How do many marketing automation projects work in practice? The impetus for the introduction of marketing automation platforms often comes from marketing. This is because the management and sales departments don’t really understand the impact. And since it somehow has something to do with technology, the introduction is declared an IT project. From an IT perspective, IT decides in favour of a system that suits them. If the company mainly uses systems from SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Adobe or Microsoft, the decision is made in favour of SAP Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud / Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Oracle Eloqua, Marketo or Microsoft Marketing Cloud. But even if the decision is made in favour of systems such as HubSpot, Mautic or Evalanche, there is usually still no reference to a digital strategy and the application scenario in sales.
It would make much more sense to focus on a digital strategy that supports the company’s sales and growth targets. And one of the most important elements of marketing automation / sales automation for these successes are nurturing processes.
What are nurturing processes?
The aim of nurturing processes (nurture = develop, build, nourish) is to hand over highly developed, qualified leads to sales in order to increase efficiency and sales success. Because if you hand over raw leads directly to sales, you run the risk of the Green Banana Effect®.
Definition of
‘What happens when you peel a green banana and bite into it? The typical Central European will not be thrilled. Why? The banana won’t taste good. But it’s not the banana’s fault, it’s just not ripe yet. It was opened too early. The banana needs time to ripen. This is also often the case with the demand and sales maturity of existing customers. The maturation of demand and the willingness to close a deal is promoted with nurturing processes (automated customer development processes) in a marketing automation / pre-sales automation platform.’
Nurturing processes are therefore used to automatically develop prospects/leads until they are ready for sales and handed over to the sales department. They offer prospective customers relevant content modules that match the stage in their buying journey / customer journey:
Picture: ©strike2 GmbH
Inform
If a potential customer feels ‘pain’ or a target condition is defined, they start to find out about possible solutions. This process step can start almost automatically on the customer side or be accelerated with suitable performance measures.
Enable
If the prospective/existing customer finds relevant information, he often realises that he does not have a sufficient command of methods, solutions, processes or technical terms or does not know how to implement them. As a result, he will probably look for further information that will help him to empower himself.
Evaluate
If the (potential) customer feels sufficiently empowered, they begin to evaluate the various solution approaches or methods. In other words, he checks which variants of solutions are available and which best suit his requirements.
Rate
Once the (potential) customer has decided on one or more suitable solution variants, they use certain criteria to evaluate the solutions and providers.
Closing preperation
If the evaluation is positive, the lead’s thoughts turn to closing the deal. This involves aspects such as: conditions, implementation, but also convincing his buying centre.
Each content module answers the questions that a prospective customer asks in the respective phase of the buying process and leads them to the next stage of the nurturing process. If the prospective customer wants advice or has questions during the process, they use the sales fast lane and are taken directly to sales.
What is existing customer nurturing?
Nurturing processes are not only helpful in lead management, but also in existing customer management. They reactivate existing customers for various sales scenarios:
Profile building: Nurture process that enriches the profiles of existing customers in order to support dedicated sales targets in further nurture processes.Repurchase: Nurture process that promotes the purchase of the same offer. (e.g. selling the same system/machine again)Up-selling: Nurture process that prepares the purchase of a higher-value offer. (e.g. larger, more efficient system/machine)Cross-selling: Nurture process that prepares the purchase of a complementary offer. (e.g. packaging module or testing station)B and C customer support: Nurture process that maintains contact with B and C customers and passes them on to the sales department when a contract is signed.Target customer / account-based marketing: Nurture process that supports the penetration of dedicated target customers and key account management.Churn management: Nurture process that prevents customer churn.Events: Nurture process that supports sales in the follow-up of event contacts.
The trap?
Unfortunately, many nurturing processes often fail to achieve the desired results. This is usually due to a lack of understanding and a ‘method kit’ and simply sending five nurturing emails in a row with adverts, data sheets, offers and ‘buy me’ requests.
What challenges arise when designing a targeted nurturing process?
A successful nurturing process has many elements and aspects:
How does your nurturing process map the customer journey of your leads or existing customers?Approach: Why should someone enter the nurturing process? Which topics should you address to give a reason for doing so?Gated/ungated content: Which content modules do you offer ungated (without requiring email and opt-in) and how does this ungated content lead to gated content, i.e. into the nurturing process?How do you design the first gated content in your nurturing process?How do you make it relevant for leads or existing customers and how do you get an email and the opt-in?And do you offer one entry point into the process or several? Do you offer ‘branches’ in the nurturing process? If so, where and which ones?At which touchpoints do you promote ungated and gated content? And how do you map the nurturing process there?How can LinkedIn be used optimally to support the nurturing process?How do you filter the sales-ready leads / existing customers from the nurturing process and route them directly to sales? #SalesfastlaneHow do you organise the frequency or waiting periods between the nurturing stages?How do you use alternative content and reminder loops, and if so, how many?When does the nurture end? In other words, when is sales maturity reached and when should the leads or reactivated existing customers be handed over to sales?How do you route the leads / existing customers to sales? (process / technology)
What is the basis for functioning nurturing processes?
Detailed buyer persona profiles are the basis for functioning nurturing processes. The widespread ‘one pager bullshit bingo’ profiles are not suitable for designing functioning nurturing processes. Profile data such as exemplary:
Pain pointsTarget statesDecision criteriaBarriersBehavioural preferences...and a nurturing-compliant customer journey analysis
support in the conception of the approach, content of the content modules and structure of nurturing processes.
In addition to the content building blocks (ungated / gated), the conception of the nurturing process also includes:
Progressive profiling: The definition of the form fields that are queriedThe landing pages and form fieldsThe nurturing emailsThe sales fast laneThe touchpoints at which the buyer persona can be reachedThe performance measures that lead leads / existing customers into the processLead scoring / customer scoring: explicit and implicit scoring for evaluationLead routing / customer routing: transfer to the CRM system and salesThe procedure and the use of LinkedIn to accompany the process
This turns a nurturing process in lead management and existing customer management into an ideal preparation for sales success.
Conclusion on good nurturing processes
5 emails in a row with clumsy advertising messages do more harm than good. In order for nurturing processes to really have a decisive effect on efficiency and sales success, they need a good foundation. This is how they become the ‘fine art’ of digitalisation and automation in lead and existing customer management. With your digital strategy, you define the direction and the application scenarios. The detailed buyer persona profiles and nurturing-compliant customer journey ensure that you choose the right approach, content modules and process structure. Your sales organisation benefits from qualified, sales-ready leads and reactivated existing customers, increasing efficiency and sales success.
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