Tech Marketers have been working hard this year to generate leads and it has been a tough road based on the economic situation. There have been great opportunities to get in front of the tech buyers this year as many of these persons have been actively looking for solutions. That being said, many of these deals are caught up in longer cycles as buyers have been limited in their budgets or even exploring their options in more detail than the past. Fittingly, there is much focus on the late stage leads as these deals can drive some ROI in the short term.
The focus on closing the sale on these late stage leads after toiling through the sales process is an exciting time, but lets not forget the leads in other stages of the process. Knowing that cycle times are elongated, tech marketers cannot give up on early or mid stage leads. These prospective opportunities should be nurtured now in order to build there ROI for the future. It is not the time to be short sighted, even after a brutal year.
While many tech marketers won’t discount these leads entirely, they tend to stop messaging to them on the theory that they are too early on in the sales cycle and should be contacted again later on. This is a huge mistake. By the time these leads are contacted again they may have already decided on another vendor. Tech marketers should be deploying a nurture strategy that takes their prospects buying cycles into account, along with different ways of re-messaging to different types of leads. This means getting rid of the generic emails being sent each month to all potential leads.
Tech marketers should take a day or two and shore up a nurture plan to ensure consistent messaging to their prospects. Message mapping relevant content will move your prospects along the buying cycle. Nurturing a lead may happen in many different ways – it may involve phone calls, emails, printed mail, or invitations to events. The key is to figure out the process that makes sense for your product/solution and to make sure that leads are being targeted not just consistently, but correctly. Ideally, the communications should feel like resources and help leads as they move through the process.
Don’t give up.
