If Goldilocks left the forest and went into the wonderful world of marketing automation, she might experience a sense of déjà-vu. When it comes to lead nurturing some programmes start out too hard and some start out too soft, but don’t worry, some are just right.
This lead nurturing program is too hard
The Papa Bear mistake of lead nurturing is starting out too complex. It begins innocently enough: you pull your marketing team into a room with a whiteboard to brainstorm and the next thing you know you have enough colours on the board to look like a Jackson Pollock masterpiece. You’ve committed to six unique paths (one for each industry you’re targeting) with nine emails in each path, and now you’re facing the daunting task of building inspiring content and appealing calls-to-action for 54 emails by the end of the month. Now you’re overwhelmed and plotting a run back into the forest. Anytime someone mentions “automation” or “nurturing” it triggers painful flashbacks.
This lead nurturing programme is too soft
Mama Bear has the opposite problem. She’s thinking quick and easy (Who needs segmentation anyway?), short and simple (Two emails should convince them to buy, right?). She doesn’t think through the buyer’s journey, nor does she look over her current assets and see which ones make the most sense in which order – she just grabs one and goes. Her lead nurturing program is up and running before her porridge gets cold, but is it working? She’ll never know because she didn’t pre-plan her reporting or set goals ahead of time.
This lead nurturing programme is just right
Goldilocks quickly sees that Baby Bear knows what he’s doing when it comes to lead nurturing. He understands the importance of segmentation and relevancy. Eventually, he does want to build six unique paths with nine emails each. But he also knows that starting small is the key to actually starting, so he sets a realistic goal of building one nurturing path every other month until he has six complete paths that all reflect messaging aligned to the buyer’s journey. The littlest bear also knows that he’ll need to report on the marketing effectiveness of his programs, so he thinks about the pieces he wants to measure before he begins so that he can build them into each flow. This nurturing programme is just right and practically guaranteed for success.
Would you like a few more tips on making your lead nurturing programme just right? Take a look at this handy checklist in the Topliners community to get started. Your porridge may end up getting cold, but your leads will be nice and warm.