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

Lead Liaison

Convergence of PRM and Marketing Automation Facilitates Superior Marketing Alignment

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Partner Relationship Management and Marketing AutomationOne in every five B2B organizations use a marketing automation platform (MAP), and the present trend indicates that it will grow to 40% by 2016, according to B2B research and advisory agency SiriusDecisions. Organizations are increasingly integrating marketing automation with their CRM databases and Partner Relationship Management (PRM) strategy to facilitate efficient lead nurturing and achieve the most favorable sales potential. This three-way alignment optimizes stand-alone solutions and multiplies sales capabilities of the organizations, creating marketing alignment.

The Case for Marketing Automation Platform-CRM-PRM Integration for Superior Marketing Alignment

The prospect of efficient business processes and enhanced benefits has made marketing automation a key attraction for businesses. Organizations operate in a complex ecosystem that demands attention to a variety of factors. It has become increasingly difficult to track and report marketing progress and sales opportunities across partner networks while managing campaigns and opportunities. Many fall upon PRM solutions to maintain and boost partner-vendor relationship and ensure superior coordination among different channel players.

The PRM is aligned with the CRM, holding customer database and marketing automation tools for better visibility and tracking of performance of partners, co-ops, and other assets. While the former focuses on customer lifecycle management, PRM solutions take care of reporting and analytics suitable for partner lifecycle management. Marketing automation integrated with the two enables businesses to integrate records and track and monitor typical sales opportunities created in a partner network and specific interested customers.

Vendors and manufacturers can also set up on-demand services through marketing automation using social media, telemarketing, and email. By integrating PRM and CRM with marketing automation platforms, businesses can offer instant portal access and training courses in their chosen language and medium. A big plus is that partner branding can be aligned with marketing resources and increased ability to monitor and manage leads and campaigns.

There is no need to employ multichannel strategies, tools, and resources for deal registration and management of opportunities. Often channel managers run helter-skelter as they work with manual systems and spreadsheets to deal with partners and customers. Marketing automation facilitates use of same system by brand owners and partners, reducing time and gap in interaction. With vendors rolling out campaigns and leads in no time to partners using the vertical-sharing system, both can work side by side, enhancing coordination and cooperation.

PRM-Marketing Integration: Summary of Benefits

Integration of PRM with marketing automation offers three important benefits.

1. It helps in automatic lead distribution to partners without any coordination issue.

2. It helps bridge the gap between a business and its partners. All solutions are immediately available to partners. They can interact, learn, receive training, and lead sales efforts without overburdening the business.

3. It is easy to monitor and manage a campaign and activity on leads and holistically measure direct and indirect sales benefits to partners using the marketing automation platform.

With increased availability of SaaS solutions, there is no major technical obstacle that impedes PRM-marketing automation integration. Many consider budget and disconnect issues caused by failure of the system as key hindrances. However, the benefits of aligning the two outweigh the concerns. No doubt PRM can be a stand-alone solution, but when integrated with marketing automation, its compatibilities multiply, assuring better lead development and campaign execution.

Lead Liaison

Four Steps to Effective Lead Scoring

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Four Steps to Effective Lead ScoringSales lead scoring is an essential part of a lead management system. Leads enter your pipeline at different stages of the buying cycle, so it’s important to calculate how ready each marketing lead is for engagement by your sales team. In order to set up a lead scoring system, input should be gathered from your marketing and sales departments. There are four initial steps to take when developing an effective lead scoring system:

  1. Define qualified leads. The first step is to separate the curious from the interested. How prepared is a lead for engagement? The sales team should provide input when determining who is qualified. Leads that indicate a need for your product, who have the ability and willingness to purchase, and have expressed interest in your offer are generally considered a qualified lead; the next step is to grade the lead according to level of interest.
  2. Establish scoring criteria. What factors should be used to differentiate your leads? There are no hard and fast rules used to determine scoring values, but a lead scoring system should include attributes that indicate a lead’s identity, industry, level of interest or engagement source. For example, the responding party to a marketing touch point (e.g. CEO or purchasing agent) is an important attribute. The lead source is another variable to include – did the engagement come through a white paper download or a webinar registration? Examine each attribute of your marketing channels and your markets that can be used to assign a value that reflects its importance.
  3. Determine the scoring weight (point value) for each attribute. For example, how important is the lead source? A lead who has viewed a white paper should be given more points than one that has followed a Google Ad to your website. Leads that complete a survey may be at a higher engagement level than those who have responded to an automated call. There should be point values assigned to each attribute which indicate a lead’s willingness to be contacted by the sales team. The level of engagement (i.e. the amount of time spent investigating your offer) is often used to calculate an attribute’s weight.
  4. Establish a scoring range and threshold for transferring the lead to the sales department. Determine a scoring range – it can be 0 – 5 or 0 – 100 – by which leads can be prioritized for future engagements. However, don’t use a lead scoring system that limits the maximum score and ability to slide scores up or down in large intervals. For example, systems that cap lead scores at 100 hampers flexibility. Try to use a marketing automation system that ranges up to 1,000 for maximum versatility. When choosing your range make sure it allows for all variables that will be included in the system or your process. Once the range is determined, a threshold should be set which will move the interested party from marketing lead to sales prospect. At what point should the lead be passed to sales? That should be determined with the help of the sales department, and the scoring threshold should reflect the greatest willingness to be engaged by salespeople and readiness to purchase your product.

Lead scoring takes the guesswork out of determining whether a sales agent should be alerted about a potential prospect or if the lead requires nurturing prior to a sales engagement. Once you’ve established a lead scoring system, it should be installed in your automated marketing program.

Lead Liaison

Five Steps to Building an Effective Lead Nurturing Program

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Five Steps to Building an Effective Lead Nurturing ProgramThere are five fundamental steps to building an effective and productive lead nurturing campaign. A solid lead nurturing program needs to consist of finding worthy leads by utilizing lead qualifying and scoring methods then segmenting leads based on their personal interests. It also involves developing a compelling content strategy, optimizing landing pages and tracking results. The more thought and planning put into developing a compelling lead nurturing program, the more likely it will secure new customers.

Here are more details on those five factors and how they can help convert more leads into revenue.

1.       Lead scoring

Leading scoring is a process that ranks each potential visitor based on their likelihood of purchasing a company’s product or service. It searches for clues in their online profile that coincide with their typical customer and then it ranks them on importance or relevance. A company can discover significant information on a lead simple by examining their browser history. Also consider using Lead Grading, a feature of Lead Liaison’s platform, to identify how well a prospect matches your ideal buyer profile.

2.       List segmentation

After you have qualified each lead as being valuable, the next step is segmenting them into distinct groups. By using demographics and their personal interests to segment leads into designated categories, efforts can be targeted by group instead of on an individual basis. Use Lead Liaison’s Dynamic Target Lists to “set it and forget it”. Dynamic Target Lists enable marketers to establish list building rules that always run resulting in an always-updated list of targeted contacts.

3.       Developing a content strategy

A content strategy is the key to the success of any lead nurturing program. A company must first determine what type of content you want to send and how frequently you should send it.  Every piece of information sent needs to be relevant information and grab the reader’s attention.  If the content fails to impress then the entire campaign fails.

4.       Landing page optimization

The first page that a lead sees is a crucial element in whether or not they convert into a sale. Start by reviewing the intended customer flow to determine where each segmented lead will most likely end up. Then create a dynamic landing page designed to convert a lead into a sale.

5.       Tracking results

There is no point in creating an effective lead nurturing campaign if a company is not able to track and review the results. Businesses need to know what works and what didn’t so they can plan future campaigns accordingly. An effective lead nurturing program has to evaluate each attempt and how easily it was able to convert leads into sales.

Following these five factors will help your company build an effective lead nurturing program. Your business will have the ability to tap into each potential customer, group them by interests, and then develop content that appeals to them. It will also direct them to a powerful landing page to seal the deal and track the results of each successful conversion.

Lead Liaison

Five Effective Lead Nurturing Tools

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Five Effective Lead Nurturing ToolsLead nurturing is a strategy of maintaining contact. An effective campaign should build a relationship that turns marketing leads into qualified prospects. In order to change a lead to a prospect, it usually takes multiple communication channels used during different buying phases. There are several digital and customer-facing options that are effective in building relationships. Let’s look at five lead nurturing tools that can transition leads into sales opportunities:

Web Content Articles

Publishing articles that interest your markets is a good way to connect with leads. Companies maintain contact by providing knowledge, ideas, advice or reviews to their audiences. Selecting topics and creating articles that are relevant to both your business and the interests of your markets is critical to success. Links to a landing page or squeeze page connect the reader with your company or product. Content articles can be effective when they’re posted on the company website, but are more effective through distribution via content publishers and directories.

Webinars

Hosting or participating in webinars provides a vivid impression on leads. The practice of using webinars to attract leads has been used in B2B commerce for years. Shared knowledge and engagement through Q & A and post-event information requests provide a connection that builds trust. Webinars are often most effective within a tiered exposure strategy, where touch points are introduced during advanced stages of the decision cycle. Most hosting software vendors provide reports about attendance duration, IP addresses, and other valuable data.

Trade Shows & Conferences

Attendance at trade shows and conferences allows businesses to connect with their markets, partners, vendors and competitors. Lead nurturing can be achieved through presentations or exhibits. Presenters are seen as industry authorities, which boosts company credibility. Q & A sessions and social events provide great opportunities to establish deeper connections with leads.

Trade show exhibition should be used to nurture leads that are almost prepared to buy. The level of personal engagement that trade show exhibition can provide surpasses many other lead nurturing tools. It is a great way to announce new products, perform market testing and engage new markets.

Email

Email marketing can be effective at the start and throughout the lead nurturing process. Email drip campaigns provide continual contact; companies connect through news, offers, references, advice, and other helpful information. Email is effective for lead nurturing because of its message reinforcement capabilities, allowing you to review previous messages while adding new information. One strategy is to set up auto responders that provide solutions to questions or issues that are raised through other channels or previous messages.

Press Releases

Press releases provide occasional opportunities to connect with leads. Announcements that are newsworthy – such as events, releases, achievements and company activities (such as executive appointments) – allow leads to become familiar, and comfortable, with your company. It is important to note that press releases should be used to announce significant news that may be interesting to your audience; saturating readers with insignificant news will likely turn leads cold in a hurry.

Many of today’s lead nurturing tools not only connect companies with their markets, they provide detailed reporting on campaign effectiveness. This allows marketers to be nimble. The trick is to use each tool at the appropriate stage of the sales cycle.

To find out more about how Lead Liaison’s Revenue Generation Software™ can provide your organization with professional-grade, effective lead nurturing contact us.

Lead Liaison

Top 5 Socially Driven Sales Prospecting Sites

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Top 5 Socially Driven Sales Prospecting SitesTop 5 socially driven sales prospecting sites. With social media interaction in full force, businesses are afforded the opportunity to harness leads targeted specifically to their needs.  Properly prospecting to collect potential sales, however, takes more than sleight of hand and quick email responses: it requires understanding what the socialites actually ‘like’ while matching their ‘likes’ with your product offerings.  While it would appear Facebook is predominantly the go-to source for sales prospecting, you’d be surprised where more specific leads can be found.  We disseminate socially driven internet sales prospecting using communities which are more specific for businesses that need something more intuitive or in-depth which Facebook may not have the proper facilities to offer them.  Upon completion of this article, find out the leading platform to handle everything your sales team needs to close the deals – no matter where they’re found online.

Last.fm

With over 30 million audiophiles tuning in, downloading skins and enjoying occasional streaming advertisements, utilizing this social music channel would allow your business to reach millions of targeted business prospects interested in music, guitars, rock memorabilia and other products related to music.  Since this is a specific niche, the prospecting possibilities are endless.

Hi5

Those who wish to incorporate advertisement into gaming could benefit from the third largest monthly volume of visitors in social media today by putting your message in front of millions of gamers.  Inside every gamer is somebody that still runs a business or works; prospecting leads from this niche should be easily accomplished with an aggressive marketing angle.

Biznik

Another social media gem which could help create lucrative business connections and potential sales leads is Biznik, one of few that moderates individual profiles made so reputation management companies and excessive spammers cannot create automated profiles.  This beefs the potential for legitimate prospecting opportunities for all businesses while keeping things fair for all.

Manta

Business to business merchants can find loads of useful information using Manta, the authority in finding businesses to cold call or contact via email.  You can find local or national businesses using keyword searches and skim the results for suitable prospects.  Although you shouldn’t directly shill your products or services on Manta itself, you can definitely prospect potential customers quite easily.

LinkedIn

The epitome of sales prospecting is LinkedIn, perhaps the only site where finding contact cards to download has been perfected.  By joining specific groups related to your business, you can begin interaction with individual business entrepreneurs or large companies which can then be contacted to pitch your idea or sale to.  It would definitely be worth your while to pay the monthly premium cost as this allows deeper insights and contact information to be revealed.  Of all social networking platforms, LinkedIn takes the cake in terms of providing industry-specific individuals to cater to.

Before You Start

While jumping in head first seems viable, sales prospecting takes prior planning and some form of centralized lead software to handle nurturing, prospect contacting and sales campaign delivery.  Since Lead Liaison specializes in all-in-one lead solvency from finding the lead to closing the sale, let the professionals handle your social media lead prospecting quest.  The web-based software platform unveiled by Lead Liaison offers unparalleled support for your lead capture and segmentation needs.  This, of course, includes your quest to hunt down sales prospects within the social media world.

Lead Liaison

5 Tips on How to Get the Most Out of Your Marketing

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5 Tips on How to Get the Most Out of Your MarketingThe methods that successful companies use to market their products are constantly changing.  New technology, increased opportunities for exposure and the popularity of social media sites has forever altered traditional marketing. Here are five great modern tips to get the most out of your marketing.

1.      Use free social media sites to increase your exposure

There are so many great free sites like Facebook and Twitter that are quickly gaining in popularity.  It is important that every business has an effective presence on all of them regardless of their target demographic.  People of all ages and all walks of life use some form of social media platform to stay in touch with the world.  In order to market a business using social media, a company should host a contest, promotion or create a catchy post that is intriguing enough to draw visit to its page.  A business can then use their social media page to direct the potential new business to a predetermined landing page that will best represent the consumer’s interest.

2.      Prove that your company is an expert in its field

Building a company’s credibility is essential to converting new leads into new customers.  By providing free, relevant and informative blogs or articles in your field of expertise, it will establish your business as a reputable source.  A company can also re-post and comment on articles from 3rd parties to make sure there is a consistent flow of useful information.

3.      Take advantage of marketing automation

Fortunately, there are now online businesses that specialize in marketing automation.  These companies understand exactly how a business can get more out of their campaigns than they would have if they used traditional marketing methods.  By using marketing automation, these professional marketers can provide lead generation, lead scoring and lead nurturing that is automated and unbiased.  Marketing automation software defines criteria specifically for your company that is designed to determine which leads will have the highest chance for conversion, so it is easier to identify which leads are worth nurturing.

4.      Use referrals and testimonials to convince new clientele

A happy customer’s testimonial or referral is one of the easiest ways to obtain new business.  By posting and promoting positive comments from past clients, you are allowing an unbiased objective opinion to speak on your behalf.  It is important to solicit or even offer discounts to customers who are willing to sell your services.  Another beneficial idea is offering existing clients meaningful incentives for referring new clients.

5.      Personalize each message as much as possible

By using marketing automation to better understand the online history and personalities of potential leads, a company can cater each message to appeal to a specific segment of their target market.  Automated programs gather, summarize and categorize information on potential leads and utilizes it for a personal touch to each a lead nurturing campaign.

An effective marketing campaign takes precise planning in order for it to be directed at the right people at the right time in the right manner.  Following these five steps will make it easier to understand potential customers, appeal to their interests and convince them of your company’s value.  Once a business obtains a lead’s attention, the marketing efforts have to be relevant and compelling in order to secure the deal.

Lead Liaison

Creating an Effective Lead Nurturing Program

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Creating an Effective Lead Nurturing ProgramIt may not seem that complex to set up a solid lead nurturing program; however, it requires more than just planning email campaigns, importing contact lists, and sending prospects down automated marketing flows.  There are so many important things to consider for your efforts to be effective and well received.

Know your flow!

Businesses need to map out the direct path each potential lead should take to reach their website’s intended landing page.  Companies need to identify the starting and ending points of their flow, so they can guide each lead in the right direction.  Successful lead nurturing comes from knowing where you want each prospect to end up and then making sure that they get there with the least chance of interruptions or distractions.

Know where to collect data!

Every person online is leaving a trail of their personal interests based on the sites they are visiting, the products they are buying and their own unique comments or posts.  It is important that every company has a system that can pinpoint specific areas where data can be collected on the prospect and then analysed to determine whether or not the lead has any real potential.

Know your weaknesses!

Part of creating an effective lead nurturing program is finding potential problem areas where prospects may fall out of the flow.  Anytime a potential customer is within reach of your marketing efforts, it is important to grab their attention and hold on.  By identifying weaknesses in advance, specific plans can be developed to capture every valuable lead.

Know your lead’s expectations!

Today’s business-to-business buyer is highly educated and has easy access to an abundance of information, including articles and blogs posted by competitors.  To effectively nurture a lead, every message a company sends need to be relevant, informative and regularly updated.  Consumers have high expectations and lead nurturing campaigns need to meet or exceed them to stand out.

The better method you have for collecting information on leads, the easier it will be to direct them to content that will obtain and maintain their interest.  By understanding potential leads and their expectations, lead nurturing campaigns will have a higher rate of conversion.  Follow these steps to ensure that no valuable lead is lost along the way.

Lead Liaison

The Real Value in Lead Nurturing

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The Real Value in Lead NurturingInterested in knowing the real value in lead nurturing? Your business needs quality leads in order for it to generate revenue and stay competitive.  There needs to be a constant flow of new potential customers in order to survive.  By using modern marketing automation software, it will give you a greater advantage when it comes to generating leads and making the most out of each new prospect.  The secret to successful lead generation and effective marketing starts with an accurate scoring process.  The scoring process assesses the potential in each online inquiry to determine which leads are qualified and worth it for your sales team to pursue.  The next and most valuable step in the process is turning the qualified leads into actual sales.  This happens by using a process called lead nurturing.

Lead nurturing will score leads based on inherent buying signals and it will assess how well they match your ideal customer profile.  By scoring the lead based on their personal compatibility to your company, you can then determine which leads are worthy of more effort and which are not worth your time at all.  If you are using marketing automation for your lead generation then you can also program the software that you are using to send automatic alerts to your sales reps based on the ones that have the highest potential for conversion.

Lead nurturing through marketing automation will also set up auto-response emails and
marketing campaigns directly to potential customers.  Typically, a lead nurturing program includes a variation of informative letters, emails, articles, voicemails, case studies, success stories, events, white papers and webcasts strategically planned to target specific qualified leads.  The greater variety in the approach, the more likely there will be a positive response.

A key aspect of effective lead nurturing is the ability to provide valuable education and information to prospects at no charge to them, so that you are first establishing yourself as a trusted advisor.  You will then become the perceived expert in your respective field and they will turn to you with their future questions or concerns.  You don’t need to have a strong sales pitch or an outrageous gimmick to grab their attention.  Instead, simply provide insights and solutions on your area of expertise to build your reputation in the potential customer’s eyes.  Then the odds are that you will be the first company they will call on when there is a need for your services.

Your business cannot grow without a stream of quality leads coming in on a regular basis.  Your business needs to continue to secure new customers and now the process of obtaining and converting those leads into sales is more efficient.  Through a solid lead nurturing strategy and a productive sales team, the possibilities are endless!

Lead Liaison

Targeting Leads Using Marketing Automation

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Targeting Leads Using Marketing AutomationTry targeting leads using marketing automation. Thanks to impressive advancements in modern technology anyone can now manage the targeting, timing, and content of their outbound marketing messages in direct response to prospect’s online behavior.  Marketing automation is designed to first qualify each potential lead and then target the leads based on their established online history.  Lead qualification criteria are setup specifically for each business, so every aspect can be customized to find leads that have the greatest potential.

It is quality over quantity when it comes to potential business, so any program that can categorize each lead based on how their interests relate to your company’s main focus is worth its weight in gold.  Marketing automation searches for strong leads that have a higher chance of conversion.

Marketing automation qualifies leads by analyzing prospects online activity, so a potential vendor can better understand needs and buying patterns even before first contact is made.  This way the marketing team can create campaigns designed specifically to appeal to customers they are targeting.  Marketing automation uses website activity profiles to segment your audiences for various campaigns based on their personal interests. For example, if you know someone has registered to run a marathon and you sell high end fitness gear, then you can direct the ad towards how your shoes are superior for long distances.

Every marketer wants to get to know their potential customer’s faster and the best way to tap into their thought process is to analyze the sites they are visiting, the articles they are reading and the products they are purchasing.  Marketing automation does all of that in less time than humanly possible.

Marketing automation also allows you to personalize your lead nurturing efforts to target specific leads by providing them with useful and relevant content.  Imagine sending educational articles geared toward subjects that the potential customer is interested in reading.  Companies can sell their product or service in a more subtle way.

Marketing automation can also create landing pages that adapt to different audience segments.  A company has mere seconds to grab a potential customer’s attention since first impressions are important.   By customizing every interaction to prospect’s unique taste, it will automatically improve your conversion rate.

In today’s high tech world there is no need to randomly spread marketing messages hoping the right people will see it at the right time.  By using marketing automation a company can specifically target each prospect based on their personal interests.

Lead Liaison

Why Is a Lead Management System Important?

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Why Is a Lead Management System ImportantAfter your marketing efforts generate a lead, what happens to it? According to recent reports, most marketing leads are never pursued. In fact, it’s estimated that 80% of leads generated through marketing get lost, discarded or ignored. That’s a lot of lost revenue. The most effective way to prevent leads from evaporating is to use a lead management system.

Why is having a lead management system important? There are two answers: 1) you’ve spent money and resources on marketing activities to capture a lead, so it’s important not to waste that effort; and 2) most leads don’t convert on the first impression, which means they need to be nurtured over time.

So, most organizations can benefit from implementing a lead management system. Some of the more important benefits include:

Lead Organization

An lead management system provides an organized method of classifying and scoring leads as they are captured. They can be organized in multiple ways – by geography, media channel, behavioral traits, engagement period and more. Without a lead management system, it can be challenging to coordinate distribution or maintain an appropriate exposure schedule.

Response time

Today’s consumer demands rapid response to an inquiry. Without a lead management system, requests to the most likely buyers might be delayed. If some leads don’t receive a response in one hour to one day, they have likely moved on to other options. Lead management allows a company to schedule automated responses – including requests made during peak hours and off hours – which allow companies to maintain contact with leads while requests are distributed to the appropriate departments.

Lead distribution

For companies with large sales territories, a lead management system provides an organized flow of leads to the sales force, either geographically or chronologically or by product line. This helps optimize the sales staff by distributing leads to appropriate salespeople in a timely fashion. The distribution process helps optimize the sales team’s efficiency – and reduces the risk of calling on dead ends.

Lead tracking   

With a lead management system a company is able to determine a lead’s position in the sales pipeline in real-time. When leads become more engaged they can be scheduled to receive more influential exposures, such as webinar invitations or free white papers. As they progress through marketing impressions, leads can be prioritized for sales engagements. Lead management often promotes accurate sales forecasting, which leads to better operations management.

Build and maintain a relationship

Many buyers are not prepared to purchase after only one or two contacts. A lead management system funnels leads through a process of multiple engagements, so buyers become more familiar with the company or products and more comfortable with the decision to buy. When a lead requests information, responds to free offers, clicks a link or views a page, those actions create a profile that can be analyzed then used as a guide during sales calls.