Successful Lead Generation

Introduction

In today’s business climate sales and marketing departments are stretched ever thinner and budgets are getting tighter, the modern sales and marketing professional is expected to achieve more with less resource. This is changing the way that successful forward thinking companies operate. A company cannot survive unless they create leads and ultimately sales. But this is easier said than done. Getting through the traffic of advertising from your competitors and achieving impact is a hard thing to do. Companies must target their database more efficiently in order to increase their sales.
 
 
Many companies are now using direct marketing to help with their lead generation.  Direct marketing is an effective way of communicating straight to your customers and prospects. It allows you to gauge response to campaigns in real time, as it happens.
The message is tailored specifically for the segment that is targeted, the message is personalised, and unlike mass advertising, you can track the response you get from individuals. This allows you to identify the warm/hot leads and capitalise on them.

Marketing Addiction has put together a short check list of direct marketing dos for lead generation.

1. Database
The database is absolutely key to the success of your direct marketing campaigns.  The whole ethos behind direct marketing is that you are having personal direct contact with your market place.  The data that you hold must be comprehensive, up to date and accurate. You must make sure the contact is the actual decision maker, and not just the person with the most appropriate-sounding job title.

You need a comprehensive database of personal contact information including name, company name, address, job title, email etc. You’ve probably heard this a thousand times before, but would you believe that most businesses still do not collect the contact details of everyone who contacts them. Every time a business fails to capture someone’s details they’re turning down the opportunity to contact them for free, for weeks, months and years ahead. Secretaries, sales, marketing and telesales staff as well as the web site should all be used to collect individuals contact details. When you have the contact details keep them clean, when you get any email bounces or returned mail contact them to find out why they were returned and update the records.

Make sure all contact details and spellings are correct when sending out letters and emails in order not to offend the recipients or make yourselves look unprofessional.  One of the biggest reasons for direct marketing not being read is that the basic contact details are not correct.  When possible, collect all of your data yourselves as opposed to using un-targeted, unspecific rented databases. Always include an unsubscribe option in your communications to ensure all recipients want to hear from you. Keep as many details on your contacts as possible, the more details you keep, the more you can segment your database and the more targeted you can make your communications which relate to their past purchase behaviour and product needs.

Data and the law
The Data Protection Act 1998 is the law that governs the processing of personal information held on living, identifiable individuals. You must comply with the Act if your business processes personal information.  There are strict guidelines that you must follow if you are collecting and holding personal information. 

If you are sending out emails and electronic communications you have to ensure that you comply with all laws governing electronic communication. If you are contacting people by telephone you have to ensure that you check your database against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and the Corporate Telephone Preference Service.

For more details on the Data Protection Act, your other legal requirements and to ensure you comply please, visit the following sites.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/
http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

2- Integrated approach
Generating leads is getting harder and harder to do. People are getting more desensitised to the multitude of advertising messages they are subjected to. Getting through to high level decision makers is challenging. Getting a positive response from them is even more challenging.  Carefully timed multi-faceted campaigns are much more effective than single isolated campaigns.
There are many illusive contacts that may not respond by mail or telephone but require email or contact through the web site, other prospects will only respond to personal telephone calls from knowledgeable and skilled sales people. Why limit the response you can get from your marketing effort and budget, it makes sense to use a multi-faceted approach.

There are many marketing services you can use in conjunction with one another. These services include:

1. Email Marketing
2. Telemarketing
3. Direct mail
4. Online Services
5. Exhibitions
6. Seminars
 
Combinations of these services are highly powerful when wanting to increase lead generation. For example, modern email marketing software now allows you to track what recipients have done with your email communications. You have visibility of who has received, opened and clicked on your email. Those who have opened and clicked have obviously received something they regard as useful to themselves. Following up these contacts with a telemarketing call to discuss their requirements will dramatically increase the likelihood of a new sales lead.
Likewise combining exhibitions with email/mail and telesales can dramatically increase your return on investment for the show.
 
You must ensure you collect all contact details of all visitors to your stand. If possible, email these details back to the office that day in order for you sales team to dispatch an email/letter to them straight away. The letter should thank them for coming to your stand, explain some more about yourselves and tell them you will be ringing them soon.  A day or two later give them telemarketing call. This ensures you strike while the iron’s hot and stay in the consciousness of you targets, while again increasing the likelihood of a sale.
These are just two examples of how integrated campaigns work. There are many more combinations and techniques which give you the maximum opportunity of having you message delivered to your valuable contacts.

Integration can also mean a marketing agency integrating around your existing in-house activities.  Agencies can offer you a service that you do not have the capabilities to implement within your own company. For example, the use of their email marketing software, or access to a telesales team. Combined effort can save you money than if you out source all the services independently, and will give you more control over the services and a flexible approach.
 
3- Event Driven Communications
As well as the general monthly email newsletters, courtesy calls and direct mailings that you send out ensure that you are contacting your customers and prospects at other times, though remember there has to be a reason to contact them or they will get annoyed and opt-out of future contact. The reasons to contact people are varied and depend upon your relationship with them but the list is long and can include
- Following up all visitors to the web site who request information
- Following up all enquiries
- Invitations to events
- People who register to attend a seminar or exhibition
- All people you meet at seminars and exhibitions
- Product launches
- Discounts or special offers
- Send out press releases
- Renewal dates
- Anniversaries
- Surveys
- Competitions
With the right content your sales and marketing teams can send out relevant information to improve your relationship with your prospects and customers, ensuring that when the time is right to buy you are in contact with them.
 
4 – Keep It Simple
For most B2B sales the sales cycle is long. Your communications must focus on a call to action i.e. what is the reason for sending this communication and what do we expect the recipient to do with it.  If you are inviting people to a seminar, tell them what, why, where and when and then tell them very clearly what you expect them to do next to register. Or if you are offering them a special offer on products/services give the recipient a time limit in which they can claim the reduction. These instructions and time implications uncomplicate matters and should improve responses and shorten sales cycles.  
 
5 - Tactical
Allow your sales and account management staff to communicate to their own prospects and databases. If you use corporate images ensure that all your communications have your corporate look and feel, no matter who sends it out. 
Your sales staff are close to their own prospects so the message can be a lot more tailored and personal to the recipients. This ensures a greater response rate than mass marketing but they both have their place in a company’s successful direct marketing policy.
Remember that some of your customers will be bombarded by marketing messages on a daily basis. Hence the importance of sending, relevant, timed, personalised and event driven correspondence, in order to cut through the other marketing messages.
 
6 – Follow Up
This is probably the most obvious, and can have the biggest impact, but you would be amazed by the number of companies who don’t do this.  It can cost a lot in terms of time, effort and money to generate responses to marketing activity; you are wasting all of this if you do not follow up all enquiries effectively. 

You have a real opportunity to make a positive impression as a company that delivers on their promises, is responsive and cares about their prospects.
Ensure that all positive responses to your communications are followed up by telesales, direct mail and/or email.  Don’t allow enquiries to go cold always ensure that you are contacting them with a relevant, meaningful and personal communication.  If they have requested further information ensure that this is sent out immediately and that this is also followed up in a timely manner. This is especially true of the Internet, the biggest complaint that people make about requesting further information online is that it never arrives.  Don’t let your organisation fall into this trap.


Conclusion
Lead generation is difficult and if it isn’t done correctly can be expensive, damaging to your brand and not deliver results.  However if it is done correctly can improve your sales dramatically and will pay for itself many times over. If you don’t have experience of creating new sales leads talk to people who do, partner with organisations who have specific skills and experience in this field.  The key is regular, effective communication with a clean and comprehensive database. Ensure that you know your market and all your communications offer the recipients something that they want, whether that is a white paper, an invitation to a seminar or a special discount.  Never contact your prospects without a reason.

Always have a ‘call to action’ within any communication and make it simple to follow.  If the recipients of your communications are confused or uncertain of what to do they will not respond.
When sending out lead generation communications you are not trying to educate the recipient you are trying to get their interest, once they have expressed their interest by following the call-to-action you can follow them up and educate them.



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