The Seven Deadly Sins of B2B Lead Nurturing

When it comes to revenue-focused marketing, are you a saint, or a sinner?

Quality lead nurturing will create a sale roughly 70% more often than no nurture. Yet for many technology marketing teams, the idea that they need to go beyond just generating leads is still something relatively new. Everyone seems to have a slightly different take on lead nurturing, what it should involve, and when it is most appropriate – which in turn causes to some pretty obvious errors.

So we thought it would be helpful to point out some of the main pitfalls companies tend to stumble into when they’re getting to grips with lead nurturing planning and implementation.

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Stop talking about quality; just do it.

There’s a big problem with content marketing − and a whole load of blogs spelling out exactly what it is. Lots of great work (and there are some great examples) but often smothered by a volume of mediocrity.

It seems that so many companies are taking the volume approach which means that users (buyers and influencers) need to scratch around to find the gems that actually add value. On the downside − sooner or later, they’ll get bored, and stop looking − which is a real shame, because great content benefits everyone.

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Social B2B engagement: 7 ways to win business by influencing buyers

During the technology purchasing process, the buyer is usually more than halfway through making up their mind before they even want to hear from or contact a technology vendor.

Clearly, a B2B tech brand that can get involved and make a useful contribution in those early stages, stands a better chance of inclusion during evaluation and comparison… possibly even helping to set the agenda in the process.

But how? Appropriate and helpful engagement in online communities offers great potential to influence early-stage discussions… but, if done badly, can be disastrous to a brand’s reputation.

In defining the best approach, here are seven aspects to consider in your planning…

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Head or heart? Where to aim B2B Tech Marketing

There’s no denying the IT buying process is slow and complicated. Lots of research. A long cycle. Numerous project influencers. And as marketers are increasingly involved all the way through buying cycle from awareness to sale, that complexity might have real implications for messaging. Conventional wisdom says the very nature of the procurement process makes technology buyers unusually resistant to emotional influence. They buy with their head, not their heart. Don’t they?

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The bottom line: time for tech marketing to take control

Will someone please remind me what we do all this for?  The events, email shots and microsites. The social, blogs and videos I thought they were to help companies make money. It seems I was mistaken.

Because this year’s B2B Technology Marketing lead generation survey – completed by 845 tech marketers at the end of 2012 – says 25% don’t even know how many of their leads turn into business.

Those 211 respondents need to ask themselves: are you actually in business, or are you only playing? “Show me the money!” – Jerry Maguire

These days, boards want proof that marketing investment is making a real difference to the bottom line. Not PDF downloads, not Facebook “likes”, not even new business meetings. How much pipeline did your campaigns actually generate? How much of that pipeline converted to sales?

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