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Making Online Marketing: Lead Generation and Lead Nurturing Work

When considering what might be an obstacle in the adoption of online marketing tools (you know, marketing automation, lead generation, lead nurturing tools on the market today), what are the barriers to having greater adoption of these technologies?

I think that beyond executive management, and sorting through vendors, that it is really a matter of understanding how to put together an online marketing strategy (or a lead generation and nurturing strategy) and the content necessary to keep it effective and productive. Once you have that, you can select tools that will work for you.

So many of the companies that I talk to are grabbing leads, and tossing them to sales, and that is it. Companies are only starting to realize that there are much more effective ways to proceed that will yield higher results and improve the ultimate goal - increase revenues and contribute to growth.

Some of this is fairly simple to evaluate:

1. When your target markets search for your company -- do you come up in the search results? If not, there is work to be done -- because 80% of customers surveyed said they found their vendor, not the other way around. So either you will work to come up naturally given your high priority search terms, or you will use Paid Search strategies to put you on those pages. A combination of both is optimal.
(note: there are a lot of ways to get yourself optimized -- whether that's through a single site, or a microsite strategy, blog, etc), the key is to ensure that you are optimized.

2. Do you have relevant and engaging content at your site once a prospect finds you? Do you have eBooks, whitepapers for download, or webinars to attend that will enable you to capture lead interest? Can you easily manage the content and lead capture forms at your site?

3. Once you capture a lead, do you send them other relevant materials and track their response so you can determine whether they are more likely to be sales ready, or continue to nurture them until they fit the "sales ready" profile?

4. Do you have a way to easily segment your leads into their interest areas so they receive messages from you that are relevant and interesting to them? Can you easily create the drip campaigns so this is easy to accomplish?

If you have that sort of an approach laid out, then conversations with vendors, or free trials that you can utilize will provide you with the information you need to understand which vendor will deliver what you need, and which vendor will provide the best "bang-for-the-buck" given how you want to drive your efforts.

Should Marketers Shift From Brand Awareness to Lead Generation?

In the current economic climate, should marketers be shifting more budget from brand awareness to lead generation?

Focusing efforts on your web and online activities for lead generation can be well measured, and is in fact brand-building as well. I think the focus changing to relevant, interesting, valuable content is the important aspect when working online.  Activities on the Internet can be measured, and adjusted quickly and easily.

Think about your website (including any microsites). When your target markets search (any/all of them), does your website or microsites get found in the first page of results? If not, dollars spent with search engine optimization would be well-spent, since 80% of people interested in purchasing something start with a search online. Make it easy for people to find you by optimizing your web presence. This can be measured by increased traffic to your site and by keywords if you want to get it truly measured -- and you may not find out who each of those new visitors are -- but they will know about you while they work their way through the buying cycle.

Hence the focus on content -- providing useful, relevant, valuable content (in the eyes of your target market) -- will do more for people considering what your organization has to offer. And giving some of that away will be necessary without requiring any information.

People will volunteer information when what you are providing has a perceived value that is worth trading their information to receive. Provide a mix between totally available information and articles, and that which requires registration to receive.  If it's reasonable to offer a regular newsletter, provide a way for people to sign up for one.  As they view the relevant content at your site, they will sign up to receive communications from you. 

But once you have them, if you pass them directly to sales, or even call them right away (unless they have requested a call) - you've short circuited the return you can receive if you were to instead, engage in lead nurturing.

Nurturing leads, sending them an ongoing set of relevant messages based upon their interaction and ongoing responses can increase your lead-close ratio dramatically. Identifying pathways of nurturing based on distinct expressed interests can wok to keep you top-of-mind with your leads, so when they are ready to buy, you will be there to close the deal.

It will also allow you to identify those leads who are "more likely" to be sales-ready, so your sales force is much more focused in their activities and contacts.

Of course, an integrated set of online marketing and lead generation and nurturing tools makes this process a lot easier to implement and manage. Given the economic climate, using a lead generation and nurturing toolset that is well integrated and yet affordable, makes a huge difference, so your dollars can be spent putting that relevant and valuable content in place.