5 Types of Nurture Programs
I talk a lot about nurture programs.
That’s because they are some of the most inexpensive and effective marketing any business can do.
They are also incredibly versatile.
Here are 5 different ways you can use a nurture program in your business…
1. Nurture prospects during the sales cycle
This is the most common way to use nurture… To take people who are serious prospects for your business - who are already interacting with your sales force - and send them something on a regular basis that reinforces what your sales people are doing with them and educates them about the value you provide.
Nurture programs of this type are typically heavily educational, since your goal is to overcome objections and teach them what they need to know to understand why your solution is the right one and why it is worth what you charge for it.
You might send case studies, educational articles you have written, reprints of articles published about your business or written by someone in your company, and articles written by others that support your point of view or explain why it makes sense to do things the way you do.
You might send links to videos of customer testimonials or demonstrations of how to use your products. You might have links to podcasts of interviews with you or key individuals in your company.
The goal of this type of nurture program is to help people move through the sales cycle faster, and to convert more prospects to customers.
2. Nurture “B” or “C” prospects
This is the second most common use of nurture programs…
These are people who are not quite ready to be serious prospects. Maybe they don’t have a budget yet, maybe they are still very early in the research stage.
They have contacted you and expressed an interest, but it is too early for them to actively engage with a sales rep.
However, you don’t want to ignore them because they are likely to buy at some point and you want them to buy from you, rather than a competitor.
Setting them up in a nurture program keeps your company in front of them, and lets them learn about your offerings in a low-key way.
Your goal here is to keep enough mindshare so that when they are ready to get serious, you’ll be on their list.
3. Nurture “ideal” prospects
This is an interesting strategy that can be extremely effective.
You identify up to 100 people who you would like to be customers.
They might be marquee customers, people or companies who are well-respected in your industry. They might be companies in an area where you want to expand and do more business. They might be organizations that are a little larger or better funded than your normal clients or just companies you really really want to do business with.
But they have never contacted you. They might not know you exist.
Well, you start marketing to them. You mail them something every month, something that educates them about what you do and what your offerings are.
Get in front of them month after month, and they will start falling into your sales cycle.
Your goal here is to introduce your company to high-value, ideal prospects and convert them to customers.
4. Nurture people who refer business to you
Most small businesses get most of their customers by referral. And most small businesses do nothing to general more referrals.
The main reason that’s the case is that almost all of us hate asking for referrals.
But it’s possible to get referrals without asking for them. At least, without asking in person.
You can set up a nurture program that goes out to people who refer prospects to you (or who could refer prospects to you) and have a little note on some of the pieces that says “We love referrals” or “If you know anyone who might be interested, we’d love to hear from them” or “Know anyone who might be interested? We’ll take excellent care of them (and send you a cool tshirt to say thank you).”
There are dozens of low-key ways to phrase a request for referrals. You can use any number of them.
But how you ask isn’t as important as that you DO ask.
Your goal here is to make sure the people who could refer business know what your business does and feel good about the quality of work you do, so they are comfortable making referrals. And, of course, to ask for the referrals.
5. Nurture your customers
You’ve seen all the statistics about how much more cost-effective it is to keep a current customer than attract a new one.
So direct a bit of your marketing budget towards making your current clients feel special and valued.
This is particularly easy if you have relatively few big customers. But it can be done even if you have thousands.
If you have fewer than a couple hundred customers, you can send a small gift once or twice a year. Not during the holidays, which is when everyone else does it. But in the spring or summer or early fall.
It can be inexpensive and clever - something with your company’s logo on it.
Or it can even be electronic, which is the way to go if you need to deliver thousands of them around the world. It could be a free ebook or tips on how to get the most out of your products…
The goal here is to make your customers feel appreciated and special.
There you go… 5 inexpensive ways to use nurture programs to help you grow your business. Which one are you going to try?
Sphere: Related Content3 Ways to Use Crowdsourcing
You have heard of crowdsourcing, I’m sure. The idea is that instead of outsourcing a project to one person or company, you outsource the same project to a group of people and then pick the result you like best.
There are a lot of advantages to crowdsourcing…
- You get a lot more brainpower poured into your project - the more people working on it and thinking about it, the better your results are likely to be.
- You typically get results pretty quickly. When people know there are others working on the same project, there’s more pressure to get it done and delivered fast.
- A lot of people do better work when they know they are competing against others. So there’s an incentive to deliver their best work.
- You can get some pretty innovative ideas, because people want their work to stand out.
Naturally, there are disadvantages too…
- Typically the best freelancers and firms don’t need to work “on spec” and so they tend not to participate in crowdsourcing. So you are likely to be dealing with people who are more junior or have enough time on their hands to dabble in outside projects.
- No one is going to invest a huge amount of time in a project where payment will be small or non-existent, so they won’t spend a lot of time learning about your products and your market.
For a lot of companies, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, at least for certain projects. So let’s look at a couple ways you can use crowdsourcing in your marketing…
Graphic design projects
There are marketplaces that have sprung up where you can post projects, typically for graphic design. Site members submit their designs, you choose the one you like best and pay the winner a fee - usually a fraction of what you would have paid a traditional design firm.
Two marketplaces that offer crowdsourcing are:
crowdSPRING
99designs
If you are looking for a new logo, letterhead or business cards, brochure, website design, advertisement, or something similar, this can be well worthwhile.
It’s also a good way to audition designers and look for someone you’ll want to work with on a regular basis.
Brainstorming and problem solving
A company that takes a slightly different approach is Ideas Culture. They have a program called Ideas While You Sleep.
You submit a challenge or a problem that you’re working on by 4pm (in the US) and they send it out to a group of people who work on it overnight. (They are in Australia.) They send you the input from everyone by 10am the next morning.
We tried this recently with a naming project. We had brainstormed internally and were getting nowhere. So we submitted the naming challenge to Ideas Culture. By the next morning we had 122 more names at a cost of about $450.
Did we use any of their names? No. We ended up going with a brilliant suggestion from one of our partners. But we got a lot of good ideas that we are using in other parts of the project. It was well worth the money.
Get feedback
Another way to use crowdsourcing in marketing is to get feedback on what you are currently doing. For example, you could ask for opinions about a headline, an advertisement, your website, a brochure, a tagline, or a sales letter.
A crowdsourcing site that specializes in feedback is Concept Feedback.
It’s designed for marketing professionals, but small business owners can use it too. You post what you’re working on or want feedback on, people tell you what they think, and you can act on it or not.
It’s free, but if you want faster results or more prominence for your project you can pay $9.99 to get higher priority.
You can also do something similar yourself (although you probably won’t get as many responses)… Just get on Twitter, Blellow, Facebook, LinkedIn or any industry forum, post what you’ve got and ask people for suggestions. Lots of times you’ll get really good input.
Sphere: Related ContentHow to Allocate Marketing Funds
Continuing that last post…
Of course you want to invest in lead gen. That goes without saying. But how much effort do you put into education and credibility?
It depends on what your biggest marketing problem is… Which of these statements is closest to your situation? Read more
Sphere: Related Content-
Subscribe by RSS
-
Connect with Me
-
-
