Why Your Lead Nurturing Campaigns and Sales Funnel Should Align from Business 2 Community by Chris Horton

Why Your Lead Nurturing Campaigns and Sales Funnel Should Align:
Online marketing success is usually measured in two ways: lead generation and sales conversion. It’s easy to see why businesses are focused on turning web traffic into actionable leads, and leads into sales. Unfortunately, 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales.¹ This is because most companies forget about the middle part of the sales cycle; they don’t pay enough attention to the lead nurturing process.
Lead nurturing is a crucial part of your sales and marketing success. According to Gleanster Research, nearly 50% of leads are qualified but aren’t immediately ready to buy.
So how do you engage these leads in a way that will increase website conversion and maximize sales?
You need to develop stellar lead nurturing campaigns that a) target individual buyer personas, and b) deliver appropriate content at each stage of the buying cycle. Do these two things effectively, and you’ll need to hire a second accountant to keep pace with all of your sales (don’t quote me on that, but you get the picture).
DEVELOP YOUR BUYER PERSONAS
You can’t efficiently sell a product if you don’t know whom you are selling it to. Before crafting any lead nurturing campaign, make sure you have a clear understanding of your buyer personas. Here are some basic questions to think about when developing your buyer personas:

1. Demographic Profile – Age, gender, income level, education level, marital status, children, etc. This will give you a three-dimensional picture of your buyer.
2. Employment Information – What industry do they work in? What is their role in the company?  What is their seniority level?
3. Pain Points- It’s hard to provide a solution if you don’t know your buyer’s problems and challenges. Go into detail; try to figure out how they feel about their pain points.
4. Values/Goals – The flip side of pain points, what does your buyer really value? What will get them excited to work with you? What are they trying to accomplish with this relationship?
5. Information Consumption – Where does the buyer turn to for information? Friends, family, online search, social networks, books, newspapers?
6. Anticipated Experience – What features and benefits is the buyer looking for? What type of experience is he/she expecting when buying this product?
7. Objections – Know what you’re up against. Why would the buyer not purchase your product? To the extent that you can expose buyer objections, you can tailor your marketing campaigns to resolve them early on in the buying cycle.

SELECT MARKETING OFFERS
Once you’ve established detailed buyer personas, you can select marketing offers that speak to them at each stage of the buying cycle.
The consumer buying cycle can be boiled down to three stages:²
Awareness: Leads have either become aware of your product or service, or they have become aware that they have a need that must be fulfilled.
Evaluation: Leads are aware that your product or service could fulfill their need, and they are trying to determine whether you are the best fit.
Purchase: Leads are ready to make a purchase.
Buyers in the awareness stage are looking for more information. They want to education themselves about the product or service they need, and are turning to you for answers. This is where you can establish yourself as a trusted source of information. Awareness stage offers should help educate your lead in general sense, focusing on their needs rather than your solutions.
In the evaluation stage, buyers understand their need and are searching for a solution provider. Evaluation stage offers should clearly lay out how your company can help resolve their need, and why they should work with you to do so.
Buyers in the purchase stage are ready to go. They know what they want and they believe you can provide it.  Purchase stage offers should be aggressive and actionable, providing a clear path to the sale
Here are some examples of content offers at each stage of the buying cycle:²
Awareness - Webinar, White Paper, ebook, Tip-Sheet, How-to Video, Checklist
Evaluation - Product Webinar, Case Study, Data Sheet, FAQ, Demo Video/Sample
Purchase - Free Trial, Live Demo, Estimate, Consultation, Coupon
MATCH THE TWO UP
After defining your buyer personas and organizing your marketing content around the three stages of buying cycle, you’re ready to build some really effective lead nurturing campaigns.
Create separate campaigns for each persona covering all three stages in the buying cycle. To do this effectively, you need to link your marketing offers with your sales funnel:

• Awareness stage offer = top of the funnel offer
• Evaluation stage offer = middle of the funnel offer
• Purchase stage offer = bottom of the funnel offer

For example, if you have two buyer personas, you need to build six lead nurturing campaigns:
Buyer Persona One:

1. Awareness/TOFU offer
2. Evaluation/MOFU offer
3. Purchase/BOFU offer

Buyer Persona Two:

1. Awareness/TOFU offer
2. Evaluation/MOFU offer
3. Purchase/BOFU offer

I know, it seems like a lot of work (and it is). But following this process will help you align your lead nurturing campaigns with your sales funnel. Doing this will not only streamline your sales and marketing efforts, but improve the two metrics you care about the most: lead generation and sales conversion.
How well do your lead nurturing campaigns align with your sales funnel?
¹ Marketing Sherpa, “The Complex Sale”
² Hubspot, “How to Tailor Lead Nurturing Content to Suite Individual Personas”