January 2014 – Page 2 of 2

Lead Nurturing Needs Lead Profiling

Although the article did an excellent job of summarizing the benefits of lead nurturing, it didn’t supply the reader with a real strategy for creating meaningful connections with unripe leads. Leads that are not ready to convert require customized coaxing to convince them to respond favorably to the campaign. Businesses cannot effectively turn leads into consumers without first understanding the leads’ behavior, interests, and needs.

It makes perfect sense when you think about it. How can a company convince someone they need a particular product or service, if they don’t first understand how their product or service will benefit that specific lead?

Lead Profiling for Lead Nurturing

The building blocks for any effective lead nurturing campaign is comprehensive lead profiling. The most efficient way to develop a complete lead profile is marketing automation. Marketing automation software uses website visitor tracking to find out exactly what information a lead is seeking out, which articles or pages they have already viewed, and any demographic characteristics that can be obtained through their IP address or online registries. All of this crucial information is compiled to create a beneficial lead profile.

Marketing Automation and Lead Nurturing

Visitor tracking and profile is necessary for the foundation, but there is still more work that needs to be done before a business develops lead nurturing content. The marketing automation process always involves ranking and segmenting leads based on specific behavior and characteristics. All of this is done to increase engagement and lead nurturing ROI. Lead nurturing content must be relevant and customized based on the predetermined lead segments to create a real connection with the reader.

Relationship Building with Lead Nurturing

Businesses can’t expect to develop an intimate and meaningful relationship with potential prospects if they first don’t take the time to get to know them personally. Leads know they have endless purchasing options online and they won’t settle for a business that doesn’t make an effort to understand their needs and concerns.

Developing a strategic alliance between lead profiling and lead nurturing makes it easier to turn leads into consumers. It makes the prospect feel like the company truly cares about their concerns and is offering valuable advice for free. To generate significant ROI from lead nurturing campaigns, companies must first track, profile, and segment every lead into comparable groups. That is the only proven way to create relevant content that will be truly beneficial to your prospects’ lives.

Businesses nowadays look for cost-effective ways to expand, and yet many don’t know the benefits of promoting on the web. Still, there are good things and bad things about building and managing your brand on the Internet.

Your online branding is as important as your physical office. Why? Because prospective clients can find your business faster (and easier) by doing a Google Search. They will have the ability to find reviews on your products and services, as well as what is being said about your business online.

And, let’s face it: people trust what other people say. This is called “word of mouth”, and it’s important on & offline. So, how can you take control of what is being said about your business?

How can you effectively monitor and manage your brand online?

First, let’s get into the technical terms that you need to know in order to protect & manage your online brand. Wether you’re a person or a corporation (or even a celebrity), you need to realize that reputation management on the web is all about taking control of your (or your business’) online marketing.

Online reputation management can be defined as the combined knowledge of techniques and tools that can be utilized to promote goods & services through a variety of media platforms on the web 2.0; it’s taking control of what is being said by influencing the conversation on the web (and having a great internet content strategy).

But, is the meaning of the term “Online Marketing” any different from the term “Online Reputation Management”?

Online Reputation Mangement (ORM) is supposed to be a different approach to public relations; it’s thinking outside the box when it comes to personal and corporate branding. Besides, the rules are different outside the traditional way of doing media relations.

Maybe this can be called “brand hacking” (if you’re doing ORM in unethical ways, like censoring negative comments & complaints or using SEO to trick Google and influence search results). So, if you’re actively trying to affect search results to mantain and protect your brand’s reputation, then you’re doing ORM.

In other words, the Internet and Social Media have changed what once was a must-know public relations issue, into a practice of utmost importance when it comes to search engine results (and everyone is doing it).

On the other side, Online Marketing (Social Media Marketing & Search Engine Marketing) is also a way to influence the conversation and make it skew in your favor. Doesn’t that make you think? Maybe there is no real difference between these two terms…

So, is the “best defense” a good “offense”?

This is a very popular saying that can be applied in almost all areas of human life, including recreational games and war. Overall, this idea is about creating a strategic advantage, and it’s something you should be preoccupied with when it comes to the Internet.

Lee Haney, US bodybuilder, once said: “PR is extremely important, and being able to use it in the right way means everything. You have to market your success.”

Marketing can be defined as the ongoing process of communication between the public and the brand, where the value of a product or service is promoted to a business’ customers. It’s also about building long-term relationships between the customers and brands. This type of communication is bilateral in the web 2.0, and it’s all about monitoring the conversation; that means, “listening” is as important as “talking”.

That’s why a content strategy is always useful in both online marketing and online reputation management. You can start by building and managing profiles in Social Media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Then, you can continue your SEM and SSM efforts by buying a domain name (such as www.yourname.com or www.yourbusiness.com) or starting a blog, to build your personal & professional brand on the web.

However, the web 2.0 still represents a challenge even to the most skilled Online Marketers and Public Relations Experts. And, whether you’re interested in protecting & managing your brand, or actively promoting a good image of you or your business, you must know the difference between ORM and OM.

But, in order to keep things ethical when it comes to influencing the conversation in this platform, you must think of Online Marketing & Online Reputation Management in a holistic way, taking in account that both practices are active ways of monitoring and protecting your brand on the web.

The Strategic Alliance between Lead Profiling and Lead Nurturing