Turn Your Website Visitors into Qualified Leads (Part II)

Last week Fire Enterprises (FEI) FEI Marketing Tribe Leader Marka showed the tribe how to capture lead-generation information from FEI Website visitors. This week, Marka discusses how to continually nurture these prospects in order to turn them into qualified prospects and, eventually, new customers. Remember, fire = print.

FEI’s Monday marketing meeting had begun. Org, Zoot, and Numo were all watching Marka, who stood at the whiteboard ready to continue discussing how FEI can turn its O-site visitors into qualified prospects.

“Last week we discussed how to capture leads from our O-site by getting these visitors to give us information about themselves,” Marka said. “This week, let’s talk about how we can nurture these leads until they’re ready to buy.”

“We have these prospects’ names, company names, e-mail addresses, and even some basic information about what type of fire products or services they’re interested in,” Zoot said. “Let’s send them ongoing streams of promotional e-mails to get them to take action.”

“We could,” Marka said. “But remember that all these prospects have done so far is request useful information about fire. Many of them may still feel they need more information—about our services, or about fire in general—before pulling the trigger. If we come on too strong with ‘sales pitch’-type O-mails we could scare away prospects who are still kicking the tires.”

“Slow and steady wins the customer,” Marka continued. “Let’s continue sending these prospects broadcast O-mails with information relevant to their expressed needs. Occasionally we’ll rotate in an e-mail that includes an offer related to the solution they’ve been exploring.”

“Show us how this will work, please,” Org said.

“Let’s return to our hypothetical prospect Joe Firebuyer, who’s expressed interest in buying torches for his business,” Marka said. “We might send him three informational e-mails over the span of two weeks—one listing 10 benefits of torches for small businesses, one spotlighting how a business similar to his is using torches to spur growth, and one suggesting a few creative ways to use torches. Then, our fourth e-mail will announce that we’re offering 10 percent off select torch models for a limited time only. Thanks to our last three e-mails, Joe Firebuyer has a better understanding of how torches can benefit his business. Now don’t you think he’ll be more likely to click through to the offer than if we’d sent him this e-mail first?”