Marketing departments are being pushed by their corporate levels to provide highly qualified leads. However, customers spend almost 60% of the sales process without engaging with companies and doing their own research. On the one hand, since companies are no longer in control, it becomes harder to identify and nurture customers. On the other hand, customers expect a personalized interaction. Cynthia Clark identifies in the latest 1to1 Media weekly magazine, 5 strategies for companies to foster and nurture relationships.
1. Define the goals of your demand generation program and the key performance indicators to measure the project’s success- It is important to define a “demand generation strategy that addresses every step of the process”. In addition, companies need to understand who their clients are. In fact, focusing on their target audience will allow them to faster engage and penetrate accounts and obtain lead generation from marketing campaigns.
2. Engage in a digital one-to-one conversation- Businesses need to be involved in the purchasing journey from the start, read customers’ signs, and react in the appropriate moments with valuable information. The challenge is to identify customers, understand their buying process, and provide relevant customized information that creates a conversation between the brand and the customer.
3. Focus on the right content at the right time- The important is to provide at the right time, the right message that fits customers needs and insights and educates them. For that, companies need to realize to whom they are talking to and what it is important for them. One way is to construct personas and create content that is relevant to those customers.
4. Add a layer of human intervention- The complete automation of the demand generation process leads to “too many under-qualified, dead, or recycled leads getting into the sales funnel, leading to wasted time for the sales team”. Adding a layer of human interaction provides a final qualification, avoiding that unqualified leads pass to sales teams.
5. Align sales and marketing- The alignment between teams makes effective the lead generation process.
Cynthia concludes that the most important thing is to know your customers, their preferred communication channels, and deliver highly relevant content that engages them.
At Proto, we believe that everything starts with customer understanding. Knowing customer needs and insights is the first step to relevant and targeted solutions. Also, clustering similar needs, and creating personas allow your company to intervene in the right moment with the right message, engage its customer and foster brand loyalty.
