content marketing for lead nurturing

© The Marketing Practice 2012

SUCCESSFUL LEAD NURTURING RUNS ON GREAT CONTENT

Paul Everett, The Marketing Practice

© The Marketing Practice 2012

The Marketing Practice

• One of the UK’s top 10 B2B agencies

• Running integrated (content, telemarketing, digital, events) campaigns for 10 years

• For clients including…

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Over the next 40 minutes…

• How is content being used?

• What’s working best?

• Tips for creating the best performing content

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Signs that we need content marketing

• Buyers are increasingly doing their own research

• You’re invited into sales process too late to influence the deal

• Outbound campaign response rates dropping (and cost per lead rising)

• Sales teams struggling to memorably pitch your USPs

• We already spend around 25% of marketing budgets on content…

© The Marketing Practice 2012

GREAT CONTENT NEEDS A METAPHOR, SO HERE GOES…

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Without content

• It would be like…

© The Marketing Practice 2012

It’s a long process from interest to decision

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Finding a first date

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Finding a first date

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Do you mostly find content through search engines or through your social media network?

Total Director Level Specifically IT/Tech10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

53 52 53

47 48 47

Mainly As A Result Of Traditional Online Searching, Such As Search Engines

Mainly As A Result Of Regular Direct Involvement In Social Media Channels

© The Marketing Practice 2012

CONTENT EXAMPLES

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Content marketing is over 100 years old

• Michelin guide launched in 1900

• Information on petrol, garages, restaurants & accommodation

• Given away free to encourage road travel (and sell more Michelin types…)

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Canon Prospect Engagement

© The Marketing Practice 2012

The Chordiant Customer Experience Maturity Model

• Research and benchmarking tool promoted via LinkedIn, Google, Wikipedia, blog sharing, employee social media advocates and direct outbound communications

• 90 ‘enquiries’ per month converting to 180 sales leads over 12 months• Signed Vodafone as a client and attributed £32m pipeline in EMEA

© The Marketing Practice 2012

O2 Business readiness

In February 2012, two thousand of O2’s HQ staff didn’t come into the office.A unique story to bring to life O2’s flexible working proposition

Everyone from Sales through to prospects engaged by the story

© The Marketing Practice 2012

O2 Business readiness

“It’s rather refreshing to see a big tech company actually do this kind of thing rather than just talk about it.”

Everyone from Sales through to prospects engaged by the story

© The Marketing Practice 2012

BUILDING GREAT CONTENT

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Creating great content – learning from affiliate marketing

• The Life Force 8* basic human needs:

– Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension.

– Enjoyment of food and beverages.

– Freedom from fear, pain, and danger.

– Sexual companionship.

– Comfortable living conditions.

– To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses.

– Care and protection of loved ones.

– Social approval.

*Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman

© The Marketing Practice 2012

What are the audience looking for?

© The Marketing Practice 2012

What are the audience looking for?

© The Marketing Practice 2012

What are the audience looking for?

© The Marketing Practice 2012

What do you want them to know?

• What do theythink now?

• How do we sell the next step?

• What’s the value to them of spending an hour with you?

© The Marketing Practice 2012

What can you be an expert at?

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Planning methodologyDiscovery: Sales alignment Strategy: Data auditSales objectives and business targets Review current data strategy and coverageMarketing objectives and responsibilities Gap analysis against full potential prospect universeHandover points and process (in both directions) Define strategy for augmenting/optimising data

Discovery: Proposition insights Implementation: Process designMarket and proposition maturity Inbound contact captureBuying process stages Outbound nurturing delivery and website integrationBuying knowledge/content requirements at each stage Lead qualification and handover to sales (and back)

Discovery: Audience definition Implementation: Campaign designSegmentation (by sector/size/customer/prospect...) Select inbound channelsFunctions comprising decision-making unit Design first nurture flows and website useTypical attitudes/expections from supplier Define how personalisation/segmentation will be used

Discovery: Audience access research Implementation: Team & GovernanceChannel preferences Internal team requirementsSocial Media usage Integration with other activities3rd party and influencer knowledge sources Reporting requirements specified

Strategy: Content plan Implementation: System designExisting content audit - what is suitable? Is there a gap between existing and required systems? Plan headline content hooksand message hierarchy Review potential solutions to support the planAlign to buying process and promote next steps Implement selected solutionDesign creative execution concepts

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Tracking the ROI – integrated with telemarketing

Leads with 13%of target market

€580k Marketing Investment

€42m Sales72 times investment

£250k Marketing Investment

£5.37mWeighted pipe -

Weighted ROI21 times investment

Marketing Investment£600k

Generated:Weighted pipe -

£12m

Weighted ROI20 times investment

€490m Pipeline68 client workshops

© The Marketing Practice 2012

Closing thoughts

• Tom UpfoldTM ‘Natural’ calls to action

– Selling the benefits of the next step rather than the end proposition

– ‘Why should I give up my time to meet you?’

– Capture their interest first, then qualify them (not vice-versa)

• Aligned with Sales, not necessarily just to Sales

– Interactive content marketing and experiences put Marketing closer to the audience

– Will it drive results that count?

• Plan Year 2 from Day 1

– How we will prove success? (don’t start without it)

– What else will we want to do?

– What will we do when our content is a year out of date?

© The Marketing Practice 2012

THANK YOU