Content #5 A x x x x B x x x
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  Determining Flows: byPersona 2. Then, list your inventory in the order it should be used Email # Email Topic Main CTA Notes 1 Introduction, links to educational resources See video 2 5 things to consider when… Read blog post 3 Invitation to schedule a demo Schedule a demo 4 Invitation to webinar Register to webinar
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  Anatomy of a successful leadnurture email
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  Clean design Identifiable Contextual Authority CTA standsout Helpful Establishes credibility Personal
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  KPIs • Decide howsuccess will be defined, and benchmark your KPIs. Examples: Tip: open rates and click-through rates are good stats for optimizing email performance, but program success should be determined by lifecycle stage throughputs. KPI Metrics Benchmark Improve rate of MQL>SQL conversions to 30% # of MQLs # of SQLs Conversion rate in last 3 months prior to program launch was 22% Generate 5 purchases per month of an up-sell offer to clients # of purchase form fills by existing clients In 6 months prior to nurture launch, 2 clients purchased the up-sell on average per month
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  Summary: Keep AskingQuestions! • WHY: what’s the end game? • WHO #1: personas and segments • WHO #2: sender details • WHO #3: response handling chain • WHEN: entry & exit criteria, cadence • WHAT: flow & contents • WHAT HAPPENED: reports & KPIs
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  Got Questions? Feedback? Wantour Lead Nurture Planner™? Email us at [email protected]