There's a ton of mediocrity in lead generation- both in-house and outsourced. However, there are many things good insourced operations and lead generation companies do well. While a lead generation technique is not brain surgery, there are plenty of moving parts in a well-run lead generation strategy. Failure to perform and organize all of the moving parts could lead to poor results.
Here is DECK 7's top 5 checklist for lead generation to see where your company stands:
Lead Definition
Let's define a lead. A universal lead definition (ULD) is:
- it fits the profile of your ideal customer.
- it has been qualified as sales-ready.
- it spells out the responsibilities and accountabilities of sales and marketing.
- it makes marketing and sales more efficient.
If your organization is aware of this concept, generating leads becomes much simpler for you. Additionally, it also clarifies the kind of lead generation efforts and what kind of lead generation tool that you need to take/use to meet the increase in the conversion rate of your products/service.
Target, Segment and Test
How frequently does your team analyze lists? Bear in mind that there's no such thing as a good list, and remember that more expensive lists are not always more useful than cheap ones. The only solution to provide the best of lead generation services is to make sure your data is updated. This is only possible by cleaning it regularly and keeping it up-to-date with the trending buyer persona. Analyzing points that indicate tendencies to buy, and continually testing to optimize segmentation efforts is another way to ensure you are on the right track of B2B lead gen.
In one situation, we consulted with a client that was about to mail 750 $20 "lumpy" packages. I asked if they had tested the list for validity. They had not. They believed they had paid a lot of money for the list that it must be accurate. We offered to test the list for free and discovered that over 50% of the list would have gone to the wrong target audience. Many of the company names had no contact associated with the record. This is the most common and persistent problem that companies do when it comes to lead generation. When conducting email marketing, checking the quality of a new lead through your lead generation software is extremely crucial. This is necessary because there might be multiple people contacting you through your landing page. So, testing if they fit the ideal criteria of your prospective customer gives you the clarity of persuing them further and creating appropriate lead nurturing activities. No matter how tedious this stage seems, doing this only improves the quality of your lead generation process.
Research
There is some disagreement on the value of research. A B2B marketer might argue that you should just pick up the phone and make the call. Some marketers might believe that cold calling is not needed and ineffective. The biggest reason for this is that lists consisting of B2B leads are not always accurate. Why else would someone in the lead generation business get multiple calls and emails from some firms every week and a multitude of calls over time from the same firms? In such a scenario what should you do that is different or unique for your potential customers? Employing a 4 x 4 research approach is to spend a total of four minutes looking at four different data sources that will carve the customer journey:
- The prospect's website.
- The contact's LinkedIn profile.
- The topics of the prospect's twitter feed.
- A general online search to see what appears in the search history of the target audience.
Analyzing these aspects gives you a chance to fill the gaps in your lead generation funnel. Researching well about a potential lead will help your marketing team to design demand generation strategies that positively affect your inbound and outbound lead generation activities.
Multi-Touch
Oftentimes your a good lead generation strategy can only improve with the number of times your prospects are being contacted, whether through phone or email. Establishing multi-touch campaigns can help identify a quality lead that is more likely to be ready to take action and when. This phase typically involves putting out a similar lead ad on multiple platforms and identifying where it works the best. It also includes creating a different landing page for each platform. While the multichannel approach is common in digital marketing, it now being increasingly used for generating quality leads.
Nurture
Are you getting the maximum return on marketing programs? Lead nurture programs done well triples your B2B sales lead generation marketing ROI. Often underutilized, lead nurturing done through various outbound and inbound marketing stints can increase your lead rate from 5% to 15%. With effective content marketing and other activities for every lead you generate, you should also generate one "pipeline." A pipeline normally consists of a prospect that is just one or two additional actions from being converted to a lead. Typically 20-25% of the time a pipeline does have a qualified lead that goes onto sales. Also, you will likely want to identify what we call "nurtures." Nurtures are the right company and the right contact, just not yet the right time.
If any of these B2B lead generation areas might have some room for improvement in your organization, DECK 7 can guide you with excellent lead management to help you get where you need to go. Contact us today.