Five success factors to increasing lead conversions

Leveraging your campaign inquiry list is an essential best practice to successfully converting leads into sales. Not only does it convey you are interested in quickly satisfying a target prospect's needs, it positions your team to close more sales-ready prospects who are further along in the decision-making process. Measuring your progress over time can help you focus internal resources toward the core of your marketing efforts, but only if you truly understand what motivated a customer to inquire and how you can maximize the opportunity.

Here are five success factors that can directly increase your campaign lead conversions:

1. The most recent prospect inquiries tend to be the most valuable and viable to lead nurturing campaigns. As time passes, content becomes less valid in general due to changes in prospect responsibilities and demographics. A dialogue that was once important to a prospect may no longer be fitting or a purchase decision may have already been made. Stay on top of who has recently requested information about your brand! Consistently reach out to these prospects during the first three-to-six months after inquiry.

2. Use lead scoring methods to qualify the level of influencer your prospect is. By keeping your best salespeople in front of more customers who are closest to purchase decision, your marketing department will enhance lead conversion potential dramatically. Ask both behavior and demographic questions in your inquiry form and scorecardrespondents based on decision-making drivers (e.g. resources, authority, need, and timeframe). Cross measure the mediums that generate the most inquiry activity and analyze your tactics to create an efficient, ROI driven marketing engine.

3. Recognize that messaging relevance directly enhances lead conversion. Are you communicating what problem your brand will solve in the prospect’s lives? Many prospects stop listening to your message because they believe you do not understand what their needs are. Create a message map by professional role for email nurturing campaigns! For example, a CEO who responds to your campaign will have a very different company-wide strategic focus than a Marketing Manager entrenched in the day-to-day tactical programs of a specific vertical. If an inquiry hasn't responded over time, check if your content is properly segmented by audience to provide clear value at first glance.

4. Make sure you effectively promote to the nature and the source of your leads. For example, if a lead came from a trade show where a target prospect realized your brand offering first-hand, consider sending a product sample and a limited time purchase offer in your first lead nurturing campaign. Not only does this re-engage the prospect to what they experienced in your booth, it allows you to measure the effectiveness of your promotional offer across multiple events and test which tactics generated the greatest number of lead conversions.

5. Calibrate your lead generation process so that it closes the feedback loop. Many leads go cold simply because a prospect did not quickly receive the attention necessary to aid in the purchase decision process. Set a predetermined timeframe to reach out to your prospect after the first inquiry to understand how long it took for your team to make contact and if they were satisfied with the service received. Asking follow up questions can make sure your internal team did everything possible to maximize the opportunity while it was in progress.

Finally, using lead management software can directly amplify the success of each campaign. Thin client SaaS platforms like NitroMojo have real-time dashboards that cross analyze market-based responses to each marketing event. This will allow your management team to understand successes as they happen and make strategic changes much more quickly, keeping your team ahead of the competition searching for the same valuable conversion opportunities.

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Scoring leads critical to sales and marketing success

Lead scoring is the methodology of ranking an incoming consumer inquiry from a marketing event based on critical success factors to closing the sale. The rules of engagement may change from company to company based on the voice-of-the-customer but they have the same common goals: to best identify where a prospect is in the purchase cycle and create urgency for sales teams to contact prospects in order of those who have the most urgent decision making needs.

There are many benefits to scoring incoming leads from customer-centric criteria. First, sales associates have a limited amount of resources and time available at their disposal. By aiding the sales team’s ability to analyze the best opportunities that are the most likely to result in a sale, marketing management increases positive collaboration between all teams. In short, when a sales associate believes marketing understands how to drive their business, there is more likelihood they will buy in at a greater rate of speed, directly influencing the success of the program.

Second, a marketing team must maximize its potential to create events that consistently get the best sales associates in front of more customers who are sales-ready. This scenario presents the greatest likelihood of growth: leverage the most efficient use of company resources that generates the greatest marketing contribution to sales revenue. The sales team is a critical asset to marketing resource management: are you helping your team to accurately qualify prospects so they can maximize their time spent selling?

Finally, the initial conversion rate of an incoming lead plays a critical role in determining the potential for customer lifetime value. If a customer views your company as responsive to their needs, there is more likelihood they will purchase from you and have a greater loyalty response to future marketing events. This directly increases your channel pricing power and allows you to promote at a consistently higher price point instead of using heavy discounts programs that reduce margin. The ability to reduce follow-up marketing costs in retention programs is critical in building customer lifetime value.

When creating your rules, assess purchase decision drivers into a measurable scorecard. Recognize the sphere of influence the prospect resides in through campaign landing page questions. Simple behavior questions can also help in the scoring process, such as questions that involve product motives and patronage motives. Anticipate the needs of your target customer and the positive feelings your value proposition must conjure up to initiate a response. Have a clear call to action that encourages a passive user to inquire about how you solve problems in their world.

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Capitalize on low hanging fruit by making your product easier to buy

Close your eyes and imagine that you're one of your customers. You're busy. You're stressed. The big question is…are you frustrated?

With unprecedented access to information and product choices, today's consumers are less patient and less brand loyal than ever. If you're product is not easy to purchase or your sales process is frustrating, then there is a good chance customers won't take the time to do business with you. That's a whole lot of potential revenue down the tube.


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Essential Tips for B2B Marketers on Social Media

Get on Twitter, and actually use it
Most businesses are not on Twitter as it is considered a non-b2b-centric social medium. However, Twitter can have as much impact as Facebook or LinkedIn. Sign up for a Twitter account and start engaging in conversations. Expressing your marketing message in 140 characters can be very hard, but it can be fast and straight to the point as well. Search for keywords related to your business, services, industry, etc ... and join the threads by replying to them. You DON'T need to offer a product to sell right away. Just engage with people, show them that you’re offering free professional advice, this way you will build bridges with your audience and increase their trust in you and in your company/brand. Use the hashtag to link directly to companies or people that share the same interests, services, or products as you provide. And don't forget that on Twitter you can follow anyone.

The benefit of LinkedIn
LinkedIn is growing fast; it is without a doubt the number one source for networking between businesses and employees. With LinkedIn you can view your shared connections with others. This could be a way to find potential clients, see who you have in common and ask for a recommendation or maybe a professional introduction. In the B2B world, "word of mouth" is golden, which makes those shared connections even better. Also don't be afraid to use the "LinkedIn Answers" feature: This is like a knowledge base where active participants and businesses share their knowledge and take part in public discussions.

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The Case for Investing in a Voice of Customer Program - Part 1

In B2B marketing, is your distribution channel "playing ball" with you? Reporting back the outcomes of leads they've received? Selling your products? Protecting your brand? Did I hear you say, "NO" or maybe that was a, "Gee, I have no idea!"

You spend bucks in developing ads, placing them in vertical trade pubs, going to trade shows, executing direct mail campaigns, etc. Add to that the cost for the inside/outsourced talent to pull it off. When it's all said and done, the marketing folks have quite a chunk of change they've been entrusted to spend wisely (generate sales and reveal ROI metrics).

Then, the leads come. They are distributed to the captive sales rep who owns the opportunity, and the sales rep decides to dish some of the tasty leads off to the best-suited distributor. But, really, how well-suited is the distributor?


Is the sales rep sure that the distributor won't pull the old "bait and switch?" In other words, the distributor pushes the lead to buy a competitor's product because the competitor is offering the SPIF of the month. Or, better yet, does the internal sales rep know if the distributor partner is even picking up the phone to call or sending an email to follow-up with the opportunity?

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Recession vs. post-recession marketing

The landscape of business is intensely challenged during a recession. This process forces marketers to precisely redefine their brands and know exactly what they stand for during tough times. There is a tremendous challenge in interacting with and engaging a nervous recessionary consumer. It is still critical, however, to build your brand personality by highlighting ease of use and an unmistakable experience. This encourages your target consumer to spend time learning about your brand, even though they may be holding back on making a purchase in the short-term.

Post-recession marketing presents a great opportunity to capitalize on pent-up demand and growth that will quickly ensue as the consumer reenters the market. Here are a few ideas to help keep you ahead of your competitors during this time.

Research the consumer confidence in your brand offering and expect that your target market has evolved their purchasing behaviors into a "new normal". Some industries may not recover the trust of the marketplace for years and years to come if they were dramatically effected by the downturn in the eyes of the public. If this is your industry, make sure to test your creative in advance to measure if the copy content and imagery is building solution-oriented comfort in your brand. There is no substitute for a well detailed analysis of your campaign before it goes to market.

Capturing new leads is essential to growing your business in a post recession economy. If your target consumer has been out of the market for some time, there is the potential for pent-up demand to catch fire quickly if many return to the market at the same time. Marketers who satisfy the needs of this demand consistently will position their company to gain market share quickly. Make sure to measure how many of your sales-ready leads score compare with your ideal customer profile on a month-by-month basis. Watch this measurement closely as a key velocity metric that demonstrates the momentum your brand is gaining. Don’t be afraid to spend aggressively as the market finally shows signs of life through an increase in inquiries from campaign-specific landing pages.

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Don't make them wait

You spend your precious marketing dollars on exhibition space, collateral, give-aways and travel to a large tradeshow. Your efforts produce record breaking lead numbers. Now what? Are the leads housed in a spreadsheet somewhere for follow-up sometime? If marketers, in conjunction with their sales teams, don't have a solid plan for tradeshow follow-up it's likely that a good portion of money spent on the tradeshow was for not.

Most marketing managers are so focused on lead generation and brand development that they give little thought to what communication is sent to prospects after they have responded to a marketing event. But once you have spent the dollars to generate that lead, doesn't it make sense to ensure the prospect has an exceptional experience during the rest of the sales process?

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Listening – the key to being "social"

Social Media has quickly changed the meaning of short term reach and long term success in modern marketing. In today's internet-based society, daily users that had no voice or medium ten years ago have become influencers on an unprecedented scale. In addition, the rate of speed at which their messages reach others through outlets like Twitter, Facebook and WordPress is astonishing. Most consumers enjoy the sense of having their voice recognized and appreciated, especially after exchanging their hard earned money for your product and investing their personal time engaging with your brand.

Companies from every corner of the world are recognizing this shift of voice and are finally engaging. Executives are shifting budgets to embrace unique social mediums that pull the individual consumer's attention through by initiating relevant dialogue and actively listening to the voice of the customer. Ten years ago words like Facebook and Twitter were unheard of. Today, it is relatively impossible to imagine life in a technology-based economy without some type of impact from these communities.

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The Politics of Lead Management

... "Just give me the leads who are ready to buy" says Sales.
... "Just let me know the outcomes of leads so I can find you more" says Marketing.

Sound familiar?

I imagine even in the streets of ancient Roman trading areas there was a similar sentiment.
I’ve thought long and hard about the ultimate solution to this conflict, and here’s what I’ve conjured up having observed this for years. You have to have buy-in from top management and you have to have a real understanding of what lead management is and what it can do.

I wish I could promote the sheer adoption of marketing automation technologies as the way to satisfy the appetites of both Sales and Marketing's "Hatfields and McCoys" sniping, but I honestly can't. To really put the argument to rest, you have to get the blessing from top management. I mean C-level management who really believe in the importance of lead generation, prompt lead follow-up and reporting outcomes to enable ROI analysis.

There are many marketing and lead management technologies out there ­ ours is NitroMojo ­ but if there isn't a commitment to embrace its value as a corporate asset and to really promote its USE as a condition of employment, a company will be flushing cash down the drain.

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Link exchange and daily updates

In today's SEO best practices you often read about link exchange and you wonder what it is. It is basically the "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" for webmasters. In other words, in order to climb higher in the search engine ranking you need votes from other websites; so if another website is featuring an article about your website, or a PR release, a case study ... etc ... they should link to your site somewhere in the text. It's like saying "I know this website and I recommend visiting it." In return you can do the same for that website on your own website. The more links you have out there to your site the better, more links mean more votes and recommendations to visit your site.


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