Deborah Murphy, VP-global marketing, Zebra Technologies

“Because lead nurturing, by definition, is a lead in need of continued attention, I think the most important thing to ensure the success of growing leads is a good CRM solution overlaid with an intelligent marketing content distribution strategy. A prospect may say "follow up with me in six months,' but passing along relevant content—orchestrated in a manner that builds awareness and confidence in your product or solution—will move your prospect further down the sales funnel with minimal intrusion, resulting in increased close rates.”

Tom Nightingale, VP-communications and CMO, Con-way Inc.

“The most important factor in lead nurturing is sequencing of the customer touches following acquisition. It's particularly important to communicate with the prospect on a timely basis and when there are salient moments driven by customer actions, [for example] reactions to outbound campaigns or exogenous events."

Al Maag, chief communications officer, Avnet Inc.

“The key to effective lead nurturing is consistency and content. Speak to the needs of your buying audience and put relevant, action-oriented content in front of them when they need it—not when you, as the marketing executive, think it's relevant. Become a trusted adviser, follow their digital body language and, most of all, keep it up to date and relevant. There is no need to reinvent the wheel; use messaging that you have proven draws the reader in and solves their business pain.”

Michael Evans, VP-marketing, Approva Corp.

“Lead nurturing is all about delivering targeted information to prospects based on who they are, what they care about and where they are in their evaluation process. The most important thing you can do to make your lead nurturing program successful is to segment your database and keep it clean. It may not sound as cool on the resume, but a tightly tuned database with processes for updating and maintaining key fields (e.g., industry, company size, department, level in organization, competitive products, etc.) will ensure that your nurturing campaigns are seen as truly valuable and not just another email to delete.”