LEAN DIGITALM A R K E T I N G

A Kuno Creative eBook

Lean processes involve continuous improvement, or kaizen,

to operate more efficiently and to instill a sense of ownership by all of the

process stakeholders. Traditionally, we think of manufacturing as the primary

beneficiary of lean, but any process can be improved, and marketing is no

exception. In this brief, we will take a look at the evolution of marketing to

the present day and identify component processes that can be continuously

improved. We will suggest strategies and tools for implementing kaizen

in digital marketing and for assessing results.

Marketing has earned a bad reputation over the past half-century,

a reputation for excessive cost without direct, measurable benefits.

During the pre-Internet years, the challenge was reaching as many

households and businesses as possible, regardless of fit or relevance.

The theory was that at least some percentage of advertising would get

through, and some fraction of the recipients would express an interest in

our products and services and pick up the phone. If not, we would instruct

our armies of telemarketers to call everyone on a “rented” list at all hours of

the day or night and hope for forgiveness. As for the bill for mass advertising

and telemarketing, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars each year with

low success rates and effectively poisoned the well for future sales.

Enter the Digital Age, and what have we learned?

We’ve learned how to carry on our worst marketing practices and adapt them to new tools – email, paid search

ads, mobile and social media advertising. The mantra continues to be, “Get in front of them, and they will come.”

Unfortunately for most marketers, consumers now reject invasive marketing tactics of all kinds and have become

adept at blocking unwanted email and online advertising.

In recent years, however, a new style of marketing has emerged that discards these ‘outbound’ tactics

in favor of ‘earned media’ and relationship building online. The new approach, called inbound marketing,

focuses on attracting rather than reaching buyers and nurturing them with interesting, helpful content. Many stud-

ies have shown that inbound marketing has become far more effective than traditional outbound methods

as consumers continue to reject the old ways.

Lean Digital Marketing

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Kai = “change”

zen = “good”

Inbound Marketing seeks to attract likely buyers by publishing free content that is easy to

consume online and that fulfills a need or desire. In the B2B world, we publish helpful how-to’s, industry updates

and educational materials that are relevant to people in our target markets to the online channels they favor, such

as blogs and social networks. B2C marketers may offer something more tangible, like discounts or free trials for

a limited time, and they may seek a broader reach, but the approach is the same. In either case, content or offers

are not “pushed” out to a mass email. Instead, they are posted on blogs, websites and social networks

as part of a daily flow of useful and creative content that interests consumers. Search engines like Google favor

this type of content now and are more likely to include it in searches for relevant keywords and phrases by

our likely customers.

Inbound Marketing is still marketing; however, the

primary objective is to capture qualified sales leads and pass them

on to your sales team. Research shows that more than 80 percent of

captured leads are lost as sales opportunities because they are not yet

ready to buy or are ignored, so they move on to other resources to solve

their problems..1 To solve these problems, digital marketers use lead

nurturing campaigns to stay in touch and “nurture” leads with additional,

helpful content that gradually convinces leads your product or service is

the right solution for their needs.

Inbound Marketing fills the top of the sales funnel with

potential buyers attracted to your website by free content that helps them

solve their problems or “pain points.” Once a visitor signs up to download

or view your top-of-the-funnel content, they become a marketing lead. As

leads enter the top of your funnel, they begin to sort themselves out into

three categories. 25 percent are fully qualified sales leads that are ready for

a call by your sales team. It’s up to the marketing team to make sure these

leads get passed immediately to the sales team with as much information

as possible. Another 25 percent are unqualified and should never be con-

tacted by sales. These people include competitors, students, tire kickers

and companies that don’t fit your buyer profile economically or strategically.

We need to find a way to identify these leads at an early stage and redirect

them off your sales radar screen.

What is Inbound Marketing?

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25%Fully Qualified Leads

25%Unqualified Leads

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That leaves a full 50 percent that are in limbo. You don’t

know whether they are interested or qualified for your sales

process. It’s our job to help these leads find their way to the

right status and pass them along to the appropriate channel,

either moving down the funnel to the sales team or just

staying in touch until they are closer to a decision point.

Modern marketing automation software, such as HubSpot,

Marketo and Eloqua, enables capturing top-funnel leads via

landing pages and placing them automatically into lead

nurturing campaigns for further development.

Lead nurturing campaigns are step-by-step automated workflows

that send out periodic emails to each lead with more content that is relevant

to their needs (based on the content they have already downloaded), providing a pathway for continued com-

munication and “nurturing.” In each email, we provide additional opportunities to learn more about our products

and solutions and gradually move them closer to a sale. This “low friction” approach can increase lead conversion

rates as much as 32 percent compared to lead generation without lead nurturing..2

cont. What is Inbound Marketing?

Companies that automate lead management processes can increase revenue

by at least 10% within 6-9 months,

despite the uncertain economy.7

50%of Your Leads are in Limbo

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What are the Benefits of Inbound Marketing & Lead Nurturing?

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66%

62% lessInbound marketing costsper lead than traditional outbound marketing3

Nurtured leads have a Nurtured leads have a

shorter sales cycle higher average deal sizeof sales go to the vendor that responds first to an inquiry

of buyers indicate that “consistent and relevant communication provided by both sales and marketing organizations” is a key influence in choosing a solution provider4

57%

23% 9% 35-50%

48% 42%Customer acquisition reported through

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What are the Costs of Inbound Marketing & Lead Nurturing?

Senior Marketing Strategist:

Senior Consultant:

Content Marketing Manager:

Content Creation Team:

Senior Graphic Designer:

Enterprise Marketing Data Analyst:

Web Designer/Developer:

experienced marketer with both digital and non-digital experience and deep knowledge of the industry — sets the tone and high level strategy

knows the digital side as an expert with superior communication skills — handles the daily planning, execution and contact with stakeholders

journalism background with an emphasis on marketing – handles all of the content editing and management

1-5 copywriters creating blogs, white papers, ebooks, videos, webinars, social media updates

experienced in corporate marketing — responsible for all digital content design

responsible for operating and analyzing all data captured and updated by marketing automation system(s)

adept at rapidly updating websites, blogs, social network profiles, creating emails, optimizing for SEO

First, let’s define what goes into an effective inbound marketing and lead nurturing program. In traditional outbound marketing, we are spending a lot on advertising and distribution to a mass audience. In inbound marketing, we are creating content and distributing it through a variety of online channels including websites, blogs, social networks, industry forums, email and paid search. We are creating landing pages and call-to-action graphics to attract and convert leads. We are analyzing data collected via marketing automation systems and making recommendations for new content and new strategies. In effect, we are replacing the spending on advertising and media with creative talent and digital natives who know how to create content, share it online and operate marketing software.

A typical team of Inbound Marketing & Lead Nurturing experts might look like this:

Demand Generation Services

Search Engine Optimization

Professional Video

Search engine optimization on website pages, blogs, videos, downloads, social profiles, and press releases

PPC (paid search) and external costs for email marketing and press releases

Professional video production costs

Additional Costs:

Bottom LineDigital Marketing, with an emphasis on inbound marketing and lead nurturing, requires a serious investment

in talent and experience that can be as expensive in the long run as traditional outbound marketing. Positive

ROI can take many months to achieve, depending on the size of your company, current brand visibility and

the competitiveness of your marketplace, but the investment is worthwhile for several important reasons:

Inbound marketing and lead nurturing are lean processes compared to

traditional outbound marketing tactics because the investment in talent

pays dividends going forward and because fewer qualified sales leads

are lost due to premature direct contact or inattention.

You can actually measure ROI, something that is notoriously difficult with traditional out-bound marketing methods

Inbound marketing is sustain-able over time and works by building a loyal following of interested leads. Outbound marketing does not

Inbound marketing and lead nurturing have been shown to be highly effective in reducing customer acquisition costs and churn and by increasing customer lifetime value8

By creating targeted content at the top of the sales funnel, there is a higher probability that your leads will become qualified earlier in the process

By lead nurturing, you have a higher probability of reaching qualified leads before they leave your sales funnel

By lead nurturing you have a higher probability of convert-ing leads into customers by reaching them with the right message at the right time

Inbound marketing and lead nurturing deliver more qualified sales leads to your sales team, requiring less time following unqualified leads and prospecting for new leads

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Applying Lean Principles to Inbound Marketing & Lead NurturingThe classic kaizen concept of Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) is perfectly applicable to digital

marketing. Processes within each component of Digital Marketing can be broken down into individual PDCA

loops, worked on by a kaizen team, and improved on a continuing basis. Here are some examples of how this

can work at several levels.

PLAN

1.

2.

3.

Identify and describe customer persona(s) through discussions with sales team and interviews with current customers.

Identify and create content for each persona and each part of the sales funnel (top, middle and bottom); create a content map.

Create a digital asset list and identify existing content that can be repurposed or updated to fill the content map; identify content that will need to be created from scratch.

Concept: A dental equipment manufacturer wants to attract new customers for its 3D imaging systems. It wants to target dentists who have never used any form of dental imaging or who have used 2D imaging and convince them to contact the manufacturer for a demonstration of 3D. We will nurture them slowly with general education about the benefits of 3D to both their practice and to their patients. In a sequence of lead nurturing emails, we will gradually introduce them to the product line, testimonials, demonstration videos and a calculator to show the economic benefits. At each stage, we will offer them something new and helpful but also give them an opportunity to immediately reach out to a sales person.

Lead Nurturing Campaign – 3D Dental ImagingEXAMPLE 1

PLAN DO CHECK ADJUST

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DO

CHECK

ADJUST

1.

1.

1.

2.

2.

2.

3.

4.

3.

4.

5.

Create an initial offer campaign, usually an email to a targeted list of opted-in subscribers or a PPC campaign that invites dentists to download the content identified as a top-of-the-funnel offer.

Create several follow-up emails with invitations to download or view each of the sequential content pieces in your content map for the campaign. These should be spaced at intervals to cover the normal sales cycle. For example four emails (one per week) to cover a one-month sales cycle.

Create landing pages to capture the leads from each Lead Nurturing email. A/B split test the landing pages to find the highest conversion rates.

Create call-to-action graphics to also capture leads from website pages, blogs and social networks. A/B split test the calls to action to find the highest conversion rates.

Launch the campaign and begin to monitor results.

Monitor website traffic, inbound leads, form conversions on the landing pages, clicks from emails, individual landing page conversion rates, A/B tests and any other KPI identified in the planning stages.

Create monthly score cards that track KPI’s and compare the measured results to projected numbers; highlight wins and losses and assess overall trends.

Identify campaigns that are and are not performing well versus expectations.

Pinpoint components of each campaign — emails, landing pages, calls-to-action and the content itself — to find good and bad performers.

Analyze the root cause of each poorly performing component. For example, was the step from one lead nurturing email to the next too aggressive in terms of branding and sales pitch?

Adjust the campaign with revised content and/or workflow to improve results and “double down” on messages and content that are performing well. This is done on an ongoing basis, nominally every two weeks.

Impact on Lean:

Impact on Lean:

By executing a marketing lead nurturing campaign in a structured, repeatable way, we

can make the entire process more efficient and amenable to further analysis for purposes

of continuous improvement. By monitoring results via score cards and by holding periodic

kaizens, we can grow sales revenues while achieving positive ROI for our marketing budget.

By creating a reproducible process for lead nurturing, we can execute these campaigns quickly and efficiently, with

less wasted time on process steps and faster time-to-market. If there are problems encountered with any of the

steps in the process, we can hold a kaizen meeting with the sales and marketing teams to find their root causes

and implement creative ways to solve them. We are continuously improving each campaign using the Check and

Adjust process steps.

Concept: A second dental equipment manufacturer wants to promote its patented line of advanced shaping

files to endodontists. We start by creating a new white paper, “Recent Advances in Rotary Instrumentation in

Endodontics.” We know from feedback from the sales and marketing team that endodontists want to stay on top

of the latest trends, so this topic is likely to be popular. At the top of the sales funnel, we refrain from promoting the

specific brand and focus instead on an overview of technology and trends. Converted leads are added to a Lead

Nurturing campaign that offers a second white paper, “Patient Referred Endodontics.” Each time we introduce a

new download, we ask for additional information that augments the information we have previously gathered, and

so further qualifies the lead for a sale. Further down the funnel, we invite them to participate in continuing educa-

tion courses and videos – content that requires more of a commitment in time and further introduces them to the

product and its benefits.

The Plan-Do-Check-Adjust steps are essentially the same from campaign to campaign; only the content and timing are different.

Lead Nurturing Campaign – Twisted FilesEXAMPLE 2

PLAN DO CHECK ADJUST

The essential components of inbound marketing are blogging, website updates, social media updates, SEO, paid

search (PPC), email marketing, landing pages, calls to action and marketing analytics. A few years ago, each of

these tasks had to be performed using a separate piece of software, requiring expertise in each application and

knowledge of how to import, export and maintain data between them for analysis. Now there are a few integrated

inbound marketing platforms that combine all of these tasks into one easy-to-use dashboard. Available platforms

include HubSpot, Optify and Spectate. We recommend HubSpot as the inbound marketing platform of choice

due to its user-friendly interface and robust treatment of marketing data analytics.

Lean Digital Marketing ToolsInbound Marketing Software

Impact on Lean: By using a state-of-the-art inbound marketing software platform, your team can avoid wasting time pulling together

data from diverse applications and formulating reports for analyzing and adjusting inbound marketing strategy and

campaigns. Visualizing data from diverse marketing channels, segmented by campaign and content, allows your

marketing team to understand and reach more accurate conclusions faster than would otherwise be possible.

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In recent years, marketing automation software platforms have been developed to help companies build lead

generation campaigns (usually by email), capture leads and place them in appropriate lead nurturing campaigns

to move them down the sales funnel as they consume top, middle and bottom funnel content. These platforms

usually do not include any form of content creation, such as blogging or social media – they are geared specifically

toward demand generation campaigns tied to lead nurturing emails. Market leaders in this space include Eloqua,

Infusionsoft, HubSpot and Marketo. Of these, only HubSpot includes inbound marketing, content marketing,

lead generation and lead nurturing capabilities under a single integrated application.

The better known marketing automation packages have tight

integration with industry leading customer relationship

management systems, such as Salesforce.com.

This enables closed loop marketing, i.e. closing

the information gap between sales and marketing

teams and automating the process of handing off

leads to sales reps with critical information to

assist in closing more sales.

cont. Lean Digital Marketing Tools

Marketing Automation Software & CRM

Impact on Lean: Marketing automation allows you to focus on lead generation and lead nurturing content while automating many

of the processes involved with communicating with leads. Automated lead nurturing campaigns with high-quality

content, appropriately mapped to buyer personas and buy-cycle stages, have been shown to deliver more qualified

sales leads to sales teams when the buyers are ready. Lead nurturing can make your entire sales and marketing

process more efficient and lean by identifying sales opportunities when they are ready to buy. With CRM integration,

your marketing and sales teams can work together more effectively, and sales reps have the information they

need to close more sales.

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SummaryIn days gone by, marketing was more of an art than a science. We relied on copious amounts of money to

leverage mass media in order to reach more people. Marketing has evolved as consumers have learned how to

reject unwanted spam and invasive advertising. Modern digital marketing focuses on earned media and voluntary

participation in blogs and social media. By opting in to your content streams, marketing leads are more willing to

read more and learn more about your solutions to their problems. Companies that embrace inbound marketing

and lead nurturing benefit from the lean nature of these marketing processes and set themselves on a course

for continuous improvement for the long haul.

1 MECLABS asks: Are you losing 95% of your leads?2 Lead Nurturing: Pilot campaign increases conversion 32.6% with automated emails3 The Benefits of Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]4 Marketing Misalignment [WEBINAR]5 Hard Data to Justify Your Marketing Automation Investment6 9 Benefits of Lead Nurturing7 Finding, Creating and Managing Leads8 HubSpot’s Best Practices for Managing SaaS Inside Sales

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