The onus is on marketers to keep incoming leads engaged. Generating leads, and not engaging them, or engaging such leads improperly, is an exercise in futility as such leads would most likely move elsewhere.
The way to engage leads and turn them into sales ready opportunities is through innovative marketing communications.
Content that engages the audience is of many types, including but not limited to emails, blogs, whitepapers, images, videos, brochures, customer testimonials, case studies, ROI calculations and more. Success depends on the marketer anticipating what the prospect is going to go when they have a question or a need, and deliver the most relevant content that would answer the question or match the need. This requires not just expertise on how to create and deliver content, but also an understanding on how each content type works.
Take an example of a prospect at the initial stage of the marketing lifecycle, looking to learn more about the product. Such a prospect may appreciate a simple infographic whereas the same prospect would be put off by a technical-jargon infested whitepaper. The reverse may be true for a prospect almost ready to convert. Similarly, a video demo that provides all relevant information may be best suited rather than a promotional email for a person early in the buying stage, and who has not yet expressed a desire to buy or contacted the company. The promotional email may be ignored amidst scores of similar content whereas the video helps the prospect to retain the message in the mind.
Needless to say, the marketer needs to have all the required content ready to deliver whenever required. Marketing automation solutions and technologies such as predictive analysis and web analytics aid the marketer in determining which content-type works best for which prospect.
