In the mad scramble to generate leads, companies may actually be bleeding money rather than gaining it.
This is where analytics come in. The analytics engine in marketing automation software suites, fed with past results or experiences, scours the database of incoming leads and assigns points for each predetermined attribute to determine the potential value of each incoming lead. Often, leads are ranked in order of value, allowing marketers to prioritize. A second category is leads with high likelihood of conversions. Sometimes, a lead’s profile suggests lesser revenue, but a higher probability of conversion compared to a big-ticket lead.
The trade-off between these two factors (ease of conversion versus higher revenue) depends on the company; specifically, it depends on the product base and the marketer’s expertise. For instance, marketers may look solely at lead value for fast moving goods, but should focus on the probability of conversion for highly priced, but slower moving, luxury goods that cater only to a niche market.
Success in a hyper competitive world, compounded by fleeting customer loyalties, requires much more than simple and straightforward sorting of leads. Marketers have to go the extra mile and nurture leads. Nurture marketing generates a third category as well: strong prospects or people who really need the product or service offering, but, for some reason, are not likely to convert. Marketers need to engage them and, in these cases, success would depend on understanding why the prospect is not likely to convert, and working on removing such barriers.
Looking at the differences of the prospects in these categories will help you better understand what you need to change in your marketing activities to attract more to convert. The bottom line is that lead nurturing is a significant part of your lifecycle marketing strategy in moving the prospect further along in their relationship with your brand, ultimately, to a sale.
