Lead Nurture Programs
How easy is it to find the world’s best business development person? Yeah, we know it’s not easy. Lead nurture campaigns do more than you think. The premise of lead nurture is simple…. entice, engage and eventually close the deal. In banking, you have limited opportunities with a prospective customer to win their business. Perhaps they have a line renewal coming up or they are considering a real estate purchase. In either case, you want to be chatting with them at that time. Otherwise, the sad reality is that they just may not think of you. Lead nurture campaigns can be very advantageous when there is a longer sales cycle, or a dependency on the rare moment of ’need’ on behalf of the client. Lead nurture can completely change the results of business development teams by supplementing their outreach and engagement.
Most importantly, you know when your prospect is showing interest. That’s right. The campaign will keep you abreast of which prospects or clients are engaging and with what content or messaging. Imagine walking into the office each week with the top 10 clients likely to need your services in the next couple weeks, with a lead nurture campaign you will achieve exactly that.
TAG guarantees you have the data available. Even if your team doesn’t use a central CRM, you can still run a robust campaign. And, once the campaign is set up, it takes only a few seconds to add a lead to the campaign. That lead then experiences the entire funnel of communications from the start, automatically.
The success of the campaigns is based on several factors:
Consistent outreach – Teams are stretched to the max. They are responsible for shepherding the banking relationship with active deals, negotiating terms, overseeing the credit approval process, and oftentimes managing lawyers and clients. They also prepare their own term sheets and proposals. They are roped into the post-sales customer service efforts. And, they aren’t always the best at easily identifying new prospects. Lead nurture campaigns are intelligent campaigns that allow you to set-it and forget-it. And, they ensure there will be intelligent outreach. Even when your team has turnover or is too busy.
Smart content paths are developed to be sure that when your prospect engages with a specific piece of content either online, in an email, or direct mail, the next communication will be even more relevant to that prospect. These content paths are defined upfront before the campaign launches and provide maximum impact. Maybe a client has a need for a line of credit, or wants to understand 504 loans, or maybe they need the ancillary services many banks are offering such as payroll or wealth management. Their actions define their areas of interest, and the level of potential business.
Analytics are a great asset in lead nurture campaigns as they are oftentimes multi-channel. Regardless of how many channels are used, the statistics of open, click, action, engagement, etc. are used to drive the next engagement, relative messaging, and even the offers a recipient may receive. But, lead nurture analytics drill down to the individual. Bob Smith has been actively reading emails, clicking through, visiting these web pages, and using the online calculator for a potential lending transaction – he’s hot for a transaction. Call him.
Automation is based on actions the target has taken in some channel, the actions of our business development or customer service teams within a CRM, current account information, or even other historical information known about the prospect. You may nurture someone who had a recent poor survey score result, you may nurture another person differently because they made several recent web visits, but haven’t initiated contact. The automation is key to cost control and performance.
Lead nurture campaigns can be fully automated or require some interaction. In either case, the premise is the same – great content, automation, multichannel engagement. Integration with leading CRMs or other data systems is ideal. Banks have used onboarding as a means to engage new clients and to present a suite of products and services. That will not be the right timing for every prospect. With ongoing lead nurture, you’ll discover the right time for everyone.
Think of how you can automate your team’s contacts for greater results. If you don’t think your team reached out to enough people or the right people last month, then how do you expect this month’s sales to meet expectations? Build the automation and everyone wins.
Lead nurture campaigns can be costly and complicated to set up. Let TAG’s crew show you the easiest path to implementation. Consistent evolution of any lead nurture program will simply provide better and better results. The investment of energy and dollars is well worth it. Look at your sales team’s performance and the changes within the team. Ask yourself two questions, have any prospects been forgotten and has your team consistently engaged all prospects to increase close rates?
See a live demonstration of communication engagement paths, CRM integrations, and much more. Ask your TAG representative, today.