Drip marketing, often referred to as lead nurturing or marketing automation, involves sending a series of emails automatically to leads after they fill out a conversion form on your website. When implemented correctly as part of a complete inbound marketing strategy, it can speed up sales cycles and lower customer acquisition costs. So, why should you consider using drip marketing?
Reason 1: The figures don’t lie!
There has been a wide variety of research around the effectiveness of lead nurturing and the following stats will certainly make a fantastic case for any business-to-business marketing director:
– 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. (Source: Gleanster Research)
– 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to Sales; however, only 27% of those leads will be qualified. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
– 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. (Source: InsideSales.com)
Reason 2: Being at the forefront of the prospect’s mind
After the first touch point with your prospect, it is unlikely they fully understand your offer, realise that you provide the solution to their business issue and are ready to buy. As a result, you need to provide consistent communication with them that builds trust and emphasise that you are an expert in your field. By further educating your prospects and bringing them down the sales funnel, you are constantly at their forefront of their mind when they are thinking about their issue, which means they will likely look to you to solve it!
Reason 3: Knowing your leads
By providing a constant contact point with your leads you will get to know them. You will soon be able to build a picture of their specific issues and what products they may be interested in. When you have nurtured your lead sufficiently, you can then have a more sophisticated sales conversation as you have built up intelligence over time through drip marketing.
Reason 4: Better Targeting
As you build up intelligence on your leads, you will understand their specific interests, as highlighted above. This enables you to build targeted emails around their specific interests and pain points. By tailoring communications specifically to their needs you will show a level of awareness, while providing information you know they will appreciate and likely convert on, helping you build more intelligence for your sales team.
Reason 5: Sales and marketing working in unison
We have already identified that drip marketing empowers sales teams with individual lead intelligence. They can, however, help marketing by informing them what content is working. They can thus explain what content is producing higher quality leads and helping close more deals. Marketing can then replicate this high performing content and provide the sales team with even more quality leads! Now, that is a super organised sales and marketing team!
If you are looking to get ahead of the curve and convert your leads to customers as quickly as possible, you need drip marketing. The hardest part is setting it up but once this is done, you will see the leads flood in and become more qualified without lifting a finger.
For a more in-depth look at all things drip marketing related, why not download our Marketing Automation Book.
Image by Richard January, Flickr/Creative Commons