Lead Nurturing: The Southeast Asia Perspective

LEAD NURTURING
THE SOUTHEAST ASIA

PERSPECTIVE
In collaboration with
CONTENTS
Executive Summary 4
About ClickInsights 6
Foreword from Marketo Engage 7
About Marketo, An Adobe Company 8
1. What is This Report About? 9
LEAD NURTURING: THE BASICS

For those just getting started with lead nurturing
2. What is Lead Nurturing? 12
3. Getting Started with Lead Nurturing 14
4. Devising a Lead Nurturing Strategy 17

- Strategy: Choosing Leads to Nurture 17
- Strategy: Segmentation 18
- Strategy: Campaigns 19
5. Lead Nurturing Tactics 20

- Tactics: Channels 20
- Tactics: Marketing Automation 21
LEAD NURTURING: IN DEPTH

For those with existing lead nurturing programmes
6. Lead Nurture Best Practice 2020 23

- Campaign Types that Drove Results 23
- Marketing Channels that Deliver ROI 24
7. Tips for Optimising your Nurture Programme 25
8. Measuring Impact of your Programme 27
9. Beyond 2020: Impact, Challenges and Outlook for Lead Nurture 29
10. Conclusion 32
Respondent Details 34
LEAD NURTURING: THE SOUTHEAST ASIA PERSPECTIVE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Lead nurturing is an increasingly popular way for B2B

brands in Southeast Asia (SEA) to engage prospects and
keep them informed throughout their buying journey.
Not all lead nurturing programmes are the same and in

this report, we provide details about how – and how well -
lead nurturing works across a wide variety of companies.
To get a broad and SEA-focused perspective on lead

nurturing, we surveyed more than 800 B2B marketers
based in the region. Our main ndings:
1.
Lead nurturing is proven to
LEAD NURTURING: have tangible impact. Nearly
THE BASICS 3 in 4 (72%) of respondents
indicated that they were able
to prove, quantitatively, a
positive ROI for lead nurturing. 2.
The goal of lead nurturing
3. is to qualify leads. 69% of
respondents state that they
51% said that nurtured leads judge the effectiveness of their
are ‘more likely to convert’, lead nurturing programme
indicating that nurtured leads with the amount of marketing
are not just more prepared to qualied leads.
speak with sales, they are also
ready to buy. 4.
Lead nurturing and marketing
automation go hand in hand.
Nearly all (92%) respondents
indicated that they use
marketing automation to
drive their lead nurturing
programme.
5.
Lead nurturing is mature
in the SEA region. 72% of
respondents indicate that their
programme has been running
for at least 2 years.
4
LEAD NURTURING:
IN DEPTH
6. 7. 8.
While SEA marketers run Surprisingly, social media Lead nurturing will
many types of lead nurturing was the channel most continue to grow in SEA
campaigns, nearly 1 in 4 likely to be chosen by in 2020/2021. 80% of
(23%) report that promotional respondents (28%) to respondents stated that their
campaigns are the most deliver the best ROI for lead nurturing programme
essential to their lead nurturing lead nurturing. will either stay the same or
programme. grow over the coming year.
For more details about lead nurturing strategies, challenges, and benets, do read the
whole report.
5
ABOUT CLICKINSIGHTS
It can be difcult to keep up with all the changes to digital

marketing. Social networks fall in and out of favour,
ecommerce best practices keep changing and new
technologies are springing up all the time. Yet, marketers
must stay on top of it all to keep their companies top-
of-mind with consumers and drive repeat business with
customers.
ClickInsights helps marketers in Asia-Pacic stay up-

to-date by providing them with data, information and
insights on the ever-changing digital marketing and
ecommerce landscapes.
Our data is sourced from regular consumer surveys

conducted in partnership with top-tier B2B marketing
companies who share our passion for discovering new,
online behaviours. Survey responses are collated and
analysed to discover new information about regional
adoption of digital technology. Insights derived from
our analysis are then presented to our readers through
reports with illuminating data visualisations and detailed
commentary.
And, as we only use recent, bespoke data and in-

house analysis, our observations about consumers and
marketing in Asia-Pacic are timely, relevant and not
available elsewhere.
So, whether you’re a marketer, a manager, business

owner, tech vendor or a c-suite executive, you can visit
our website, download ClickInsights research and get
a fresh look at what’s happening in digital in the Asia-
Pacic today.
Ofce Address
10 Anson Road, facebook.com/CInsightsSG
International Plaza, #36-01,
Singapore 079903 linkedin.com/company/clickinsights/
6
FOREWORD FROM
MARKETO ENGAGE
We are all dealing with unprecedented changes in how we live and how we work. But business
continues, along with the need for our companies to attract new customers.
Our prospects are managing change too. It’s our job keep in touch with them more than ever before
and identify the best ways to add value. Ofine events like conferences and sales meetings are off
the table, posing a challenge for B2B marketers. Many have reinvented their strategy by moving to
webinars, online events and informative content. And although consumers have made a seismic shift
to digital due to the pandemic, they are also starting to show signs of online fatigue.
To help keep prospects engaged, it’s critical they nd the information they need precisely when they
are looking for it. Otherwise, they will look – and buy – elsewhere.
One solution that has helped many companies is lead nurturing. It fosters stronger relationships that
go beyond the pipeline. It empowers marketers with the ability to orchestrate the right engagements
with a prospect throughout their journey in ways that are specic, personal and relevant. From the
initial inquiry through a website to attending webinars, accessing gated content and eventually
building rapport with account staff, lead nurturing offers a measurable way for businesses to grow
business while also supporting prospects and customers throughout the lifecycle.
I also suggest you take a look at Marketo Engage. Yes, I’m biased! But it is a leader in the eld,
having recently featured in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead. Beyond lead nurturing,
Marketo Engage offers the power of tech and data to differentiate your business like no other. At a
time when differentiating your business matters more than ever, Marketo Engage delivers the tools
to harness the power of data and tech that drives results. Throughout this report, you’ll nd links to
resources which will help you understand everything Marketo has to offer.
Although it’s important to reect on how change has affected us, it’s more important to move forward
and embrace what’s ahead. This time of transition offers a great opportunity – an opportunity for
companies to take stock and prepare to meet the high expectations of the digital B2B buyer in 2020.
NICHOLAS KONTOPOULOS
Regional Head of APAC
Adobe DX Commercial
Marketing, Adobe
7
ABOUT MARKETO, AN
ADOBE COMPANY
Marketo Engage, part of Adobe Experience Cloud offers the

solution of choice for lead management and B2B marketing
professionals seeking to transform customer experiences by
engaging across every stage of complex buying journeys.
Natively supporting both lead and account-based marketing
strategies, Marketo Engage brings together marketing and
sales in a comprehensive solution designed to orchestrate
personalised experiences, optimise content, and measure
business impact across every channel, from consideration to
conversion and beyond.
To learn more about Marketo Engage, the vast community of

passionate marketers in the Marketing Nation, and Marketo’s
robust partner ecosystem, visit www.marketo.com.
8
WHAT IS THIS REPORT

1
ALL ABOUT?
The purpose of marketing is to turn prospects

into customers. Yet this process does not happen
immediately for many B2B companies. B2B prospects
usually need time to learn more about the product,
learn about the company and even build a relationship
with the rm before becoming a customer.
How do B2B companies manage this process,

especially taking into consideration the information
overload faced by many B2B buyers?
One way that marketers can keep prospects informed

over a long buying cycle is with lead nurturing. This
involves communicating with B2B prospects over
time, across marketing channels and throughout the
buyer’s journey.
With a lead nurturing programme, marketers provide

valuable information to B2B buyers and ensure that
prospects have access to get everything they need to
know. Once the lead is qualied and ready to buy,
they hand over to the sales team.
The benets of this approach include increasing

the propensity to buy, building a relationship with
the prospect and shortening the sales cycle
through a tighter collaboration between sales
and marketing.
9
However, nurturing programmes are not the same for every company. Every B2B rm has
their own way of communicating with prospects through the buying cycle.
A prospect, Jenna, downloads a white paper from a

company website and provides her contact details.
Craig from the company’s sales department immediately
follows up with a call.
Craig (Sales): Hi - I see you downloaded our

For marketers who are unfamiliar with lead
white paper. What can I, your assigned sales
nurturing, many questions remain:
rep, do for you?
• What is a lead nurturing programme?
Jenna (Prospect): Hi Craig, I’m interested in • What do I need to know to get started?
hearing a bit more about your product. • What activities are part of the lead
nurturing programme?
Craig: Great! Can I just ask you a few questions • How do we know whether lead
rst? nurturing works?
• Which lead nurturing strategies and
Jenna: Uh sure...
tactics work best?
Craig: Ok, does your project have its budget
approved?
Jenna: Oh, it’s um being discussed.
Craig: OK great, how about the decision maker,

is that you?
Jenna: Well not exactly...
Craig: And timing - this quarter?
Jenna: Well actually we’re not sure, we’d like to

know more...
Craig: OK, looks like you need to do some

research - maybe start by reading the white
paper?
Jenna: I guess so. I’ll call back sometime.
What went wrong? Craig has done exactly what he was trained to do - establish BANT (Budget,
Authority, Need, and Timing) with prospective customers – and Jenna, quite reasonably, called sales
to get more information.
But Jenna wasn’t ready to have a sales discussion and Craig’s questions were not appropriate for
a new prospect - so the conversation went nowhere, and perhaps even lost a future customer for
Craig’s company.
What could Craig’s company do to avoid this unfortunate situation? Read on…
10
To answer these questions and many more, ClickInsights recently surveyed more than
800 B2B marketers whose companies have lead nurturing programmes. They were asked
dozens of questions about how they keep prospects engaged through the buying cycle.
This report offers an exclusive local perspective on lead nurturing as it was produced using
responses from SEA marketers only.
Lead nurturing is becoming increasingly

popular in Southeast Asia.
Nearly 2 in 5 (38%) respondents indicate
that at least one third of their competition is
currently running lead nurturing programmes.
11
2 WHAT IS LEAD NURTURING?
Lead nurturing can be dened as a marketing programme

which seeks to build relationships with prospects over time,
across multiple channels and throughout the buying journey.
A lead nurturing programme typically consists of automated,
ongoing communications aimed at educating, engaging,
and increasing the number of the prospects that become
customers. Brands invest in lead nurturing programmes to
boost performance and increase revenue.
There is more to consider with lead nurturing. You need

people to run the programme, their time and commitment,
content and of course, the sponsors who drive
the programme.
Figure 1 - Which best describes your lead nurture programme?
A marketing-led and
43%
managed initiative
Sponsored by sales with

31%
signicant input from sales staff
A company-wide strategy
with C-level support
27%
12
The most popular type of lead nurturing programme at SEA rms was a “marketing-led
and managed initiative” (43%). While undoubtedly appreciated by the whole organisation,
a marketing-led lead nurturing programme will probably be planned, funded, and executed
almost entirely by the marketing department.
Yet that is not the only model. Other models include lead nurturing programmes which are
“sponsored by sales with signicant input from sales staff” (31%) as well as “company-wide
strategy with C-level support” (27%). Because lead nurturing requires extensive marketing,
planning will almost certainly manage of a lead nurturing programme (Figure 1).
Lead nurturing also requires active participation from marketers. More than 4 in 5 (84%)
respondents indicated they spend at least one day per week working on their lead nurturing
programme, with nearly 1 in 4 (23%) saying that it takes even more time. Clearly, lead
nurturing is a priority for SEA marketers (Figure 2).
Figure 2 - How often do you or someone in your department work on a

lead nurturing campaign?
27% 51% 23%
Up to three days At least one day More than one

per month per week day per week
Despite the investment required, lead nurturing has become well-established with
companies in the SEA region. Nearly 3 in 4 (72%) regional marketers have been running
their lead nurturing programme for at least 2 years, with 1 in 5 (20%) stating that their
programme has been active for more than 5 years (Figure 3).
Figure 3 - How long have you been developing lead nurture campaigns
within your organisation?
29% 52% 20%
Within the last Between More than

2 years 2 and 5 years 5 years
13
GETTING STARTED WITH

3
LEAD NURTURING
Lead nurturing is proving popular in SEA as many

companies have had programmes for some time.
So, how should a company get started? What are
the critical items to check off before launching a lead
The Role of Lead Nurturing in your Sales Journey
Lead
All prospects
1. Data Enrichment Emails 2. Contact Segmentation
MQL
Marketing qualied leads - Leads who
have been evaluated and deemed
‘sales ready’ by marketing
SQL
3. Additional Sales qualied leads - Leads who 4. Swift and
have been accepted by sales for
Opportunity Creation more formal engagement
Unfeigned Follow-ups
Customer
5. Systematic List Audits 6. Consistent

Lead Nurturing
14
As with any marketing programme, it is essential to know what you want to accomplish with
lead nurturing before you begin. This means setting lead nurturing goals.
To discover what goals experienced companies set for their lead nurturing, we asked
marketers to share their methods for measuring effectiveness: What exactly are they trying
to achieve with lead nurturing?
Figure 4 - How do you measure the effectiveness of lead nurturing?
% of nurtured leads who achieve a lead

score (MQL)
69%
% of nurtured leads who are signed off by

sales (SQL)
57%
Number of leads in the nurture process 50%
Order value size of the opportunities

passed to sales
38%
Periodic sales gures or revenue 25%
More than two-thirds of respondents (69%) said their set goal was the number of leads
who achieve a “lead score” (Figure 4). Lead scoring is a shared sales and marketing
methodology for ranking leads to determine their sales-readiness. Leads are scored based
on the interest they show in your business using attributes like company size or job title as
well as their behaviours, like web visits and email opens.
Once a prospect’s lead score crosses a set threshold, they are passed to sales for further
discussions. As marketing typically decides when prospects with high lead scores are
handed over to sales, they are often called ‘marketing qualied leads’ (MQL).
15
Attributes of a Lead Scoring System
Including demographics (title, role, location), rmographics (industry,

LEAD FIT
company size, name of company) and BANT (budget, authority, need, time)
LEAD INTEREST Site visit frequency, number of page views or documents downloaded
LEAD
Attending a webinar, watching a video
BEHAVIOUR
BUYING STAGE / Visiting a pricing page, asking for a sales call

TIMING
Many marketers in the region (57%) also consult sales to sign off on leads sent over during
the nurturing process. In this case, the prospects are called “sales qualied leads” (SQL).
In both cases, the goal of the lead nurturing programme is to inform and engage prospects
as well as monitor leads’ activities. Both accrue points until they qualify as either marketing
or sales qualied. It is difcult to manually manage lead scores even for a medium-sized
organisation. That is why most lead nurturing programmes rely on marketing automation
systems for lead scoring (see Tactics: Marketing Automation below).
Interestingly, only 1 in 4 (25%) respondents use “periodic sales gures or revenue” as the
goal of their lead nurturing programme (Figure 4). It seems that qualifying leads using lead
scores acts as the primary goal of lead nurturing programmes.
Marketers interested in lead nurturing should therefore review the attributes of lead scoring.
Talk to sales to understand what is most important to them when setting goals for their lead
nurturing programme. This includes identifying the information required from prospects to
compile a meaningful lead score.
16
DEVISING A LEAD
4
NURTURING STRATEGY
Marketing strategy is best described as a plan which

explains how marketers are going to achieve their goals.
For lead nurturing, that means deciding which prospects
to nurture and how marketers will obtain relevant lead
scoring attributes.
With these in place, marketers will have the foundation

to create a relevant and personalised experience to help
answer prospects’ questions and build credibility and
trust with the brand.
STRATEGY: CHOOSING LEADS TO NURTURE
First, marketers must choose which prospects they are going to nurture. How
do marketers in the region pick leads for their nurturing programme?
Figure 5 - Who do you nurture?
Everyone who lls out a contact form 69%
Everyone who visits our website 61%
Leads qualied by a questionnaire 55%
Leads pre-qualied by another

department / process 35%
17
More than 2 out of 3 (69%) marketers in the region consider “everyone who lls out
a contact form” as a viable prospect (Figure 5). Someone who has gone to the trouble to
provide their details to you is highly likely to be shopping in your category and will want
to know more about what you can offer. Additionally, having a prospect’s contact details
makes it much easier to personalise and automate your lead nurturing across channels.
A contact form is not the only way to select leads. Many (61%) survey respondents also
said that they nurture “everyone who visits our website”, meaning that a single visit to the
company site starts off the nurturing process.
STRATEGY: SEGMENTATION
Not all leads are the same, so communicating with them as a single group can be
counterproductive. To help marketers provide relevant information to prospects, leads are
often classied into distinct groups or “segments”.
In SEA, marketers stated using different methods for creating lead segments. This includes
the individual’s location (geographic, 65% report using this method) (Figure 6), personal
characteristics (demographic, 62%) and as well as information about his or her company
(rmographic, 46%).
Figure 6 - What characteristics do you use to segment your nurturing audience?
65% 62% 50%

Geographic Demographic Behavioural
47% 46%
Psychographic Firmographic
The Sales Funnel
Half (50%) of SEA rms use behavioural Awareness

segmentation. This helps marketers
identify a prospect’s stage so the right
information can be delivered to move Consideration
them to the next stage.
Regardless of how it is done, Intent

segmentation delivers a better experience
to leads in order to move them along the Purchase
sales funnel.
18
STRATEGY: CAMPAIGNS
Once leads are chosen and segmented, marketers must then decide how to get to know
their prospects better. They need to plan campaigns for lead nurturing.
Our survey found that marketers in SEA plan lead nurturing campaigns around engaging
with customers at each step of the sales funnel.
Figure 7 - What types of lead nurturing campaigns do you currently use?
Promotional (Special pricing) 58%
Personalised Campaigns 56%
Educational / Informative 54%
Welcome email 54%
Competitive differentiation 41%
Pre- and post-event outreach 29%
Re-engagement (for leads

20%
which have gone quiet)
More than half (54%) send welcome emails when the prospect is at the “awareness” stage.
A similar amount (56%) create personalised campaigns for nurtured leads and provide
educational or informative material (54%) to increase interest in the brand’s products or
services at the consideration stage.
Once the prospect signals intent, around 2 in 5 (41%) of respondents provide leads with
‘competitive differentiation’ material to help with the decision-making process. Finally, to
encourage leads to purchase, a majority (58%) of SEA marketers offer promotional pricing
as part of their lead nurturing programme (Figure 7).
19
5 LEAD NURTURING TACTICS
Having a lead nurturing strategy is vital but it is only the

rst step. Marketers must also know how to execute the
strategy. They need lead nurturing tactics.
TACTICS: CHANNELS
When evaluating their lead nurturing tactics, marketers
need to choose the best channels for their campaigns.
It may be tempting to stick with familiar channels, but
marketers should select the most suitable channels for
lead nurturing.
Figure 8 - Which of the following marketing channels does

your company use specically for lead nurturing?
Website Social Media

71% 60%
Email Search engines

48% 41%
Afliates Advertising
27% 23%
Ofine /
Traditional Events
16% 13%
20
Fortunately, most marketers are already familiar with the most popular channel in SEA for
lead nurturing: the web. More than 7 in 10 (71%) of marketers in SEA use their company’s
website as the focal point for lead nurturing (Figure 8). Delivering content via their site
allows marketers to educate leads as well as track their behaviour. Knowing which pages
leads are viewing helps marketers understand what content is resonating with their
audience and “score” the lead.
Social media is also popular with SEA marketers, as 3 in 5 (60%) indicated that they use it
for lead nurturing. With marketing automation, marketers can combine similar leads into a
specic social media audience and ensure they see appropriate content for their stage in
the customer journey.
Email is the third most popular channel for lead nurturing, with slightly fewer than half (48%)
using it for engaging their prospects. This is surprising as email has always been a popular
channel for B2B companies, yet less than half use it for lead nurturing. With marketing
automation, marketers are can both track and deliver content to its audience via the
company website, email, and social media to leverage best of all worlds.
Other channels, including search engines, traditional media, and events, are still used by
B2B marketers but appear to be less popular for lead nurturing than the three listed above.
TACTICS: MARKETING AUTOMATION

Marketing automation is a technology which helps marketers manage campaigns and
orchestrate messaging across multiple channels automatically. Automation helps reach
customers with congurable, programmable messaging via the most appropriate channel.
Unsurprisingly, nearly all (92%) marketers with a lead nurturing programme said they use
marketing automation (Figure 9).
Figure 9 - Do you use marketing automation for lead nurturing?
92% use
marketing
automation for
lead nurturing
21
Marketing automation forms an essential part of lead nurturing as it allows marketers to:
• Track prospects across their journey
• Understand the sequence of activities each prospect takes
• Automatically trigger relevant campaigns to prospects once they have demonstrated a
desired behaviour as captured by the marketing automation
• Create audiences based on behavioural and personal data
• Advertise to audiences across ofine and online channels
Companies planning a lead nurturing programme are strongly advised to become

familiar with marketing automation as well as how it works and the wide range of benets
it provides.
For a free denitive guide on Marketing Automation,

please visit
https://www.marketo.com/marketing-automation-3/
22
LEAD NURTURE
6
BEST PRACTICE 2020
As mentioned in Section 2, lead nurturing is popular in SEA. Many

marketers in the region have been doing it for more than 2 years.
What lessons have they learned – and what can marketers new to
this approach learn from their colleagues?
CAMPAIGN TYPES THAT DROVE RESULTS

Starting with strategy, regional marketers with experience
in lead nurturing shared which campaign types were most
essential for their programme.
Figure 10 - Which single campaign do you feel is the most

essential to your lead nurturing programme?
Promotional 23%
Personalised Campaigns 20%
Educational / Informative 20%
Welcome email 19%
Competitive differentiation 14%
Pre- and post-event outreach 3%
Re-engagement 2%
The responses indicate that regional marketers are generally unable to

pinpoint one specic aspect of lead nurturing that has the most impact.
Nearly 1 in 5 (19%) said that sending a “welcome email” was most
important, but around the same amount (20%) felt the same about that
“educational/informative” content. And a similar amount (20%) said
that “personalised campaigns” made the most signicant impact.
Promotional campaigns stood out from the rest. Nearly 1 in 4 (23%)

claimed that they were most essential to lead nurturing (Figure 10). This
makes sense because value-added offers are often effective hooks to
encourage continued engagement from prospects.
23
MARKETING CHANNELS THAT DELIVER ROI

We also asked marketers which channel they felt delivered the best return on investment
(ROI) for lead nurturing.
Figure 11 - Which marketing channels has delivered the best ROI to

your company for lead nurturing?
Social Media Website Search engines Email

28% 25% 15% 15%
Ofine /
Afliates Advertising Events
Traditional
7% 5% 2%
3%
Nearly twice as many marketers chose social

media (28%) than email (15%). It even beat
out the company website (25%) for delivering
positive ROI (Figure 11). This is surprising as
sending emails and developing website content
has long been considered the core of B2B
marketing. It appears this is changing in 2020 -
the ‘social media B2B marketer’ has arrived.
B2B buyers on social media?
When considering which channels to invest,

B2B marketers should recognize that many
B2B buyers are now working from home and
relying heavily on digital channels including
social media.
According to Datareportal1, in July 2020,

social media adoption increased by 10.5%
YoY with over a million new users accessing
social media every day. This growth means
that for the rst time ever, more than half the
world’s population now uses social media.
1. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-july-
global-statshot
24
TIPS FOR OPTIMISING

7
YOUR NURTURE PROGRAMME
Knowing the best campaigns and channels can help

those new to lead nurturing get started. What about
marketers who already have a prospect engagement
programme? What can they learn from marketers who
have signicant lead nurturing experience?
To nd out, we asked respondents to tell us what lead

nurturing optimisation techniques they were using.
Figure 12 - Which lead nurturing optimisation

techniques does your company use?
Channel optimisation 68% Frequency optimisation 57%
Content / creative testing 57% Segment analysis and testing 34%
Channel optimisation was the most popular technique,

practised by more than 2 in 3 (68%) lead nurturing
marketers. Optimising channels involves analysing media
spend scenarios across different channels to identify the
best outcome (Figure 12).
25
Frequency optimisation was the next popular lead nurturing optimisation technique in
the region. More than half (57%) of respondents indicated that they were testing message
frequency by experimenting with the volume of emails and social media posts
a prospect receives.
A similar number of respondents (57%) said they used A/B testing to optimise content
for lead nurturing. This involves showing existing content to one group and delivering
experimental content to another and then comparing their engagement results.
As each of these optimisation techniques involve collecting and analysing signicant

amounts of data, it is advised to research marketing automation systems and marketing
cloud platforms. Both help with obtaining, managing, and maintaining the data needed to
optimise lead nurturing techniques.
26
MEASURING IMPACT OF
8
YOUR PROGRAMME
Apart from the qualitative feedback above, marketers

interested in learning more about lead nurturing are also
interested in quantitative results from other companies’
programmes. Do marketers in the SEA region have hard
evidence that lead nurturing does what it claims?
Our survey indicates that they do. When asked about

sales acceptance of nurtured leads, more than half (54%)
said that sales reject less than 25% of the prospects
provided by their lead nurturing programme (Figure 13).
Figure 13 - What percentage of qualied, nurtured

leads are passed back to marketing by sales?
Less than 10% 5%
Between 10% and 25% 49%
Between 26% and 33% 37%
More than 33% 10%
Furthermore, 51% said that nurtured leads are “more

likely to convert”, indicating that nurtured leads are not
just more prepared to speak with sales, they are also
ready to buy (Figure 14).
27
4% Not sure – we don’t measure this
Figure 14 -
How do nurtured
leads perform vs.
non-nurtured leads?
Nurtured leads convert Nurtured leads

at the same or lower rate 45% 51% are more likely
than non-nurtured leads to convert
The ultimate test of a marketing programme is its return on investment (ROI). Does it
bring in more money than it costs?
Our survey shows it does. More than 7 in 10 (72%) SEA regional marketers stated they
could quantitatively prove their lead nurturing programme achieves positive ROI and a
further 26% have qualitative evidence which says the same (Figure 15).
Figure 15 -
Are you able to prove 72%
a positive ROI for YES
your lead nurturing We can see the benets of lead nurturing quantitatively
programme?
26%
YES - BUT
We only have qualitative evidence so far
1%
NO
We have not yet proved that lead nurturing is
an effective strategy
SEA marketers are clear about their lead nurturing programme’s performance. Simply put,
they provide sales with high-quality prospects and have an overall positive ROI.
28
BEYOND 2020: IMPACT,

9 CHALLENGES AND OUTLOOK
FOR LEAD NURTURE
Our survey results show that with well-dened goals,
strategies, tactics, lead nurturing can turn prospects into
customers at a reasonable cost. Are there other benets,
challenges, and outlooks for lead nurturing in our current
marketing climate?
Starting with benets, SEA marketers were particularly

enthusiastic about the effectiveness of the nurturing
programme on prospective customers. They indicated
that they received (Figure 16):
• ‘faster engagement from prospects’ (63%)
• ‘more engagement from prospects’ (61%); and
• lead nurturing helped with ‘building the company’s
subject matter authority with prospects’ (55%).
Figure 16 - What are the biggest benets of lead

nurturing?
63% 61% 56%
Faster engagement More engagement Understanding

from prospects from prospects customer needs /
pain points
55% 47% 42%
Building your company’s Finding new Discovering

subject matter authority customer segments cross-sell / up-sell
with prospects opportunities
29% 26%
Higher chance of Shortened sales cycle

closing the deal
29
Other benets of lead nurturing include:

• Building a long-term relationship with customers
• Improving collaboration between sales and marketing
• Generating more leads with no more investment
Read about these and other real-world benets from customer case
studies at https://www.marketo.com/denitive-guides/lead-nurturing/
Improving the buyer’s experience was not the only benet. SEA marketers also reported
that lead nurturing helps them with (Figure 16):
• ‘understanding customer needs and pain points’ (56%)
• ‘nding new customer segments’ (47%); and
• ‘discovering cross-sell / up-sell opportunities’(42%).
Figure 17 - What are the

greatest challenges of lead
nurturing?
60%
Understanding
the frequency of
communications
57%
Producing
enough content
55%
Understanding
where prospects are
in the buying cycle
48%
Finding the
right technology
solution
40%
Tracking /
monitoring /
scoring of leads
28%
Analysing
lead nurturing
30 performance
Respondents also noted some of the challenges they faced with lead nurturing.
The biggest concerns involved communications: 3 in 5 (60%) reported that they struggle
with “understanding the frequency of communications”. A similar amount (57%) stated that
“producing enough content” was an obstacle to overcome.
Regional marketers struggle with technology for lead nurturing. Nearly half (48%) said that
‘nding the right technology solution’ was challenging and 2 in 5 (40%) felt that ‘Tracking/
monitoring/scoring of leads’ was difcult. To avoid encountering these types of challenges,
marketers interested in lead nurturing are encouraged to rst research marketing
automation and marketing technology.
Despite these obstacles, marketers in SEA were overall positive about their lead nurturing
programme. The survey indicated 8 in 10 (80%) planned to maintain or grow their lead
nurturing programme in the coming year. This is a strong statement considering the current
marketing landscape (Figure 18).
Figure 18 - What are your

company’s plans for your lead
nurturing programme in 2020/2021? 20%
Less lead
nurturing
45%
Maintain
the current
programme
35%
More lead
nurturing
To learn more about lead

nurturing technology
- including marketing
automation - readers are
encouraged to visit Marketo’s
Resource Centre.
https://www.marketo.com/
resources/
31
10 CONCLUSION
At the start of this report we asked how B2B

companies can be more effective at turning prospects
into customers, considering how much time and
information they require throughout the buying cycle.
From our survey results, it appears that lead nurturing

is the best way for companies to do so. With a lead
nurturing programme, marketers can keep in touch
with prospects, while educating them through the
buying cycle and building credibility in the process.
Supporting this approach, nearly all respondents

from our survey of more than 800 B2B companies in
Southeast Asia said that they experienced positive
ROI from their lead nurturing programme and would
be either maintaining or growing their programme in
the coming year.
Survey respondents also provided insights into what

makes lead nurturing work. Committing a resource
to at least 1 day a week, dening a lead score and
coordinating channels with marketing
automation were all popular approaches to
lead nurturing.
As every company is unique, what

marketers decide to adopt will
depend on their circumstances.
This report has aimed to
provide a starting point for
further research which
will, hopefully, result in
more companies in
Southeast Asia
enjoying the many
benets of
lead nurturing.
32
So how might a call between Craig

(Sales) and Jenna (Prospect) go
if Craig’s company had a lead
Craig: Hi Jenna - I see that you recently attended

our case studies webinar, downloaded several
white papers - and you have provided full details
about your project through the website.
Jenna: That’s right. I thought it would be a good

time to get a few more boxes ticked and perhaps
get a quote?
Craig: Sure! So, I see that you’re looking to buy

next quarter...and your boss wants to conrm that
we will provide premium level support within your
budget.
Jenna: Yes, and we’d also like to know the

benets of signing a multi-year deal, if that’s
available.
Craig: Of course, Jenna - I’ll get back to you with

a rm quote this afternoon.
Jenna: Thanks Craig, I look forward to it.
That’s more like it!
33
RESPONDENT DETAILS
Figure 19 - In which country do you work?
Thailand 14%
Vietnam 17%
Philippines 23%
Malaysia 14%
Singapore 18%
Indonesia 14%
34
Figure 20 - What is your annual company revenue globally (USD)?
50 million – 99 million 40%
100million – 499 million 40%
500million – 999 million 20%
Figure 21 - What best describes your position at your company?
Manager 43%
C-level / SVP / VP / General Manger 23%
Senior Director / Director 22%
Board level / business owner 12%
Figure 22 - What is your company’s average sales cycle?
Less than 6 months 20%
6 months to 2 years 57%
More than 2 years 23%
35
Figure 23 - In which business sector is your organisation?
17% 16% 10% 9%

Manufacturing Technology Food & beverage Education
9% 8% 7% 4%
Retail Professional Financial services Travel
Services and Insurance
4% 4% 4% 4%
Hospitality Transport Telecommunication Mobile &
Entertainment
3% 1%
Pharma and Other
Healthcare
36

Lead Nurturing: The Southeast Asia Perspective

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LEAD NURTURING

THE SOUTHEAST ASIA

1. What is This Report About? 9

LEAD NURTURING: THE BASICS

2. What is Lead Nurturing? 12

3. Getting Started with Lead Nurturing 14

4. Devising a Lead Nurturing Strategy 17

5. Lead Nurturing Tactics 20

LEAD NURTURING: IN DEPTH

6. Lead Nurture Best Practice 2020 23

7. Tips for Optimising your Nurture Programme 25

8. Measuring Impact of your Programme 27

9. Beyond 2020: Impact, Challenges and Outlook for Lead Nurture 29

Lead nurturing is an increasingly popular way for B2B

Not all lead nurturing programmes are the same and in

To get a broad and SEA-focused perspective on lead

It can be difcult to keep up with all the changes to digital

ClickInsights helps marketers in Asia-Pacic stay up-

Our data is sourced from regular consumer surveys

And, as we only use recent, bespoke data and in-

So, whether you’re a marketer, a manager, business

Marketo Engage, part of Adobe Experience Cloud offers the

To learn more about Marketo Engage, the vast community of

WHAT IS THIS REPORT

The purpose of marketing is to turn prospects

How do B2B companies manage this process,

One way that marketers can keep prospects informed

With a lead nurturing programme, marketers provide

The benets of this approach include increasing

A prospect, Jenna, downloads a white paper from a

Craig (Sales): Hi - I see you downloaded our

Jenna: Oh, it’s um being discussed.

Craig: OK great, how about the decision maker,

Jenna: Well not exactly...

Craig: And timing - this quarter?

Jenna: Well actually we’re not sure, we’d like to

Craig: OK, looks like you need to do some

Jenna: I guess so. I’ll call back sometime.

Lead nurturing is becoming increasingly

2 WHAT IS LEAD NURTURING?

Lead nurturing can be dened as a marketing programme

There is more to consider with lead nurturing. You need

Figure 1 - Which best describes your lead nurture programme?

Sponsored by sales with

Figure 2 - How often do you or someone in your department work on a

27% 51% 23%

Up to three days At least one day More than one

29% 52% 20%

Within the last Between More than

GETTING STARTED WITH

Lead nurturing is proving popular in SEA as many

The Role of Lead Nurturing in your Sales Journey

5. Systematic List Audits 6. Consistent

Figure 4 - How do you measure the effectiveness of lead nurturing?

% of nurtured leads who achieve a lead

% of nurtured leads who are signed off by

Number of leads in the nurture process 50%

Order value size of the opportunities

Periodic sales gures or revenue 25%

Attributes of a Lead Scoring System

Including demographics (title, role, location), rmographics (industry,

BUYING STAGE / Visiting a pricing page, asking for a sales call