Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Building Relationships with Lead Nurturing

Enterprises seem to be spending quite a lot on efforts to build online lead generation with an eye to ensure enhanced customer base and well-qualified leads, yet they are bothered by certain queries that compels to wonder if  generating leads are enough  for enhanced CRM. The queries these enterprises often ending up asking include:  
  • Is lead generation enough to develop greater CRM?
  • Does lead nurturing actually work?
  • What are the actual parameters of lead nurturing and can they actually bring in optimum results?
  • How does one bridge the gap of perception that exists between marketing automation teams and sales teams?


These questions are pertinent and are often drawn up because even as leads are being generated, lead-fatigue can set in among sales teams, if there is no noticeable progress with leads. So even as sales fails in interacting with the lead constantly, marketing automation software teams feel that once they have provided the lead to the sales, it is their baby, so to speak. Therein emerges a problem of a lead being lost because no one wants to nurture the lead or care for the lead.

Lead nurturing can be the key to enhanced CRM
Lead nurturing can actually help not just enable but also optimize sales effectiveness and enhance marketing campaigns. With the right kind of lead nurturing software you can build long term relationships with your prospective customers. Here are the benefits of a good lead nurturing software:
  • It will help you understand your customers better, by giving you insights into the customers intention
  • It will assist in informing you if your prospect is sales ready
  • It will also pass on leads to your sales team automatically and help them with a solution that can further nurture the lead
  • The software will ensure that your lead and their interest sustains, this will be ensured by informing and educating the leads with relevant information


To ensure that your leads are nurtured effectively one needs to ensure that they are informed of newer additions to your product, they need to be made involved, so keep them hooked by asking them to view a demo, take part in a webinar, read a blog etc. Educating your lead about the product, its effectiveness through a well-thought of email campaign also might work wonders. The onus lies on nurturing your relationship with your prospect, which means you need to cultivate your relationship and care for it continuously.

Friday, April 8, 2011

The Most Promising Lead Generation Techniques

Marketers all over the world are on a continuous quest to identify effective ways to generate leads. Lead generation efforts have assumed top priority in marketing, and the focus now is not just on generating more leads, but more quality leads. So, innovative lead generation techniques are being introduced with the aim to keep leads flowing into the marketing and sales funnel.

However, the flipside is that not all lead generation techniques are effective. While some work, others just may not. The secret lies in being persistent, but not pushy. Also, in the current age where prospects rely on the Internet for information, the key is to use online techniques to attract prospects. Here are the top five proven techniques that can help turn contacts into clients:
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to a website. Optimizing a website and creating landing pages with the right keywords can help push the website’s search engine ranking and ensure steady flow of traffic. More traffic translates to more leads. And if these leads are arriving at the website through a search engine, then it is evident that they have been looking for a similar product/service. So, the chances of them being qualified leads are very high.
  • Article marketing is another proven technique for lead generation. Using article directories is the easiest way to get exposure without spending money. By writing articles, which showcase the capabilities and benefits of a product (with backlinks to the website) good quality leads can be generated.
  • Many vendors offer free reports, trials, and consultations, which can be very attractive to prospects. This technique has been quite effective in getting the attention of prospects, and is therefore a commonly used tactic in lead generation.
  • Marketing automation tools
    are also widely being used for lead generation. These tools capture details about anonymous visitors and track their intent, interest levels and behavior on the website. And using these details they enable marketing automation to efficiently segment leads and send out targeted messages.
  • Making use of social network sites for lead generation is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in marketing automation
    . Networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn offer a promising platform for interacting with prospects all over the world. And by enabling real-time communication, social networks have taken lead generation to an all new level.
Lead generation was not considered important for business growth till the recent past. But it is now recognized as an indispensable marketing strategy essential to beat industry competition, and carve a niche in the market. So, by employing the above-mentioned techniques businesses can make lead generation software
a cake-walk. 

Know more - lead management