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Adding Lead Nurturing To Your Marketing Mix
By Jim Berkowitz
Expert Author
Article Date: 2008-12-10
Here is an insightful post from one of my favorite marketing bloggers, Ardath Albee, Lead Nurturing Belongs in Your Recession Strategy:
I've seen so many posts about how to fight the negative impacts of a recession on business success that it's making me crazy. Why is it that people wait until it's announced that we're finally in a recession before they start doing what they could've been doing all along?
Customer-focused lead nurturing is one of the best ways to prevent experiencing an adverse impact to customer acquisition during a recession.
Here are a few meaty reasons why lead nurturing is a recession buster…
- You're already growing a relationship with people who've given you their permission to contact them with relevant content.
- This means you can reach out with proactive dialogue to both learn about what's keeping them up at night due to this economic shift and then ease their concerns by helping them make the best choices during risky times.
- You can create marketing content to address these concerns and give them helpful ideas for riding out the storm so they're in a better position when the winds change.
- Providing continuity of experience during tough times raises your viability as a long-term partner choice.
- Whatever you do, don't stop now. If you cut and run to save budget you're not only wasting leads, but you're showing them you'll jump ship when the going gets tough.
- Do NOT start panicking and use hard-sell tactics. Stick to your story. Your confidence and stability during a downturn does a lot for your company's reputation, not to mention showing people they can trust you to stay focused on what's best for them.
If your leads were interested in your product offerings before the recession, they probably need you now, more than ever. Keep in mind that they'll buy eventually and your goal is to have them buy from your company. Don't be pushy, be helpful. Prove to your leads that you're the trusted advisor they've been looking for.
If nothing else, a recession gives you the perfect venue for proving you're focused on them. Nurturing an audience you already have is much more lucrative than flailing about for short-term sales.
In fact, if you go to the trouble to find out how the economy is conflicting with their decision to buy, you've got the opportunity to show them the pros and cons of putting off a decision that can deliver a business value they can't afford to put off.
Lead nurturing belongs in your marketing strategy mix-recession or not.
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About the Author:
Jim Berkowitz is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of professional services and project management experience related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Financial Management (Accounting & ERP) software solutions for small, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. As a Sales Force Automation and CRM Consultant, Jim has assisted more then 100 companies with the design and implementation of custom CRM solutions.
Mr. Berkowitz is the founder and President of CRM Mastery, Inc.; a company dedicated to serving small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering affordable tools and guidance to help them plan for and succeed with their CRM initiatives.
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