Best practices for lead generation, marketing automation and revenue generation topics.

Lead Liaison

The Five Biggest Benefits of Quality Lead Scoring

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The Five Biggest Benefits of Quality Lead ScoringLead scoring is a sales and marketing methodology used to rank prospects against a scale that represents high-quality leads. Savvy marketers are quickly discovering the impact quality lead scoring can have on generating leads with a higher potential for conversion, which is critical in today’s competitive global marketplace.

These are the five biggest benefits of quality lead scoring:

Quality Lead Scoring Simplifies the Lead Evaluation Process

Using an automated lead scoring system will make it easier to quickly qualify leads based on pre-determined criteria. Quality lead scoring is based on attributes and behavior of typical customers, so there is solid basis for comparison. By using an automated process to rank each lead, marketing can quickly determine which leads require additional information and which leads are ready to make a purchase.

Lead Scoring Provides a Detailed Profile of Potential Leads

Quality lead scoring defines leads based on both behavioral and demographic characteristics, which offers sales and marketing a clear and detailed picture of a lead’s needs and interests. This information is invaluable when nurturing and guiding a lead through the marketing funnel.

Good Lead Scoring Strengthens the Relationship with a Lead

The better insight into a lead’s needs and interests the better  marketers have the ability to personalize content that is shared with the lead, which creates a more meaningful connection. Providing leads with useful and relevant information prior to making a sale strengthens trust in the brand and creates loyalty.

Lead Scoring Processes Provide insight into the Lead’s Buying Process

Leads that marketing automation generates from a website will be at different stages within their buying process. Some could still be investigating the need for a product or service, while others may be on the verge of making a decision. Lead scoring helps decipher at what point the lead is at in their journey, so the right follow-up is done to convert them into a customer.

Lead Scoring Methods Produce Higher Quality Leads

Leads need to reach a certain ranking which shows they are not only interested in a product or service, but they are currently ready to make their decision, before they are given to the sales department. Due to this systematic screening process, the chances of the sales team converting a lead improves exponentially.

These five factors are the main reasons why so many business leaders are tapping into the world of marketing automation by using the benefits of lead scoring to their advantage. Every company wants the inside scoop on their potential customers and lead scoring does exactly that.

Checkout Lead Liaison if you’re interested in seeing how we use unparalleled lead qualification technology by combining lead scoring, lead grading, recency, buy signals and total activity to better qualify leads.

Lead Liaison

Using Lead Nurturing to Build Trust and Establish Long-Term Clients

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Lead Nurturing Builds TrustUse lead nurturing to build trust and establish long-term clients. It’s always interesting to hear business owners talk about how they don’t have time to “court” leads. The purpose of lead nurturing isn’t to create an extra, unnecessary step in your closing process – it’s about making more money and increasing your bottom line.

It’s also about establishing trust. Customers who are more reluctant to part with their money will require lead nurturing but will also come to you further engaged in the trust process. It might not seem like developing a lead nurturing system will save you time in the long run, but you’d be surprised to learn how much more hands-off clients will be when you develop trust before starting work.

Lead Nurturing to Build Trust: The Financial Adviser

To prove this point, we talked with a financial advisory for a major bank who prefers to remain anonymous. He has a robust, multi-step lead nurturing process that takes place before he counts a lead as lost. There’s not room to discuss his funnel in this article, but his process is so tight he actually didn’t want to disclose much of it – or reveal his name.

“It’s not like you’re bugging leads,” the adviser tells us. “When I say 12-step process for lead nurturing I’m not talking about sending them 12 emails, or even making 6 calls and sending 4 emails and 2 mailers. It’s about assessment and lead quality. What do these people need, and what can I give to them?”

He continues, “It’s not just about a solution to their pain, it’s about connecting on a personal level. Sending out cards for birthdays can be a lead nurturing step. Throwing a mixer, inviting a select group of potential clients who would have a great time together or putting on a relevant class is a lead nurturing step.”

So we get it – the lead nurturing process isn’t just about figuring out what to say to get someone to buy from you, or to reach out to them using their preferred method of communication. It’s about what works – not just on a business level, on a personal level that deepens trust and highlights the connection.

Lead Nurturing Systems: The Advertising Agency Owner

To get a second opinion, we talked with an advertising agency owner. While her lead nurturing system requires far fewer steps, she mentions that a longer hiring process tends to lead to a longer working relationship over all. We asked how lead nurturing processes affect client retention level over the long term.

She says, “Building trust is the best thing you can do to keep long term clients. The lead nurturing process is a good way to build trust before you’re even hired. You’re showing you’re reliable because you want this sale – and the longer you invest and the more you nurture, the more of a stake you have in the client’s future. They pick up on this and hold you accountable.”

Lead nurturing systems are as different as the personalities of clients they bring on. By developing a lead nurturing system that addresses your potential client’s particular needs – both on a business and personal level if applicable – you’re giving clients that extra level of service that could get you the sale.

Lead Liaison has a sophisticated lead nurturing suite that will take the legwork out of lead nurturing and tracking for businesses of any size. Try us out today!

Lead Liaison

Calculating Email Marketing ROI: How it Works

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Email Marketing ROIAccording to the most recent Direct Marketing Association Power of Direct Marketing report, in 2011 calculating email marketing ROI returned $40.56 for every dollar spent. This blew away other touch points including:

  • Search engine – $22.24
  • Desktop display ads – $19.72
  • Mobile display ads – $10.51
  • Catalogs – $7.30

EmailStatCenter.com revealed in its 2010 Compensation & Resources Study that “70% of email marketers say they don’t have enough staff to prove (email marketing) ROI”. In addition, ClickZ claims that “44% of email marketers measure their email program using ‘customer engagement’ as a yardstick”.

It should be no surprise that email is among the most popular marketing channels available. If you’re not using email as a marketing tool, you should. But it’s not all about blasting messages and engaging respondents. The metrics should support your campaigns or money is being lost. So how do you determine the return on investment? Let’s take a look.

Email Campaign Results

The first step is to input data from your completed campaign into a formula. There are some online calculators that will compute the results for you. When you are examining your email campaign results a few of the generally accepted data points to include are

  • Number of email records (total list count)
  • Response rate (% of responses against total blast)
  • Conversion rate (% of respondents who purchased)
  • Unique buyers (first-time purchasers)
  • Average profit per sale
  • Campaign costs
    • Creating message (in house or contracted)
    • Delivery (Constant Contact, etc.)
    • Analytics (reporting and analysis costs)

Analyze Email Campaign Results

The next step is to review the results each campaign. Each company may use different metrics to judge the success or failure of a campaign, but some of the critical data points include

  • Number of responses (total opens, click-throughs, replies)
  • Number of buyers (Web purchases via landing pages or site links)
  • Cost per response (total dollars  responses)
  • Cost per buyer (total dollars  buyers)
  • Cost per first-time purchaser (total dollars  new buyers)
  • Cost per address (total dollars  total records)
  • Total profit from campaign

Keep in mind that ROI should not be calculated until a sufficient period of time has passed to allow for purchases to take place (up to 60 days following a campaign). Multi-release campaigns require a longer window to more accurately determine cost per purchase.

As with any business cost center, email marketing should be examined to ensure that marketing dollars are being well spent. ROI from lead nurturing email campaigns requires some different computations but is just as important as determining ROI from a direct marketing email campaign. Although email is not the holy grail of marketing avenues, statistics show a significant bang for the buck. The key is to keep track of the bang from each buck.

Let us know if you have other metrics you use for measuring your email marketing ROI. For more automated marketing strategies talk with a Lead Liaison account representative today!

Lead Liaison

92 Lead Management Data Points Released

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Allen, TX (PRWEB) February 19, 2013 – Lead Liaison, a leader in B2B marketing automation and revenue generation software, has released an infographic that provides the top 10 lead management statistics and details the consequences of poor lead management practices with 92 lead management data points.

The company is providing this decision-making tool in an effort to educate customers and other interested parties about the hazards of an ineffective lead management system. The infographic defines the risks associated with the lack of a good lead management strategy.

Lead Liaison’s mission is to improve alignment between marketing and sales professionals within small to mid-size companies. By providing the information contained within the infographic, company leaders expect to stimulate discussions, provide direction, and increase awareness of specific issues that arise from ineffective lead management policies.

Within the infographic there is an easy-to-follow flow chart that includes ten issues, such as poor lead distribution or a lack of a customer relationship management (CRM) software, then between two and 17 effects associated with each issue. From every set of effects there is an outcome that results from each specific issue. In all, there are over 70 details associated with the consequences of poor lead management within this helpful tool.

Statistics highlighted in the infographic include the percentage of B2B buyers who research purchases online, the average number of attempts needed to contact leads, and the percentage of leads initially disqualified that eventually buy within 12 months.

Company executives believe the information provided in the tool is critical to the development of effective lead generation, lead nurturing, and lead transition strategies. The goal for releasing the data is to improve lead conversion rates through a defined, well-executed lead management process.

The infographic is available for download on Lead Liaison’s Revenue Generation blog on The Consequences of Poor Lead Management post. For more information visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 888 895 3237.

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Lead Liaison is an application development company that designs, develops, and sells cloud-based marketing and sales automation software. The company markets to small and medium-sized businesses worldwide, and focuses on creating the broadest and most user-friendly revenue generation software platform. Applications cover all phases of lead management automation including sales prospecting, lead generation, and marketing automation functions that directly influence revenue generation. It’s innovative and robust lead management platform combines unparalleled sales prospecting, lead capture, real-time lead tracking, lead qualification, lead distribution, database segmentation, lead nurturing and ROI reporting. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model delivers an effective user experience and integrated cloud computing capabilities.

Media Contacts:
Alex Brown
VP Corporate Communications
abrown(at)leadliaison(dot)com
888.89.53237 (LEADS)
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Lead Liaison

Four Simple Steps to Improving Lead Scoring

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Improving Lead ScoringOne of the biggest advantages that come from using a marketing automation system is the ability to effectively score and prioritize leads based on their likelihood of conversion. It gives marketing and sales powerful insight into a leads behavior, as well as their demographic characteristics, so they can decide the best method for converting that particular lead into a customer.

There are four simple steps to improving lead scoring:

Identifying whether a lead has an interest or a need

There is a distinct difference between an interested lead and a lead that has a need for a product or service. Both are fundamental aspects of lead scoring, however they should be scored differently. A lead that shows sincere interest by frequenting a site often is more likely to convert that someone who only has characteristics that imply they would have a need for a product or service. The individual or business that has a need for that particular purchase may not necessarily have the budget or ability to make the decision anytime in the near future.

In also works the other way. A lead could be interested, but they have no need to purchase the product. Take for example a car enthusiast. They may already own a car that they love, but they enjoy checking out new models online on a regular basis. They could have high scores for frequency, but no real desire to make a purchase. Lead scoring needs to recognize these indicators and weight them accordingly. The best way to improve lead scoring is to measure both the interest and the need demonstrated by potential leads.

Keep your criteria simple and limited to only what matters

If the method that is being used to qualify leads has too many factors, it could be reducing the number of valuable leads that are generated. Focus on characteristics and behaviors that demonstrated the greatest interest and purchasing potential. Eliminate any that are not relevant or counterproductive.

Use lead nurturing to raise the score of potential leads

Lead scoring generates a profile of every lead, which should be used to create personalize content that is directed at what each individual requires. There could be specific content developed for leads that have the highest chance of conversion and separate content for leads that are still in the initial stages of their buying process. Lead nurturing content should be geared to each lead segment to increase its value, and hopefully increase their interest.

Take lead scoring past the sales cycle and into the customer cycle 

The process shouldn’t end the moment a lead becomes a customer. They still need contact and nurturing to keep them informed of everything a business has to offer. You can improve lead scoring by using it to strengthen customer relationships and continuing to nurture even once they have been converted.

Lead scoring is a powerful tool for qualifying leads, but it can be much more than that. By following these four simple steps, it can provide real insight into a lead’s behavior, generate higher quality leads, improve the chances of conversion, and strengthen relationships with leads who have already successfully been converted.

Lead Liaison

Is Your Marketing Automation Software Managing Your Leads?

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Marketing Automation Software Managing LeadsMarketing automation software (MAS) should provide front to back lead management capabilities. From lead generation to lead distribution, a robust, full-feature program, such as our Lead Management Automation™ platform, must enable your marketing department and sales team to effectively manage leads to achieve maximum sales effectiveness.

There are several key functions that should be available in a marketing automation program. Integration with a CRM platform is one important feature but your marketing automation software must first provide all the steps that move a raw lead to a qualified, sales-ready prospect. Make sure to self-assess and ask, is your marketing automation software managing your leads?

Lead capture

When leads engage with any of your digital assets, they should be captured. This function is similar to having a prospect walk through your door; the marketing automation software must recognize basic identifiable criteria and deliver that lead to a marketing bucket.

Lead Aggregation

Leads flow from various sources. Each inquiry is not the same and you may have inquiries for five different solutions; price points, buying cycles, and lead education requirements may all be different, so your marketing automation software must aggregate the leads that arrive to appropriate buckets for processing.

Lead Qualification

Once leads have been captured and aggregated, the next step is to determine which ones are viable sales opportunities. Through your marketing automation software, sales agents must be able to determine the leads that are ready for a sales call and which ones need more education (nurturing). By integrating lead qualification assets such as online forms with a lead scoring system, it should become apparent which leads are worthy of a sales engagement.

Lead Scoring

Each lead has a varying degree of interest and fit so it is important for your marketing automation software to be able to rank your leads. The lead profile, source, and solution category are some of the criteria that should be used to prioritize prospects in order to measure sales-readiness. The lead scoring function must provide a threshold that elevates a prospect from a marketing-qualified lead to a sales-qualified lead.

Lead Distribution

How do sales agents receive leads in their pipeline? Your marketing automation software must have an appropriate way to allocate leads according to predetermined rules that your organization assigns. Geography, interest level, and product line are just a few attributes that can be used to determine proper lead distribution. As leads achieve a scoring threshold, they should be automatically distributed through an integration with a CRM package such as the Salesforce.com Cloud.

Lead Tracking

It is crucial that your marketing automation software provides lead tracking so your marketing team can assess the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. As leads respond to marketing engagements the system should update the lead score and deliver alerts to marketing and/or sales about the lead’s online activity.

Lead Nurturing

For leads that require nurturing, your marketing automation software should provide scheduling, message selection, and response. This feature should be integrated with a lead scoring function so, as new behavior is recognized, a lead’s score is automatically adjusted and sales agents are alerted.

Lead Reporting

In order to be fully effective, your marketing automation software must provide real-time reporting on lead status. Lead reports should include profile, score, sales agent assignment, and conversion metrics so management can determine how effectively leads are being captured, scored, nurtured, and distributed.

Lead Liaison

Mix Up Your Marketing and Invest in the Best Lead Management Solution

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Invest in the Best Lead Management SolutionMix 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


 

Lead Liaison

The Consequences of Poor Lead Management

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Consequences of Poor Lead ManagementInfographics are an easy, eye-catching way to discuss issues in today’s B2B environment. We recognize how helpful infographics can be in developing a lead management strategy. So we’ve produced a colorful, extensive lead management chart, which should help small to mid-size companies struggling with how they should manage their lead generation process. We call it, The Consequences of Poor Lead Management.

Often, infographics are built on statistics. Statistics provide reference points as to what industry players are doing and the results from their activities. That is why we’ve built this infographic on 10 major statistics that are referenced within the revenue generation industry.

The infographic breaks down the most quoted lead management statistics available:

  • % of buyers who research purchases online
  • % of marketing leads not passed to sales
  • % of leads that will never be followed up
  • % of sales teams with no process to re-qualify leads
  • Likelihood of leads converting if contacted within five minutes of a query
  • Average number of attempts required to make contact with a lead
  • % of marketing campaign respondents who are ready to buy immediately
  • Likelihood of lead qualification if contacted within one hour of a query
  • % of companies with no standardized sales and marketing processes
  • % of leads initially disqualified that buy within 12 months

The infographic flow chart displays ten consequences of poor lead management. Within each consequence there are extensions which highlight 2 to 17 effects of a poor lead management strategy. From every set of effects there is an outcome that results from each specific issue. This adds up to over 70 details about the consequences of poor lead management!

The infographic is intended to assist small to mid-size companies in addressing their lead management process. Lead Liaison executives hope that, by providing this information in an easy-to-follow format, the infographic can be used as a tool for boosting lead management effectiveness. By adressing the issues detailed in this free chart, companies can improve revenue generation.

The chart may be downloaded and printed so executives can easily reference the details. Check out the lead management infographic today and contact Lead Liaison for ways to improve your lead management process.

Download this infographic.

Embed Our Infographic On Your Site!

Lead Liaison

Quick Questions that will help Qualify Leads

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Questions that will help Qualify LeadsThe ability to qualify leads and prioritize them based on their potential for conversion is priceless. However, before a company can put a lead scoring plan into place, they will first need to understand what constitutes a quality lead. By asking the right questions, a company can build an effective profile that will capture leads that have the highest potential for conversion.

Here are some quick questions that will help qualify leads

What does your average customer really need?

The first thing a company will need to figure out is what perceived value their product or service has to offer to the lead. What exactly do their customers want? Are they looking for a reputable company that cares about the environment? Do they want a provider who can offer 24 hour customer support? There is something specific every lead is looking for in a company and being able to determine what a lead needs is invaluable for qualification.

When will the lead be ready to purchase your service?

The next aspect a company needs to determine is what stage each lead is at in the buying process. Have they just started their online search? Do they seem anxious to make a decision? Has their frequency of visits increased? Figuring out where a lead is at in their buying process is essential when qualify a lead.

Why should they choose your product or service?

A business will also need to demonstrate to their leads what makes their product or service better than a competitor. This will not only involved understand what a lead wants in a product or service, but also understanding all of the options available to the potential buyer. Why is your product better? Is your price a selling feature? Why is your service superior? A company has to know the reason their offer is superior, so it can be promoted effectively.

Who is your ideal customer?

The most important aspect of lead scoring is using everything a company knows about their existing customers to create an ideal customer profile. What are their characteristics? What are their likes and dislikes? What type of online behavior do they display? By pinpointing attributes of an ideal customer, a business can create a profile for comparison that will generate high-quality leads.

By asking the right questions, a company can determine what their leads really need to know before they are ready to make a decision. They can also figure out what stage the lead is at in their buying process, what will make them want a particular product or service, and who fits their ideal customer profile. Just imagine what can be done with such valuable information.

Lead Liaison

Scoring Leads from Marketing Qualified Lead to Sales Qualified Lead

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Scoring Leads from Marketing Qualified Lead to Sales Qualified LeadEffective B2B lead management involves more than simply preventing viable leads from falling off the radar. The effectiveness of a lead management program is really measured by how well it moves suspects from marketing qualified leads (MQL) to sales qualified leads (SQL). The difference between the two statuses can represent tens of thousands of dollars in closed business.

A lead scoring system helps to differentiate between leads that are likely to buy now and those that require more nurturing. However, it is most effective if it is constructed properly.

There is often disagreement between sales and marketing departments about what constitutes a “qualified” lead. This makes some sense because the parameters are different among the two departments. A lead scoring system, used as part of a lead management program, provides an opportunity to put values on parameters used by each department.

The lead scoring model should have a threshold – a minimum score – that indicates that a suspect has met enough criteria, the right criteria, to be worthy of a sales engagement. Lead scoring provides a systematic way to transition leads from marketing to sales in a way that gives the sales team confidence that the lead is viable and prepared for a sales engagement.

The question is: at what point is a marketing-qualified lead ready to be transitioned to a sales qualified lead?

For example, take two suspects that have entered your marketing funnel. One is a VP of operations, the other a line supervisor. The VP has visited your website a few times and spent about 15 minutes on your product pages. The supervisor has visited your site fifteen times, downloaded two white papers and several fact sheets, and attended a recent webinar.

Which lead is considered a better sales qualified lead?

In many industries, a VP is a more sales-ready lead because of the likelihood that he has buying authority. However, there are companies that allow purchases by supervisory staff. The greater level of activity by the line supervisor might indicate better timing, but does she have buying authority? Which parameter means more?

This is where applying weight to scoring parameters is important for lead scoring to be effective. Some activities and/or attributes provide greater impact on sales-readiness than others, but which ones matter more could be night and day from one company to another. Examining which behaviors have led to sales in the past is a good way determine weights for certain qualities and behaviors. For example, if the evidence shows that your product sells well after being noticed by subordinates who influence the C-suite after conducting research through white papers, then recent white paper download activity, when combined with the subordinate’s title, should be weighted more heavily than a C-level executive who visited the website a couple of times.

According to marketing experts, a 10% increase in lead quality translates to a 40% increase in sales productivity. This should motivate executives to align sales and marketing departments through a lead scoring system, like the one in Lead Liaison’s Briefcase™ lead qualification dashboard.

Lead scoring can help most businesses improve sales conversions and shorten sales cycles. But it’s important to remember that the scoring model you use to move leads from marketing qualified lead to sales qualified lead status is dynamic (newly uncovered evidence affects existing scoring metrics) and comprehensive (incorporates parameters from both departments).

How does your company score its leads? Post a comment here or drop us a line.