Why Marketing Automation Can Produce More Sales-Ready Leads
Marketing automation can produce more sales-ready leads for your business. Not every online lead is ready to make a decision. Many online shoppers are still deciding whether or not they even need a product or service. They have not begun the process of deciding where they will make their purchase and they have no desire to speak to a salesperson until they are ready.
Marketing automation is designed for these types of leads. It produces more sales-ready leads by first identifying leads that are actively demonstrating interest by researching information online. Marketing automation then tracks each of these lead’s online behavior and rates their activity against the pre-purchase behavior of existing customers.
Lead Profiling and Scoring
By comparing potential leads to the typical buying patterns of current customers, marketing can prioritize leads based on their likelihood of conversion. They can also encourage leads to volunteer their demographic information using registration forms for newsletters, white papers, or tutorials. Leads that are willing to fill out online surveys are given higher priority, since it demonstrates a more sincere interest in a product or survey.
Marketing automation is designed to gather as much information on a lead as possible to determine BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, & Time). Can they afford to make a purchase? Do they have the authority to make a purchase? Do they need to make a purchase? Are they ready to purchase? The answer to all four questions should be yes before the lead is given to the sales department.
Use Quality Content to Nurture Leads
If the lead is not sales-ready, the marketing automation program will build on their interest with informative content that confirms a need for a product or service. For example, if a lead has clicked on a page that discusses general information about the online accounting software program that the site offers, lead nurturing can be programmed to email a helpful article on how accounting software programs can save a business time and money.
If a lead is further along in their buying process, the nurturing content can be designed to make them feel more confident about their purchase. Using the previous example, it could be an article on how technology has made it safer and easier to manage your finances online. This aspect of the marketing automation process will produce more sales-ready leads by nurturing leads based on their individual needs.
Customization based on Lead Segments
To make the content customization process more efficient, leads are broken down into lead segments based on similar profiles and score. Marketing automation generates an abundance of leads and it is too difficult to personalize content for every single lead. By grouping leads together, content can be created for each type of lead.
The marketing automation process can produce more sales-ready leads by profiling, scoring, segmenting, and nurturing each lead throughout their buying process. Only leads with the highest scores are given to sales, so valuable time is never wasted on leads that are not ready to buy.
