Based on our B2B Lead Nurturing Workshop series, this deck contains some valuable tips & directions for marketers embarking on lead nurturing programs

1. Best Practices in Planning a
B2B Lead Nurture Program
Converto

2. WH Questions
• WHY: what’s the end game?
• WHO #1: personas and segments
• WHO #2: sender details
• WHO #3: response handling chain
• WHEN: entry & exit criteria, cadence
• WHAT: flow & contents
• WHAT HAPPENED: reports & KPIs

3. WHY?
Always have an ‘end game’
in sight

4. Suggested ‘End Games’
• Person requests a direct contact
• Person signs up for the product or a trial
• Inside sales receives ownership of the lead
• Lead becomes Sales Qualified / converts to Contact
• Tip: implied intent signals (e.g. via scoring) should be handled with care. Digital
footprints not enough.

5. Personas – keep things pragmatic
• Most B2B marketers can speak of job titles, organization influence
span, decision making roles  good, not enough
• Strive for deeper understanding of your personas:
• Professional challenges
• Fears
• Likely objections to listen
• Tip:
• Go to online forums/groups where your personas interact and note the words
and phrases they use
• Use Converto’s Lead Nurture Planner to document your personas

6. Who will messages go out from
• Question may seem innocent, but
the ‘from’ labeling, as well as the
signature, packs some serious
power
• Tips:
• Use the person with the most authority &
credibility vis-à-vis the message
• Never use ‘no-reply’ as the reply-to address

7. When do leads/contacts enter and exit
nurturing?
• Usually your answer to the ‘why’ question would determine this
• Err, why exit?!
• Lifecycle stages are your best friends
• Organization politics often affect this decision
• Tip: in general, resist temptation to use implicit digital behavior
signals (except form submissions) as lifecycle stage gateways

8. Breaking down interactions by lifecycle stages
Soft CTAs
(educate to engage)
Soft CTAs
(educate to qualify)
Auto
Responders
PROSPECT
LEAD
MQL
SQL
CUSTOMER
‘Harder’ CTAs
(make direct offers)

9. Who should be involved in handling
responses
• A nurture email could be:
• Ignored
• Opened
• Clicked
• Out of office’d
• Replied
• Unsubscribed
• Spammed
• Tip: make sure lead owners fully aware of emails going out in their
names
Automated scoring + alert to lead owner (optional)
Lead owner handling
Lead owner handling
Automated handling
Attention marketing
N/A
N/A

10. CTA Follow-ups and Alerts
• Use this simple table to note what happens when recipients respond
to lead nurture emails:
Behavior Email Alert CRM Task Interesting Moment
Clicked main CTA in
email
-- -- Yes
Achieved a threshold
score
Marketing Ops -- No
Submitted CTA Form Lead Owner Yes Yes

11. Determining Content & Flows: by Persona
1. Create a simple Content Asset/Persona inventory matrix
Persona Content #1 Content #2 Content #3 Content #4 Content #5
A x x x x
B x x x

12. Determining Flows: by Persona
2. Then, list your inventory in the order it should be used
Email # Email Topic Main CTA Notes
1 Introduction, links to
educational resources
See video
2 5 things to consider when… Read blog post
3 Invitation to schedule a
demo
Schedule a demo
4 Invitation to webinar Register to webinar

13. Anatomy of
a successful
lead nurture
email

14. Clean design
Identifiable
Contextual
Authority
CTA stands out
Helpful
Establishes
credibility
Personal

15. KPIs
• Decide how success will be defined, and benchmark your KPIs. Examples:
Tip: open rates and click-through rates are good stats for optimizing email
performance, but program success should be determined by lifecycle stage
throughputs.
KPI Metrics Benchmark
Improve rate of
MQL>SQL conversions
to 30%
# of MQLs
# of SQLs
Conversion rate in last 3 months prior to
program launch was 22%
Generate 5 purchases
per month of an up-sell
offer to clients
# of purchase form fills
by existing clients
In 6 months prior to nurture launch, 2 clients
purchased the up-sell on average per month

16. Summary: Keep Asking Questions!
• WHY: what’s the end game?
• WHO #1: personas and segments
• WHO #2: sender details
• WHO #3: response handling chain
• WHEN: entry & exit criteria, cadence
• WHAT: flow & contents
• WHAT HAPPENED: reports & KPIs

17. Got Questions? Feedback?
Want our Lead Nurture Planner™?
Email us at helpmenurture@converto.co.il