Lead Nurturing is NOT About Campaigns

Content marketing is being used in all types of formats. There's the big bang eBook launch, the white paper promotion, the 3 touch plus sales offer approach, the quarterly webinar and other "standalone" configurations based on a short-term time frame. Unfortunately, none of these is actually lead nurturing for a complex sale. These are campaigns.

A campaign is generally a short term focus with a defined goal like - Generate 100 new leads or add $X to the pipeline forecast. Your buyers could care less because the very structure of a campaign is all about what your company wants to achieve, not what your buyers need.

A solid lead nurturing program extends at a minimum across your average buying cycle and even beyond. Lead nurturing is about providing useful content your buyers find valuable because it helps them think about, evaluate and solve their problems to create desirable business outcomes.

I know what you're thinking. "Heck, I'll just stream all my campaigns together and it'll be a lead nurturing program."

Nope. That's not it.

Why?

Because it's highly unlikely that you'll end up with a consistent and useful storyline that builds engagement with your buyers. This is because campaigns tend to hop around. Campaigns are the equivalent of ADD for marketing. They lack commitment so it's easy to flip your focus to some other trendy topic and head off down another path with each new campaign you create.

What's the result for your buyers?

• Disappointment that content they were interested in has reached a conclusion without providing them all the insight they needed to make an informed decision.
• Confusion about the actual value your company provides.
• Diminishing relevance that results in their attention moving elsewhere to get what they need.

Put yourself in your buyers' shoes and imagine you're trying to solve a specific problem.

• You find an article that speaks to that problem and follow the link to the website.
• You register for and download a related white paper while you're there.
• Over the course of several months you receive related information that helps you learn more about what you need to know - but you still have questions and have to convince the other members of the buying committee that this company can help.
• Next month you get an email promoting the value of a different product.

Yep. One campaign ended and another one began.

From the buyers' perspective, how interested are you now?

If your sales cycle is averaging 9 months, how effective is a strategy that dictates the launch of a new campaign focus every quarter? (Product A in Q1, Product B in Q2, Product C in Q3, etc.)

Instead, consider creating a nurturing program that educates your buyers step-by-step across the entirety of their buying cycle.

To do this you must know your buyers very well. You need to think in terms of problem-to-solution scenarios, not product lines when you create your content strategy and editorial calendar. Roll that eBook, white paper and video into your nurturing storyline. When you have an editorial calendar that extends across the buying process you can weave in your various content formats to both generate new leads and increase the engagement you're building with your leads over time.

The gist is that short-term campaigns are created for your benefit and nurturing programs are created to benefit buyers.

Which is going to get you farther in the long run?

Comments

[Noreen Vincent]

Ardath, What brands would you point to that you believe are exhibiting best practices around Lead Nurturing?

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Noreen,

That's a good question. I think a lot of the marketing automation companies get it.

Marketo provides a wealth of content to help people who could be their customers learn how to market effectively. So do Genius.com, Silverpop, HubSpot, Eloqua and others.

Of course these are also companies I pay a lot of attention to as a number of my clients use marketing automation systems and it's within my professional realm.

Cisco is on the road to expanding how they're using nurturing. I've seen some impressive programs from them and, as a disclosure, I'm also helping them create more.

From a B2C angle, Apple does a good job. Of course, their marketing is focused on the experience more than the technology, which is always a good sign.

Sometimes I see communications and think - Wow they've got it! - then find out it was just a short term blip and they've switched focus again. The consolation prize is that they're at least developing more relevant content, even if for the short term.

What's more important to me is that I see a growing number of companies actively working toward achieving the shift from campaigns to nurturing. It's easier said then done sometimes - tough to break through the status quo for how it's always been done. Not to mention crossing budget lines for longer-term programs.

The hard part for me in answering this question is that the reason clients engage me is because they aren't using best practices around lead nurturing but want to learn. So I see most companies from the "before" side.

Which companies do you see exhibiting best practices? I'd love more examples.

Ardath

[Maria Pergolino]

An additional benefit is that your buyers are more educated, allowing sales reps to serve as partners with the purchaser instead of educators. This makes better use of everyone's time and allows the buyer to make the best decision for his or her company. (An added benefit is that this happier educated buyers are often more likely to renew and may have reduced service issues.) Campaigns still have their place for lead generation, but once they are in our database the nurturing begins!

[Maria Pergolino]

Ooops, somehow post got shortened- It should have read...

Thanks for the mention and for the great post. I totally agree with the benefits of lead nurturing, as it is part of what drives Marketo's own success.

An additional benefit is that your buyers are more educated, allowing sales reps to serve as partners with the purchaser instead of educators. This makes better use of everyone's time and allows the buyer to make the best decision for his or her company. (An added benefit is that this happier educated buyers are often more likely to renew and may have reduced service issues.) Campaigns still have their place for lead generation, but once they are in our database the nurturing begins!

[gen]

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[Jack Duncan]

Ardath - very insightful!
You make a strong practical point that is often talked about, but overlooked on a practical level: simply focusing on the short-term needs and desires of the company rather than the interests of the consumer and building a long-term relationship. You make a good argument about a long sales cycle for a product, but also there's the CLIENT cycle that may begin with the first sale, but extend for decades and we have to consider how to engage an organization over that period. We tend to think in months, weeks and quarters. Certainly, the western mentality is very focused on the NOW. Look at China and India, where the strategic thinking is in terms of many centuries or lifetimes.
You really made me THINK today and I will be following along now to make adjustments myself. THANK YOU.

[marketing mix]

WOW! long post, but defenitly worth the read, usefull info for me, much appreciated, keep up the good work -

Dennis 4 marketing p's

[Kevin Joyce]

Good point Ardath,
When marketers forget that nurturing is supposed to encourage engagement from the prospect it is easy to slip into just serving up offer after offer thereby inoculating the prospect. Some of our larger customers have single campaigns with more than 100 offers. They can do this because the campaigns are adaptive, and can offer a unique sequence of offers to each individual based on their needs and behaviors. The ultimate goal however is to get the prospect to "pull" then next piece of content instead of the marketer having to push it! Get them to interact.
-Kevin

[Dean Piccirillo]

I like the concept of having a longer-term editorial calendar that incorporates all the content marketing tools you're using. At this point, I've been writing about things that I find interesting that may also interest a prospective client but have not been working off of an overall plan. Which is interesting as I'm a planner both by my nature and my profession... Thanks for the reminder. Dean