June 2010 Issue

Demonstrate and Deliver Lead Nurturing ROI

Measuring the Business Value of Social Media

Dear Readers,

My article in this issue is drawn from the 2010 Lenskold Group / emedia Lead Generation ROI Study, which will be released on Monday, June 21. The article addresses the ROI drivers for lead nurturing, which marketers surveyed indicated was under-funded relative to the profit potential, and how to assess tactics that educate and engage leads within a nurturing program.

Our guest columnist is Jim Sterne who I’ve known and respected for many years. Jim shares insight from his recently published book “Social Media Metrics,” which provides excellent insights and a framework to guide measurements for this rapidly evolving media channel toward business outcomes.

Please join us for a Webinar “Increase Your Marketing ROI using Customer Intelligence” next Tuesday. We’ll cover the key practices for using intelligence to guide targeting and improving marketing effectiveness. Also, our new white paper series was recently launched with the first issue, “CMO Guide to Maximizing Customer Marketing Performance & ROI.” This is paper is sponsored by Citrix GoToWebinar and is available as a free download on our website.

Best regards,

Demonstrate and Deliver Lead Nurturing ROI
by Jim Lenskold

Educating and engaging prospects is a significant part of lead generation marketing. Online channels have made it easier and less expensive to distribute content in an environment where potential buyers are seeking information and open to interaction. Marketing tactics to educate and engage prospects are useful in the early stages of the customer purchase funnel to build awareness and interest and in the middle of the funnel to generate leads. These tactics are also valuable in nurturing stalled leads, which was top ranked in recent research study as the area of marketing that is most underfunded relative to the potential value it can provide (2010 Lenskold Group / emedia Lead Generation Marketing Study).

Lead nurturing has high potential value when your acquisition programs have generated responses from interested prospects, but they are not yet ready to buy. Stalled leads within the sales organization will typically get the periodic call with the “are you ready to buy yet” message. In the absence of a lead nurturing program, the marketing organization may toss the leads back into the prospect pool and let future acquisition marketing bring them back into the lead/sales process. It’s easy to see why marketers believe there is high profit potential here – with low cost marketing contacts to the right target of leads that are not fully qualified or stalled in the sales pipeline, educating and engaging these prospects can increase conversion rates, increase the value per customer, and shorten the sales cycle.

Read the full article for more on:
• Nurturing strategies and objectives to drive profitable outcomes
• Targeting to ensure success
• Measuring nurturing lift and ROI

Measuring the Business Value of Social Media
by Jim Sterne

Any technology that makes it easier for humans to communicate will be broadly adopted. The printing press, telegraph, telephone, telex, fax, email, websites, texting, blogs, photo and video sharing sites and Twitter have each lowered the amount of effort required to exchange ideas with others. Virtual worlds are fun, but haven't caught on as an ubiquitous way to communicate as they raise the friction rather than lower it.

The value of communicating easily and economically to individuals, groups and constituents has always been of value to organizations. But the question remains: Just how valuable is it? How does one go about measuring the outcome of engaging in social media? There are a number of areas of social media measurement for business offered up for your consideration. We’ll start with the basics of web measurement and then look a social media metrics from six different perspectives based on objectives and outcomes.

Read the full article for more on:
• Social media metrics from the advertising, PR, brand, and direct response perspectives
• The importance of using social media as research into customer service and satisfaction
• The fundamental principles for aligning social media to generating business value

Jim Sterne is an international speaker on electronic marketing and customer interaction. A consultant to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs, Sterne focuses his 25 years in sales and marketing on measuring the value of the Internet as a medium for creating and strengthening customer relationships. Sterne can be reached at jsterne@targeting.com or visit www.targeting.com.