Sowing the Seeds to Success - Nurture Marketing for Existing and New Customers

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Sowing the Seeds to Success - Nurture Marketing
for Existing and New Customers

• Jennifer Culbertson
• The Partner Marketing Group
• September 21, 2009

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Agenda

• Nurture Marketing Defined
• Importance of Nurture Marketing
• Getting Started
• Putting Plan in Place
• Open Discussion

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Nurture Marketing Defined

• Terminology
• Drip marketing
• Relationship marketing
• Defined
• Initiating a conversation with prospects and
  customers over period of time
• Growing relationships by sending unique and
  valued messages to prospects and customers on a
  regular basis
• Leave a positive imprint in theirmind until
  they're ready to buy!

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Feedback

• Do you have a nurture marketing program?
• What types of activities?
• What successes?

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Nurture Marketing Is NOT

• Sending out an e-newsletter periodically
• Randomly calling leads every six weeks to see if
  they are ready to buy
• Blasting your entire database with a new case
  study
• Offering content that promotes your companys
  products and services and does not take into
  account your prospects interests

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Why is Nurturing Important?

• Longer sales cycles, increased competition,
  ever-changing business climate need to be there
  when they are ready to buy
• Forget about the one-off effort! According to the
  Direct Marketing Association, a prospect will
  need to see/hear your message 3 times to
  recognize you and a minimum of 9 times to make a
  sale
• Nurture marketing process leads to
• Better qualified leads
• Higher close ratios
• Stronger sales pipeline
• Shorter-than-average sales cycles

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Did you know?

• Up to 95 percent of prospects on your Web site
  are there to research and are not ready to talk
• As many as 70 percent of them will eventually buy
  a product from you or your competitors
• Longer term leads represent 77 of potential
  sales
• 30-45 of leads not considered viable
  opportunities by sales become sales-ready within
  12 months
• Nurtured leads produce a 20 percent increase in
  sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads

Source Lead Generation for Complex Sale and The
Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing, Marketo
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Invest in Relationships

• Building a relationship with a prospect is the
  same as with any long-term relationship you
  cant force someone to commit (to a purchase)
• But you cannot afford to lose individuals because
  their willingness to buy doesnt match your
  readiness to sell
• Spend more time marketing to and building
  relationships with the people

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Buying Has Changed

• B2B buying process has fundamentally changed
• Prospects are spending more time on the Web doing
  independent research, obtaining information from
  their peers and other third parties
• B2B buyers are now in control
• Changes the role of marketing
• Old Way - Lead generation and moving on
• New Way - Marketers must synchronize their
  marketing efforts and provide prospects quality
  content throughout the sales cycle and do it in
  consistent and timely manner

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Example

• Distinction in Marketing 2008 Winner
• RMI Corporation

A firm believer in the benefits of nurture
marketing
People arent just going to go out and purchase
software on a whim. They need to spend time
looking at different solution providers and
evaluating the choices they have. Nurture
marketing keeps our name in front of them, so
when the time comes for them to switch systems,
theyll think of us and come back to us. Greg
Bradley, Marketing Specialist, RMI Corporation
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Response Rates
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Metrics and Typical Response Rates

• The results, in order of response rate
  percentages
• Telemarketing 5.78
• Dimensional mail 2.3
• Direct mail 1.88
• Email 1.12
• Inserts 0.45
• Magazine 0.13
• Radio 0.1
• Newspaper 0.09
• Direct Marketing Association (DMA) ,
  www.the-dma.org (B-to-B and B-to-C)

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Multiple Touch Response Rates

• Once you start incorporating multiple touches,
  your response rates increase
• Telemarketing typically produces a 1 to 5
  response rate
• Direct mail produces 1 to 2 response, with
  dimensional mail yielding the strongest results
• Email typically lands another 1

From the Partner Business Network 2008
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Multiple Ways to Respond

• Multiple response options increase your response
  rate
• Fill out a Web form
• Return a business-reply card
• Respond by email
• Call a toll-free number

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Planning
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Planning

• Creating consistency
• Messaging based on who targeting
• Value-based offers
• Setting the rhythm
• Plan should include
• Target List
• Messaging and Content
• Frequency and Execution
• Measurement

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Target List
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Target List

• Understand and profile who you want to nurture
• What makes up a good customer for your company?
• What are the characteristics?
• Industry focus, company size, geography, revenue,
  etc.
• What problems does my prospect need to overcome
  each day?
• What is the prospects top priority right now?
• Build a list of Prospects, Leads, Customers
• Prospect no formal communication or has not
  responded to your company in the past
• Lead Prospective customer who has responded to
  your communication in past and/or is someone in
  pipeline
• Customer existing or former customers who have
  done business with your company

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Target List

• Dont have a list? Or need to supplement list?
• www.hoovers.com (General B-to-B lists)
• www.zapdata.com (General B-to-B lists)
• www.jigsaw.com (General business)
• Promo pricing - http//www.mspartnerdirect.com/act
  ion/microsoft/site/library/CampaignView?campaignID
  1277txtSourceJigSaw
• www.leadintelligence.com (Competitive product
  lists small to mid-market)
• www.hartehanks.com - (Competitive product lists
  Enterprise)

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Segmenting the List

• Segment your list into A, B and C prospects and
  customers
• Deliver communication and offers applicable to
  each

Prospects E-Newsletter Direct Mail Email Dimensional Mail Telemarketing Sales Contact
Prospect A Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Prospect B Yes Yes Yes Yes
Prospect C Yes Yes Yes
Customers
Customer A Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Customer B Yes Yes Yes Yes
Customer C Yes Yes Yes
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• Messaging Content

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Message Creation

• Know your audience and ask yourself
• How can we build credibility?
• How can we show that our products/services will
  help them achieve goals?
• How can we differentiate ourselves?
• How can we become a trusted advisor/expert to
  prospects and customers?
• Integrate pain messaging
• Getting More Organized to Save Time and Money Do
  more with reduced time, people, and finances
  improve teamwork and collaboration and stay
  connected to the business while away from the
  office.
• Managing Cash Flow Make your finance,
  operations, and other business processes more
  efficient. Gain better insight into what drives
  revenues and expenses, so you can improve your
  financial position and make more informed
  decisions about where to best invest resources.
• Finding and Retaining Customers Find customers
  more cost-effectively, close deals faster, and
  improve customer satisfaction.
• Reducing IT Costs and Risks Stay focused on
  running the businessnot wasting time and money
  dealing with network disruptions or fighting
  fires.

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Delivering the Message

• We all consume media differently
• Email, telemarketing, direct mail
• Need to stand-out
• Use a common theme to break through the clutter
  and get your message across
• Choose a theme thats
• Fun
• Topical
• Engaging
• Memorable!

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Example Memorable Series

• Message - Focus on how CRM can help you be more
  
• productive and get ahead in your organization
• Consistency monthly communication
• Offer case study, white paper, webcast, book
• Types of communication direct mail, email,
  
• newsletter, phone

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Example Direct Mail/Lumpy Mailer

• Message - Focus on how we can help you
• improve customer satisfaction
• Offer white paper, case study, gift
• Consistency multi-touch over 4 months
• Types of communication direct mail, email,
  
• newsletter, phone

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Distinction in Marketing Winner Referral Program

• CAL Business Solutions Anya Ciecierski,
  Marketing Manager
• Had good referrals but didnt encourage or market
  to referrals
• Identified Top 10 referral sources (Vendors,
  Centers of Influence CPAs, other Microsoft
  partners)
• 12-month multi-touch campaign included
• Personalized letters, emails, dimensional direct
  mail
• Thank you letter and gift for referrals
• 250 gift card for any closed business
• Educational offers
• Tips Tricks
• Face-to-face meetings
• Integrated social networking through LinkedIn

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Example Dimensional Mailer
Lumpy Mailer
Business letter
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Content is King - Offers

• Need to make sure you offer something of value or
  educational
• Establishes you as an expert and is
  non-threatening including
• Articles
• Case Studies
• Press Releases
• Whitepapers
• Webinars/Events
• E-Books/How-Tos
• Research Findings /Analyst Reports
• Polls/Surveys/Quiz
• Podcasts
• Microsoft Incentives

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• Frequency Execution of Plan

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Frequency of Communication

• How often is enough or too much?
• Weekly? Monthly? Bi-monthly?
• When its relevant
• Resources, budget, capacity and ability to
  deliver

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Prospect Nurturing Schedule

• Setting the rhythmmove prospects along

Timing (every 30 days) Action
Contact 1 Introductory call with follow-up email (Get permission/verify contact information)
Contact 2 Email with offer educational report/article
Contact 3 Direct mail with white paper offer ROI of ERP
Contact 4 Email newsletter
Contact 5 Email and link to relevant case study or podcast
Contact 6 Direct mail invite to webcast with follow-up phone call
Contact 7 Follow-up touch base phone call - reminder
Contact 8 Email newsletter
Contact 9 Phone call to touch base and prospect interested in meeting with you!
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Customer Nurturing Schedule
Timing (every 30 days) Action
Contact 1 Thank you letter/gift and phone call
Contact 2 Email with offer to sign up for newsletter and training opportunity
Contact 3 Direct mail with white paper offer/report
Contact 4 Email newsletter
Contact 5 Email and link to relevant podcast or article
Contact 6 Direct mail invite to customer briefing event and follow-up phone call
Contact 7 Follow-up touch base phone call - reminder
Contact 8 Email newsletter
Contact 9 Phone call to set-up lunch meeting to discuss possible project need
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Executing the Plan

• Execution includes
• Following a plan
• Resources and funding to keep momentum
• Multiple tactics (direct mail, email, phone)
• Multiple offers to move your audience along in
  the sales cycle

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Social Networking

• How do you integrate into nurture plan?
• Communicate that you are active on various sites
  such as LinkedIn, Face Book, Twitter, etc. and
  invite them to join your social networking sites
• Start-up a group and ask them to join, see who
  else is connected in their network and get an
  introduction
• Participate in online discussions (answer
  questions/provide opinions)
• Post company events and happenings on sites

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• Monitor and Measure

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Monitor and Analyze

• Monitor and analyze
• Track each phase of plan and response cant
  improve what you dont measure!
• of responses and qualified leads
• of closes
• Number of downloads by offer
• Number of appointments made
• Track your web traffic
• Measure ROI
• Be flexible and make changes as necessary
• Ensure continued support and funding to continue
  nurturing

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Nurture Marketing Checklist

• Think long-term anything worthwhile takes hard
  work and persistence
• Know who you want to target and what they are
  interested in
• Build relationships that are personal and
  respectful
• Offer information that is educational
• Consistency and follow-up is key
• Measure and track

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Action Items

• Review target lists, begin segmenting
• 3 offers they might be interested in receiving
• Start thinking of theme/messages
• Outline a plan and budget
• Begin executing, building relationships and
  planting those seeds to success!

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Other Resources

• Distinction in Marketing case studies
  https//mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/communitie
  s/marketing/resources/marketingcreativeresources/B
  estPractices.htm
• Microsoft Dynamics Principles of Marketing - Best
  Practices of Relationship Marketinghttps//mbs.mi
  crosoft.com/partnersource/communities/marketing/ma
  rketingreadiness/MsDyPrincipleMktgWebSem.htm
• Partner Marketing Center Microsoft Partner
  Network site https//partner.microsoft.com/global/
  salesmarketingsection/smmarketingcenter
• Microsoft Small Business Center
  http//www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/m
  arketing/small-business-marketing.aspxMarketing,a
  dvertisingbranding

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The Partner Marketing Group

• Marketing consulting group with expertise working
  with Microsoft Dynamics partner organizations to
  drive new marketing opportunities and results
• Sign up for our e-newsletter and well donate 1
  to worthy cause!
• Go to www.thepartnermarketinggroup.com to get
  copy of presentation

Jennifer Culbertson jennifer_at_thepartnermarketingg
roup.com Website www.thepartnermarketinggroup.com

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THANK YOU
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