Tag Archive for: Lead Generation

The Best Social Commerce Networks for Lead Generation

The Best Social Commerce Networks for Lead GenerationHow has the face of the marketing evolved since the origination of social networks? Before the spread of social media, good business relied solely on consumer-company interactions. In the modern day, businesses continuously search for ways to convert their consumer-company relationships into sales but the standard look of these relationships has changed. The focus has shifted from consumer–company relationships to consumer–consumer interactions. People will search in google for customer reviews of a product before they purchase because a customer is more likely to trust another customer than a company trying to make profit.

Promotion of a good product in creative ways increases lead generation, but social commerce is key to driving sales. Social commerce comes in many forms including customer reviews of services and products, sponsorship deals, advertising, etc…Any type of consumer-generated content sharing is a form of social commerce.

Content-sharing is the basis of social media. In the digital age, social media has a large impact on the success of a business. From a consumer mindset, the size of their internet following determines a business’ quality of product and validity. A plethora of social networks exist, but in terms of social commerce, some are better than others. The only question is which sites work best for lead generation?

Below we take a look at the 4 major social commerce websites:

Facebook

Facebook commerce, better known as F-Commerce, launched in 2011 when companies realized that the social network had a reach of 750 million users. Many people, young adults in particular, gather their news or updates from their Facebook newsfeed. Mainstream society no longer depends primarily on printed media to spread important information. Article-sharing, hashtags, and status updates encourage genuine lead generation among consumers. There are four types of F-commerce: Facebook-onsite selling, Facebook-initiated selling, selling via Facebook, and iFrames/Facebook App. By using plugins, links, consumer engagement, and allowing for creative displays, Facebook remains a viable source for increasing lead generation.

YouTube

As a video platform, YouTube is notably successful at lead generation. Studies have shown that colorful graphics and videos are good at attracting a consumer’s attention. In fact, it’s been said that YouTube marketing makes lead generation 50 times more successful than any text-based promotion. Online videos are inexpensive to make and possess a longevity that articles don’t have.

Polyvore

Polyvore launched in 2011. It allows users to create collage-sets displaying different fashion and beauty trends of their own invention. The site allows the consumer to sell the product by encouraging personal creativity and lets the users promote their own designs. The materials on their collages are directly linked to product sites. The accessibility of products and the use of consumer support increases lead generation.

Trendii

Trendii and Polyvore share similarities, but Polyvore is limited to beauty and fashion. Trendii allows their users to create boards with any topic they desire. The site helps the consumer sell the products by establishing creative environments of user-design; Trendii effectively taps into the consumer–consumer interactions that people value. Trendii manages to help people connect virtually, widen their impact, sell to other consumers, and inspire others with their personal creativity. It takes the trending nature of global conversation and ties it to user interests. The strong consumer–consumer relationships built on the site will likely increase lead generation for products massively.

All social networks are not created equal, but sites such as Twitter, Vine, and Pinterest are making a play towards social commerce as well.

Always remember that your consumers are your best marketing strategy.

Lead Strategy Creation 101

Lead Strategy Creation 101

Lead Strategy

Lead strategy is, in part, about segmentation – ensuring that the proper messages are sent to your audience in a way that will make them convert. Many businesses find it hard to start identifying sales funnels and developing a lead strategy – in part because the term “conversion” or “conversion point” doesn’t make any sense.

A conversion is what happens when your customer buys, becomes a lead or otherwise engages with you in a way that meets your advertising goals. The term ‘conversion’ refers to the fact that the customer has converted to your brand messaging – meaning they find use for your products and find you trustworthy enough to leave their information or buy.

Identifying Your Conversion Point

For many businesses, there is no email collection form, phone number or other conversion point on the site – product sales will be the only way your business converts users. Having multiple conversion points gives you the opportunity to stay in touch with your audience and ensure future conversions. For instance, if you’re only selling products and never capturing a customer’s email, you may be missing out on valuable data that will lead to a conversion later. Your first step in creating a lead strategy is to identify your conversion points, and establish multiple points for conversion if you don’t have them already.

Lead Strategy: Identifying CPA

Your CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) reflects how many marketing dollars you must spend to get a sale. Obviously you want your CPA to decrease over time so that your marketing dollars result in a profit. You’d be surprised how many businesses haven’t identified a CPA. When creating a lead strategy, it’s important to take into account how much money you’re spending and your overall return. Lead strategy often requires investment, so it’s critical to know where your money is going.

Creating a Lead Strategy

Now it’s time to build funnels. Ask yourself these questions: How do clients find your site? What actions do they take when they get there? What does your buying process look like? Use these questions to imagine actual sales funnels that relate to your business offerings and selling points. Factor in whether or not your different sales points require different messaging to sell your clients faster – for instance, should clients who previously purchased products from you receive the same marketing messaging as new clients? These questions are important to answer.

Finally, get some help when it comes to lead strategy. Marketing automation might be the best bang for your buck – talk to us at Lead Liaison today to find out how marketing automation could change your marketing messaging and increase sales!

5 Lead Generation Techniques That Work

Lead Generation Techniques That WorkDoes your digital marketing strategy work well for you? Are you able to generate leads for your product or service? If your answer to those two questions is no, then you are not doing it right. Read on and you shall learn five important lead generation techniques that will definitely produce a positive impact on your marketing strategy.

1.     E-Books

This is a great lead generation tool. E-books are helpful in the sense that they have plenty of detailed information about a certain service or product and they can be easily downloaded. So you can write an e-book for your business and distribute it to your intended audience. As a plus, you can decide to have the e-book available only to those who provide an email address. Consequently, you create an even wider lead.

2.     Email marketing

With the entry of webinars, blogs, eBooks and videos, most people think that email marketing is history. Contrary to this belief, it still is considered to be the most common channel for promoting business. The effectiveness of email marketing is going to increase now that consumers can access their email through their tablets and smartphones.

3.     Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This basically entails enhancing your website for different search engines with an aim to have your website listed in the highest search rankings, according to the keywords your potential customers use when looking for services or products. You can do this by seeking professional help from experienced SEO agencies whose work is to keep websites at the top ranks of search engines thus increasing traffic to your website.

 

4.     Company Blog

Blogging has developed from being a channel through which people communicate their day-to-day experiences to a channel through which businesses create brand awareness and manage to establish a close connection with their target market. Studies carried out have shown that companies that have a blog manage to drive more traffic to their websites more than those that don’t use blogging. The kind of content you should include in your company blog is mainly content that provides solutions to the problems of your target audience. There is no doubt that blogs are a good way of generating leads.

5.     Online Video Marketing

This is one strategy that businesses have not taken full advantage of. Produce short videos about your brand and post them on sites such as YouTube. It is an easy thing to do. Video marketing is turning out to be a very economical lead generation technique due to the huge numbers of people who use the social networks to get information. Remember when posting your video to sites like YouTube give it an appropriate description by using certain keywords that will also raise your ranks in search engines.

If you put these five lead generation techniques into practical use you will definitely experience an effective digital marketing strategy. As a company your brand awareness will increase, you will create more leads and eventually generate more sales for your service or product.

How to Engage Prospects Early in the Buying Process

How to Engage Prospects Early in the Buying ProcessPeople and businesses are changing the way they approach the buying process due to the abundance of online resources available. Numerous studies have shown that over 90% of people begin their buying process online using either a search engine or social media. There are so many viable options to choose online, which is why very few consumers will look elsewhere for information.

Early Engagement

Savvy marketers and entrepreneurs must reach and engage these prospects in the early stages of their buying process, before they settle for a competitor. They must recognize that someone is interested in their product or service and engage them instantaneously. One of the easiest ways to identify and connect with new consumers is marketing automation software.

Marketing Automation Software    

Surfing various websites for useful information is usually the initial step in the buying process, which is why the first step in the marketing automation process is using website visitor tracking. This powerful software tracks and monitors any leads that have connected with a company’s website or social media profiles. It records exactly what your leads are doing online in real time. If you are not already convinced of the incredible capabilities of website visitor tracking, take a moment to read Lead Liaison’s previous blog on five reasons why it is necessary to follow leads with website visitor tracking.

Lead Profiling & Ranking

Once marketing automation software has identified potential leads, the next step in engaging them is to understand their behavior and buying needs. Every detail the lead shares is tracked and analysed to create a comprehensive lead profile. Marketing automation experts will then rate their online activity based on the characteristics of existing consumers and determine where they are at in their buying process.

Lead Nurturing

The most essential step in the marketing automation process for engaging prospects early in their buying process is lead nurturing. Lead nurturing content is the most effective and efficient way to demonstrate a company’s expertise. A recent study by the Annuitas Group proved that nurtured leads generate 47% larger purchases than traditional marketing leads.

Lead nurturing allows businesses to gently guide leads towards a purchase by clearly demonstrating the value a particular product or service can add to their life. It should never be a hard-sell pitch or a blatant advertisement. The goal of lead nurturing is to engage prospects, give them the vital details they need to make a sound purchasing decision, and then subtle show why that purchase should be made with your business. It is a delicate art that is usually best left to trained content creators and marketing automation experts.

Engaging prospects early on in the buying process is essential for success in the modern world of online sales. Use marketing automation software, lead profile and ranking, and most importantly lead nurturing to create a lasting connection with potential prospects.

How to Successfully Generate B2B Leads Using Twitter

How to Successfully Generate B2B Leads Using TwitterWe were talking about lead generation at lunch the other day. The subject of Twitter use for B2B lead gen came up. We started sharing stories of customers’ Twitter experiences when it occurred to us that some marketers are not using Twitter effectively because of a their approach to leveraging the channel properly among other marketing assets.

Those of you deploying marketing automation for lead generation practices understand that Twitter can be embedded easily within a campaign without consuming a lot of time and energy. In fact, Twitter works great as a lead generator when tweets are folded into an automated campaign. The following four steps can lead you to B2B lead generation success through Twitter using a marketing automation platform in our article on how to successfully generate B2B leads using Twitter.

1) Provide a survey

Survey your Twitter followers with a brief, five-question survey to uncover a common unfulfilled need or desire. Tweet out the link to a landing page with a short explanation. The follower should land on a squeeze page with a web form (created in your MA platform!) including email address with 1 or 2 qualifying questions. Below the form, the survey should be clear to understand and easy to complete. (P.S. Offer a bonus for completing the survey.)

2) Send a thank you email

Distribute an email thanking followers for their participation in the survey. In the message, tell them that a solution will be tweeted in the near future and ask/encourage them to share the upcoming announcement with their followers.

3) Announce a solution

Once you’ve determined you can provide a solution to respondents’ needs or desires, tweet out an announcement about the solution with a link to a video, product page, or other asset where interested followers can learn more. Link tracking will reveal behavior that can escalate a follower further into the marketing funnel.

4) Send an autoresponse email to click-through followers

Express thanks for learning more, offer additional value by providing more information, and provide a link to a tweet announcing a promotional offer that can be found on a dedicated landing page. (If the promo tweet is retweeted or shared, extend an additional offer to those followers who act as a brand ambassador.

At this point the leads generated through this process are beyond top-of-funnel and can be entered into a nurturing program. There are many other ways Twitter can be used to successfully generate leads. Stay on top of Lead Liaison’s revenue generation blog for more social media and marketing automation ideas.

8 Marketing Tips for Generating More Leads and More Revenue

8 Marketing Tips for Generating More Leads and More Revenue

Has your business reached its full potential?

How many potential leads are you missing out on daily?

How much revenue could be generated from those leads?

The internet has created a competitive, yet highly lucrative marketplace for those that know how to use it to its full potential. Smart entrepreneurs are taking advantage of automated marketing techniques that are designed to efficiently generate more leads and more revenue by engaging, profiling, and nurturing potential consumers.

Here are 8 valuable marketing tips for generating more leads and more revenue:

1.       Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It should come as no surprise that the first marketing tip is to improve your websites ranking using a comprehensive SEO strategy.  It is estimated that over 70% of people begin their buying process online and the majority of those people will only visit websites that appear on the first page of the search results. You can generate more leads and revenue through SEO by establishing authority, creating content that provides value to the reader, and using appropriate keywords in your articles and on your webpages.

2.       Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Another aspect of SEO is social media marketing. There are billions of potential leads logging into social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter daily. You will be able to generate more leads by creating engaging and exciting social profiles on these networking sites that are linked back to your website. You can then generate more revenue by reaching out to these new contacts and converting them into sales.

3.       Automated Lead Generation

It almost goes without saying that automated lead generation software is the easiest and fastest way to generate more leads. It is estimated that 95% of the people who click on a website will leave unnoticed, if the website does not have an effective system for capturing them. Automated lead generation software ensures that every visitor will be added to the company’s lead database.

4.       Website Visitor Tracking

The next valuable marketing tip is to use website visitor tracking with your automated lead generation software. This will allow you to monitor their online behavior, including which pages they click on and how long they stay on each page.

5.       Lead Profiling

The next marketing tip is to use the information that has been gathered through website visitor tracking to develop a comprehensive lead profile. It is also beneficial to include online registries and access barriers on your website to extract additional demographic information on each potential lead.

6.       Lead Qualification

After gathering information on every lead that has come across your site, the next marketing tip is to compare that profile to existing clientele to determine their likelihood for conversion. Each characteristic should be given a value based on relevancy, so leads can be scored based on how close they match up to a typical consumer. This technique has been proven to generate more revenue since every lead is immediately passed onto the sales department once they are determined to be a qualified lead.

7.       Lead Nurturing

Another benefit of lead profiling is using that information to personalize content based on different lead segments. Marketers can create helpful articles directed at groups of leads that have similar needs. For example, if your website promotes nutritional supplements and you have a group of people who have clicked on an article about strategies for long-distance runners, you could create an article about how nutritional supplements can help support long-distance runners and then send it to that specific lead segment.

8.       Complete Marketing Automation Program

Fortunately, most of these marketing tips can be accomplished using one comprehensive formula. Marketing automation software provides lead generation and website visitor tracking, as well as lead profiling, qualification, and nurturing. It follows leads through their buying process and helps to guide them in the right direction. You need SEO and SMM to direct companies onto your site, but it takes marketing automation to transform those leads into more revenue.

The Challenges and Benefits of Automated Lead Generation

The Challenges and Benefits of Automated Lead GenerationMore and more companies are taking advantage of automated lead generation programs since marketing automation software has now proven its worth with countless industry leaders. Savvy businesses that have implemented a comprehensive marketing automation strategy are experiencing up to a 200% increase in their conversion rate.

Unfortunately, not everyone who uses automated lead generation software will reap the same benefits. Worthwhile lead generation has been a constant struggle for traditional marketers who don’t know how to use the software to its full capabilities, as discussed in Business News Daily’s article from April 23, 2013; Lead Generation B2B Challenges. Businesses that are not aware of how to extract useful information, accurately rank leads, and effectively nurture each lead will struggle to see all the benefits of lead generation.

Lead Generation Challenges

One of the greatest challenges with lead generation is that most marketing automation software systems are underutilized. Companies that don’t utilize a lead’s behavioral and demographic characteristics for lead scoring and customized lead nurturing will not see the results they would expect. Automated lead generation needs to be combined with a full-scale marketing automation program to ensure that every lead is understood and pointed in the right direction.

Benefits of Lead Generation

The benefits of lead generation are pretty obvious; having more leads means a higher potential for sales. However, it is the benefits of automated lead generation combined with a complete marketing automation program that will truly give you a worthwhile return on your investment.

When it is accompanied by a marketing automation program, lead generation is run using automated software that guarantees no lead will be missed. Every person who crosses paths with your website will be captured, profiled, and scored. The software tracks which pages each lead visits, how long they stay on each page, as well as any demographic details that they voluntarily offer through newsletter registries or pop-up questionnaires. Creating pop-up barriers that request leads sign up before they are provided with more valuable content is one of the best practices for fully utilizing lead generation and marketing automation software.

Gain Greater Insight into Leads

Automated lead generation is focused on gathering relevant information on each lead. This will make it easier to identify qualified leads, plus it will provide crucial profiling details that can be used to create more customized lead nurturing content.

The real benefits of lead generation are only realized if the lead is converted into a customer. Automated lead generation combined with marketing automation will offer marketers and sales professionals valuable insight into each lead, so they can use a more personalized approach and increase their chances of conversion.

Although there will be some challenges when it comes to achieving the greatest benefits from automated lead generation, it is still a valuable tool even when it is not used to its full capacity. Using marketing automation software for lead generation will ensure that every lead on your site is identified. When it the program is used to its full intent, it will also gather valuable details on each lead to support lead scoring, lead profiling, and lead nurturing efforts.

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.

5 Keys to Maximizing Demand Generation

Maximizing Demand GenerationDemand generation requires discipline, patience, and focus. The process of building awareness, creating interest, and provoking action requires a deeper strategy than simply building a marketing campaign. Here are a five key considerations to maximizing demand generation:

Website as hub

Design marketing, sales, fulfillment, and customer service through the prime portal for the company – your website. This can increase efficiency when interacting with your markets and lead to greater demand for your solutions. The site can be used to aggregate contact data from marketing inquiries, product orders, shipments, and feedback forms. By enhancing visitor experience and maximizing the functionality of your site, it becomes the lead touchpoint and will convert customers to advocates.

Your website can be used as a demand generation vehicle in itself through design elements that align with a lead’s decision-making process, build engagement, and progressively reduce objections. In order to be effective at demand generation, it’s also important to ensure that the site appeals to market participants at different points in the buying cycle.

Deploy multiple tools

Effective demand generation requires a basket of tools. Start with an integrated marketing approach that deploys multimedia communication tools to cultivate relationships. Channels such as blogs or Twitter feeds provide effective exchange mechanisms where suspects, prospects, and customers can connect with your company and provide meaningful information that can be used for future marketing campaigns.

There is no shortage of options for database mining, touch point tracking, and contact management. Tools that manage the distribution of information and track lead activity provide more robust market interaction and granular analytics. And with marketing automation tools such as our Lead Management Automation™ platform, companies are able to cultivate lead relationships and measure campaign effectiveness.

Know thy audience

The first step is to analyze your markets. Not just demographics, but psychographics and buying triggers. It’s important to develop a persona or profile for your market(s) that provides marketing and sales with an audience they both can connect with. Marketing campaigns should be persona-centric, letting the audience figure out why they want your solutions.

Turn your marketing strategy from ego-centric to customer-centric. Ask questions, get others to praise your solutions, and make buyers feel good about choosing your solutions. Successful marketers understand who their buyers are by learning about what they do, what they care about, and how they see themselves. Above all, learn how to talk with your market(s) and not at them.

Remember the long term

In a perfect world your B2B sales cycle would be complete within 30 days. Maybe two weeks. But that’s just not the way most purchases happen. With lead times of six months, a year, or even 24 months, demand generation is a long-term proposition. Keep in mind, it can take up to ten impressions just to register in a suspect’s consciousness!

Integrate marketing, sales, and customer experience

Future demand is generated through reputation management. The reputation you earn is formed through the entire process a customer experiences, from first contact to solution delivery to satisfaction follow-up surveys. It is important to blend your marketing strategy, sales execution, fulfillment process, and customer feedback together.

Throughout the lead nurturing process a strategy of integrating marketing and sales touch points is essential to generating demand. Messaging is more effective when combined with a marketing inquiry follow-up call from a sales agent. As a lead moves through the marketing pipeline it often becomes necessary to execute sales calls in order to elevate a marketing-qualified lead to a sales-qualified lead.

Once a purchase is made, customer satisfaction feedback through forms and phone surveys help to deliver the expectation that the relationship doesn’t end with a sale. And though a sales conversion has taken place, demand generation is still necessary to maintain a long-term customer relationship.

Three Key Rules for Developing Lead Forms

Three Key Rules for Developing Lead FormsB2B marketers have a plethora of tools available to gather information about marketing leads. One of the more effective methods is using online lead forms. Using a form to capture relevant data about a lead allows you to organize leads, personalize marketing messages, and score behaviors. There are three key rules for developing lead forms.

Developing effective forms requires thoughtful consideration about what information you want to gather and how forms will be used within a lead nurturing system. The first rule of lead form development is: don’t get greedy! Asking for too much information too early in the qualification and nurturing process can put any future relationship at risk. The most effective lead forms for a newsletter subscription or white paper download will only ask for a name and email address. Once the email address is collected it becomes an alternate communication channel, and an opportunity to deepen the relationship. So ask for minimum information up front then earn permission to request more.

The second rule of lead form development: keep it fresh! Rotating questions is a form development technique in which new questions are posed each time a lead revisits a form. For instance, a lead that visits a product page must enter a registered user name and answer a few questions that reveal qualifying criteria – such as company size, revenues, and industry – in exchange for an in-depth video about the product’s features. The next time that lead visits the same product page, she enters her username and answers three different questions that reveal need – such as purpose for visiting page or growth expectations – in exchange for a live chat Q & A session.

Protecting personal identifiers should be an essential factor in developing lead forms to gather information. Therefore, the third rule of lead form development is: keep it safe! Security verification certificates are commonplace among internet vendors providing online transactions, and should be included in any marketing page that contains a form. Secure socket layer (SSL) certificates present you as a trusted vendor to your leads, and can provide them peace of mind when sharing company information.

A final note: default form fields should be left blank. If your form has a default setting which returns a certain score in your lead scoring matrix, then the possibility exists that the lead will not select the another option. Often a lead will plow through a form by selecting the default option. Therefore, the score may be inadvertently skewed, and worse, not clearly represent a lead’s actual circumstance. For example, using “executive” as a default setting for a lead’s position may not clearly specify her position within the organization. If the associated score for a response of “executive” is 100, but the lead turns out to be a middle manager with a score of 15, then the resulting score won’t accurately reflect that lead’s appropriateness.

Lead Liaison offers companies professional-grade web form and landing page design solutions.  If you’re interested in visually creating forms and landing pages using drag/drop technology and using advanced techniques such as progressive profiling, form pre-fill and more let us know! We’d love to earn your business.