Wednesday 24 September 2008

An Organic Gardener's Guide to Lead Nurturing

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Yesterday I spoke at a seminar organised by B2B Marketing magazine. Rather than use the traditional analogies of dating/marriage that we all use to describe the nurturing approach, I used the topic of vegetable gardening (it's the new rock'n'roll!).

Marketing campaigns produce seedlings, but that's only the start - we need to feed, weed, water, prick out etc at the appropriate time. We also need to ensure that the sales teams want to eat vegetables and are not just red meat eaters. You get the picture?

So my 9 tips for a bumper marketing crop have now become:

  1. Grow the right stuff (Align marketing activity with Sales)
  2. What's growing and What isn't (Record all your Responses in a client contact-centric view)
  3. Follow the instructions on the Seed Packet (Develop "nurturing blueprints" of standardised processes to develop a relationship from an initial response)
  4. Apply the right Feed at the right time (Align your nurturing content to the stages of the buying cycle)
  5. Are the nutrients being absorbed? (Implement activity-based scoring)
  6. Make it easier with a little machinery (Automate the most appropriate processes)
  7. Share your knowledge (Integrate your marketing insights with the CRM system)
  8. Monitor Progress Regularly (Measure key indicators)
  9. Apply plenty of Mulch (Refine and keep learning)

You can find the complete presentation on Slideshare.

Flickr Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tico_bassie/120810354/

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