Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/90145
MARKETING CONSULTANT Automate Your Nurturing Process BY SCOTT STROUD No question about it, your website is your most important sales tool. As new home sales trainer, Myers Barnes puts it, "The website is the new sales model." So, you craft a great multi-media marketing promotion to funnel prospects to your website. Are you ready for what happens next? In most cases, what happens next is… noth- ing. Statistically, 97% of your website visitors, even those that are interested in buying ormoving into a new home, don't take any action. And be- cause they don't act, usually you can't either - unless they identify themselves, you don't know who they are or how to reach them. It's not enough to have a good website; you need to have a good web strategy that begins with offering compelling calls to action and 'lead mag- nets' – articles, floor plans, a newsletter, etc. – that get site visitors to give you their name and email so that you can continue tomarket to them. That's ideally followed up with a series of commu- nications from you to 'warm up' their interest to the point where you get them into your sales cen- ter. On average, between 5% and 10% of the leads that you attract (I'm being generous) might be ready to speak to a salesperson. The other 90%, though, will need a bit more coaxing before they're ready to sit down and talk business. For them, you should have a well-developed and au- tomated nurturing program. Nurturing – The bridge between marketing and sales Astrategic nurturing programpaves the way for the salesperson by: 1.Moving online prospects from 'just looking' to 'seriously interested'; 2. Allows you to respond instantly to informa- tion requests and to guide your prospects to the in- formation that is most relevant to them; 3. Lets you to createmultiple touch points with your prospect, and lets them get comfortable hearing from you; NOVEMBER 2012 26 THE JOURNAL 4. Allows prospects to qualify themselves through a series of actions before a salesperson spends their valuable time with them; 5. Accomplishes all of this automatically and instantaneously. At their best, nurturing processes present your potential buyers with choices, then delivers infor- mation pertinent to them. But each choice they make provides you with additional information about them. For example, a prospect might fill out a web form to download a particular plan, say a 4-bed- room home. That triggers a sequence of auto- mated emails (called autoresponders) that provide additional benefits about your larger homes, per- haps sharing photos of families living happily in the comfort of your home or community. A subse- quent email might ask them to click one link if they are looking for a site in a community, or an- other link if they are have their own land. The choice they make is automatically recorded and added to their contact record, and determines the additional information they get… all before they ever speak with a salesperson. The nurturing process is actually increasing your prospect's level of interest by keeping them en- gaged and giving them exactly the information that they are interested in – instantly and auto- matically. At the same time you're capturing valuable qualification information for your salesperson about what your buyer is looking for, even why they're on the market. In effect, a good nurtur- ing process allows buyers to qualify themselves, again before they ever walk in to your model. It also gives you repeated 'touches' with the prospect, probably much more eyeball-time than your competitors get. And, since the Internet is an 'I want it now' medium, your automated re- sponses are buying time for your salesperson to be able to make a call or visit in person. The bottom line is this: employing an auto- mated nurturing process can increase the number of leads you capture from your website by 300% or more, and those leads will be better qualified and more ready to buy. Choosing An AutomatedMarketing System While a good Customer Relationship Manage- ment (CRM) programis integral to the automated nurturing program described above, CRM is only one component. You also need to be able to add web forms to your website, track clicks and re- sponses, add 'tags' and 'triggers' that identify what a person has done and segment your prospects according to their actions and interests, and deliver the information that is most appropri- ate for them. And, remember – we want this to happen automatically. So, instead of shopping for CRM systems, we need to look at Marketing Automation Software. Some of the most popular Marketing Automation Suites include Hubspot, Marketo, and Net-Re- sults, but these can run several hundred dollars per month or more. I use and recommend Infusionsoft, and have helped several of my clients put this program to work for them, because it combines best of breed CRM plus marketing and sales funnel automation into one powerful and affordable program. Infusionsoft allows salespeople to get instant ac- cess to their entire customer contact history, in- cluding what campaigns they've been part of, what emails they've received – even which ones they opened. It also allows sales managers to as- sign leads to specific salespeople and create and track opportunities. It even has a powerful lead scoring function that shows you when customers are ripe and ready to buy. T J Interested in putting together a marketing automation and lead nurturing processes for your business? Con- tact me at 606-677-0447, sstroud@BuilderRadio.com. I'll share what I know and am happy to help. email me at