All articles, commentary, etc. that does not fit under Best Practices, Press Releases, Testimonials, or Documentation goes here.

Lead Liaison

How To Increase Your Click-Through Rate

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CTRFrom email marketing to website offers, your click-through rate (CTR) is one of the most important metrics you track. People need to click to get to the next point in the funnel, so it is essential that you do everything you can to increase your CTR. After you boost your CTR, you will push more people into the purchase funnel and get more sales. Fortunately, it is relatively simple to boost your CTR.

Test Your CTAs

You should insert a call-to-action (CTA) each time you want someone to click on your website or in an email. Don’t choose just one CTA and reuse it. Instead, split test all of your CTAs to find out which ones work best. This will provide important insight into what your audience wants. Then, customize your CTAs for your audience (you could even utilize your database segmentations here!). Once you put the best CTAs in front of your audience, your CTR will get a huge boost.

Use Personalized Content

General content simply doesn’t convert as well as personalized content does. Use software that collects information about visitors and then personalizes the experience based on that information. From using the person’s name to providing relevant content, there are tons of ways to personalize people’s experiences. The better you are at this, the more your CTR will grow. Marketing automation can help you automate this personalization process!

Entice Your Readers

It is easy to increase your CTR and push people through the purchase funnel by providing some great offers. A free whitepaper or a free trial can go a long way in increasing your CTR. It is a good idea to test and personalize offers for your users. This puts the best offers in front of all of your visitors. When people click on an offer, have them give up some personal information so you can continue to customize the experience. Then, you can use the newly acquired information to increase your CTR even more.

If you can increase your CTR, you can grow your business. Use these tips to get people to click on your links and offers. The more clicks you get, the easier it will be to grow your business.

Get helpful analytics from our powerful marketing automation tool! Click here to learn more!

 

Lead Liaison

How Does Digital Marketing Impact Your Ability to Build Your Brand Awareness?

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digital marketingDigital marketing has leveled the playing field for companies of any size to build awareness.  Unfortunately, it has created some unique challenges as well.  Whereas an established brand may have carried value for years (or even decades) with traditional media; brands may become stale or erode in a matter of months in the new media environment.

Taking a quick SWAT analysis of branding in a digital environment, we can quickly identify the following opportunities and challenges:

Strengths of Digital Marketing:  There’s a low cost/ease of entry. And, you have the ability to reach the world in one “market.”

Weakness: Your competition can create a lot of noise. New entrants can continually challenge your brand position.

Opportunity: A sustained/successful approach to digital branding will generate an influx of qualified leads. Converting such leads should cost a fraction of the cost of traditional media, and traditional sales efforts. The world can become your marketplace!

Threat:  If your competitor has a head start on you, it’s hard to catch up to their brand.  The greater their lead, the harder it is to overtake their position. Many companies have solutions that can out-compete their competition at every level, but lose opportunities because of their failure to win the branding war.

So What is the Solution?

Each solution is going to be unique to the company that is being advised.  What we do know is that nearly 100% of all purchases over $100 will result in some sort of online investigation by the decision maker and influencers.  As such, it is important to build your brand with a balanced approach of attraction (ex: PPC/SEO, retargeting, proactive outreach, etc), listening (visitor tracking, data intelligence, surveys, etc),  relevant communications/education (targeted email, direct mail, videos, etc), and execution (sales calls, relevant calls to action) and remarketing (effectively supporting and upselling to your existing list of fans and customers).

If you are interested in learning more about how you could build your brand,  Lead Liaison is currently offering a free brand analysis to all interested parties.  Simply click here to talk to someone about our process and to enroll in the program.

 

Lead Liaison

The Qualities of a Good Salesperson

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salesmanIf you work in sales, you want to be the best salesperson possible. In order for that to happen, you have to know the qualities of a good salesperson. Then, you’ll need to work on those qualities so you can boost your sales.

Helpful Instead of Pushy

Some salespeople believe that if they push products and services, their customers will bite. Pushiness doesn’t sell, though. Helpfulness does.

You need to believe that your products have features that will help the customer. Then, you can provide insight that will help the customer make a decision.

Charismatic

Anyone can learn about a product’s features, but only charismatic salespeople can connect with customers. When salespeople are charismatic and likable, the products almost sell themselves. Sure, the salespeople still have to do some work, but customers actually want to buy from them because they like them.

Resilient

It doesn’t matter how skilled a salesperson is. He or she is going to suffer quite a bit of rejection over the years. Some people can’t handle the rejection. They lose faith in themselves and become less effective. A good salesperson is resilient and bounces back after a rejection. That is necessary in the sales world.

Ability to Take Initiative

Good salespeople take action when action is needed. They don’t sit back, waiting for something to happen. Instead, they make things happen with their ability to take initiative. If you find yourself sitting on the sidelines, it’s time to get involved. You can’t be successful unless you learn how to take initiative.

Coachable

Coachable people are willing to learn and adapt. They take a suggestion and incorporate it without any fuss. This allows salespeople to adapt to various systems and requirements. If you’re a lone wolf, you will have a hard time excelling in different environments.

All salespeople want to meet and exceed quotas and earn a nice commission. The best way to do that is to continually refine your process, be aware of your strengths, and work on the things that you aren’t so good at.

Interested in getting even more support as a salesperson? Click here!

Lead Liaison

Building a Brand Strategy

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Do Not SurrenderFive or six years ago, John’s company was already spending money on things like SEO/PPC/Adwords and other affiliate programs to drive people to his website. The website was beautiful, informative and ahead of it’s time.  The results however, were abysmal.  The company had failed to develop a strong brand message and image.

Then something changed.  The company started to develop relationships through on-going content that consistently told a story, tone, and image.  People started to equate their messaging as the gold standard in the industry. Within a couple of years, people would call John and feel honored just to be able to talk with him.  Just a couple years before, these same people wouldn’t even call him back! So, what changed? Simple: He applied a brand that others were aware of, trusted, and would be top of mind when a need arose.

Oftentimes, companies assume that they are not ready to use marketing automation or brand strategy until they fix their website, improve their traffic issues, or develop an SEO /PPC/Adwords/Retargeting strategy. The reality is that your company cannot afford to wait a single day when it comes to building your brand reputation.  Each day that you wait is a day in which you raise the white flag of surrender to your competitors in the battle for the mindshare of your prospects.

Remember this:  You can have an effective marketing automation/branding approach without a website… but you can’t have an effective website without a successful and sustainable branding message.

Interested in learning more about how you can build a brand strategy with marketing automation?

Get a Demo

 

 

Lead Liaison

After the Pitch: How Visitor Tracking Helps Sales Teams Follow-Up

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inside informationIn the old days, companies pitched prospects and then had to wait and wonder if the prospects were going to bite. Now, you can follow your prospect’s every move once the pitch is over. With the help of visitor tracking, you can see how your prospects interact with your site. This provides invaluable information once a pitch is over.

Get Inside of Their Heads

Visitor tracking allows you to act as a mind reader after you’ve made your sales pitch. You know what you presented to the prospect, and now you can see if it sunk in. You can see if the prospect is reading up on information that you talked about during the presentation. For instance, if you find the prospect reading up on a product that you pitched, you know he or she is interested but wants to learn more. The prospect is still in the research phase and deciding if he or she should pull the trigger.

If you see the prospect fixated on your pricing page, you know that the price is the main concern. He or she might need a special offer to take action. Maybe you see that they are looking at another one of your products a little more closely. Dropping an email asking if they need more information on your other products might be of interest to them now.

Determine What the Pitch Lacked

No matter how prepared you are, even the best pitch often lacks something. You might see what yours lacked through tracking them on your website. For instance, as mentioned above, you might find your prospect checking out different types of services. He or she might be interested in something else entirely so you will need to shift your focus. By understanding what your pitch lacked, you can make adjustments when you follow up with the prospect.

Decide When to Follow Up

When you track your prospects, you also know when to follow up. You can use various lead scoring techniques to determine when the prospect is ready to take action. Then, you just need a well-timed follow-up call to reel them in.

If you’re interested in converting your prospects to customers, visitor tracking is an important asset to have in your marketing arsenal. The more you know about your prospects, the easier it is to convert them. With marketing automation, you can speak their language and give them what they want.

Interested in a demo of Lead Liaison’s Visitor Tracking product, ProspectVision™? Click here!

 

Lead Liaison

Why Your Marketing Automation Company Should Play Well With Others

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Plays Well with OthersWhen you’re a kid, adults constantly remind you that it’s important that you play well with others. That lesson is important on into adulthood – people don’t like someone who is difficult to work with. This concept is also an important characteristic of your marketing automation platform. Ideally, you would want to do most of your marketing and sales work within your marketing automation platform (like sending emails, creating web forms, etc.). But what happens when you have a separate platform that you are required to use outside of your marketing automation system? Don’t let that work be lost or untrackable.

As a company who listens to it’s users, Lead Liaison prides itself on being flexible and adapting to current and relevant needs. We know that one of the most important integrations is the communication with your Client Relationship Manager (CRM). That’s why we integrate with many CRMs – our Salesforce integration being the most powerful. We also integrate with Microsoft Dynamics, Insightly, Base, and many more!

What about emails? We’ve got that covered – and then some. If you’re not going to be using our super-easy Email Marketing Tools (you really should, though!), we integrate with many email platforms. We also have built-in capabilities to track and provide real-time browser notifications for emails sent through Google Chrome (Gmail) or Outlook via our Send & Track feature.

CRMs and Email platforms are two very important areas of integration. But that’s certainly not all that we offer. Social media platforms, productivity tools, video hosting sites, payment gateways…you name it. We’ve got it covered. To see a full list of our integrations, click here.

To see our Press Release regarding Integrations, click here.

Interested in getting a demo of these powerful integrations? Click here.

Lead Liaison

Being Prepared in a Marketing Automation Demo: Finding a Partner

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This is the second post in the series Being Prepared in a Marketing Automation Demo. 

Being Prepared in a Demo

One of the most important questions you can ask in a marketing automation demo is, “What processes does your company have in place to make our relationship feel more like what it should be: a partnership?” Once you ask the question, there are three things you need to look for in the answer. That will let you know if the company will truly partner with you.

Support Staff

Excellent support is a key to creating a partnership. The support should be readily accessible when needed and easy to access. Features like live chat make it easy to reach the support team. Support should begin as soon as you get the software. You will need help with training and implementation in order to get the most out of the software. Then, the support should continue for as long as you hold a license.

Explore Your Goals Together

Partners also explore goals together. If you team up with a marketing automation company, you should be able to go over your goals, such as increasing your conversions or improving your lead scoring system to make it easier for your sales team. When you go over these goals with a marketing automation company, it is much easier for you to reach them. The company is able to configure the software to help you reach all of the goals you have set forth. Then, once you reach your goals, you can discuss new goals with your partner.

Your Own “Client Happiness Manager”

Companies that have a “Client Happiness Manager” go the extra mile in regards to forming partnerships with their clients. The manager touches base with you on a regular basis to make sure you are achieving your goals. If you aren’t, the manager discusses options to help you get on track. This type of one-on-one attention is essential if you’re going to be a partner in the process.

Forming partnerships is key to having success with marketing automation software. Your partner will keep you on track and help you achieve everything that you want to accomplish with the software. Be sure to ask this question during your next demo so you will know if the company is the right choice for you.

Interested in putting your questions to the test?

Request a Demo!

 

Lead Liaison

How to Run a Webinar: Promote the Webinar

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How to Run a Webinar

This is the sixth installment in the series How to Run a Webinar.

You’ve figured out how marketing automation can help you with the entire process. The next step is to promote your webinar!

Promote the Webinar

Don’t rely solely on emails as the gateway to webinar success! Your target database is just one of the ways you can get people to attend your webinar. Think out of the box, get help from companies in your network, and promote the event through other channels. Here are some suggestions to maximize promotion of your event:

  • Issue a Press Release at least two (2) weeks prior to the webinar. Make sure to include a link to your webinar registration landing page (more about that later!) in the Press Release. The Press Release will also give you a little SEO boost on the topic. Here are some tips from a 3rd party on how to write your press release. Here’s an example of a company doing a press release on their webinar.
  • Consider getting help from your partners to announce the webinar to their database and send prospects to the same registration page.
  • Don’t forget to invite your customers!
  • What about your partners. Don’t forget to actually invite them!
  • Hire a list broker who can send out email (through their resources) to drive contacts to the same registration page.
  • Post the webinar on social media. Your marketing automation system should offer a way to schedule posts. Spread out your posts leading up to the event.
  • Create a handful of blog posts on the topic leading up to the event.

In the next installment of How to Run a Webinar, we’ll talk about creating a landing page and “Thank You” page.

Can’t wait to get your hands on the rest of this intuitive guide? Download the full white paper here.

Interested in a demonstration of our robust marketing automation tool?

Click here for a demo!

 

Lead Liaison

Companies with Bad Websites Need Marketing Automation

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bad websitesYou’ve likely heard of the importance of marketing automation, but you might think that your site isn’t very good so it might not help you. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Bad websites need marketing automation even more than good websites do. While all sites benefit from marketing automation, it actually helps guide struggling companies to where (and what) can be changed to make the biggest impact.

What’s Working, and What Isn’t?

First, marketing automation will let you know what is working and what isn’t. You will quickly find out which pages aren’t getting any clicks and which ones are causing people to leave your site.

On top of that, you will find out which content and information people are devouring on your site. Maybe you have a great page or a whitepaper that is buried on a bad site. You will find out what content you need to showcase and what content you need to shelve.

With the help of this information, you can fill your site with content that engages and converts. It won’t be long before you’re beating the competition.

Better User Experiences with Dynamic Website Engagement

You can take it a step further by using a marketing automation company that also offers a package that gives you the ability to create dynamic website engagements. This allows you to analyze your visitors and then provide them with relevant content. That means that you could alter what visitors see on your website based off of their location, or how they interact with your site. If the system notices that they are looking at a certain product on your page more than once, it can trigger an engagement window with a 10% off coupon for that specific product. So even if your website doesn’t grab their attention, the pop-up will.

Don’t give up on your website. With the right tools, your not-so-great website can turn into a oh-so-great one.

Click here for more info!
Lead Liaison

Being Prepared in a Marketing Automation Demo

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This is the first post in the series What Questions to Ask in a Marketing Automation Demo. 

Being Prepared in a Demo

You’ve spent some time researching different marketing automation tools and now you’re finally ready to move on to the demo stage. Many people kick back and watch the demo unfold, but you need to prepare questions ahead of time and ask them during the main event. The right questions will ensure that you get the marketing automation tool that you need.

Get Real Information

Demos are full of useful information, but do you know what else they are?

They’re scripted.

You can toss that script out the window by asking some useful questions. You will get unscripted information that you can use when deciding if you want to purchase the tool.

Boost Engagement Levels

Questions also keep you engaged in the presentation. It’s easy to be passive and possibly even catch a few zzz’s during a presentation, but that is a terrible idea. If you have some questions prepared, you’ll be engaged and will be certain to understand what the tool has to offer.

Questions play a huge role in demos. Don’t make the mistake of coming up with questions during the demo. If you do that, you will waste your energy thinking of questions instead of listening to the demo. Come up with them ahead of time and then insert them at the appropriate times. Then, you will listen to the demo and get answers to your questions.

Check in next week for the next post in this series. We’ll begin covering important questions, and what you should and shouldn’t hear in the answers that you receive.

Interested in putting your questions to the test?

Request a Demo!