In the recent webcast co-sponsored by Compendium Blogware and Right On Interactive, Chris Baggott, co-founder and CEO of Compendium illustrated how business blogging – done the right way – will maximize organic search engine rankings and will have a dramatic impact on your ability to generate marketing leads.  I spoke about the equally important aspect of cultivating these new relationships through a progression of relevant email communications – a multi-step lead nurturing program. (View the webinar replay)

When generating leads via blogs or other social media initiatives, a lot of companies only reach out to these new leads via email or phone once or twice.  Or, if a sales opportunity is created and later fizzles, the sales lead never makes it back to marketing.

Instead, the best lead nurturing strategy is an automated drip campaign that cultivates a relationship with each individual over time and automatically recycles inactive sales leads.

These lead nurturing campaigns can be time-based or response-driven where, based on how a lead responds to each step, a new path is taken – with an appropriate delivery cadence. 

Multi-step Lead Nurturing Results

What’s the value?  The results of multi-step lead nurturing campaigns are significantly higher than those with a single-step.  For example, in a recent campaign, several thousand new web leads completed a six step process over a 15-week period.  Each received a new article or whitepaper in a six part series.  Engagement with this group was four-times the rate it would have been with a single-step campaign.

For your next blog or social media campaign, add a series of follow up email tactics that engage new leads with a series of related articles or other educational content.  Marketing automation software enables you to quickly create this lead nurturing campaign, execute without manual intervention, and considerably improve business results.