Lead Nurturing Content for the Bottom of the Sales Funnel

You have a fish on the line, a big one. You also know that there's a decision to be made. Complicating factors include competitors, internal dissent, pricing and general uncertainty. At the bottom of the sales funnel your sales team should be fully engaged working their magic to close the sale, but they could use some help from marketing. Why? Because your prospect is still struggling, remember? They could use some additional content to help get them over the hump, but what kind of content?

Addressing the Needs of Would-Be Customers

Your goal is to reinforce the messages of your sales team in tangible form. Chances are, they have already passed along brochures, spec sheets etc. Don't repeat that effort. Don't overwhelm your customers—nurture them. Here are some things you can throw in that may not have been covered by sales and may provide support for a buy decision from you:

• Support, support and more support—this is the key to customer satisfaction and lifetime value—tell them everything about your support channels
• Hot-off-the-presses new clients or new milestones with current clients—blog or press release
• "Insider" information—disclose some coming soon products or services
• Relevant testimonials—videos from customers
• Invitations to private webinars where you show case studies with real benefits, discuss facts and issues beyond the standard demo
• Out-of-the-box strategic offers—these could include opportunities such as partner or reseller programs, co-branding or white labeling, invitations to join your Advisory Board and special in-house events

Beat Your Competitors at the Details

You never know what will make the difference in a sale, but you can be pretty sure that your prospects will be looking at every detail and comparing your delivery to your competitor's. This is one place where professional design can be your ace-in-the-hole. Make sure that every piece of e-collateral you send via lead nurturing (or otherwise) is clean, professional and consistently branded. Your prospects will get the right impression and have confidence that you will provide the same attention to detail in your products and services.

Total Sales and Marketing Alignment is the Key

The moment a sales lead becomes an opportunity for your sales team, you're on the clock and everything you do going forward is part of your sales pitch. If you want to win, you must make sure that your sales and marketing teams are on the same page with content and message. Even a shred of difference between your marketing and sales message and delivery can be a fatal flaw. In terms of content, make sure:

• Everyone knows the content on every piece of online or offline collateral
• Everyone is updated when changes are made (this can be a killer!)
• Marketing knows what sales is saying to prospects and vice versa
• Sales is providing feedback to marketing on what's working and what isn't
• Marketing is providing sales with marketing metrics on all content and marketing channels and is optimizing content and landing pages to drive qualified leads
• Sales proposals are consistent with everything you say on every piece of content
• In general—NO SURPRISES, EVER!

Now go out and make me proud!

Photo credit: Images_of_Money

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