The EdTech L̶e̶a̶d̶ Account Nurturing Map

We’ve been conditioned to spend a lot of time and effort nurturing leads.

But all this time we should’ve nurtured entire accounts applying the same time, effort and budget.

Let’s see how we can nurture the people you need in your lead’s institution.

Your lead nurturing can only reach one person: the lead.

It seems obvious, but once you understand the downstream problems, you’ll never look at lead nurturing the same way again.

There are multiple hidden issues you face when you only nurture leads.

For starters, it’s 1:1.

1:1 campaigns are the least effective type of approach, as you can easily be ignored by that one person. A simple click on unsubscribe can make you lose the chance and close the door to a potential sale.

For that person, at that moment, you could be pushing the wrong message - and it will not sit right in their minds.

Another detracting point is the potential of your digital assets not matching their intent or persona.

On top of it all double bias problem can work against you in two ways:

1. Your lead could be biased toward a competitor; or

2. Even if your lead supports your solution, still they have to fight and push it through a buying committee that could be biased toward your competitor.

If you rely on early SDR involvement, leads could feel pushed too hard for a sale that, if anything, is not even on the horizon. This is especially true in long sales cycles.

Gartner researched how B2B buyers feel in relation to early SDR intervention. There are bad and good news - a paradox:

• 75% prefer a rep-free sales experience; but

• 43% regret the purchase when not assisted by an SDR.

The problem we can infer from this by both, logic and experience, is that EdTechs are either pushing SDR engagement too hard or not pushing at all.

Leads are not being made to feel they need assistance.

We - humans, B2B marketers, technical writers - assume everything we publish is good and complete. It’s not.

And then, comes the invisible problem: account scoring.

The real life scenario is this: some people in the buying group will visit some key website pages that will trigger your retargeting.

But other people in the same buying group will only visit low-stakes pages - they are in the awareness phase - and you won’t retarget them.

You’re, then, missing an automated system to score accounts based on conversions, engagement, and website visits.

I had this problem too and I spent some time figuring out what account scoring and targeting features the best account-based marketing tools in the market could offer: 6sense, Demandbase, and Anteriad.

• 6sense leverages Intent

• Demandbase leverages Job Roles

• Anteriad leverages Buying Roles

My clients were not prepared to invest that much, as their niche and target geographies didn’t produce a huge website traffic.

I then had to build my own automated DIY approach to account scoring. It still needed extra tools, but at a much more affordable price - thankfully.

The EdTech Account Nurturing Map

If you had the chance to implement it, you noticed that account nurturing leads to better nurturing (pun intended).

The BIG IDEA is that you will likely be able to win over the people in the buying group to your side. Or at least, have the chance to defy their biases.

Unlike my previous posts, where I shared frameworks, today I’m sharing with you a map that you’ll customize to your company’s sales and marketing structure.

With this guidance, you’ll be able to:

• Map out the Intent of leads and accounts;

• Map out the Buying Roles;

• Unearth the decision-maker;

• Chart the nurturing pipeline velocity to align with Sales;

• Draw in SDRs at an appropriate moment;

• Influence the pre-RFP research; and finally

• Transform part of the buying committee into active leads that your sales team can work with.

Let’s break down the map.

ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)

• Buyer Psychology

  • Messaging

    • Intent Matching
      
      - You messages need to match the problems your ICP have at each intent level or funnel substage;
      

  • Brand

    • Consistency
      
      - How consistent, on-brand, and helpful are your nurturing campaigns?
      - How long are your campaigns lasting?
      - Should they last 30 or 180 days?
      

    • Trust
      - Can you prove Integrity, Capabilities, and Results in your messaging?
      

GOAL

• Executive Strategy
  
  Align your nurturing campaigns to the company’s strategy.
  Examples are:
  - Vertical Expansion: focus on industry-specific pain points;
  - Market Penetration: regain lapsed deals, focus on key segments or geographies;
  - Product Expansion: drive new product awareness and adoption;
  - Mergers and Acquisitions: integrate acquired customer bases;
  - Strategic Segmentation: drive adoption by a new/key segment.
  

• Marketing Tactics
  
  What tactics are the most effective for the defined strategy?
  - Educational content?
  - Brand reach and awareness?
  - Thought-leadership?
  

INTENT

• Lead/Account Scoring

  • Conversions
    
    Although conversions are the most obvious events that can score a lead or account, they need to be carefully mapped out and matched.
    

  • Website Visits and Engagement
    
    Conversions are not enough. You might have multiple people of a certain institution visiting your website and interacting with it at different levels, be it a video, moving through different pages or spending time actually reading your pages.
    
    Not only engagement, but the number of visits from an institution can tell you a lot:
    - Where did they land?
    - What campaign brought them?
    - What add message brought them?
    - What keywords did they search?
    - - BoFu commercial?
    - - MoFu commercial?
    - - MoFu comparison?
    - - MoFu educational?
    

• Digital Assets and Content

  • Buying Roles
    
    - Are your campaigns leveraging tweaks to find their buying roles?
    - What commercial content do you have addressing each Buyer Persona?
    

  • Consideration and Decision
    
    - Are your digital assets (use cases, case studies, whitepapers, buyer’s guides) matching each funnel stage and substage?

CHANNELS

• Job Roles
  
  Are your campaigns split into audiences segmented by Job Role Groups?
  And are your ads matching these roles?
  

• Funnel Substage
  
  You need to consider that the Buyer Group (account) you’re going to target is not in the same funnel stage as your lead. Therefore you need to get them to catch up.
  

  • Lead
    
    If your lead is in a further down consideration level, then…
    

  • Account / Buyer Group
    
    The buyer group must be targeted with 1) the same level and 2) one or two sublevels above (ex: upper consideration or awareness substages)
    

• Account Reach

  • 1:1
    
    What channels will you target the leads?
    

  • 1:N
    
    What channels will you target the account?
    

To complement this map, you will likely need the EdTech Demand Generation Framework I use and is available below. It will guide you on the movement of leads and accounts throughout the funnel stages.

Download the Framework

• a leader for your marketing team?

• a hand to help you form a marketing team?

• or someone to create and execute your marketing strategy?