Marketing Clique

Should Marketing Automation be re-named Email Automation? Isn't it true that so-called lead management automation is really just a dressed up autoresponder?

Automated lead nurturing is one of the reasons companies invest in a marketing automation platform. The lure of slow drip marketing is that salespeople don't get bogged down working immature leads. Instead, the prospect is teased with a series of emails that maintain contact and offer different goodies [bait] along the way: invitations to free webinars; invitations to download free whitepapers (eBooks), case studies; invitations for free product demos; invitations to visit salespeople at upcoming conferences. Then, once the lead has been nurtured and is ripe for the picking, the salesperson is unleashed to lap up the new business.

Is it really that easy?

Yes, because when it's implemented correctly, lead management can translate into an increase in sales. Furthermore, the volume of leads your company can now handle increases dramatically. And sales still is, in part, a numbers game.

No, it's not that easy because success of the campaign hinges on the ability of marketing and sales to work together as a team. What's more, there is a pesky little thing called content that has to be of exceptional quality, value, well-thought-out and accessible.

What should be the goal of lead nurturing?

We ultimately want the lead we're nurturing to take the desired action, right? Right! But remember, the desired action might not be a purchase, per se. The interaction may not be solely with a prospect. And our reaction may not necessarily be an email:

• Use marketing automation to stay in touch with high value mavens. Maybe you've identified bloggers for whom you want to provide high quality and special content about your products and services.
• Put your new customers on a slow drip enrichment campaign and introduce them to the wonderful new features and benefits of doing business with you. Introduce certain types of stuff to certain types of customers.
• Before they sign on as customers, use lead nurturing to encourage prospects to interact with people at your company and begin feeling like they're part of your community. The value of community is strong. It's a powerful way to make your company more cult-like.
• Make some of the lead nurturing triggers result in something other than email! For example, one of the triggers can result in a call from a human being outside of the sales department. Use old-fashioned marketing tactics like sending the prospect a hand-written note from the VP of Marketing thanking them for attending the latest webinar. Send the prospect a FedEx package. Everyone opens an overnight FedEx envelope that's sent to them.
• If your product is distributed through the channel, set up a routine for sending the reseller special kudos when they meet certain criteria. Maybe it's an email, but maybe it's a quick congrats call from your CEO.

However you slice or dice it, there's no getting around the fact that marketing automation and lead nurturing has wiggled its way into the world of marketing and sales. The following infographic is from Forrester Research analyst, Laura Ramos, and it's useful for visualizing where lead nurturing can "plug the leak."

What's the takeaway for marketing and sales?

Be creative and avoid becoming myopic about your new marketing automation campaign. It's not only for creating autoresponder email messages to prospects!