Leads, leads, leads and more leads. The thing marketers are graded upon more so than any other is their ability to generate leads. What about branding you say? I like a well designed marketing piece as much as the next guy but branding is a lot of bullshit. A company's customer experience is what makes a brand and how do you get customers? By generating leads. Unfortunately, there is so much emphasis on generating leads that very few are ever nurtured through the sales process. Failing to nurture leads is the biggest mistake marketers make. But, there are some online tools and simple processes you can quickly put in place to help you.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Having decent CRM software used to be too expensive for most small and medium sized businesses. For that reason most companies relied on their accounting software to keep track of their prospects or their email address book or an Excel spreadsheet. Unfortunately, I think many still do. The problem with these methods are that they lack capabilities to automate and track prospect activities in a manner that can be scaled or analyzed; It's nearly impossible to grade leads, segment them, and produce reports regarding who's hot or not.
Thankfully there are now a plethora of affordable CRM software systems to choose from. Personally, I prefer web-based CRM software since it requires minimal IT support, is often a subscription model so it's easy on cash flow, and you get automatic updates. Some of the newest web based CRM systems even integrate social media so you can import prospects/customers Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles to get up to date information on what's happening in their lives. I use a product called BatchBook which is ideal for my needs since it allows me to "tag" prospects with different terms that I can then generate lists from (I.e. cold, warm, hot). It's been invaluable for tracking my contacts. If you don't have CRM software you need to get some.
Content Marketing Strategy
The buying process of your prospects starts long before they contact you. Conducting research is one of the main activities on the web so you need to make sure that you have enough content to satisfy people's need for information. In a nutshell, Marketers need to become publishers. But before you go out and start writing a bunch of blog posts, filming videos, creating infographics, and producing eBooks it's important to know which content type is best at different points in the sales cycle.
For instance, if many of your leads have had little contact then you need content that creates awareness and education whereas If you just came back from a trade show with some hot leads then concentrate your efforts on creating a kick-ass online demo or ROI Calculator. Here is a link to a sweet inforgraphic that showcases what content works best at different points in the sales cycle: The Content Grid V2
Good 'Ol Fashioned Follow-Up
While the above two items will help you organize your prospects and marketing pieces it is important that you maintain that human touch. It's very easy to fall into the habit of only contacting somebody when you need something or have an offer but the strongest business relationships are those where a genuine relationship actually exists. I recently read an article on "human-centric marketing" and how it is the next business paradigm as we move away from traditional or even customer-centric marketing. The proliferation of social media, the ability for consumers to have a voice, and changing values brought on through globalization have made people want to seek more meaningful relationships with brands.
The brands that succeed at human centric marketing will be those that operate with a purpose and approach engaging their current and prospective customers via advertising and marketing tactics as whole human beings with hearts, minds, and spirits. This means having conversations, engaging your customers spontaneously, being transparent, and letting emotions show. This isn't actually rocket science; it's simply practicing the same methods you use to stay in contact with friends and family. Move away from treating customers as targets and start treating them like humans; any relationship worth pursuing requires nurturing.
What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment. If you would like to discuss more you're also welcome to give me a call at 306 229 9437. Cheers.
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