For years, tech marketers have been maniacally focused on generating new leads to feed the pipeline needs of their sales counterparts. Unfortunately, only a very small percentage of those new leads, like 5%, were ready to engage with sales, leading to much frustration and angst between marketing and sales.

So what happened to the 95% of those leads that weren’t sales ready? Usually, not much! An email or two every so often does not constitute a lead nurturing program that will deliver results. However, it appears that the wind of change is upon us in tech marketing. In a recent marketing investments survey that we conducted, we found that tech marketers are increasing their budget allocation for lead nurturing by 11%, and that is significant.

So how do you start to build a lead nurturing program that will deliver results? Here are three elements:

Definition: First, we need a definition for lead nurturing. I like this simple definition: Lead nurturing is a process by which leads are tracked and developed into sales-qualified leads. Meaning that they are ready and worthy of a salesperson’s time. Of course, it is critical that you jointly establish the definition of a sales-ready lead with the sales team.

Objective: Our objective is to lead our prospects on an educational journey that moves them down the qualification path and results in a prospect that is highly qualified and ready to enter the sales process.

Approach: Developing a lead nurturing strategy does not need to be a daunting task. A simple approach is best, one that is focused and meaningful to your buyers.