Mix Up Your Marketing and Invest in the Best Lead Management Solution
Mix up your marketing and be sure to invest in the best lead management software. Before we start talking about our ultimate goal – lead management solutions – let’s get into some background. Brad Miller at Search Engine Watch recently penned an article discussing how the future of SEO is based on today’s search marketing integration techniques. [1] Just the mention of another fancy web marketing term like search marketing integration can scare the daylights out of any humble company. But before you close the browser and say, “just starting my Adwords account was difficult enough…” stay with us.
Search marketing integration is about getting ranked higher in Google by ensuring all components of your digital marketing are optimized. By optimized, we mean the following:
- Keyword-rich, descriptive content on your website
- The same useful keyword-rich content across your social media platforms
- Content that engages your audience and uses carefully-selected keywords in every piece of content.If you’re responsible for the content it should be put together well, reflect your offering and feature your keywords.
Chances are, many small businesses have no plan in place for how to integrate great content and keyword-rich text into all their digital marketing efforts. Search marketing integration (SMI) is the future of digital marketing. Many small companies we talk to find broadening search marketing efforts, or even streamlining them can bring in a whole new class of leads.
The bottom line? Once you start, you’re going to have to figure out what lead management application you’ll use to keep track of all those leads and to understand their particulars. So why not develop your lead management solution while you’re diversifying your digital marketing?
What about Lead Management Solutions?
Getting your marketing efforts streamlined ensures lead management solutions will need to follow. If you’ve been working at marketing your business for a while, you know:
- A lead from one social media site may behave differently and/or have different needs than a phone-in lead. Phone leads may have a more urgent need for services, for one thing.
- Leads from similar sources may have different pains – and will therefore need to be handled differently.
- If you have leads pouring in from different social media services, what kind of lead management application do you use to ensure follow-up happens in a timely manner?
Now that you know you’ll need to begin streamlining your total marketing efforts with search marketing integration, another opportunity presents itself –lead management.
Go through each channel of your marketing and come up with a search marketing integration plan for each. It can be as simple as inserting effective keywords into your social media profiles, or hiring a pro to help you manage your Adwords accounts for better branding.
While you’re at it, take a moment to consider how leads funnel in through each of your digital marketing funnels. Do you have any way of managing leads through social media vs. PPC? What about social media vs. offline marketing? If you aren’t sure, start recording some data about your clients into your lead management application to discover patterns in user behavior. Use these patterns to better analyze how you should approach follow-up with your leads.
Consider:
- Needs/Pain – do users from social media tend to have a different need than phone-in users?
- Urgency – what is the requested turnaround or willingness to buy from leads who funnel in from one area of your marketing vs. another?
- Close rate – do you close leads from one funnel more than another? If so, are you using the same sales tactics for both?
Would a Lead Management Solution Help?
An intuitive application with customizable variables you can define yourself will allow you to keep track of some of the particulars of your leads. While you’re developing your internet marketing strategy, consider integrating lead management that truly works for your business and addresses the particular needs of your potential customers. Consider Lead Liaison’s lead management dashboard to help – from initial contact throughout the life of the lead.
Resources
1) http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2239955/The-New-SEO-Search-Marketing-Integration
