Best practices on lead generation

How to convert more B2B leads into customers? Marketing Automation!

How to convert more B2B leads into customers? Marketing Automation!As the post title implies, our answer to the eternal sales question “how do we convert more leads into customers?” is to deploy marketing automation. Is that the only answer? No. But with the amount of data available today, marketing automation will do more to improve your B2B lead conversion rates than social media, PPC, or stale drip campaigns.

It’s quickly becoming apparent that marketing automation can play a significant role in improving your lead conversion ratio. From first touch (initial point of contact) to pass through (migration to CRM), lead conversion for companies in most industries is improving thanks to MA. The first step towards higher B2B close rates is to manage your leads effectively before they are sent to your sales team.

To begin, you should know your customers well. Who are they? What do they like? What do they do? Why do they buy? Much of this information is now available digitally, the key is to leverage the information you collect into effective lead management.

Lead Generation

An often overlooked concept about lead generation is that it should be approached holistically not unilaterally. When you need to convert more B2B leads into customers look to strengthen lead generation efforts. Lead gen starts with first touch, escalates through lead tracking, and winds up with capture. If you’re not focusing on developing good content for your touch points, tracking your website visitors using business intelligence integration, and capturing contact information through digital assets, you’re not effectively generating leads – and you can’t convert leads you don’t have. Make sure your lead gen scope is broader than list buys and PPC campaigns.

Lead Nurturing

Many think lead nurturing equals email drip campaigns. Though partly true, lead nurturing is so much more. Lead conversion through the nurturing process requires that you develop the relationship through escalating engagements. Simply sending the occasional “hi-how-are-you?” note won’t be sufficient to move your leads through the marketing pipeline. Build a campaign that offers more at advanced buying cycle stages: a webinar invite, a product demo. Remember, nurture means “to grow”.

Lead Scoring

There’s nothing worse for a sales agent than to receive a lead that turns out to be a graduate student completing his thesis. MA platforms provide lead scoring and grading capabilities that should allow you to sharpen the sales team’s focus towards the most suitable, marketing-qualified leads. Establish specific criteria that can be scored or graded. Most leading systems grade explicit lead attributes (industry, company size) and score implicit behaviors (webpage visit, webinar registration). Once a scoring matrix has been created, determine a scoring threshold that automatically migrates the lead to your CRM.

Lead Distribution

Lead distribution must be optimized to channel leads appropriately to your sales force. Which sales agents are available to respond quickly? Which agents have high close rates? Which agents know the lead’s industry best? Automated systems distribute leads using parameters that can maximize your sales team’s efficiency. Some MA platforms allow you to assign lead ownership according to predefined criteria, such as geography or seniority. Leads distributed effectively will shorten your average sales cycle and improve sales close rates.

Keep in mind that marketing automation is a tool that will improve sales conversions and help convert more B2B leads into customers. Though MA platforms have improved sales outcomes, much of the success that comes from lead management is dependent on the content you provide. If you don’t have strong creative minds to develop messaging in-house, consider outsourcing.

How to Grow Your Business Faster with Website Visitor Tracking

How to Grow Your Business Faster with Website Visitor TrackingThanks to the global reach of the internet, online competition is fierce. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, there are countless companies across the world trying to secure the same leads as you. Businesses today must take advantage of new technology, like website visitor tracking, to ensure they are not missing out on any potential opportunities.

Faster Lead Generation

Many industry leaders have already discovered how they can use website visitor tracking and marketing automation software to grow their businesses faster. It is a simple and effective method for automatically capturing every lead that comes in contact with your website. It is estimated that 95% of the visitors on your site will end up leaving your site unnoticed, if you don’t use some form of website visitor tracking software.

Lead Profiling and Scoring

Bringing in more leads will most likely help to grow your business faster, but these results will be significantly amplified if marketers and sales professionals have a better understanding of each leads’ wants and needs. Website visitor tracking monitors a lead’s online behavior and then analyzes their unique buying process. When this program is accompanied with online registries, it can also provide valuable insight into a lead’s demographic characteristics. This will create a comprehensive lead profile.

Marketers can compare each new lead’s profile with existing clientele to determine their likelihood of conversion. This is referred to as lead scoring or ranking. Leads that demonstrate a significant potential for conversion can be passed immediately on to the sales department while those who are still undecided can remain in the marketing automation engine for further lead nurturing.

Lead Nurturing and Conversion  

The lead profile that is generated by website visitor tracking software should provide a clear picture of what the lead is interested in and the questions they have about their buying decision. This will make it easier to grow your business by creating helpful and personalized lead nurturing content designed to answer every lead’s questions and concerns.

Generate, Profile, Score, Nurture, & Convert

Website visitor tracking allows you to grow your business faster by ensuring that no lead is missed, that every lead is profiled and ranked, and that content is customized to give leads the answers they need. It is the most effective marketing method for lead generation and the easiest way to gain greater insight into what it will take to convert a lead into a customer.

Why Prospect Management is Impossible Using Google Analytics

Why Prospect Management is Impossible Using Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics has long been a useful tool for webmasters to monitor website traffic. But GA is not an effective prospect management tool. While it breaks down traffic sources, visitor activities, and conversion rates, Google Analytics doesn’t provide the functionality required to be useful tool for B to B marketers to manage leads.

Prospect management is at the heart of most business-to-business marketing automation practices. Google Analytics only provides part of the story. To effectively manage prospects, marketers must rely on more robust data sets and integrated engagement mechanisms. If your sales cycle lasts more than a single website visit, you need marketing automation to manage prospects as they move through the sales pipeline.

Here are a few ways in which our Lead Management Automation™ is a more effective prospect management to for B to B marketers:

  1. Automatically tracks leads that have engaged with your brand, whether it’s through a submitted web form, survey response, social post, or other digital asset
  2. Links IP addresses with business intelligence generated from Dun and Bradstreet and/or Hoover’s
  3. Assigns a lead score and grade based upon business intelligence and visitor activity
  4. LMA users can schedule digital engagements while viewing expanded lead information
  5. Segments visitors by industry, location, size, and other criteria
  6. Users can adjust messaging, asset delivery, and offers within the user interface
  7. Website traffic can be filtered through a robust set of parameters
  8. Visitor activity is grouped together to provide a holistic view of a prospect’s online behaviors
  9. Users can see organic search terms used to find your site
  10. A chat feature can be enabled to provide instant engagement with a website visitor
  11. While GA provides alerts pertaining to traffic anomalies, the LMA alerts users about who is on your site
  12. Google Analytics is not concerned with optimizing your marketing and sales practices. The interface is provided to display general traffic information so users might spend more on advertising rather than improve marketing and sales practices

While GA provides robust traffic intelligence, you can see why prospect management for B to B marketers should be conducted through a marketing automation platform like our Lead Management Automation solution. For more information, contact a Revenue Generation Specialist today.

Marketing Automation Offers Real-time Visitor Tracking

Marketing Automation Offers Real-time Visitor TrackingModern businesses need marketing automation to record and monitor who is on their website and how they are behaving. It is estimated that 70% of people begin their purchasing process online and visitor tracking is essential for capturing these leads. Websites that are not equipped with real-time visitor tracking capabilities can miss out on up to 95% of these potential consumers.

Real-time Visitor Tracking

High-quality marketing automation software will also be able to monitor their behavior while they are still active. Potential customers are online searching for answers and it will improve the chance of conversion if marketers and sales professionals can provide them with an immediate and helpful response.

Creates an Accurate Profile in Real-time

Marketing automation generates a detailed profile of every lead’s interests and needs. It follows leads along their buying journey and uses pop-up registries to obtain useful demographic information. Website visitor tracking can tell you who is on your site, their location, purchasing history, employment background, and which pages they are reading.

All of these details can be matched to characteristics of current clients to determine their likelihood of conversion. Marketing automation is the fastest way to develop a lead profile in real-time, so the sales team can quickly decide whether that visitor is worth pursuing.

Keep Better Track of Favorites

Marketing automation uses lead scoring to determine which leads have the highest potential. Leads are ranked based on similarities to existing clients and then prioritized. Once these potential customers are identified, they can be marked as “Favorites.”

The majority of reputable marketing automation companies, like Lead Liaison, will send instant updates via text messaging or email when a “Favorite” goes online. This will offer sales the ability to immediately connect with qualified leads in real-time.

Provides the Opportunity for Live Conversions

Many websites that use marketing automation and visitor tracking have installed a helpful chat feature where they can conduct live conversations with leads as they are actively researching their options. When the person is online browsing your site, a little box will appear in the corner asking if they need any assistance. This offers the ability for open dialogue and live conversions.

Marketing automation offers online businesses real-time visitor tracking. It allows you to quickly generate a profile on each lead, determine their potential, connect with favorites while they are online, and it provides the opportunity for live conversions. This level of concern and service is what modern consumers expect.

On Website Visitor Identification: Does Conversion Code Cut It?

On Website Visitor Identification: Does Conversion Code Cut It?One of the primary ways you can understand who’s visiting your website is by having website visitor identification in place. You already know that Google Analytics and Google Adwords give you tracking and conversion codes that help you determine how visitors are using your site – but is that really all there is to it?

Defining Your Conversions

Some businesses are using what they think is conversion tracking without ever really defining their conversions. A web visit alone shouldn’t be a conversion – a conversion involves a user taking a specific action on your site – not just visiting.

Because this is the case, you’ll need to have specific milestones set up for what qualifies as a conversion. A lead form fill-out is a great example. Since converting typically requires leaving personal information – such as an email address or a phone number – the client enters your sales funnel upon taking this action.

Many businesses set up multiple conversion opportunities on their sites so they have the best chance of getting the customer’s information. Once you have this info, you can contact the client again and again to make a sale. A conversion doesn’t necessarily have to be the sale of your product, although a sale is one type of conversion.

Tracking conversions doesn’t necessarily mean you’re using website visitor identification to find out where those visitors are coming from. This makes marketing automation even more important in your lead generation efforts.

Website Visitor Identification: Why Do It?

When you know specifically what company your visitors are from and can assign a name and background info to a conversion, you have valuable information at your fingertips. For instance, if someone comes back and converts again and again, you can improve customer relations by reaching out to that visitor personally to discuss a long-term relationship.

Website visitor identification also helps point out leads that aren’t converting in the way you’d like. When you have a potential client’s info and can see they’re returning again and again but not converting, you can contact the lead to encourage conversion or even a sale. Many leads need that personal touch in order to become a client, and website visitor identification can help you make the sale.

The right marketing automation system will include website visitor identification. You don’t just want to know that someone visited your site – you need to know who, why they visited, how they got there and other identifiable information such as geographic location, source company, and contact information. The more you know about your leads via website visitor identification, the more you can prime leads in the most effective way to generate a sale.

Lead Liaison offers in-depth website visitor identification for all your site’s content, including in-depth analysis of thank you pages and conversion points. Find out more by visiting us today!

What can Website Visitor Tracking Really Tell You?

What can Website Visitor Tracking Really Tell You?Website visitor tracking is quite popular right now, but what can it really tell you?

There are potential leads surfing across your site daily. They are clicking on articles, hopping from page to page, and investigating what your company has to offer. Website visitor tracking shows exactly who is on a site, how they got there, and what information they are reading as they are reading it.

Can leads still slip through the cracks?

Leads cannot escape website visitor tracking software. They are captured and tracked as soon as they land on your web page. It is estimated that 95% of the people who land on your website will be missed if you don’t use marketing automation and website visitor tracking.

Can it really tell you who is on your site?

Unfortunately, it is not like Facebook where you will see a photo and profile of each person however it will provide you with some valuable details. Website visitor tracking will show you their IP address, the referral page, their operating system, which browser they used, the landing page they started on, and their progress along the site.

Marketers and sales professionals are informed of these crucial details while the lead is actively online. This can be used to instantly identify triggers that indicate a lead is ready for conversion. A faster reaction time when a lead is in need is usually an effective closing tool.

Why do I need to know who they are?

The key to success in any marketing or sales campaign is to understand your customer, identify their needs, and offer a worthwhile solution. Website visitor tracking captures every lead that is actively searching on your site for information. It develops an in-depth profile of their behavior and characteristics, determines their needs, and offers them an answer to their concerns using customized lead nurturing. If you do not know who they are, you cannot personalize your efforts towards their needs and interests, which will significantly improve your chances of conversion.

Website visitor tracking ensures that every person who lands on your website monitored and analyzed. It will be easier to persuade a potential lead into making a purchase once you understand their interests and buying process. Website visitor tracking is beneficial for lead generation, but the real value lies in its ability to accurately profile every lead that comes in contact with your website.

The Benefits of Identifying Who is Visiting Your Site

The Benefits of Identifying Who’s Visiting Your SiteUnderstanding exactly who is visiting your site is essential for success in a global marketplace. Almost every person who clicks on a link to your website is a potential customer. Occasionally they could be competitors or researchers with ulterior motives, but most visitors are on your site looking for solutions to their questions and concerns. They are investigating their options and sincerely interested in your products or services. Marketing automation is a proven method for capturing, profiling, and converting these visitors. Its primary purpose is identifying who is visiting your site and what information they are trying to obtain. This gives your marketing and sales team better insight into customer’s interests and intentions. One of the greatest benefits that you will receive from a marketing automation system is website visitor tracking. Marketing automation software provides you with the ability to monitor and record vital information about every visitor on your website.

Establishes an Accurate Target Market Profile

A company can develop a more accurate profile of a typical consumer by identifying website visitors early on in their buying process. Website visitor tracking will follow the lead to determine the route that was taken from the link that brought them to the site and to the final webpage that sealed the deal. By weighing similar demographic and behavioral aspects on every lead, they can develop a clear picture of who really makes up their target market.

Gains Insight into Visitor’s Online Activity

By identifying who is visiting your website, you can monitor visitor’s online activity in real-time. This way companies can pinpoint certain indicators as triggers and advise the sales team to react instantly. Understanding trends in consumer’s online activity will also help marketers develop a more complete lead profile for scoring.

Gain Insight into your Visitor’s Demographics

How well could you describe your typical consumer? Do you know their age, employment history, job title, sex, or any other aspect that makes them more likely to buy into your brand? By using website visitor tracking to identify who’s on your site, you can gather vital demographic information on your potential customers prior to conversion. This will also further enhance your lead profile.

Provide your Sales Team with Qualified Leads

Using website visitor tracking to identify who is on your site will make it easier to spot leads with the highest potential. Marketing automation providers like Lead Liaison will send sales alerts the very instant online visitors are proven to be qualified sales candidates. A faster reaction time to leads while they are demonstrating interest in a product or service will greatly increases the chance of conversion.

Deeper Understanding of Buyer’s Pre-purchasing Behavior

You will have a better grasp of the buying journey your customers go through by monitoring and tracking who is visiting your website while they are on it. It will make it easier to identify which pages they click on, how long it usually takes from initial visit to conversion, and what content on your website is generating the most revenue. This information is vital for content development and marketing campaign improvements. This is the age of advanced technology in a tough economy. Every company needs an advantage to stay viable. By following who is on your website through advance technology like website visitor tracking, you can bring in more leads, create a more accurate profile, advise sales of qualified leads in real-time, and gain better insight into the pre-purchasing behavior of your typical consumer. This is the advantage your company needs to survive.

Empowering Your Site: How to Track Conversions

Empowering Your Site:  How to Track ConversionsYou might have some understanding of how to track conversions and sell users on the phone, but converting your visitors via web forms and online commerce is a different story entirely. When you start to track conversions and streamline your web sales funnel, you’re adding an entirely different dimension to your sales strategy.

If you’re considering a website revamp, there’s no better time than the present to analyze your current conversion rates and web conversion strategy. If you don’t have the right tools to track conversions, you definitely need to rectify this and get on the right track before a new or revamped website enters the final build stages.

Streamlining to Track Conversions

One of the biggest obstacles many business owners face with their websites is attracting the user to action. A call to action is an important element of getting the visitor to act. This can include urging the user to act immediately to receive a special offer, inciting the user to fill out a form or contact your company, etc.  Most calls-to-action are text, but when paired with a visual element, the user experiences a sense of further urgency.

Visual calls-to-action that may incite users to interact with you or leave their information include things like:

  • A quote form
  • A “get more information” button
  • A download
  • A visually appealing link
  • A click-to-call or chat

Without some type of conversion or call to action in place, all users have is information about your company with no upfront way to contact you. If your site’s conversion opportunity isn’t front and center, it’s important to monitor your bounce rates and track conversions to see if you could be losing visitors.

Track for Success

When you do change your site – or even if it’s not a consideration yet – the most important thing you can do is let the data you collect make decisions for you. If you need to decide whether or not to incorporate a form on the front page, to change the look of your site or to test one page against another, the data you collect through tracking conversions is key to your success. Without knowing how visitors experience your site, you’ll have no idea how to change your assets to make your site more informative and useful to your visitors.

When you use programs like Google Analytics, you’re tracking visitors, but you’re doing so anonymously. With more advanced data like a user’s parent company, frequency of an individual user’s visits or their particular activity on your site, being able to track conversions with an advanced suite of data tools can vastly improve your business sales strategy.

Next week we’ll talk more about anonymous vs. identified user tracking and how to track conversions of identified users. In the meantime, take a look at Lead Liaison’s visitor tracking tools and track conversions more efficiently than you ever thought possible.

Why You Should Track Visitors on Your Website

Why You Should Track Visitors on Your WebsiteIf you haven’t made the decision to track visitors on your website, now is the time. Companies are ramping up for summer marketing campaigns. For some of us, this means a busy few months ahead. Others will experience slower times in the year – and for these companies, every lead counts. If you’re not ready to track visitors on your website, you could be missing the opportunity to close leads that will ensure a stronger summer for your business.

The Key to Visitor Tracking

Many web admins or business owners throw Google Analytics on their domains and call it a day. This is great – but if you’re not analyzing or using the data in the right way, Analytics won’t help you. Many businesses are opting to track traffic using marketing automation software that can tell them so much more about user behavior on the site.

If you’re considering tracking visitors on your website, it’s important to know the tracking information that sites like Google Analytics may not be able to tell you. Some of this info includes:

Business email collection. If visitors from certain companies are reading your blogs or engaging with you via email, you can get a better idea of how users from certain companies are interacting with your website. If you’re ready to track visitors on your website, you can work with a suite of tools that will work with your email. When you send out a newsletter or an important email message – or write a new blog – and a user captured via marketing automation clicks around on your site, the software will track that user’s email domain along with their activity.

This allows you to get an idea of how many individuals from different companies are interacting with your site. If you decide to track visitors on your website and see a certain number of visits from a particular company, it might be worth engaging with that company’s marketing department as a lead.

Track Visitors on Your Website with Marketing Automation

When you know what content your users are looking at, you’re in a viable position to give them more of the same. If you have great blog content, users can literally fall “down the rabbit hole” and become lost in your content throughout their visit. When you track visitors on your website, you can see the path users are taking through your website and come up with new blog topics and content that matches what your target audience is looking for.

Without the ability to track visitors on your website, you can’t follow users down the rabbit hole, profile specific individuals at companies that may be of interest or know what features of your site might need changed. This summer will be more competitive than ever, so it’s time to get a game plan in place that ensures your content and offerings can compete.

Take a look at Lead Liaison’s robust platform if you’re ready to track visitors on your website. We can get you set up in just a few days!

Website Visitor Tracking for New Leads

Website Visitor Tracking for New Leads Website visitor tracking is a useful technology to help your direct and indirect sales channels develop new leads. It is an automated system that records and analyzes all prospects that cross path with your company’s website. It is an extremely efficient way to generate and track new leads online.

Here’s how your sales and marketing team will benefit from using Lead Liaison’s website visitor tracking:

1.       Brand new prospects presented daily through a web portal or desktop application.

There are hundreds or thousands of visitors on your website daily that slip through the cracks. Experts estimate as much as 96% of your website traffic is hidden and never identified. Website visitor tracking ensures no potential lead is missed. It is a completely automated system that guarantees every visitor is captured and accessible.

2.       Marketers gain insight into potential leads that are visiting your website.

Website visitor tracking provides marketers with useful demographic and behavioral characteristics of potential leads, so they can identify those with the greatest potential for conversion. When they pick-up on this info they can put sales on high alert. This can turn new leads into instant customers.

3.      Marketers gain insight into which competitors are checking out your company.

Not only does website visitor tracking provide insight on leads, it will also advise you when competitors are visiting your website. Competitors can gain an endless amount of useful information while visiting your website and it helps to keep a close eye on those businesses that are taking the time to check out your site.

4.      Advises sales when buyers with worthwhile potential are online.

Sales teams can identify companies or individuals as “Favorites” and receive SMS or email alerts when their Favorites go online. This enhances their ability to engage and converse with buyers in real-time while buyers research their options.

5.      Real-time view of prospect`s online behavior.

Website visitor tracking gives your company new leads plus identifies what potential buyers are doing online, as they are doing it. This provides your business with valuable information about who’s visiting your website and what they are interested in at any given moment. Sales will develop a unique competitive advantage by gaining key insight prior to their outreach.

Website visitor tracking for new leads is an essential component of the marketing automation engine that is designed to generate revenue. It brings in new prospects daily, gathers demographic and behavioral insight into prospect and competitors, alerts sales when prospects are surfing, and provides real-time views of their online behaviour.