Atlas Copco Construction Mining Technique USA was looking for a new channel to sell pre-owned water well drill rigs. They turned to us, 90octane, a Denver-based, conversion-driven marketing agency, for help.
90octane built a custom lead generation microsite to showcase the rigs, which typically carry six-figure price tags, and crafted an associated paid search marketing campaign to drive visitors to the site.
Joanna Canton, Atlas Copco marketing communications director, is pleased with the hundreds of highly qualified leads generated. For the paid search program, “The average cost-per-lead is $28, compared with hundreds of dollars apiece for leads from trade shows and print ads,” she noted.
Because the program has resulted in high-dollar sales, Atlas Copco CMT USA already has plans to expand it.
Read the full Atlas Copco paid search story from a February issue of BtoB Magazine.
Posted by: Kristi Jackson, Marketing Coordinator
As Social media continues to grow and become an important factor within the B2B industry, companies are beginning to realize the importance of claiming their space through tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in order to reach their consumers. However, most companies are not utilizing these tools to their full potential.
Companies often forget the lead generating opportunities that social media tools like Facebook have to offer. One things that B2B companies should keep in mind to increase lead generation on Facebook is to be sure to have links to the company resources that they already have such as email subscriptions, newsletters, white papers, brochures, etc. on their fan page. By placing registration behind these links, companies can start generating leads from their Facebook consumers. Additionally, tracking URL’s can be placed on these links to easily measure leads generated from Facebook.
Because we know that consumers who are coming to a company’s Facebook fan page are typically already interested in the company’s offerings and are looking for more information, it is important to include content that is unique to Facebook and will give these users a reason to continue to come back. One way that this can be done is by providing a special offer to these consumers that they cannot get by going to your corporate website.
Utilizing these ideas for a B2B Facebook page will not only benefit companies by creating another channel for lead generation, but it will also continue to enhance their users experience on Facebook.
Posted by: Sean Voorhies, Project Manager
Increasing response is the goal of any lead nurturing program, but it’s easy to get locked into a campaign that isn’t flexible once it launches. Here are three quick insights to use before you go live:
Leverage Learnings from Existing Site Analytics
If you have existing site data that speaks to your user’s behavior, whether it’s product offer preferences, patterns of site navigation or usability or communication frequency, make sure those are leveraged in building out a nurturing campaign. There can be a strong correlation between how users respond to similar offerings or information on your site and how they will initially respond during a lead nurturing campaign.
Use Prospect Profiling
Identifying prospect profiles and tailoring your lead nurturing program to specific user characteristics not only gives your campaign more flexibility from the get go, but it also allows you to provide a better experience for the prospects because it meets their unique needs. An easy starting point could be an existing product user profile and a new user profile.
Consider Progressive Registration
If your offers solicit a clear difference in user desire and intent then consider using progressive registration. By beginning the registration with standard fields and then progressively asking more detailed questions as the offer involvement grows, you’re able to capture a larger amount of leads up front and qualify your prospects further down the funnel with more detailed criteria.
Posted by: Chelsea Maxwell, Marketing Coordinator
Testing and optimizing your landing page is a critical part of creating a successful online marketing presence. However, even when you do not have time to test your landing pages you can still easily eliminate common mistakes and increase your conversion rates. The following approaches to raise conversions will work across a variety of industries:
- Keep it Simple. Your landing page should be focused on the desired conversion. Make the action you want the consumer to take clear. Let them know you are looking to generate a sale, download or email sign-up. Remove additional clutter on the page by limiting other clickable links and choices.
- Trim the Fat. Studies have shown that less text on a webpage leads to higher conversion rates. Consider reducing your content down to simple headlines, bulleted lists and prominent buttons.
- Deliver Value. Visitors come to your site with an expectation before they ever landed on your page. Ensure that the message delivering traffic to your site matches the content of your landing page. read more »
Posted by: Rosemary Riley, Storyteller/Senior Copywriter
Inc. magazine today ranked conversion-driven marketing agency 90octane no. 1,682 on its third annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies reporting at least $2 million in 2008 revenue. The agency also ranked 43rd for the Denver-Aurora, CO metro region. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy – America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs.
The Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2005 through 2008. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2005. Additionally, they have to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent – not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies – as of December 31, 2008. Revenue in 2005 must have been at least $200,000, and revenue in 2008 at least $2 million. 90octane achieved 190.1% revenue growth over the three-year period.
Founded in 2000, 90octane is a pioneer in response-based interactive marketing tactics. The agency creates custom lead generation, lead nurturing and search engine marketing programs for its clients in the B2B, B2C and nonprofit fields. View 90octane’s Inc. 5000 Company Profile.
Posted by: Sean Voorhies, Senior Marketing Coordinator
Conversions. Landing Pages. Landing Pages. Conversions. These two words are inextricably linked. Unlike websites or even microsites that have the breadth and depth to be many different things to different visitors, landing pages earn their rightful place on the Web, in lead generation programs, and within the marketing budget by being laser-focused and conversion-driven.
Whether the landing page houses a unique informational offer, free trial, interactive tool or some other feature, the simpler it is in highlighting the conversion action, describing benefits and moving the user’s attention from thought to action, the more effective the page will be. From button and form design to hero shots and branding, there are many “principles of simplicity” that can be applied to effective landing page design. Below we take a look at three of the simplest, and yet most overlooked, examples:
De-emphasize off-page links.
Once your traffic sources are dialed in and qualified visitors are finding and interacting with your page, the last thing you want is to emphasize a link that will take them away. Such a link usually connects to the company’s home page or a different campaign microsite. But users who prefer to visit the home page will typically seek that link out, and highlighting off-page links instead of the conversion action can confuse users who would otherwise be interested in the offer.
read more »
Posted by: Christy Roth, Project Manager
When setting lead generation goals for a new program, there are many important considerations to keep in mind. To start, you need to realistically evaluate your team and resources. It’s important to have an idea of what type of lead volume your sales force can handle. You want the users to have the best experience possible, including receiving timely follow-up if they are requesting contact. In addition, it’s helpful in planning to talk to the sales team about what types of leads they receive the most value from, which could be dependent on the type of offer(s) the user registered for, the type of online event they attended, whether or not they raised their hand for contact, etc.
Another key part of starting the lead generation program is knowing what products or campaigns will be the focus of the lead generation push. When embarking on a lead generation launch, you need to keep in mind what you’ve done with past products and how your brand is perceived. Will users understand that this is your product? Do they already trust your brand?
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Posted by: Jenny Bachner, Media Specialist
We’ve always known that banner ads provide good overall branding exposure for a company, but what we really need to know is how effective they are in driving click-throughs for lead generation. And it seems in the past year we’ve witnessed a decline in users clicking through on ads intended to drive conversions.
This is due in part to the lack of targeting techniques available in early 2008, and I also think that banner blindness set in when the users’ need for information was not being met by 90% of the ad units served to them. However, with the integration of more useful targeting techniques, such as behavioral and demographic targeting, perhaps we’re seeing the beginning of an upward trend in click-though rates for banner ads. Take a look at these results from the “Search Engine Marketing and Online Display Advertising Study” recently posted to eMarketer.com:
As people begin to find ad units served more relevant and actually find value in them, they’ll begin to pay attention and be more likely to respond again. I have already witnessed an increase in click-through rates on niche websites that are able to contextually target ad units, and I look forward to following this new trend as we progress through 2009.
Posted by: Megan Amick, Marketing Coordinator
Email is a great tactic for qualified lead generation and for delivering traffic to your website because these visitors have already expressed interest in your offering. So, it is important to track emails to see which tactics within your emails are the most effective. The best way to track your email campaigns is to create tags within each email and use Google Analytics to provide measurable statistics. Tags are created by inserting additional traceable information into your email marketing campaign links. Using the Google Analytics URL Builder you can create these tags to track email campaign information.
read more »
Posted by: Jenny Bachner, Media Specialist
You’ve done a lot of work to prepare for your lead generation or lead nurturing campaign. You’ve assessed the audience, strategized offers, determined the best timeline, drafted a media plan and created a landing page based on conversion marketing best practices. It’s easy to let the details of the program’s final execution slip under the radar. But how you craft your landing page’s registration form(s) is too important to pass over.
The registration form is ideally your prospect’s final destination. So take advantage of these tips for making yours as user-friendly as possible: