Fact 1 - Marketing qualified leads are baselines to measure marketing efficiency.
The Marketing funnel is a measure of investment versus return and defines the stages and processes involved in this journey of translating effort to results. The Sales Funnel shows how large volumes of leads entering the system get narrowed down as time goes on.
In the traditional Sales Funnel, which is basic and is focused on showing the transformation of leads to customers, a company drives various marketing campaigns to bring in interested Leads. Then, Sales takes over to find opportunities (purchase intent). The Leads which show interest are sent proposals and quotes and if the offerings meet their needs, the prospects, who have so far traversed the funnel, become the new customers for the company.
Websites started playing a crucial role in lead generation when Internet marketing became popular. Determining the source of the visitors, their level of engagement with the content on the site, their reaction to different calls to action on the site and their interaction with the company (via form fill or request form before the sale is made) became qualifiers which decide if a Lead is worthy of entering the Sales Funnel.
Marketing until now has always been considered as a cost centre, not playing an active role in primary lead generation efforts. However, the entry of Marketing Automation platforms have ensured that companies are able to measure the ROI for their marketing activities, and marketing can stake a claim on part of the revenue. ‘Marketing Qualified lead Rate’ will become a relevant measure for marketing efficiency and success, both from a marketing initiative perspective and from marketing’s ability to effectively screen out low potential contacts.
Fact 2 – Lead Generation is a Marathon; Marketing Automation makes it a Sprint.
A key reason for the Sales-Marketing disconnect is that companies are losing huge amounts of money because of a misalignment within their organizations. Today, there is a huge increase in the number of channels marketing uses for creating brand awareness and for generating leads. Despite this, there is a visible shortfall in the number of quality leads generated by the marketing team. A difference in perceptions is where the divide between Sales and Marketing starts.
The Sales and Marketing disconnect largely reduces the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns and the efficiency of Sales’ efforts to pursue and close deals. Therefore, Marketing Automation makes lead management a real-time collaborative process. Here, the communication process is two-way where Sales provides input to help Marketing optimize its campaigns and, Marketing runs targeted campaigns to drive quality leads.
Marketing automation software platforms provide a solution for resolving the sales and marketing split and keeps both happy by ensuring a sales funnel full with qualified leads.
Used optimally, marketing automation can actually deliver extraordinary results in a short time-frame. Also, it significantly shortens the time between lead generation and lead closure because it recognizes the buying process as a group activity and hence takes into account all activities by an enterprise at different times before qualifying them as a ‘sales ready lead’.
Also read on - Lead nurturing software
The popular ‘Call to Actions’ is mostly associated with free trials and offers and, is widely used in both the B2C and B2B industries. It is a universal rule followed by most customers around the world in any industry; that if they want to get the maximum returns for their investments, they allow the customer to test it in his own environment.
Here are some important considerations for B2B clients before using “Free Trials” on your webpage.
Placement effectiveness of ‘Free Trial’
Free trial generally is the primary call to action and gets the top billing in terms of placement – above fold along with the key value proposition or image. Sometimes it is even repeated twice in a smaller print below the fold or on the top along with the login.
Give away for ‘Free Trials’
Free trial remains most comprehensive form of evaluation for any product or offering.
Ideal time for a ‘Free Trial’ offer
From a sales perspective, it ideal to offer the shortest time and then on an individual case to case basis, make exceptions where required.
Urgency around ‘Free Trial’
By indicating the free trial is available for a limited time in a subscript, one can create a sense of urgency around the call to action. You can also mention “No credit card data required” in the subscript which would emphasise – “no obligations for taking the trial”.
Information around ‘Free Trial’ tabs
Providing links to video, demo, tutorials or other resources may result in more click-through for these links as prospects would like to read more about the product and the value proposition before engaging in a trial.
Is dummy data in a sandbox better than ‘Free Trial’?
Using dummy data in a sandbox depends on whether the product produces data in a free trial which can show the prospects true value and new perspectives which they would find difficult to associate otherwise.
Overall, offering free trials is a practical proposition and works wonders from a prospect’s perspective, because it is an opportunity to go beyond the marketing automation collateral and jargon and check if the product or service being marketed matches the claims made.
Free trial is great option for B2B companies, if data produced during the trial period highlights the value of the product and provides with a strong motivation to buy.
The free product trial experience goes a step further than making available dummy data in a sandbox environment, as it shows how valuable the product is in the prospect’s own environment, thus reinforcing the value proposition.
Free trials help a prospect gain familiarity with the product, its features; not just in a sandbox environment, but right in the production environment. If the prospect does not like something in the promo run, he can voice his opinion and feedback, which can find its way back to the vendor company, who may just be able to accommodate the suggestions in the paid version.
Since most B2B decisions are taken by a group of individuals, going with a certain vendor becomes easier if there is data to showcase the merits of the solution offered by them. Free trials help put together such convincing data.
Also, a free trial allows you to make your first contact with the buyer, it allows you to present your case and build a relationship with the decision makers, which can affect the final purchase decision. So, ultimately it serves the purpose for effective Lead generation and lead nurturing.
Till recently B2B marketers focused all their lead generation efforts only on those who have shown interest – companies who have been qualified ‘prospect’, ‘sales-ready’ or ‘marketing-qualified-lead’. However, there is a segment that has been left unattended and ignoring them means that more than three-fourths of the carefully collected lead information is going down the drain.
Ignoring not-yet-sales qualified leads is like having ammunition but not knowing how to shoot. It is the responsibility of the Marketing team to keep in touch with such people to develop a ‘relationship’ first. Also, Marketing will end up spending more time and money to capture lead information on the unqualified ones if they are let off without any action.
Mostly, it is during the interest building stage that these un-qualified ones leak out of the Sales funnel. A simple lack of communication will prevent Sales from working on un-qualified leads because their focus does not deviate from the qualified ones at all.
Continual communication programs specifically designed for the unqualified ones can be executed to keep them informed, irrespective of whether they are responding.Another main reason for not adequately addressing the not-yet-qualified leads is because of the age old divide between Sales and Marketing.
So, most of the time no action is taken on these leads because there are not enough marketing campaigns targeted by Marketing, and Sales refuses to pick them because they are unqualified.
Keeping a process in place within the lead management system to address such leads will surely go a long way in bringing in more leads for the company.
Since lead generation is a process oriented effort requires to be measured consistently so that process improvements can be implemented at every milestone. Here, milestones of lead generation would ideally mean the transition points of prospects.
The following analytics can be drawn from lead generation efforts.
- Number of Indentified Leads vs. Total Visited
- Number of Qualified Leads vs. Total Identified Leads
- Number of Sale-ready vs. Number of Qualified Leads
- Cost of campaign per lead
- Success rate of Lead Conversion to Customer
Apart from this, companies need to constantly monitor metrics, using robust lead management software, related to the geographical background of leads, behavioral aspects, visitor intent identification parameters, etc. Simultaneously, it is vital to regularly follow-up with leads, whether they have been qualified or not.
Know more - marketing automation software & lead generation software
The secret to any B2B success lies in the process. In marketing automation, it’s not about creativity or conducting a better lead generation campaign. Leveraging the conversions of inquiries into qualified leads and leads into qualified sales is what is important. Prospective leads originate in a wide range of different ways, and there needs be a process in place to manage all those leads. And Lead Management begins with the ability to hit revenue targets in your sales pipeline.
The intent of lead management software is to build a relationship with each prospective customer in a way that their interest develops into opportunities for sales. It is therefore important to choose the best process to ensure success. For example, a marketer places certain ads with the intention that readers will respond and perhaps make a purchase. There may be many inquiries resulting from paid ads, which carry calls to action including a web site or toll-free number. For this there needs to be a process in place to handle all enquiries. Without investing much, a company can create a great inquiry management process by optimizing each step in the inquiry management chain.
In the campaign development process, it is important to plan a response. It is necessary to have a specific code to identify the responses from all outbound communication. Offer multiple response media, like phone, Web, BRC, fax, e-mail, etc. This way there is a wide set of options for a prospective customer to get back to you. - Efficient response capture
It is necessary to put together a cross-functional team as the response capture process will work well if it is designed by the people who manage the inbound responses. By considering the best strategy you can ensure that the enquiries do not get mixed up with daily business communications.
The secret to inquiry fulfillment is speed. Most B2B companies make enquiries asking for more information, and the faster they get that information, the faster they will respond. Matching the fulfillment material to the need and the value of the prospect quickly indicates the value the best companies put on fast delivery.
Move a lead into the lead nurturing process when the prospect is not yet ready to see a sales person, but may be ready soon. You can use a number of lead nurturing methods like catalogs, newsletters, surveys, white papers and/or birthday cards. With a series of ongoing communications, you can build awareness and maintain trust and contact until the prospect is ready to buy.
By choosing the best practice in your lead management process you can optimize your inquiry management process and greatly increase your revenue from lead generation campaigns.
Know More - lead management system , b2b lead scoring
A lead scoring strategy is one of the best ways for marketing and sales teams to synchronize and optimize the lead management process. B2B companies have an increasing availability of marketing platforms, so there is really no justification of ignore the opportunities available through lead scoring. Lead scoring is the method of assigning a score to lead behavior on the basis of a certain criteria. Fundamentally the lead scoring is on the basis of the likelihood of a lead purchasing your product. Leads scoring as a process helps businesses make crucial decisions.
Significance of Lead Scoring
Lead scoring usually assigns a point value to every action that a prospect makes on the site. These result in a score being allotted to the prospects based on activities, web pages browsed or links clicked. A prospect is assigned to the sales team, after being viewed and scored by the marketing team. On the basis of the lead score, the sales team has an indication of the prospect’s interest. It is also beneficial to the sales and the marketing automation department as it points to where prospects come from and how they interact within your site.
How to create a successful lead scoring process to enhance your sales
For an enterprise in its pursuit to collect and nurture new leads, automated lead scoring techniques work wonders. If you are looking at ways to optimize your current strategy, these are a few tips that can work.
- Collaboration between sales and marketing
The friction between your sales and marketing teams can be lessened with lead scoring. A brilliant way of ensuring that the process is performing to the satisfaction of all the teams is the involvement of the sales teams in the lead scoring process from the get-go.- Simplify the lead scoring process
Decide which fields are required and which are optional when you set up your process. By keeping minimal and consistent across forms throughout your website ensures that the leads are compared on the same data. Choosing lead scoring criteria that can be constantly measured is the best way of keeping your lead scoring system manageable.
Execute BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing) data for your preliminary assessments, if you’re just starting out with lead scoring. - Determine lead value on explicit and implicit data
The value of the lead can be determined on the information that is available on the leads. Explicit data is that which is volunteered when a visitor fills out a web form and interacts with your sales or marketing teams. Implicit data is gathered based on the visitor’s interactions on your website. You can have a comprehensive view of the lead’s interest depending on how you evaluate leads based on both the types of data.- Score on the basis of frequency
It is important to score your leads on the basis of timing. An important factor in gauging a leads' engagement level, is the frequency of the lead visits and how recently they’ve interacted with your website.
Once the lead scoring strategy is implemented, it is vital that leads who don’t meet the meet the criteria you’ve laid out are not sent to the sales teams. Leads that are not ready need to be nurtured, as lead nurturing is an also essential aspect of your lead management process. With a successful lead scoring process, your sales can reach great heights.
Know more - lead generation, lead management software
Marketing teams are usually faced with challenges pertaining to leads as they need to identify only those leads that can bring forth the best opportunities for their sales teams. Therefore qualification of leads is crucial to all sales teams’ effectiveness and success. Automated lead scoring techniques also work wonders for an enterprise in its pursuit to collect and nurture new leads. If you're just getting started with lead scoring, here are a few tips to get you on your way.- Ensure that the lead score encapsulates both online and offline activity
To get a complete and accurate picture, it is important for a lead score to take in the online as well as the offline activity. It is therefore imperative to ensure that inbound calls and other offline behaviors that are integral to the buyer’s process are fully integrated into the scoring methodology.- Expect changes in the scoring model
It is necessary to examine historical data and look for correlations that exist. It is only through continuous experimentation and monitoring that your lead model will mature. - Re-evaluate the lead score data continuously
It is important to automatically add new data as it is gathered over time and re-score leads. To maintain accurate scores, it is necessary to constantly re-assess and update the data. - A low score is not a low value lead
Low lead scores indicate that a person is early in their buying process. A low score has the potential to develop over time, so don’t discard it.
It is important to start simple and tweak the programs, your scores, and the metrics that are being looked at to analyze the scores of the leads. The actual score, of course, does not matter. What matters more is that the higher the score, the more actionable the lead is. The right kind of lead scoring solution can ensure that leads are automatically stored and prioritized. It makes it easier for sales teams to discriminate between leads that may be sales ready and those that may not be. Lead Scoring is the process of assigning a quantitative qualification to prospects on the basis of their behavior and potential of making a purchase in a given time. So lead scoring is basically the process of separating qualified, sales ready leads in an automated fashion into two parts – their behavior and their demographics. With optimized B2B lead scoring methods, companies can easily prioritize sales leads, gauge the level of interest of the website and provide answers about the Intent behind visitors’ actions.
Know More -
automated lead scoring, lead management system
Did you know that marketing budgets for marketing automation saw an increase from 6.4% of marketing budgets in 2010 to 6.9% in 2011? Enterprises have realized that with complicated marketing strategies and global recession, marketing automation tools can be more effective in grasping the complexities of marketing campaigns and can therefore offer solutions to solve these complexities. Marketing automation tools can equip enterprises with a cost effective way of ensuring marketing operational efficiency. When conventional and expensive marketing initiatives have failed, it has been the newer marketing elements that need to be focused upon. One such marketing automation element is lead scoring. Very simply put, lead scoring is the process of ranking and getting leads prioritized according to some pre-defined parameters.
Lead Scoring in 2011 - The Road Ahead
Lead scoring can assist enterprises in understanding the interests of their website visitors. Also the intent of these visitors can be ascertained. Often enterprises are plagued with questions about the intent behind a particular prospect’s website visit or about the actual reason behind the 11 will emphasize the ability to grasp the prospect’s intent correctly. Only then can marketing and sales teams take lead score results seriously and also take necessary and suitable action. Also the year will see sales leads scoring engaging more intensely in the analytical aspect of understanding the intent of prospects, which will further help marketing and sales teams to strategize and ideate better on their marketing campaigns. The social media bandwagon will continue to create an impact and it will have some impact on lead scoring techniques as well.
With automated lead scoring methodologies available, enterprises can be assured of better synthesis and communication between their sales and marketing teams. Therefore there will no longer be a sales and marketing teams working as separate teams, rather they will function and work together. 2011 will ensure that lead scoring techniques offer better direction towards the allocation of capital to the right kind of leads rather than focusing on prospects that may yield no profits for the enterprise. Targeted leads, when nurtured, will offer more profits and revenues to the enterprise, and this year will definitely be witness to enterprises enjoying such scenarios.
