Make Your Marketing Automation Strategy the "Rock Star" of Your Sales Lead Generation Marketing

Make your Marketing Automation Strategy the “Rock Star” of Your Organization

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Copyright 2016 Market Data Retrieval

Using marketing automation 71% of companies surveyed currently use marketing automation to some extent. Another 23% are not using it now but are planning to use it in the foreseeable future.

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Most important strategic goals Increasing lead generation and improving lead nurturing are the top priorities for 61% and 57% of marketers respectively. The next most important goal is increasing sales revenue.

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Most significant barriers There are many barriers to marketing automation success but the most significant one is the lack of an effective strategy.

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Building a Lead Scoring Matrix What you get out is only as good as what you put in.

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Why is Lead Scoring Important?

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It creates a consistent framework that has been agreed upon by the sales and marketing team on what a “lead” is and when it should be passed to sales for follow up.

Only 21% of B2B marketers have actually established a lead scoring program.

–Marketing Sherpa


What is your scoring criteria?

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3 types of lead scoring criteria

Explicit Information taken

at face value

• Title • Location • Industry • Revenue • Lead Source

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Implicit Information from customer actions

• Website visits • Phone calls • Downloads • Email signups • Form completions

Negative Deducts points for

disqualifying criteria

• Lack of response • No defined budget • Periods of inactivity • Lack of authority • Unsubscribes


Scoring thresholds

The point that must be exceeded to begin producing a given effect or result or to elicit a response… SALES

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Must be a collaborative effort between Sales and Marketing teams.

Needs to be evaluated and adjusted over time to ensure effectiveness.

Lead Nurturing Susan Meell, CEO MMS Education


What is it? Why bother? Process of developing and maintaining relationships with customers through every stage of the sales funnel and beyond

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“79% of leads never convert

to sales.” Marketing Sherpa

“Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales – at 33% lower cost.”

Marketo Research

“Nurtured leads generate 47% larger orders.”

The Annuitas Group


Benefits? • Build brand awareness and recognition

• Differentiate your company and product

• Establish thought leadership position

• Reduce cost of sales

• Shorten sales cycle – keep your product “top of mind”

• Increase average order size

• Increase sales

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Understanding the “Ws” • Who is your buyer/decision maker? Teacher – Department Head – Dist. Adm. – Superintendent – State Adm.

• Where is he or she located? Home – Classroom – School Building – District – Regional Center – State

• What type of product? Print – Online Download – Blended – Services – Online SaaS

• What type of purchase? How complex? Transactional Purchase Consultative, proposal

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• Develop a lead nurturing strategy targeted to your audience, product, price point and complexity of sale

• Engaging lead

nurturing must be: • Trustworthy • Relevant • Multi-channel • Strategic and

impactful

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Nurturing leads through the funnel

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Graphic from BtoBento

Traditional sales funnel is changing. Leads may enter the funnel at any stage TOFU • Just looking (curious) • Wants more information MOFU • Becomes your friend • Comparison shopping • Wants to know more

about you BOFU • Requests a proposal • Negotiates • Finalizes (or not)


Nurturing leads through the funnel

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Develop your content specific to location in the funnel

Location in Funnel

Content Format

TOFU

• Agnostic, informational, helpful and educational

• Soft on brand promotion

White papers, eBooks, blog posts, funny video, infographics

MOFU

• Educational but geared towards your product or service.

Buying guides, how to evaluate XYZ, best practices, success stories, web demos

TOFU

• Information very specific to your product

• Differentiate yourself from competitors

Free trials, pricing quotes, 3rd party reviews, connect with a customer, customer case study


Lead scoring • Determine BANT

• Budget – Authority – Need - Time

• Demographic Scoring (+/-) • State, district, building information • Title and years of experience • Funding levels, history • Decision making

• Behavioral Scoring (+/-) • Activity aligned with buying levels • Points for content accessed, pages viewed, frequency of visits • Engagement with product versus consumer of info

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Developing personas • Develop and align content to meet your different customer personas • Content must be engaging, informative, relevant and targeted

for each type • Information for a District Superintendent is very different from

information for an IT Director or elementary classroom teacher

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Connecting to CRM and sales team

• Use automated marketing and scoring system to build relationship until “buying signals” are given

• Need to be available for questions but not force a sales call too early

• Test cadence of communications with different personas to determine appropriate time between communications

• Start small but think big (future) • Test, modify and implement as you learn

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Customer value optimization & your marketing automation solutions

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Choose Persona

• Build interests

• Identify traffic sources

Develop Audience

• Develop high-interest, engaging content

• Create content for traffic sources

• Pixel landing pages

Build Prospect List

• Develop lead-magnet/gated content

• Optimize sign-up

Grow Engagement & Commitment

• Create trip-wire offer

• Low-barrier to begin to be a customer

Nurture Customer Loyalty & Frequency

• Develop content for improved customer experience

• Exclusive customer offers

• Invite for advocacy

Goal: Create a conversion funnel that lowers the cost of acquisition, while simultaneously increasing immediate and lifetime customer value.