One of the most useful tools in the marketer’s workshop is content marketing. If utilized well, this strategy can turn even casual site visitors into potential prospects. However, how do you ensure that the right content makes its way in front of the right audience? That was one of the challenges Stephen Bruner, Marketing Manager, Vertical Markets, Precor, faced when he and his team sought to overhaul Precor’s nurture strategy and email tools.
Precor is a manufacturer of fitness equipment and caters to a global audience. It’s also the second largest industry manufacturer in the United States. The brand is owned by the multi-million dollar company Amer Sports, which is based in Finland.
During his presentation at MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2015, Bruner presented on how he and his team combined the lead nurture cycle with the CRM (customer relationship management), implemented a marketing automation effort and better utilized content marketing to reach the right audience. According to Stephen, content is an essential tool for lead nurturing.
“So this is my favorite part, right? Which is once we have the delivery mechanism, we’ve got the dynamic layer, then it comes to how do we nurture them and what do we do?” he said.
Stephen broke the buyer’s funnel down into four parts and listed the content Precor implemented at each step:
- Top of the funnel: Buyer’s guide and infographics
- Middle: Whitepapers (research)
- Low: Service level interaction
- Client: Customer service information
According to Stephen, “We wanted to put the customer’s interest first and say, ‘Let’s not confuse the customer. Let’s make sure that … during this period of time where the customer is an opportunity within our CRM system that they can have a one-on-one conversation with Sales.’”
“Once the sale closes, then we start the process over again,” he said.
By developing and utilizing this content, strategically suppressing potential buyers from receiving new marketing communication once they enter the quoting process and using strategic times, such as installation dates and known reorder dates, to restart the communication cycle with the customer, the Precor team has achieved some impressive results, including:
- 74% increase in raw leads (by integrating behavioral approaches)
- 3x the engagement from the previous year
- 67% increase in MQL to SQL velocity
Watch the above video excerpt from MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2015 to learn how Stephen refined Precor’s lead nurturing process using content as well as the challenges behind this effort.
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