In light of the economy, more and more marketers are concerned with late-stage leads. These are the leads that are almost ready-to-buy and are far more likely to provide an immediate ROI. While marketers know that leads in other stages may become useful down the line, they often don’t know what to do with those leads in the meantime and count them as “bad leads.” What many of them don’t realize is that it is critical to nurture those leads now, so they add to the ROI of a program down the road.

While many marketers won’t discount these leads entirely, they will stop messaging them on the theory that they are too early on in the sales cycle and should be contacted again later on. This is a huge mistake. By the time these leads are contacted again they may have already decided on another vendor.

Alternatively, other marketers may continue to pressure a lead who is not yet ready to buy. This can result in frustration by a lead who is still in the awareness or consideration phase of the buying cycle and may discount this vendor when it comes to making a short-list.

The key is to consistently message these leads with relevant content in order to move them along the buying cycle. The exact method of re-messaging will vary from company to company and from lead to lead, so it’s extremely important for marketers to take their company’s buying cycle into account, along with different ways of re-messaging to different types of leads. This means getting rid of the one-size-fits-all emails being sent each month to all potential leads.

Nurturing a lead may happen in many different ways - it may involve phone calls, emails, printed mail, or invitations to events. The key is to figure out the process that makes sense for your product/solution and to make sure that leads are being targeted not just consistently, but correctly. Ideally, the communications should feel like resources and help leads as they move through the process.

At times this process may be frustrating, and there will always be leads that are never converted, but it’s important as a marketer to never lose a sale because you gave up halfway through the battle.

As marketers, we all realize the importance of continuing to fill the sales pipeline - but it becomes especially important during times of economic downturn. It also makes it that much more difficult. Every sale matters and every marketing dollar must be spent wisely in order to yield the highest return.

If budgets are tightening across the board, they are definitely tightening for marketers in smaller businesses as well. I came across a recent blog post from Marketing Studio which takes a look at how smaller businesses have been impacted, and it found that 60% of the respondents stated webinars, case studies/article and blogs are the most difficult lead generation tactics to execute.

I think it is safe to say that executing such lead generation tactics during this recession is a tough job for small/mid-sized/enterprise businesses alike. However, I would think it hasty to move lead generation resources away from “difficult to execute” tools such as webinars/webcasts and case studies.

TechTarget recently conducted its 2009 Media Consumption Report which observes how IT pros are consuming media during the recession. The following slide highlights the report’s findings showing that webinars/webcast & case studies are of use to IT pros during both the consideration to decision phases of their buying process.

Key findings from this report also concluded that given the recession, IT pros need content which will:

• • CUT TO THE CHASE - Be efficient - tell them what they need to know, in order to help make their research process faster.
• • SHOW OFF SUCCESS - Highlight content showing the proven product success or case study/vendor comparisons.
• • BE ON THE SHELF - Maintaining presence is key given search is one constant medium which IT pros rely on throughout ALL phases of their buying cycle.

While marketers may find it more difficult to execute on lead generation tools such as webinars/webcasts and case studies - I would have to agree that they can be very effective tools during a recession. In fact, I have noticed an increase in the use of case studies in technology-focused lead generation campaigns. Often times in the form of syndication or as offers incorporated into display advertising.

What are your thoughts? How are you currently highlighting your organization’s success stories?