Lead Gen in the new year

It seems like some blogs and sites are going back to basics for the end-of-the-year / beginning-of-next wrap-up posts. The Innovative Marketer asks: What is lead nurturing? And before the question gets dismissed as being too basic, there’s never been a better time to look at what exactly IS good lead generation and what role it plays for you and/or your company. As people continue to seek to do more with less, being able  to consistently generate leads is crucial. This particular post mentions a few best practices to consider when putting together a lead nurturing strategy:

1.      Plan to follow up no later than 48 hours (not business hours) after meeting someone.  There’s plenty of research out there to suggest that by waiting longer than that, your prospect is more likely to consider this a new interaction than a stay-in-touch one.

2.      Unless the person you met expressed an interest in talking directly to a salesperson, make sure your next communication is not salesy in nature.   The goal is to build rapport, authority and interest, so don’t spoil the nascent relationship by getting too commercial.

Read the rest of the article for more ideas. Meanwhile, Marketo takes a look at the industry of lead gen in 2010, cautioning people in the industry to not get lax and let leads slip through the cracks (especially good advice at this time of year!): “Without lead nurturing, B2B organizations are missing out on an enormous opportunity. The right processes must be put in place to nurture and develop relationships with this group so they don’t fall in the crack between marketing and sales.” The post walks through some suggestions for incorporating good lead retention policies.

Or you could jump start your lead nurturing campaigns as Sales X Marketing talks about by embarking on a 30 day email challenge. Obviously this is not a call to send out mass quantities of email just for the sake of it, but rather to garner sales and leads by adding value. Read the full post for details!