Many companies considering implementing a marketing automation solution feel they aren’t ready. They don’t have a library of custom content available nor the means to generate sufficient content on their own. They’ve read over and over that lead nurturing is very difficult and not for the feint of heart; that it requires alignment between sales and marketing, a thorough understanding of your sales process and above all a load of original content tailored to each stage of the buying process.
I’m not buying it. Alignment between departments is not a prerequisite to benefitting from marketing automation software. To put this in perspective it’s necessary to understand why marketing automation exists at all.
The Two Primary Benefits of Marketing Automation
- Of the leads in your pipeline that aren’t “hot” (which constitute the vast majority of leads in most sales pipelines), marketing automation allows you to know whose timing is changing to your advantage – know who is becoming “hot”.
- Marketing automation helps you build trust and awareness among the leads whose timing hasn’t changed yet so that when their timing does change you are perceived as an excellent choice to serve their needs.
The first benefit is achieved via a feature known as lead scoring. The second is achieved via lead nurturing campaigns and that’s where all this content comes into play.
I know that our competition will attempt to skewer me over this post. They’ll say I’m over simplifying and setting you up for failure. I say that they make their living and justify their pricing by spinning marketing automation as difficult and themselves as vendor saviors with the expertise to guide you through this thicket of their creation. Their way of thinking means a world where most companies will never benefit from marketing automation because they lack the resources to generate volumes of original content.
Well here’s an example, contributed by Andrew Hunt, of how you can build your nurturing campaigns without a large content library. Andrew is the Founder and CEO of the Inbound Sales Network, a Net-Results Partner.
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Let’s say someone signs up for your company’s white paper on Information Technology Training. But what if that white paper and a company blog are all the content you have to offer? You can still have an effective lead nurturing program without creating any other content. Here is how to set up a simple three month drip campaign.
Day 1: Thank you for requesting the Information Technology Training paper, including a link to the paper.
Day 15: Information about the future of Information Technology, as posted by an analyst on a 3rd party website
Day 30: A summary blog post of the top 10 to consider when choosing Information Technology Training with a link to the blog post.
Day 45: Information about the latest trends in IT, like the number of people switching to the latest platform or press release about new releases to come, linking to these announcements on various 3rd party news sites.
Day 60: Sharing the latest research about how having the latest certification helps increase pay and improve performance, with a link to the source of the data.
Day 75: Information about new books in your industry, summarizing why they may be interesting to read, and linking to the books
Day 90: Summary of and link to another popular post your company posted on your blog
In this example we have used content by analysts, book authors, and other industry leaders to share our message without ever having created another piece of content other than some blog posts. There are lots of options for this external content including:
- Blog posts on your company blog
- Blog posts by other bloggers in your industry
- Guest blog posts on other sites
- Press Releases by your company or partners
- Analyst thought leadership
- Partner thought leadership
- Industry News- linking to news sites
- Book reviews- linking to Amazon
- Trade shows, industry events
- Plus, any other thought leadership you can find that would be relevant to your prospects
Because each of these emails are html and because they have links in the emails to content, you can score your prospects’ interactions with the campaign, collect opens, clickthroughs, etc. just as you would using your own content. And because the campaign is going out to people in your database that you already know it doesn’t matter that the items do not go to offers with registration. You will still reap the benefits of sharing valuable content.
You hear all the time that content is king and that is very true. But it is quality content that has the biggest impact. By sourcing and showing your prospects that you are providing relevant, reputable content you will be much more ahead than rushing to develop rough content that will do more to hinder your brand and relationship than help it. You can still have a successful lead nurturing program that includes lead nurturing and scoring even if you only have one white paper or one webinar. Also, by not focusing on the quantity of content you have, you can focus more on the quality of the content pieces you do produce yourself.
