What is it about lead nurturing that makes it so hard to get it right?
Is it the all-too-familiar disconnect between marketing and sales? The hassles of CRM systems — or lack of them? Or the gray areas surrounding lead definitions, scoring, nurturing strategies and who owns what customer touchpoints?
For many organizations, it’s a combination of all the above (and more). And the need for a shift in perspective, if not in the organizational culture, can be a tough sell when monthly and quarterly sales numbers aren’t exactly rosy. That is, unless you can point to proven results and budget-friendly methods you can implement quickly.
If you’re looking for ways to start, or get more from, your lead nurturing process, I’d recommend two new, free resources:
- In his webinar, Putting the Human Touch into Lead Generation, B2B lead nurturing expert (and colleague) Brian Carroll broke down a case study and several action steps that show how you can use multiple channels — social media, email, webinars, phone and mail — together more effectively. Most organizations are reaching out to prospects in these ways, but they’re not consistently doing it in an optimal way. This one-hour webinar can help you get there.
- The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing, a new eworkbook from our friends at Marketo, not only offers several best practices, but provides the worksheets and real-world examples you can adapt or adopt (i.e., ideas you can steal). What’s best about this guide? It’s not just another whitepaper pitching services; this is information and research that marketers and sales teams can literally plug into their existing processes, or build those processes if they don’t already exist. You can download the guide here.
You’ve heard the MarketingExperiments team say many times that people buy from people, not websites. Invest some time in these lead nurturing resources and you’re sure to find new ways to cultivate the business relationships that ultimately generate more sales.
