Demand Generation Best Practices from Vtrenz

Pacify Now, Close Later: The Value of Lead Nurturing Part II

Research firm MarketingSherpa says12.5 percent of leads are genuine, ready or willing to buy and get moved into the sales cycle, while 17.5 percent get discarded right away because they clearly didn't qualify or couldn't be verified. BtoB marketers are then tasked with what to do with the other 70 percent of leads that remain in limbo. This is your prime opportunity to "touch" those prospects through your lead nurturing campaigns.

Use lead nurturing to enhance your drip campaign (a campaign using a series of messages distributed based on prospect data, timing and/or user actions) by sending your prospects automated responses. According to Silverpop's "Benchmark Study of Lead Management Practices," drip campaign response rates consistently outperformed single-message campaigns, often 2-to-1 and even 3-to-1. In fact, the lowest-performing drip campaigns outperformed almost all of even the best-performing single-message campaigns. Also, the drip campaigns generated click-through rates that were three times those of single-message campaigns.

When creating a successful lead nurturing program, you have to capture the prospects that leak from the sales pipeline and allow them to flow into a special marketing program. It also includes incorporating the following:

• Communication – Use a single or multi-channel communication, such as email, telesales or direct mail to maintain contact with leads in need of warming. Also, it's okay to diversify the communications. For instance, you can send a newsletter, follow that up with a phone call from inside sales and then send a thank you card.
• Relevance – Because people buy for different reasons, it's important to increase the relevance of your messaging whenever possible. Since time only permits so much, ask prospects to select their greatest need, challenge or top priority related to the products or services you offer. Then, base subsequent messaging on each person's response.
• Lead Scoring – Once you've got a solid lead nurturing program in place, it'll be easy to propel the nearly sales ready leads forward in the sales funnel. Communications campaigns based on the leads location in the buying cycle can be automated to deliver the right information to the right prospect at the right time.

Your program may very well be profitable enough to leave money on the table, but if not, there's real value in lead nurturing.

Pacify Now, Close Later: The Value of Lead Nurturing Part I

Determining what stage in the buying cycle each lead is at and moving those deemed ready-to-buy to sales is lead scoring. But what happens after the scoring process, to all the leads that aren't ready to buy? How can you guide them along in the right direction?

Lead nurturing is the practice of maintaining ongoing contact with prospects not yet ready to make a purchase. Marketers gather information about where leads are in the buying cycle and work to move them along in that process while favorably influencing them toward the company and its products.

Lead nurturing  is a critical component in a BtoB marketers' abilities to support revenue generation. According to industry research firm SiriusDecisions, only about 53-68 percent of leads that are qualified by marketing as sales-ready are accepted by sales. And, of those that are accepted, only about 50-57 percent are subsequently deemed as sales opportunities. Essentially this means that leads frequently fall out of the sales funnel after being handed off to sales. Yet many of those leads will eventually make a purchase. Possibly from your competitor. Ouch!

Lead nurturing consists of a series of automated, timed communications designed to keep your company top-of-mind until a prospect has received enough information and is ready to buy. Lead nurturing communications activities can include informative emails, direct mail or telephone calls, Webinars, white papers, studies, newsletters, product information, industry news and more.

In creating lead nurturing messages, it's important to answer the following questions:

• How can we build credibility with our prospects?
• How can we show that our products and services will help them achieve their goals?
• How can we differentiate ourselves from the competition?

As analysts at Aberdeen Group discovered, companies with the highest lead qualification rates and lead-to-sales conversion rates are twice as likely as less successful companies to leverage formalized lead metrics that manage the flow of leads from marketing to sales and back again when warranted. If your career and your company can afford to ignore a gold mine of not-quite-ready-to-buy leads, there is no need to implement lead nurturing. If you're serious about driving revenue, you will.

Actionable Dashboard Reports = Enhanced Lead Management Solutions and Happy C-Suite Executives

As we all know, marketing greatly impacts the success of a company. Yet, measuring marketing effectiveness has never been easy for BtoB marketers and their bosses. At the beginning and end of the day, C-Suite executives and stakeholder's want to know if budgets are being well spent. This concern lingers even greater over marketing departments who are tasked with tracking data from multiple campaigns and making sure the results are producing a return on their marketing investment.

Perhaps out of desperation or false advertising, many marketers fall prey to thinking lead management solutions that offer dashboard reporting features will track all the important data to secure their place at the table. Unbeknownst to them is the fact that all dashboard reporting features are not created equal. But having a dashboard reporting feature equipped to capture and summarize actionable data and analytics can turn an ordinary marketer into a BtoB Rock Star.

For starters, a good dashboard reporting feature will include insightful marketing information on where demand is generated, as well as graphic summarizations of various, key lead funnel metrics. Also, the appeal of any dashboard reporting feature should be its easily accessible data, which can help build credibility for marketing initiatives from C-Suite executives and strengthen a marketer's ability to keep successful programs fully funded.

Since measurement tools that provide insight into marketing activities and help defend spending are now sought after, I will share with you several must-haves for a dashboard reporting feature and how you can use the data to market to your C-Suite executives.

• Marketing and Sales Qualified Leads
Marketers know neither the hour nor the day when their CMO will want to find out how many qualified leads are in the queue. If your qualified lead tracking device is a spreadsheet, it probably won't tell your C-Suite executive which leads have been qualified by marketing or sales and which have been qualified by both teams. And if the funnel is getting too full, or there is a lack of leads, having real-time information can allow you to adjust ongoing marketing spending to get back on track. This feature can help close the loop between marketing and sales and reiterate the power of integrated metrics, especially when the qualified leads turn into new clients.   

• Top-Performing Lead Sources
Is it the Webinar, the customer conference or the online white paper advertisement that brings in the most qualified leads? A BtoB marketers' livelihood is nestled in knowing where most of his leads are coming from. This information gives marketers the opportunity to effectively evaluate and restructure campaigns to keep from spending energy, time and money on fruitless endeavors. This can keep key executives from chasing certain BtoB trends for too long. 

• ROI by Campaign
C-Suite executives want to know if the e-mail campaign lost money, broke even or turned a profit. This feature can easily help you defend successful campaigns and guide advocates of unsuccessful campaigns to the light. And it can boost employee morale. According to Forrester Research, three out of four marketers say the ability to track marketing ROI gives them more respect in their organization.

Dashboard reports should supplement your hard work and lend credibility to your marketing genius. It should be able to offer features that can easily quantify data so you can benchmark it later and compare trends over time.  And, remember, C-Suite executives don't always care about the granular details, but more so what works, what doesn't and how is it affecting the bottom line.

WSAPIs – The Marketer's Invisible Workhorse

We read, with great interest, fellow lead/marketing automation vendor Eloqua's announcement that it just introduced its first Web Services Application Programming Interface (WSAPI).

Their claim to be the first in the industry is a big surprise to us, though, because Silverpop's Vtrenz solution launched its WSAPI in 2006. In fact, our software follows the simple object access protocol (SOAP), which allows clients to take advantage of Vtrenz's open API for "off-the-shelf" integrations with Salesforce.com, Microsoft CRM Dynamics and Netsuite.

So, what are all the API hoopla and claims about? Let's explore what a WSAPI is, often referred to as just API. And, if you are a non-technical marketer, why should you care?

What is a WSAPI?
In its simplest form, it is merely an Internet communication method that allows one computer to push data to - or request it from - an outside source. Using a WSAPI does require marketers to have programming expertise or technical assistance available, but the benefits are substantial for some companies.

Typical examples of WSAPI calls include:

• Pre-populating Web forms
• Providing access to a customer preference center
• Creating new contact records, new email messages, updating records – all without a user having to access the Vtrenz application
• Automatically sending an email message to a list of existing contacts

How does Silverpop’s Vtrenz WSAPI work?
It enables a company to leverage the power of Vtrenz's marketing automation and lead management platform without having to physically "log in" to the solution. This allows a company to maintain many of the custom processes already designed for their business. 

Think of the WSAPI as a virtual hand that puts commands into Silverpop's Vtrenz solution, telling it to perform functions such as "look at a record of information," "update the record" and "send out a communication." 

Who Would Benefit from a WSAPI?
Almost all companies using a marketing automation solution can benefit from using a WSAPI. But some of the more common reasons include:

• To leverage the data storage and capabilities of their marketing automation solution
• To share data while maintaining the complete look and feel of its existing Website
• To keep the numerous custom business practices already in place and not have to spend resource time and money to alter them
• A need for highly custom forms or surveys
• Sensitivity about outsiders "touching" their data

Pre-Populated Forms – A Simple WSAPI Example in Action

There are dozens of ways marketers can leverage APIs, but a simple example is the use of pre-populated forms in the lead generation process. An example being:

• When a first-time user visits your Website and enters any amount of information into a form, a cookie is attached that uniquely identifies that specific person.
• When the visitor returns to any form page on your Website, you use the WSAPI to send a "request" to the Vtrenz database to see if a profile already exists for the visitor.
• If a match is found, that visitor's profile information will be pre-populated in the form with the contact information that the user already provided.
• This results in less action necessary on the part of the Web visitor, resulting in an easier Web experience.

So if you are a marketer and WSAPI is a new concept, we highly recommend exploring with your IT team and Silverpop's Vtrenz, how you can leverage this technology to achieve greater efficiencies and implement more sophisticated lead automation programs.

And we congratulate Eloqua for finally launching their WSAPI so their clients can now take advantage of integrations and data sharing that our Vtrenz clients have already enjoyed the last few years. Welcome to the party!

Lead Management Scores Again

I recently re-read BtoB Magazine's first-ever Lead Generation Guide and it reminded me how important lead management is in the world of BtoB marketing. All the factors of a "perfect storm" are gathering to elevate this industry to the level of SFA or, dare I say, CRM. Marketers from all industries and company sizes are seeing real business benefits by leveraging lead management and lead generation as a key capability.

In fact, from the articles and research by various analyst groups, they continue to find leading companies that make lead management a strategic imperative. Aberdeen Research saw a stark difference in Best in Class organizations and their use of lead management in their marketing efforts versus companies that do not employ such methods. 

As well, in a survey by IDC of chief marketing officers, respondents rated lead management more important than their brand awareness, online and interactive efforts and their customer knowledge activities.

What does this all mean? Well, to the typical BtoB marketer, it means that the impact you can have on your organization is no longer confined to just the number of leads you create-your impact to company success is now being discussed in the board room in terms of revenue generated, margins obtained, and satisfied customer relationships.

Lead Management scores again, and the crowds go wild.

Using Email to Increase ROI of Search PPC and SEO

If you are like many BtoB marketers, search pay per click (PPC) programs like Google AdWords are a significant part of your marketing budget.

BtoB marketers with an annual budget of $1.2 million spend roughly 10 percent on search PPC advertising and about one percent on SEO, MarketingSherpa says. Many high-tech companies or those with short sales cycles might spend 20 percent to 40 percent or more.

No matter how much you spend on PPC or SEO, you can extend your ROI significantly when you incorporate email.

On the PPC side, you are likely converting two to five percent of your PPC clicks. That means 95+ of every 100 site visitors are not taking the primary action you want.

Some are interested but just not ready to buy, download, or sign up. Invite them into a secondary relationship by opting in to your email program. This can open the door to conversion farther down the funnel.

Say 20 of every 95 non-clickers signs up for your email program before bouncing away. With careful nurturing via email drip campaigns, newsletters and trigger-based emails, you might convert another two to five from that original group. Now, you've doubled your ROI from that first group of 100 site visitors without spending another PPC penny, or diverting email budget.

Integrating email with search can also help you grow your email database and allow you to redirect list-growth dollars toward other email marketing resources.

Key to these efforts is a landing page that balances two objectives: to direct visitors to take your primary action first, and then to show a clear value proposition for your email program that doesn't overshadow your primary action.

Email Boosts SEO Results, Too

If you publish content-rich newsletters that mix news and advice while promoting your brand or solutions, optimizing the email content to target your important keywords or phrases and then archiving this content on your site can help you rank higher on search engines and generate traffic for years through organic searches.

Optimize article URLs, title tags and links to reflect your targeted keywords. Incorporate crosslinks to related articles on your site, and link previous articles and newsletters to your freshly posted content.

Now, you can reallocate some PPC funds being spent on keywords that naturally rank high, driving more traffic, leads and conversions without spending more money.

Email and search – a natural combination!

Online Marketing in Asia Pacific: Thoughts from ad:tech Singapore

Time flies in this world of digital marketing. Less than one month ago, Bill Nussey and I were speaking at the inaugural ad:tech show in Singapore. As opposed to many of the US-based shows that seem to attract more of the interactive, BtoC audience, the Singapore show had a great mix of BtoC interactive as well as BtoB direct marketers, including a dedicated track for BtoB topics. Given the mix of marketing specialties, there was much more of a, dare I say, practical nature to the presentations and discussions.

For example, though mobile was, as usual, discussed widely, there wasn't a "holy grail" feeling of mobile marketing (see Bill’s blog post on same topic). Could this be the year that it now takes hold? After being burned year after year by making proclamations that didn’t pan out, most speakers were cautiously optimistic that mobile is now ready to take a real seat at the marketing mix table.

In terms of online advertising, the movement from offline to online marketing efforts of most businesses in Asia Pacific is just beginning, but growing rapidly. For example, according to the Asia Digital Marketing Association:

• China's online spending was up 75% to approximately $1.3B, now on par with total spending for Australia
• Internet advertising in Hong Kong and Singapore is expected to grow by more than 30% this year with online ad spend in Singapore overtaking traditional ads by 2010
• India's online spending, currently, is only 1% of all ad spending, compared with Korea and Japan where, by 2009, an estimated 10% of all ad spending will be online

From these numbers, you can imagine the online ad growth possible in the next 3-5 years. With this growth comes the need to best capture and nurture possible online leads. It was no surprise that much of the discussion at the show was around best practices for opt-in name capture, email design, and tactics to improve email response rates and deliverability. Even with the mobile sophistication of Asia's market, email is still deemed the best and most cost effective permission-based marketing and lead management tactic. With the launch of the iPhone in Asia and the proliferation of PDA devices, email will continue to provide a low cost, yet highly effective direct marketing channel for marketers.

For a further take on "what's hot and what's not" in relation to digital marketing from the show, I encourage you to read Nick Wreden's FusionBrand blog.

When "Winning" Is Really Losing

Winning is good until you realize you really lost. Winning new business is fantastic, but failing to nurture and satisfy your existing customers can become the mother of all losses. It's the kind of mistake marketers make when they underutilize internal customer data and analytics to increase loyalty and provide up-sell and cross-sell opportunities to their current client base.

According to a recent study by the Chief Marketing Officer Council, only half of marketers have a strategy in place for growing customer relationships. Further, only 15 percent of companies rate themselves extremely good or effective at integrating disparate customer data sources, and only 6 percent of marketers reported having "excellent knowledge" of customer data such as demographics, psychographics or relational data such as transactional history.

That's scary enough, but the study further finds that more than 31percent of marketers reported churn rates of more than 10 percent, but two-thirds had no system in place to re-activate dormant or lost customers. I guess all eyes are focused on lead acquisition and lead management, rather than efforts around current customers.

As we all know, acquiring new customers is far more costly than satisfying the ones you already have. And during tough economic times, the decision makers you're chasing after are less likely to take risks with new companies or products, preferring to stick with trusted sources and brands they know. Now more than ever you should focus on leveraging customer information to send relevant and timely information to enhance a customer experience or re-engage a dormant relationship.

Use customer insights to recognize behavior and responses and determine who should get what promotion and who needs a little TLC. Again, new business is great. But cultivating existing accounts into becoming potential lifelong customers is priceless. The process may take time, but it's a real winning strategy.

Actions do speak louder than words, but...

Actions may speak louder than words, however they don't replace them. In the world of Lead Scoring, you need both. The actions of your lead become the validating component of a balanced scoring model, which includes what your lead tells you. For instance, if a lead says he has budget and is the director of sales, that's a fantastic start, but only half the battle is won. Your lead scoring model needs to take into account lead activity as well. Are they downloading two white papers and visiting your company's Website three times in one week?

When activity is absent from the Lead Score Model, the data will not have any correlation with relevancy. So a hot lead based on BANT (Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline) + demographic scores will continue to appear hot three years from now. By including activity in your lead score model, you can determine the current relevancy of the score -- yes, the lead was hot and still is, or it was hot a long time ago but not anymore.

Monitoring activity allows for ongoing changes of a lead scoring even when that lead is not explicitly telling you something has changed. In essence, activity enlightens your static data, making it timely and relevant.

Typical scenario:
Sales..."Do you know why this lead was scored so high?"
Marketing... "We scored that lead two years ago so I'm not sure."

To avoid that scenario make sure your lead score model is balanced by activity. Here's how it's done!

Basic Lead Scoring formula

Total Lead Score = BANT score + Demographics score + Behavior score

Advanced Lead Scoring formula (activity is made up of 3 components measured over time)

Total Lead Score = BANT score + Demographics score + Activity score

Activity score = (recency + Frequency + Behaviors) - time decay algorithms)

Go forth and score!

Data Collection is the Starting Point of an Effective Lead Scoring Model (Part II) By Bryan Brown

Uncontrollable data (non structured): At times marketing will not have control over the way certain data is collected and brought into the marketing database. This is typically the case for tradeshows, list acquisition, and previously collected data. Your challenge then is to find a way to score this manually entered data without being able to exactly match it. The solution depends on the capabilities of your LSM.

Does your lead scoring model support wild card matches?

Yes (congratulations): For each field you plan to score, create a list of phrases that your LSM will search.

No: Try to find the most common occurrences of manually entered data and add them to your LSM. This approach is severely limited and might result in a high amount of score-able data not being identified.

Copied below is a sample lead score model using some of the ideas I've discussed thus far.

Closing points:

• Use cookies, de dup on submit, or other syncing and authentication methods which will ensure that data is appended to the existing lead's record rather than creating duplicates each time they submit a form (your demand generation software should do this for you)
• Use progressive scoring tactics by asking additional LSM questions with each interaction of your lead (1st form - 3 questions, 2nd form - next 2 questions, 3rd form - all 8 questions)
• Pre-populate the questions they have previously answered to increase their confidence in the relationship and save them time
• Structure data when possible for more accurate scoring

These simple steps will increase the simplicity and accuracy of your lead scoring model allowing marketers to send qualified leads to sales.