Optimize a Lead Nurturing Campaign: 5 Steps to Boost Conversions and Warm a Cold List

Optimize a Lead Nurturing Campaign: 5 Steps to Boost Conversions and Warm a Cold List: -

SUMMARY: The key to a good lead-nurturing program is finding the right combination of relevant content and messaging frequency to keep your brand top-of-mind.

Read how an outsourced software product-engineering team revived a cold prospect list with a lead nurturing strategy. They tested elements, such as collateral offers, email message copy, subject lines and landing pages, to generate triple-digit increases in key metrics over the course of four email sends.

CHALLENGE

Aaron Dun, VP North America Marketing, Ness Technologies needed to foster ongoing communications with prospects, so that the company could stay competitive in the crowded outsourced IT services market. In particular, they hadn’t done a good job staying in touch with prospects for their software product engineering services.

“This list was very cold,” says Dun. “We had acquired the list over time, but we didn’t have a really focused mechanism for touching it and nurturing it frequently.”

Dun and his team wanted to begin warming that list with a lead-nurturing campaign that reintroduced prospects to the company’s software product-engineering services. But they also saw an opportunity to test tactics and a messaging approach that would form the basis of a new marketing strategy.

CAMPAIGN

The team embarked on a lead nurturing process that used email messages to offer prospects educational content related to the outsourced software product-engineering process. During the course of two campaigns, they tested email message copy, subject lines, and landing page to optimize their approach.

Here are five steps they took to discover the best way to engage prospects and articulate the company’s services expertise and brand position:

Step #1. Choose third-party analyst reports as marketing collateral

Because they were working off a cold list, the team needed a compelling piece of content to serve as the first touch in a nurturing campaign. Their goal was to provide information that would associate the company with important trends in outsourced software-product engineering. They also wanted to begin explaining how the company’s services differ from those of its competitors.

The team considered a white paper, email newsletter or other branding assets. But in the interest of launching the campaign quickly, they settled on licensing third-party analyst reports related to their industry:

- One report covered high-level strategies for offshore software-product engineering.

- A second report provided a deeper analysis of a specific software product engineering methodology, known as Agile development.

Step #2. Send email offer with brand-focused message

For the first campaign, the team sent an email to prospects offering a free download of the broader, offshore software product-development report.

- Subject line: “Analysis: Why outsourced product development projects often fall short – but yours won’t”.

- The email header highlighted Ness’s brand positioning as a valued partner in software product development. They used:
o An image of a rowing team
o The headline, “Together in synch: just like working with a Ness software product development team”

- The call-to-action for the analyst report download was placed prominently toward the top of the message. They placed download links:
o Just below the headline
o To the right of the first paragraph of body copy
o Embedded in the second paragraph of the message copy

- Body copy highlighted the company's branding message, with bullet points outlining the company's capabilities.

- The team tested two versions of a landing page:
o Half of the list received a personalized URL that pre-filled fields for name, title, company, email address and phone number
o Half received a standard landing page that used the same fields, but did not pre-fill information

Step #3. Resend offer to non-responders

Seven days after sending the first email, the team resent the offer to prospects that hadn’t opened or clicked the first message.

However, they tweaked some aspects of the original message.

- Subject line was changed to emphasize the offer: “Research Report: Best Practices for Outsourced Product Development”.

- They used PURLs for all recipients.

- New copy was added below the headline that emphasized the contents of the report. The company's branding message was moved to the second half of the body copy.

Step #4. Send second campaign with offer-focused message

The team sent a new offer to the same list 11 weeks later. This campaign used the second analyst report, which was focused on a specific aspect of the software product-development process that the team knew was a hot topic for their audience.

The team also continued tweaking email copy to downplay company brand messages. Instead, they highlighted the offer and its benefits to prospects.

- Subject line: “New Report brings Agile Best Practices to Light”.

- The headline and header image were stylistically similar to the first campaign, but they reflected the theme of report’s content. They used:
o An image of a cycling team in motion around a track
o The headline, “Speed your software to market. A new report sheds light on Agile best practices”

- Brand positioning copy was kept to the second half of the email message.

- An additional call-to-action was placed at the bottom of the message.

- All prospects received a PURL.

Step #5. Resend offer to non-responders

As with the first campaign, the team sent a second email one week later to prospects that hadn’t opened or clicked.


RESULTS

The team achieved significant improvements in key metrics with each test and tweak they performed over the two campaigns.

Most significantly, they saw the response rate jump in the second campaign when they downplayed their branding message and highlighted the report offer and benefits for the prospect:
o Clickthrough rate increased 248.7% for the second campaign
o Registration rate increased 352%

“As we got into testing and results, there was a level of excitement there. You are seeing some difference,” says Dun. “You’re also starting to build a platform of raw data that we can measure against and build from.”

Other key metrics from the tests:

- Open rates remained relatively consistent throughout the campaigns.
- Landing-page conversion rate increased 94.4% when using PURLs in the first campaign. The team now uses PURLs for all its campaigns.

- Resending offers to non-responders made a significant contribution to overall registration rates:
o The second send delivered 28% of total registrations during the first campaign
o The second send delivered 35% of total registrations during the second campaign

Thanks to Source : -
Source : http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?ident=31119#

Smart Marketing Tips for Your Website

These success strategies will help you power up your Web presence, attract your target market and create a site that has customers coming back for more.

To compete successfully online, today's firms must maximize their web presence. This means leveraging your Web site, integrating online and offline marketing efforts, and communicating effectively online. In a few simple steps, we'll unravel the mysteries of effective online marketing and help you get the best returns from your Web site investment.

Mystery #1: There is no mystery.
Online marketing is marketing. Like all successful marketing efforts, you must develop a clearly defined goal for your Web site and must have an understanding of your online target market. What do you hope your Web site will accomplish?

Will it . . .

• Replace your sales and marketing kit?
• Close sales deals?
• Create a secondary revenue stream?
• Serve as your virtual storefront?
• Support other marketing activities by providing a professional online presence?

Once you've decided that, next ask yourself if you can accomplish your online objectives with your existing target market? For example, if you run a senior care facility and want your Web site to replace mailed materials, you may never accomplish your goal. Though growing, seniors still make up only a small percentage of Internet users. Many seniors will still call you to send them information. So perhaps your Web site needs to target the children of the seniors and answer their questions.

Keys To Success

Be clear about what you want your site to accomplish. Clarify your objectives and measurements so you can know if your investment brings you the expected return. For example, if you want to replace your sales and marketing kit, identify the cost of creating and mailing each kit. Then determine how many you send out each month. Set a goal that your Web site will reduce the number of kits you mail by 80 percent and tie a dollar figure to that. After your site's been up several months, you can measure its success.

Mystery #2: What's more important, design or content?
The answer is both. When visitors arrive at your site, the overall look and feel determines whether they stay or move on. Your site needs to reflect your brand and be consistent with your other marketing pieces. Also, your site needs to be easy to use and navigate. So design is important.

Remember, however, that content is king. Once a visitor's decided to stay, your copy needs to grab them. It must be relevant to visitors and answer their questions effectively. Though the Internet allows people to control where they go and what they see next, your content should logically and thoughtfully lead them to important points and entice them with calls to action throughout the site.

Keys To Success

Speak to your target market-use language they use, anticipate the questions they'll have, address problems they have that your company solves, and speak to them so they feel like you "get it."

Effective Web copy involves your visitors and sets the tone for your company. For the best copy, consider the following:

• Use "we" instead of "I" if you want to be perceived as a larger company.
• Keep content fresh and updated so visitors want to return.
• Keep copy brief and to the point.
• Include clear call to actions. Phrases such as "Call us," "Mark this page as your browser home page," "Sign up for our newsletter" and "Complete our survey" will prompt visitors to take action.
• Make it "sticky"-figure out how you can keep people on your site. Use a one-question survey that provides immediate results, direct them to helpful information and encourage them to browse your online store. What? You don't have one. Think of setting one up to offer your customers another way to get their hands on your products.
• Offer tips and advice. While some entrepreneurs are concerned about giving away their value for nothing, offering tips and ideas reinforces your expertise to your audience and inspires them to work with you. The more value you offer on your site, the more often people will come back.
• It's not about you. Make it about the reader. Sounds simple but look at your home page. Is it all about you and how great your business is and all the wonderful things you do? Then it's time to change that. Your home page must address the problems and challenges that your customers have-and tell them how you can solve them. Visitors should look at your home page and think, "They get it."

Mystery #3: I built it. When will they come?
Did you hope that once you had your Web site up and running your sales would explode? You're not alone. Unfortunately, just building a Web site isn't enough. The keys to getting the most out of your investment can be summed up in three words: Leverage, integrate and monitor.

Keys To Success

Leverage
Handle your Web site's launch just as you would any new initiative. Distribute a press release. Create an inexpensive postcard with a picture of your site, and send it to everyone in your database-be sure to include an offer that inspires people to log on. The offer could be to visit the site for a coupon for 10 percent off or a Top 10 list. The better the offer, the more likely you'll get traffic.

Remember to include a "What's New" section on your site and keep it updated. Add any new clients, events you speak at, articles you've written, and any other news of interest to your customers. When someone expresses interest in your company, encourage them to visit your Web site.

Link your site everywhere it makes sense-to professional organizations, local business publications, doing business in (your city) sites, industry publications, What's New sites. If you have colleagues you like to refer business to, offer to put them on your site and ask for a reciprocal link. The more relevant sites that link to yours, the higher you'll rank in search engines.

Integrate
Once you build your site, tell the world about it. Put your Web site's URL on every printed marketing piece you produce-business cards, brochures, direct mail postcards, Yellow Pages ads, invoices, coupons, articles you write. In addition, put everything on your site-if you run an ad, put a copy on your site and say "As seen in..." Include your Web address in your e-mail signature and your voicemail greeting: "For more information, visit our Web site at..." If you have a storefront, hang a banner that includes your Web address. Think about it this way: Wherever you put your phone number, put your Web address there, too.

Monitor
When you invest money in something, you need to know if it was worth it. Statistics help you learn your return on investment. Most hosting companies offer stats as part of their package, and your Web developer can help you interpret them. Be sure to review site statistics quarterly and look for trends. Do visitors look at a few pages, get to the "Services" page, then drop off? Think about what that means-maybe they come to your site thinking you do one thing, then get to Services and find out you don't offer what they want. Perhaps your Services page doesn't provide enough information. Look for trends and adjust your site accordingly. Then keep track of your adjustments and look at the results the next quarter.

Today's businesses can't afford to operate without a Web site. But before you invest in one, create a plan for how the site fits into your overall business objective and marketing goals. Then leverage, integrate and monitor.

Thanks to http://www.entrepreneur.com

Source : http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/sitedesign/article71892.html

Author: - L Susan LaPlante-Dube

About Author :

Susan LaPlante-Dube is president of Precision Marketing Group in Upton, Massachusetts, where she focuses on creating customized marketing solutions that deliver solid business results for organizations ranging from solo practitioners to Fortune 500 companies. To sign up for Susan's "Matters of Marketing" newsletter, or to learn more, visit www.precisionmarketinggroup.com.

How to Advertise During recession-era ???

How to Advertise Now

Unsure what to cut and what to keep? This smart, 4-point checklist is your guide to recession-era advertising.

When money's tight, the knee-jerk reaction for many entrepreneurs is to cut back on advertising. Unfortunately, the businesses that stop advertising simply drop out of sight, taking these entrepreneurs from slow sales to no sales--fast. It's a risky move many may not recover from. Rather than eliminate your advertising in a recession, cut the fat from your campaign, and focus on the right media choices for the highest ROI.

To figure out what to cut and what to keep, use this checklist to choose the right media for your business in this challenging economy.

1. Advertise where prospects look first.
   Where will your customers look when they've decided to buy what you sell? A vast majority of Americans research purchases on the internet before buying online or in a brick-and-mortar store. Placing advertising on search engines may be an important part of your scaled down campaign. Other search media include trade and industrial directories, both online and in print, newspaper circulars, classified ads, and shopper sections of specialty magazines. By advertising where prospective customers look, you'll shorten your sales cycle and lower your cost per sale.
2. Use media that touch prospects often.
   Even when your customers aren't in search mode, they still interact with other important media. Discover which media touch your best prospects throughout the day. Do they read a particular newspaper? Which TV and radio programs do they enjoy and at what times of the day? If you're targeting B2B prospects, zero in on the industry publications they rely on for information. Both business and consumer prospects have favorite websites they frequent. Armed with this vital information, you can strategically place ads in media you know play central roles in their daily lives.
3. Put your ads in context.
   Not all media that touch your prospects will be smart advertising choices. The issue of appropriate context is critical when making this evaluation. Choose media that reach your prospects when they're in the right frame of mind to be receptive to your message. For example, your best prospects may dine out frequently and be exposed to the ads inside the restroom stalls of popular restaurants. But the location of this media may be an inappropriate context for advertising your type of business. It all depends on when and how you want your customers to think of your business. Pare down your campaign to the media that put your message in the right context, and your response rates will climb.
4. Advertise for maximum memorability.
   The very best use of limited advertising dollars is to spend your money where your campaign can be a standout. That requires sufficient ad size and frequency. With the abundance of clutter in all major media, it can be challenging to stand out with small-size, fractional-page ads. Larger ads will give you more bang for your buck because they're more likely to be seen and remembered. Rather than run small-space ads in many publications or websites, reduce your media choices to those in which you can afford to buy larger ads and advertise frequently. Narrow your broadcast selections to fewer radio stations or TV programs, and advertise to your core audience with frequency so your message is sure to penetrate. By the time the marketplace rebounds, you'll be in a solid position to expand your campaign once again.

Thanks to http://www.entrepreneur.com

Source : http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingcolumnistkimtgordon/article199484.html

Author : Kim T. Gordon: Marketing

About Author : Kim T. Gordon is the "Marketing" coach at Entrepreneur.com and a multifaceted marketing expert, speaker, author and media spokesperson. Over the past 26 years, she's helped millions of small-business owners increase their success through her company, National Marketing Federation Inc. Her latest book, Maximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars, is now available.