Reprinted with the author’s permission from Marketing Interactions.
Eloqua has released the first in a series of B2B marketing guides labeled the Grande Guides. This first one is on Lead Scoring. To have a bit of fun, they’ve also created Juan Eloqua – who’s quite a Bold and Smoky guy whose specialty is growing fine coffee and, of course, revenues. If you haven’t met Juan, you should.
The Grande Guide to Lead Scoring is a nice educational piece. There’s plenty of explanation about what it is, why you need it and tips for creating a lead scoring model of your own.
So I won’t cover it here—go get your own copy.
What I want to discuss in this post is one of the predictions Eloqua makes at the end about the future of Lead Scoring. The second item on the list is content scoring:
<blockquote>“Content-based scoring. Companies that regularly refine their scoring models begin to notice patterns in lead quality that can be directly tied to the content that is accessed during the buying process. Advanced organizations are experimenting with scoring models based on content type – like whitepapers, product information and customer testimonials – instead of the download activity itself.”
I’d like to add a few ideas to their definition of content scoring. Learning more about content type is great. It can guide you to the types of content you produce, but that’s not nearly enough to help your content impact the buying process overall.
I suggest that we start looking at content groups or tracks – whatever you’d like to call them.
There are a couple of ways to think about content groups:
- The content you use across the duration of a nurturing program. If your content is designed to answer prospects’ questions at each stage of the buying process, which content assets are getting the most attention? Take a look at what the content addresses. Find out from sales if this is a sticking point, slowing momentum. Perhaps you’ll need to create more of it. Also look at which content is getting the least attention. Is it in the wrong place in the track? Or is it answering a question your prospects don’t have?
- All the content you have that addresses one problem-to-solution scenario, whether in your nurturing track or on your website, blog, etc. Are prospects seeking out related content in other locations? There should be a way to tag content so that marketers can say – show me the response to all the content that covers problem X. We should also be able to determine individual interest levels based on topic, not just types of content read.
Knowing that a prospect downloaded 5 white papers and 3 customer stories and 2 data sheets is one thing. Knowing that all of those resources are related to solving problem X can impact when you reach out as well as the quality of the conversations you’ll be able to have with the prospect.
With buyers’ expectations growing much faster than our abilities to engage them with added value, we need insights that help us to have better conversations, build our credibility and convince them that our company is the best choice to help them solve their problems.
The interest part of lead scoring needs to be based on a solid content strategy.
Ardath Albee is CEO & B2B Marketing Strategist for Marketing Interactions, Inc. Her new book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale was recently released by McGraw Hill.
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Are You Mining Your Company’s Forgotten Gold?
Reprinted with the author’s permission from Savvy B2B Marketing Blog
One of the most overlooked veins of gold at most organizations is the “email list.” In a surprising number of companies, this list is dutifully compiled and then left in a dusty corner. No one seems to own it, and worse—no one seems to know what to do with it.
Old clients, current clients, prospective clients—it doesn’t matter. If you’re not doing all you can with that list you’re leaving prospects on the table. There simply is no better resource for dirt cheap lead generation out there. So, what should you be doing with your list?
Newsletters: Keep your email circle of friends up-to-date with the latest news about your company, your products and your industry. Keep it brief and to the point with links to deeper information on your website if necessary. Avoid fancy graphics and pictures that need special permission from the user to download.
Email blasts: If something big goes down—a new product release, a sizzling industry story, or a big “oops!” you need to explain, keep your email circle informed with a proactive email blast. Keep blasts to a minimum to decrease your unsubscribe rate.
Surveys: Surveys can help you get even MORE marketing gold from your customer base. It also brings participants into your inner circle and helps them feel more a part of the “family.” Offering a drawing for a gift certificate will help encourage folks to participate.
I once heard tell of a company that had an email list comprising nearly a half million names and addresses. The list had grown from various sources over a period of years, and was spread across several departments that rarely communicated with each other. They had NEVER used for anything. Once they decided to start using it—to send out a series of newsletters, emails, and surveys—the response they got was amazing. Their open rates, click-through rates and participation rates were through the roof and their unsubscribe rates were remarkably low. It turns out that their email circle was just dying to get involved, and all they had to do was ask!
Kate Headen Waddell is a strategic copywriter specializing in web copy, white papers, case studies, solution briefs and other B2B marketing tools. You can visit her website at www.smartb2bmarcom.com.