Posted by: Gloria Dutton, Senior Marketing Coordinator
When discussing the goals of lead programs with sales teams, we often get one message – volume volume volume. The ‘volume’ mentality has an obvious attraction: at least some of the many leads that come in the door will close. However, when we dig deeper, we all become convinced that volume is less important than delivering quality, closeable leads to sales.
So, what is the process for identifying quality leads before sending them to sales? Lead nurturing programs. They help qualify and guide prospects through the buying cycle by analyzing what offers they are interested in and the specific actions these prospects take. Through learning about prospects, we’re able to target marketing initiatives to be focused on their needs as they gather information and research, evaluate their options and ultimately make a purchase decision.
How do we identify when a lead needs to be nurtured and when they are ready for sales? Start by segmenting by preference. Provide multiple offers on your site requiring registration – everything from white papers and research studies, to pricing sheets and sales contact information.
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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: Kayla Wagner, Account Manager
A recent JupiterResearch/ClickZ survey of email marketers showed that 81% believed that their most effective tool for acquiring emails, both in quantity and quality, was their own website. Given this statistic, looking at how you drive people to your website in order to build those lists is pretty important. Whatever the channel, a prospect that sees your ad should have a clear call to action to receive more communications from you.
Further, be sure that once a prospect clicks from your ad, that there is an easy and clear path to sign up for your brand’s communications that is simple enough to make them want to fill out a basic form and submit their email. Then, once you have that information, be sure to speak to your audience differently based on who they are. You can send a welcome email as soon as a person opts-in to start the conversation, and follow that with triggered messaging based on a prospect’s actions on your website.
Alternatively, if the user is a customer or client, you would want to send them a different message than that of your new prospect. The use of automated marketing tools can help you make this an easy process overtime.
If you spend the upfront time and strategic thought aligning your advertising – be it search, social, media or offline – with your approach to building your prospect list versus that of your current customer relationship program, you’re sure to see positive results. This isn’t an overnight trick, it will take time and investment, but it will certainly pay-off in the end.
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: Gloria Dutton, Marketing Coordinator
It’s no secret that times are tough. But mandatory spending freezes and budget cuts are not insurmountable. Your customers’ current spending trends will eventually turn around. Now is the time to put your company in a position of strength as a thought leader and partner, so that when the good times return, your company’s products and services come to the top of your prospect’s mind.
Lead nurturing is one of the top ways to prevent an overall downturn in customer acquisition during times of recession and to ensure more business when the economy improves. By continually keeping your prospects in touch and informed while they are unable to buy, your company is looked at as more of a long-term partner and smart long-term business choice. It also will help customers to see that you are there in support of their interests and will most likely not end the relationship once the sale is final if you did not drop interest in them when they were not even making a purchase.
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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:
Posted by: Shannon Anderson, Project Manager
MarketingSherpa recently surveyed some of the largest B2B marketers about their top priorities in 2009 as well as the difficulty associated with executing each tactic. Shown below is the chart they provided. The size of the circle indicates the percentage of companies already implementing that specific tactic.
What are top priorities for marketers at the biggest B2B organizations in 2009?
With the crunch of the economy bearing down on B2B companies, retention marketing and identifying new audiences are proving to be top priorities. As you probably already know, it is easier (and cheaper) to keep your current customers and grow their programs than it is to retain new customers. However, with the customer base shrinking, and with current customers cutting back, marketers have to uncover new audiences in order to expand their businesses.
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Posted by: Kelly Hall, Account Manager
When you start any lead generation or lead nurturing campaign, one of the biggest questions to answer is what you’ll offer your prospects. What you offer is very influential in how prospects will interact with your company. If you offer something requiring very little involvement, then you may wind up with a large volume of unqualified leads. However, if you offer something requiring a lot of involvement then you may wind up with a very small volume of leads – albeit more likely to be highly qualified. Using the purchase cycle, and your goals therein, can help to identify what offers to lead with.
How your lead generation campaign speaks to your prospects is entirely in your control. First, you need to identify the goal of your campaign. Are you just looking for people ready to buy? If so, your offer should align with Decision Phase needs. Are you looking to educate your audience? Then an offer that assists with prospects in the Research Phase would be most appropriate.
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Posted by: Christy Roth, Project Manager
Most marketers are in the same spot: do more with less money. As you’re facing this challenge, here are three things that you can do to improve the efficiency and results of your lead generation program:
#1 – Stay Visible Even in a Tough Economy
Through these tough times it is more important than ever to stay visible to prospects whether or not your competitors are doing the same. There are many cost-effective and even free opportunities to help us accomplish this. Use social media and social networking sites to your advantage. Even though it may be out of your comfort zone, consider being present on tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and more. In addition, if you are planning online media buys for 2009, work to negotiate tactics that include freebies such as e-newsletters and ad units. All of these things help keep you in front of potential leads.
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