Lead Nurturing Programs for Tech Businesses

So you’ve put up a website, sent out a few press releases, done some social media marketing, maybe some email marketing, PPC, SEO, etc. Most likely accelerated by the fast-emerging AI tools of today. If your software or hardware company is more mature, you’ve done a LOT of these and probably a lot more in the way of demand generation. Now that you’ve generated all of these “leads”, what do you do with them? In many cases, this is the hard part, and getting it right isn’t usually an instantaneous exercise. So what do you do next? It’s called “lead nurturing”…

AI Agents are the cutting edge of this entire lead nurturing process

I’ll just mention once up front that yes, it’s possible — and in many cases preferable — to use AI agents for many of the steps outlined below. Implemented well, they can save time, money, and increase the velocity of the sales process. But don’t be fooled into thinking there is anything completely autonomous about using them. Anyone who has interacted with AI should already be aware of this. AI agents need to be trained and managed. Do this well, and there is a big payback. Do it poorly, and it could be a disaster and at least a waste of time. Just like any live employee! For the rest of this article, I won’t keep talking about AI. The principles below apply equally well, whether you are using live employees or AI agents.

Separate out the obvious “Hot Leads”

This is usually the easy part. It is VERY important that the Marketing and Sales departments discuss and develop a consensus on what constitutes a “hot lead”. Meaning a lead that demands IMMEDIATE follow-up by a skilled salesperson, virtual or real. If your company has been in business for a while, I find that in most cases this becomes a pretty obvious exercise. If you’re starting out, it might be more of a hypothetical exercise. I’ve always used the “Prime Prospect” profile concept to identify incoming leads. There are many other similar lead categorization concepts out there.

The prime prospect defines the “hot lead” category, with the rest going into a lead nurturing campaign.  This means identifying what a hot lead looks like. This can be based on their demographic characteristics such as age, company size, industry, business title, gender, location, etc.  Regardless of what the demographic profile of your prime prospect looks like, a sense of urgency on the part of the lead inquirer is important. This is almost always one of the factors identifying a hot lead. A key factor influencing this urgency is the prospect’s “psychographic” profile. A well-known example of this model is the technology adoption lifecycle.

Sort all of your leads into appropriate buckets

This sorting process is called “lead scoring”. This lead scoring task will vary significantly depending on your company’s developmental stage. As well as the marketing methods that are used. Say your company is a startup just embarking on sales and marketing activities with a handful of new leads. It might mean the company principals sitting around a table and manually sorting them into appropriate categories. This is lead scoring at its simplest. If your leads are coming from old-school, non-digital marketing methods such as direct mail, the approach will be similarly manual.

If you are relying heavily on today’s mainstream digital marketing methods, it’s much easier to automate this process. Although it usually becomes more sophisticated and complicated. Maybe you’re in a more mature business using primarily digital marketing to generate leads. Then lead scoring and the marketing follow-up process can be highly automated. Using marketing automation software in conjunction with website analytics or a leading-edge AI tool. Marketing automation software tools can be very expensive and not necessarily simple to use effectively. The details of successful marketing automation will be left to another article.

Nurture Marketing: Follow up at appropriate times and intervals

Whether following up manually or via sophisticated marketing automation software, it’s important to follow up the proper number of times. But also at the proper intervals. Then, this generally means a drip email campaign. But can also include methods such as PPC remarketing. Sales and Marketing researcher The Aberdeen Group says, “On average, a lead requires 10 marketing-driven ‘touches’ to convert from the top of the funnel into a paying customer.”

So out of sight, out of mind. This means it’s very important to be persistent in your lead follow-up. But it’s also very possible to alienate prospects. Don’t bombard them with messages too frequently. Start with some basic common sense about how often prospects in your customer segment will expect to be contacted. Take into account how “hot” the individual lead is. The number and interval frequency of your nurture marketing campaign should be heavily tested. Among other things, as discussed below.

Choose the best messaging and content for each lead category at each stage of your lead nurturing campaign

This is the most critical part of your lead nurturing process. And probably the most difficult aspect of it to optimize. That’s at least partly because the possibilities are nearly endless. They are limited only by your ability to create content. Various stages of lead nurturing and prospect development demand different types of stimulus and content to be effective. Below is a short list of the prospect stage matched with potentially appropriate types of content:

Leads:

Awareness and Interest Stages – Social media posts, Infographics, Blog posts, Free eBooks

Prospects:

Consideration and Intent stages

White papers, Exclusive webinars, In-depth articles, Brochures, Videos, Brand advocate testimonials

Evaluation stage

Free trials, Case studies, Free consultations, 1-1 Demos

Customers:

Webinars, Less-frequent Drip email, Dedicated Customer success/Support reps

Lead Nurturing Process: test, measure, test – rinse and repeat

So you’ve now got a lead nurturing process in place. Maybe simple, maybe sophisticated, depending upon your company’s developmental stage and marketing sophistication. What’s next? First of all, it’s important to know what a “good lead” is. To make that judgment, you need metrics to measure the results of your nurture marketing. Also, it’s important not only to categorize leads up front. But also to measure their effect on revenue and profitability.  There are many available metrics, but I’ll mention just three of the most common:

Conversion rate

There are many intermediate conversion rates. Leads generated/total traffic, for example. But at its simplest, this is the ratio of leads that ultimately become customers divided by the total number of leads.

CPA – (cost per acquisition). This is the total number of customers generated divided by the total cost expended.

CLV – (customer lifetime value). This is a metric most often used by companies with significant recurring sales, such as SaaS subscriptions. It is most simply calculated by adding the gross profit from all historic purchases for an individual customer. With enough historical data, you can use the CLV to accurately predict the CLV of future customers. This can inform your decisions on customer acquisition marketing budgets.

Continuous testing is key to lead nurturing

The approach to optimizing lead nurturing programs is very similar to demand generation activities. Continuously test each lead nurturing element independently and objectively. Test against alternative options. Choose the highest-performing choice for each element. Then set up a NEW test with a new potential alternate element. In addition, measure the results, then start all over again. By using this method, you will objectively converge on an optimal lead nurturing campaign as quickly as possible.

That’s my basic primer on how to approach lead nurturing programs with the ultimate goal of increasing sales. This is just an overview. There are many important details to implementing a successful lead nurturing process. It’s not a monochromatic topic. There are many different “shades” of lead nurturing.  Especially considering the breadth of sales & marketing models that can be successfully used by hardware and software companies. Please chime in with your own experiences and tips. Leave a comment below to enhance the discussion on this important topic.

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