Lead Nurturing

I've been chatting this week with a former colleague setting up a simple lead scoring system for a small tech company where he runs the marketing team. He embraces the importance of automating his lead collection and management, nurturing the leads they gather as well as placing scores on each of the interactions he has with prospects as they progress through the lead funnel. Good stuff.

We've been debating though the amount of data he should seek to collect through this lead nurturing process, that is, how much data and when to ask for it. He's attempting to collect all relevant data with which to determine if the prospect is a viable lead IN THE FIRST CONTACT HE MAKES. Hmmm, I say... not good stuff.

We both agree that lead nurturing should be an ongoing process where we engage in a ongoing dialogue with a prospect with the goal of providing the prospect with high value information that makes him smarter/do his job better in exchange for his providing us proprietary data about what his needs are (or might be in the future). This suggests that this information exchange should be gradual and at a pace the prospect feels comfortable with in his learning process.

The lead nurture process is very much about your company gradually earning trust as a valued thought leader or provider of good ideas. As you become a trusted partner (you're not just about trying to sell product) the prospect will become more willing to gradually reveal more information about himself and his requirements. Very few people will tell you everything about who they are/what they need in that first marketing interaction.

I've always felt that the campaign forms I build are incremental and reflect where the prospect is in the funnel. I seek to gather just enough prospect data with the first marketing activity that permits me the chance to re-connect and prove my mettle again and again. My first forms usually ask just for a first, last name and an email address (always a 2nd email field to ensure there are no errors). Once I have that, I can enter the prospect into my marketing database and let the conversation grow.

Hopefully with each successive marketing transaction I provide sufficient value for the prospect to feel comfortable in exchanging more info about who he is and what his needs might be. A 2nd form might for instance ask for his title, company name, size, address and industry. 3rd touch forms might then delve into BANT information (budget, authority, need, timeline) where I begin to get a sense if there is funded project either now or on the horizon.

In future posts I'll go through how creating an offer portfolio which supports this lead nurturing process ensures a hand-off from one marketing transaction to the next and keeps the prospect engaged.

Landing Pages & Forms

Much has been written about form design, i.e. the type, size and detail of the fields you use in your landing page forms. I could talk for hours on the topic (I'll spare you), but I will say that a landing page for an initial prospect touch I believe should be as simple as possible, with minimum data collection requirements to encourage the prospect to engage. Frequently I limit 1st touch landing pages to require only first name, last name and email address, with a 2nd email field to verify. That's it.

If I regard this first step as the beginning of a relationship w/the prospect and an ongoing value exchange (and I do), I realize the need to build trust, provide information and offers the prospect needs/wants and to gradually ask for more personal information as the relationship matures.

Take a look at this 1st touch form (company name blocked out - click image for detail)



13 required fields for a case study! Plus requiring the prospect's telephone number. Would you fill out that many fields the first time you come in contact with a new company? Would you provide your actual telephone number? I wouldn't. There's zero trust built up and they haven't earned that much data about me until I find out more about what they offer me. I'll bet their page abandonment metrics are off the charts.

Remember to view your engagement with a prospect as a value exchange, as a direct relationship between their needs and wants and your ability to satisfy those needs and wants. Understand the value of your offer and what you feel is the right amount of data to 'charge' the prospect (relative to where they are in the funnel) in order to download the asset. Understand who the prospect is and what they're seeking, map the value you'll provide to them as they go through the funnel and then relate that to asking for pieces of personal and buying data as you build up that relationship and gain their trust.