The Marketing Executives Group International

By: Christine LiBassi (http://www.linkedin.com/in/flashvideo)

With email marketing continuing to evolve, particularly in the area of analytics, many marketers remain unsure of just how to implement these analytics tools, then interpret and nurture them to bring about measurable results. In a report by SiriusDecisions, 64% of B2B Marketers said that while they recognize the value of prioritizing and nurturing leads; they don’t know how.
In a recent webcast hosted by lead generation experts DemandGen.com, along with Bearingpoint.com, they examine the cost of not having such a system in place and the relatively simple steps involved in setting up your own custom system.
We’ll share these statistics, and then share our own extensive experience in this area, to show just how easy it is to get your own lead scoring and nurturing system up and running, with the end result being more time spent on those most likely to buy, higher close rates and shorter sales cycles.

The State of B2B Sales and Marketing Today

Here is an overview of the state of play in the B2B sales and marketing space today:

• 78% of business decision makers are spending less time face-to-face with sales representatives. They want more pre-sales information first. –American Business Media
• Today it takes an average of 4-7 contacts, and upwards of 11 contacts for more complex sales to be made, including at least three pieces of relevant, solutions-based content, to turn a qualified lead into a sale. -Knowledge Storm/ MarketingSherpa.
• More than 60% of B2B Marketers report increasing sales cycle length. -BearingPoint Management and Technology Consultants
• Even “bad leads” typically buy within two years, if they continue to engage with you on at least a minimal level. –SiriusDecisions.com
What’s to Be Gained by Lead Nurturing and Scoring
• An effective lead scoring and nurturing system typically decreases the sales cycle from months to weeks.
• Produces an average increase of 78% in qualified leads
• It also, decreases the cost of sale by 10%.
• Improves conversion rates by one and a half to three times the speed of not having one.
• Increases Transaction Size -BearingPoint (source of all of these bullet points)

Simple Steps to Put a Lead Scoring and Nurturing System in Place
Experts agree that the key to putting your lead scoring and nurturing plan in place is to start simple.

1) Sales and Marketing need to hammer out the definition of a qualified lead.
According to Sirius Decisions, 8 out of 10 leads are not followed up on by sales.
This is likely because of a disconnect between Marketing and Sales in the attributes of a qualified leads.

2) Develop a ‘nurturing’ system to engage qualified leads
As noted earlier decision makers prefer to receive at least three pieces of pre-sales content before engaging face to face. Most also prefer this content to be in an objective, relevant format and experts agree that the most popular choice is the e-newsletter. Here is where the ‘nurturing’ part comes in. Each touch-point with a client or prospect, that serves to ‘nurture’, in other words to inform and/or provide solutions, better prepares them for the face to face engagement.

3) Implement an automated scoring, content-delivery system.

By taking advantage of the many ESP (Email Service Providers), that are equipped with the technology not only to electronically distribute your nurturing content, but that can also automate a scoring system, you can prioritize your leads for follow up. For instance, ESPs such as eROI and Exacttarget, allow you to assign ‘scores’ to reflect the level of engagement, in real-time, of each of your recipients.
This scoring assignment is even more effective as a collaboration between marketing and sales. By working together, Marketing gets more buy-in from Sales, and helps close the gap of what does or doesn’t qualify as a hot lead.
For instance, if your nurturing content contains a few choices, such as an article, link to your website, white paper, or webcast, you can assign a level of engagement to determine each recipient’s score. Do you consider a qualified, or ‘hot’ prospect someone who clicks on more than one item? Forwards information to others? Downloads a whitepaper, or links to your website and visits x number of pages? Then, what level or number do you want to assign for those “bites” on calls to action?
Since the analytics provided by the ESP tell you exactly what online behavior each recipient performs, you now have both a scoring system and details as to why each recipient was given the particular score.

4) Be prepared to respond in a timely, relevant manner to high-scoring leads.
Since Sales and Marketing have agreed on the attributes of a highly qualified lead, these leads can be followed up by sales according to those priorities. Effective follow-up would take into account the type of content that most engaged each lead. This enables highly relevant follow up, when in combination with some preparation about the lead’s industry, title and/or the particular solution that the lead sought out.
Even those who are ‘low score’ leads should continue to be nurtured through the ongoing delivery of valuable content, as an average of “80% of bad leads will typically buy within two years”- Sirius Decisions.