The explosive growth of sophisticated e-marketing and marketing automation tools means that, for the first time, even small companies have the opportunity and capability to engage in an ongoing dialog with new leads. No longer do companies need to rely on telemarketing or other, more expensive methods in order to further qualify those leads and, hopefully, move them along the path towards closure.

As ever, this new technology is simply a tool and little more, one that can either help maximize the value of incoming leads, or quickly dismantle any goodwill the prospect feels towards your company. As simple as e-marketing products make it to broadcast millions of very attractive HTML messages with merely the click of a mouse, they also make it easy to abuse the privilege of e-mail communication.

We've seen clients barrage new prospects with an onslaught of e-mails so thick that soon, and inevitably, most of the database "opts out" and the client is forced to rely on direct mail for any kind of ongoing communication. Other companies are misguided disciples of the old advertising adage that people need to see your message 7-8 times before they respond, so they implore the prospect to buy over and over again, with little or no success, and regardless of the nature or complexity of the sales cycle.

The best strategy for using e-mail to qualify, nurture, and manage existing leads is one that takes into account price point, sales cycle, and a myriad of other factors. Here a couple of simple guidelines to bear in mind:

• if the price point is such that your product or service could be considered an impulse purchase, then a carefully coordinated series of "buy now" offers can be appropriate and effective.

  Because even slight increases in response rates are so critical for low-end products, be sure to test as many variables as possible - for example, sequence, timing, and number of messages, as well as different offers (discounts, product bundles, free gifts, money-back guarantees)

• if the price point or complexity of your product is high, then discounts, free trials and other "special offers" will do nothing to move all but the most fervent prospect along the sales cycle, and probably will end up alienating most potential customers.

  For complex products, focus your lead warming process less on moving the prospect along the sales cycle, and more on immediately identifying those prospects whose needs change or amplify to where they're ready to take the "next step". Keep in front of those prospects using educational content and other information of value (perhaps in the form of an e-mail newsletter), and weave in offers like white papers, ROI worksheets, Webinars, and other incentives that signal a renewed interest in your product.