Automation improves the lead nurturing process in a LAY THE GROUNDwORK number of ways. Let’s look at a few examples: Whether you are just starting to use lead nurturing 1. It increases your reach. nurturing campaigns or you’re looking to give your strategy a tune- are designed to feel like one-to-one interactions up, proper preparation is the key to success. It’s between your company and a prospect, but they important to have a solid grasp on your sales cycle, can be applied to hundreds of leads, allowing your the key members of your target audience, the marketing and sales teams to be in multiple places content you already have in stock, and how that at once. content maps to the sales process. Without an understanding of these variables, you are just taking 2. It increases your effectiveness. According to shots in the dark and hoping your campaigns will be a recent study by forrester Research, 74% of relevant and valuable. business buyers conduct more than half of their research online before making an offline purchase. The planning worksheet included at the end of With such a large portion of the purchase process this chapter will walk you through the preparation in the hands of the buyer, you could find that leads process, from recording key stages in the buying have already chosen a competitor if you wait too cycle to mapping your content to the sales cycle. long to engage with them. nurturing allows you to CREATE PERFECT CAmPAIGNS stay in touch throughout a long sales cycle — and allows you to monitor your prospects’ responses An effective nurturing campaign needs to be so you can reach out the moment they show a well-planned and highly targeted to its intended buying signal. audience and their stage of the sales cycle. The content, timing, and messaging of your drip emails 3. It gives you more bandwidth. In modern all need to match up to the needs and priorities marketing departments, and especially at smaller of your prospects. With so many variables in companies, time and resources are precious flux, reporting on the success of a campaign and commodities. Marketers need to do more with less, tweaking it to have even greater success is also and nurturing is the perfect tool to outsource your crucial. most repetitive, time-consuming tasks. 23 / Pardot