Lead Liaison

Magic Quadrant for Lead Management

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What is Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Lead Management all about? Some high profile names such as Marketo, Eloqua, Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce.com were mentioned. Lead Liaison was not in the Magic Quadrant for Lead Management, but that’s easily to explain. We’re still a relatively young company and have yet to clear the $20M revenue threshold that’s required to be part of the report. The future looks incredibly bright though as we’re blazing our own trail of innovation in the marketing automation industry. If you don’t have a copy of the lead management report we can give you a quick summary.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Lead ManagementIn all honesty, 95% of the report is about vendor profiling. 12 companies are placed across four quadrants, called leaders, challengers, niche players and visionaries. I think it’s fair to say if Lead Liaison was added to the report we’d be in the visionaries category. The other 5% of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Lead Management covers a few areas we’re fond of. Namely market definition/description, market overview and primary characteristics of CRM lead management. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of those two segments of the report for those of you who want to skip the vendor spiel:

Market Definition:

  1. Lead management integrates business process and technology to close the loop between marketing and sales and to drive higher-value opportunities through demand creation, execution and opportunity management.

  2. The input to lead management processes is unqualified contacts and opportunities from various marketing sources.

  3. The output to lead management processes is qualified, scored, nurtured, augmented and prioritized selling opportunities handed off to direct or indirect sales channels for action and closure.

Market Overview:

  1. Investments in CRM marketing automation and applications and services (including lead management) grew by more than 20% in 2011 and 2012. Gartner expects investment to continue to rise during the next several years. This means more and more companies recognize the importance of marketing automation and lead management in particular because it does three primary things as described below.

  2. Marketing automation and lead management increases enterprise growth, attracts and retains new customers and maximizes productivity of sales organizations.

  3. Factors driving the growth of marketing automation and lead management are the overall growth and success of the CRM markets and investment in digital marketing.

  4. Recent M&A and IPO activities underscore market interest in this sector (Marketo IPO, Eloqua bought by Oracle, Pardot bought by ExactTarget).

  5. B2B marketers are adopting marketing channels normally used for B2C marketing such as social media.

Three Primary Characteristics Define CRM Lead Management:

  1. Focus on business and marketing processes

  2. Focus on products or services that represent a sizable investment  (also known as “considered purchases”). Businesses selling high-value products or services tend to get a higher return on their investment.

  3. A handoff of qualified leads to a direct salesperson or an indirect sales team (value-added reseller or distributor), an inside sales team, or an automated channel.
Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation, Financial Services, and the 1:1 Relationship

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Marketing Automation and Financial ServicesThe financial services (FS) industry is one of the most trust-dependent, intimately-related B2B relationships in the world. Because of the sensitive (and heavily regulated) nature of financial services, marketing and sales practices are often geared towards developing a 1:1 connection. Customer acquisition and retention have traditionally been conducted through a process of face-to-face meetings and distributed physical marketing collateral. Even commodity-oriented services like consumer credit card providers attempt to give the appearance of a 1:1 relationship.

There has been a movement by financial services marketers during the past few years toward marketing automation (MA). Marketing automation routinely distributes digital marketing collateral such as email messages and provides performance measurement capabilities that reveal response rates and Internet search activity. A robust marketing automation platform, like our Lead Management Automation™, delivers a number of marketing efficiencies while maintaining a personalized experience for prospects and customers.

Lead Generation

Historically, financial services marketers have relied on print advertising, referrals, and word-of-mouth to generate leads. Although those tactics still work today, the financial services consumer now searches the web for service providers and to compare offers. B2B buyers are using the net daily to shop for third-party vendors. According to the Pew Research Center Internet and American Life Project, 91% of Internet users search online for products and services.

Marketing automation provides lead generation through a process of targeted message delivery and contact data collection. MA reduces the costs of day-to-day market engagements by allowing marketers to stage auto delivery of digital campaigns and automatically collect data about prospects who respond to messaging.

In addition, lead generation through organic search results and paid ad campaigns is seamlessly integrated with outbound activities such as email marketing. When a prospect visits your FS website, information is automatically collected and imported to a database of leads. Leads can still be attracted by a 1:1 connection because marketing messages can be easily customized with fields that address prospects personally and give the appearance of a 1:1 connection.

Lead Nurturing

Customer acquisition in the FS industry entails building a mature relationship with a prospect. The most trusted and recognizable companies typically garner the lion’s share of client accounts. Lead nurturing is one of the primary benefits of marketing automation. Through a serial delivery of valuable information to prospects, FS marketers can not only easily engage with a wider pool of prospects but also create deeper engagement with prospects that indicate interest in your FS solutions.

Through traditional FS marketing strategies, lead nurturing requires contacting individual prospects via phone or email, conversing about prospect needs and company solutions, recording the engagement details, and updating contact information manually. With marketing automation those steps are streamlined while a 1:1 relationship is maintained.

Marketing to Sales

The critical point in FS marketing is where marketing has attracted enough interest and a sales call becomes the next step. Today’s financial services buyers are more proactive, in control, and discerning. Competing for individual accounts requires a strategy of connecting sales agents with prospects in a timely manner. An MA platform provides a structured process of moving leads through the sales pipeline efficiently and effectively while maintaining a 1:1 relationship.

Using marketing automation, progressively engaging messages are delivered so sales agents now connect with better educated prospects. As lead nurturing takes place prospects are moved from a marketing-qualified lead (one that has engaged with digital messaging) to a sales-qualified lead (one that is ready to discuss a purchase). Sales agents can easily identify the hottest leads through a scoring matrix that grades both prospect attributes (such as company size) and online behavior (such as downloading a product brochure). The 1:1 relationship can then be advanced through the sales staff until a deal is made.

Although the use of marketing automation in the financial services industry is in its infancy, the benefits of automating marketing practices is already yielding results, driving down costs, and improving ROI for many notable companies, all while maintaining a 1:1 relationship appearance. Contact Lead Liaison today to find out how to become more efficient and effective at your financial services marketing.

Lead Liaison

5 Steps to Avoid When You Are Lead Nurturing

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Lead Nurturing StepsThe lead nurturing process is the disciplined process of engagement with prospects through routine messaging in order to develop a relationship that leads to a purchase. Lead nurturing is more than drip marketing; it’s a process of deepening engagement with your prospects. And it can help more of your sales agents meet their quotas.

But there are some pitfalls to avoid in order to make your lead nurturing practices more effective.

Sending a Single Message to Everyone

One size does not fit all in marketing automation. Often this is the first mistake a new marketing automation user makes. Although the delivery process can be homogenized, your messaging should fit specific market segments. For instance, messaging to realtors may include real estate-specific terms like ‘days on market’ while messages sent to finance-related prospects might include ‘return on investment’. Segmenting your database then sending targeted messages improves the likelihood they will get open.

Not Advancing the Relationship

Broad, generalized messages may be somewhat effective in the early stages of the buying cycle but as B2B leads investigate purchase options they crave more meaningful information. Buyers do not regularly purchase after a single review of their solutions. Rarely does a lead purchase in the early engagement phase. Once a lead has advanced beyond the initial review of available options, they are seeking a deeper connection; therefore, messaging should be progressive.

Not Employing Agile Marketing

Lead nurturing isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it practice, it is a fluid process based on market response. Marketing automation software, like our Lead Management Automation™ platform, allows both small and large marketers to adjust strategies as they receive information from digital marketing campaigns. Marketing analytics are provided so that marketers can modify messaging, reorganize campaigns, and customize digital marketing tools for quick response to market conditions.

Scheduling Improperly

Leads do not want to hear from you every day. They probably don’t want to hear from you every other day. Fact is , B2B buying takes time in most industries so immediate repetition will likely harm your chances of landing a sale more than help. Though there is no magic formula for setting message scheduling, and scheduling intervals likely vary from industry to industry, the use of marketing automation (with its reporting capabilities) can help determine the optimal delivery schedule for your digital marketing assets.

Using Stale Messaging

This is similar to ‘not advancing the relationship’. Old school marketing would tell you to repeat your message over and over to gain mindspace. That practice no longer works in the consumer-driven marketing world. Leads receive messages dozens of times each day so filtering becomes commonplace. Once a lead has engaged with your brand initially, the next step is to move her along so messaging should change as engagements are increased.

Don’t forget that most prospects are often aware they have been contacted previously. Sending the same message with the expectation that the prior message may have been missed is risky. Your content should be fresh and provide value in order to be effective.

Lead nurturing has been shown to improve close rates in several categories. According to a recent DemandGen report, nurtured leads lead to a 20% increase in sales opportunities across multiple industries. That might be reason enough for you to drive more revenue through our marketing automation process.

Got questions? Call Lead Liaison at 888 895 3237 or info[at]leadliaison.com and we’ll give you answers.

Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation Guides Leads from Generation to Conversion

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Marketing Automation Guide LeadsThe marketing automation system is designed to gently guide leads from the initial generation to final conversion. There is a steady stream of potential customers surfing online every day in search of new products and services. Marketing automation software captures, nurtures, qualifies, and converts more online leads than any other automated marketing system.

Automated Lead Generation

Marketing automation software is designed to capture every potential lead that comes in contact with a website. The process is completely automated, so no lead can escape its grasp. Their online profile and behavior is automatically extracted and used for lead profiling and scoring.

Improved SEO Drives Traffic

The content marketing automation produces is successful at nurturing leads, but it also helps drive more traffic to a website. Search engine’s rank websites based on quality content and keywords. Marketing automation assists SEO efforts by using keyword-rich articles to inform and engage visitors.

Better Lead Profiling

It is easier to guide a lead from generation to conversion when a company understands their needs and interests. Marketing automation uses online registrations and surveys, as well as their online activity to develop a comprehensive profile of the lead.

Scores & Prioritizes Leads

By comparing the lead’s profile against the profile of an existing customer, marketers can better evaluate whether the lead is ready for conversion. Every demographic and behavioral characteristic is given a value based on relevancy and then ranked by how closely they match to current customers. The sales team is only given leads that a high chance of conversion, so their valuable time is never wasted.

Segments Leads into Similar Groups

Marketing automation is a craft that balances automated technology with personalized attention. It cannot successfully convert leads by using the same approach on every potential consumer. Unfortunately, it also cannot efficiently address hundreds or thousands of lead’s individual needs. The compromise to this problem is lead segments. By grouping leads together that have similar interests and backgrounds, marketers can offer a more personalized approach without having to customize their efforts for every single lead that is generated.

Nurturing Leads with Customized Content

One of the most effective ways that marketing automation guides leads from generation to conversion is through lead nurturing. By taking the information gathered in profiling, marketers can develop customized content directed at each lead segment. This information is created to build trust and strengthen relationships with potential consumers by offering them value prior to conversion.

Marketing automation guides leads from generation to conversion by first capturing them as they surf online, and then profiling, scoring, segmenting, and prioritizing each lead based on their characteristics and needs. It also uses quality content to both enhance SEO and nurture leads into consumers. Marketing automation covers the complete lead management process from start to finish.

Lead Liaison

QuestSoft Selects Lead Liaison as its Marketing Automation Vendor

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Allen, TX (PRWEB) May 1, 2013 – Marketing automation innovator Lead Liaison is providing its robust Lead Management Automation™ software to another financial services company, this time to Laguna Hills, CA-based QuestSoft, a leading mortgage compliance software development company serving over 1,700 banks, credit unions, and mortgage companies.

QuestSoft develops software that integrates with Loan Origination System (LOS) platforms. The company was recently recognized as one of the top 50 service providers by Mortgage Technology magazine. QuestSoft products check adherence to over 12,000 pages of mortgage lending laws and regulations.

Some of the company’s success comes from a demand to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Management wanted the same attention provided to QuestSoft from a marketing automation vendor. Lead Liaison was chosen because of its attention to seemingly insignificant details and thorough customer service and technical support.

“Because we are so sensitive about providing great customer support, when we find a vendor that provides similar service, that is a perfect fit”

Several other factors led to the selection of Lead Liaison’s Lead Management Automation platform for QuestSoft’s marketing automation practices. Earlier platforms’ pricing models did not match the company’s usage. According to executives, continued use would have “cost us a small fortune.”

The platform interface is more user-friendly. Creating emails, managing lists, customizing fields, and analyzing results are all performed in a more efficient and effective manner at QuestSoft. The company had been using marketing automation for several years, implementing platforms by more recognized providers. Management saw an opportunity to cut costs yet boost sales productivity in comparison to the platform they were using at the time. “(Lead Liaison) has an attractive pricing model,” said Madsen.

Since integrating the Lead Management Automation platform into QuestSoft’s digital marketing practices, the company has seen several improvements. For example, over 60% of its inside sales staff has improved productivity through more targeted contacts and more timely connections.

“It took us about a day to realize we had a goldmine”

QuestSoft inside sales agents have improved their calls-to-appointment ratio 22% over the last quarter.

According to Madsen, it wasn’t simply a cost issue to migrate to the Lead Management Automation platform. “One of the things that impresses me about Lead Liaison can be summed up in one word: listen. Lead Liaison listens to their clients. Representatives say ‘tell me more’. I feel cared about.”

For more information about Lead Liaison’s marketing automation products or its support services contact Lead Liaison at 888 895 3237 or sales(at)leadliaison(dot)com.

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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.

Alex Brown
VP Corporate Communications
Phone: +1-888-895-3237
abrown[at]leadliaison[dot]com

Lead Liaison

How to Use Lead Scoring to Land Qualified Leads

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How to Use Lead Scoring to Land Qualified LeadsMarketing automation generates a significant amount of leads, but it is the lead scoring process that filters and prioritizes leads to determine which are most qualified. Not every lead has the same potential. Lead scoring determines who has the highest chance of conversion, so the sales team is only focusing their energy on landing qualified leads. We’ll show you how to use lead scoring to land qualified leads.

Compare Leads against Current Customers

A lead will have a greater chance of conversion if their behavioral and demographic characteristics are similar to existing clientele. This is usually a strong sign they will have the same needs. Marketing automation can land more qualified leads by basing their criteria on their current customers.

Uses the Sales Team to Understand Customer’s Needs

Marketers should always ask the sales team for their opinion when they are developing lead scoring criteria and lead nurturing content. The sales team works directly with the company’s existing clients and they understand what they truly want.

Rank Criteria based on Relevancy

Every characteristic of a potential leads should be weighed based on relevancy. For example, a lead that clicks on a DIY video could imply that they are just using the site as a resource for information versus a lead that clicks on a page that contains product pricing and specifications. Higher value should be put on behavior that demonstrates sincere interest, like if someone volunteers personal information in an online registry to gain access to information.

Test Different Lead Scoring Criteria

There are some criteria that will have obvious relevancy, like whether or not someone clicks on a company’s contact page while other characteristics like a person’s purchasing history may not matter as much as you originally estimated. It is important to test different lead scoring criteria by not only changing the criteria, but by also adjusting the value assigned to the criteria.

For example: Let’s say that right now lead scoring determines that leads between the age of 40 and 50 are less relevant and therefore are assigned one point and leads ranked between the age of 20 and 30 are given four points because the product appeals to a younger demographic. If marketers notice that the business is now attracting an older audience, they can test the lead scoring by boosting the age 40 to 50 criteria up to two or three points. If older clients are truly interested in the product, this change could help the business land more qualified leads.

Include Criteria to Measure Inactivity

If a lead was active for a significant period of time and then they suddenly stop visiting the site, that behavior should also be considered as part of lead scoring. It may be an indicator that the lead nurturing content is not answering their needs or that they have already chosen to go purchase elsewhere.

Marketing automation was created to capture and land more qualified leads. This will be easier to accomplish if marketers use the right lead scoring criteria by involving sales in the process, basing it on relevancy, testing various criteria, and including inactivity. Lead scoring can be a powerful tool for ranking and prioritizing leads, so sales professionals are always focused on the people who have the highest potential for conversion.

Lead Liaison

How to Optimize Landing Page Sliders

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Marketing automation isn’t just about lead management – well it is, but it’s also about finding out how to get those leads into your funnel and keep them there. One of the most critical and overlooked metrics related to lead management is your individual pages’ bounce rates.

We’ve talked about bounce rates before. Yes, you need to lower them. Yes, you need to be able to see that clients are staying engaged and your site design and layout aren’t prohibitive to that. However, there are some things you could be doing with your landing pages that are prohibitive, and you don’t even know about them. Today we’ll be focusing in on one aspect of a landing page that plenty of advertisers aren’t really thinking about when it comes to their own sites. Let’s show you how to optimize landing page content and sliders in this article.

The Landing Page Slider

A slider is one of those slideshow-type deals on your landing page that allows customers to click through a series of side-scrolling images. Some sliders change automatically without the user needing to engage. Yahoo News has one:

Landing Page Slider

For a news site, the slider is a great idea. Different content on the site is highlighted and the user has the ability to click to a news story that catches their individual interests.

These days, business websites that sell products and services also feature the slider. If your company sells retail products – much like a news site – it makes sense to utilize a slider. You can use the images to let customers know about special promotions, featured products or just to generate interest in a particular product category.

Sliders for Service Websites

Consulting and service oriented websites don’t have it so easy. If your site was designed by a company that isn’t concerned with branding you, or if you’ve uploaded images to the slider yourself, you may be using stock images that aren’t necessarily reflective of your branding or what you have to offer.

Many of these sliders take up most of the page they’re featured on. They tend to make a website look slick and modern – but if they’re taking up the entire page above the fold, your users aren’t really getting anything from them but pretty pictures.

Optimizing Your Sliders

If your landing page features a slider, you really have two options. You can either nix the slider altogether and have your web designer create something new – or you can optimize the images you’re putting into the slider.

For instance, if you’re selling marketing consulting services and one of your slider images is your logo, try changing up or adding text to the logo that really pushes your products. Ensure this text contains some sort of call to action,

“Learn why Lead Liaison Services is the Best out There.”

“Read Customer Reviews to discover why Lead Liaison is the Best Choice.”

The idea behind customizing the sliders is not just to add a different look to your landing page, but to get a click-through to a different page that details your products and services. This strategy is intended to decrease your bounce rate by allowing customers to learn more about you and go to a page with a higher chance of capture. The secondary page should feature a form to fill out or a number to call so you have a better chance of capturing customer info.

Lead Liaison staff can hook you up with analytical tools that will help you keep track of your landing pages – how they perform, what you could do better and how to integrate landing page metrics into the rest of your marketing via an advanced marketing automation interface. Find out more today! We’d love to help you.

Lead Liaison

Real Estate and Marketing Automation – Two Like Minds

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Real Estate and Marketing Automation - Two Like MindsIt’s no surprise that many businesses new to marketing automation have a hard time thinking about their sales cycle. When you start throwing words around like “Sales funnel” or refer to “top of the funnel” activities, some people immediately tune out.

Even large business executives need to know what their sales cycles look like. Taking back power over your sales process will allow you to not only bring in more leads, but to increase the productivity of your own business and keep you in the know about who’s buying what. Plus, customers who go through a streamlined funnel before they become a conversion know what to expect when they sign on with you – which makes it easier to deliver your services. Let’s look at how real estate and marketing automation are two like minds.

The Real Estate Comparison

The best way to think about multi-channel marketing and marketing automation is to consider the real estate business. Realty professionals, like all other business owners, struggle with keeping their prospects in line, finding new ways to market and keeping their message consistent. They also might struggle with segmenting their lists – as in, separating past prospects from current ones and knowing when is best to reach out to these audiences.

Because the segmentation of their customer lists and the diversity of their marketing channels, real estate professionals are great candidates for demonstrating the power of marketing automation.

Filling out the Funnel

For starters, there are a number of entry points real estate pros may have to their sales funnel. A brief list:

  • Yard signs
  • Local papers with “for rent” or “for sale” real estate classifieds
  • Online MLS and other listings
  • Word of mouth
  • Craigslist

There are many others, but you get the point. All of these entry level inquiries have the possibility of leading to a sale and they all result in a customer the real estate pro can add to his or her list for future marketing. However, each of the above entry points has a conversion rate over time – or, an average amount of times customers who find the Realtor using these methods becomes a sale.

It may not seem important at first, but here’s why understanding the funnel is crucial to the real estate pro in our example. Let’s say this Realtor is spending $500 monthly having an office assistant create Craigslist posts and $700 monthly to list on custom realty websites.

After getting marketing automation in place, the Realtor is able to see what rate of people in each entry point method actually closes. It turns out that over 40% of his customers come from past customer referrals, 2% come from Craigslist and 10% come from online listings.

If this is the case, the Realtor needs to put more budget into courting previous customers – holding happy hours, open houses and free events where past homeowners get VIP treatment – as opposed to shelling out big bucks for online listings. Once a professional can see where budget is going, it makes sense to only allocate budget to areas that he or she knows is working.

If you don’t have an understanding of what your company’s funnel is or how it works, marketing automation can help you! Talk to one of our Revenue Success Managers at Lead Liaison today to clearly define your funnel and put better conversion streams into practice.

Lead Liaison

Common Mistakes Made in Marketing Automation That Could Drive Away Business!

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Common Mistakes Made in Marketing Automation That Could Drive Away Business!The online world of commerce is constantly evolving and traditional marketing methods are not able to keep up with the new global business structure. Marketing automation was developed so that marketing campaigns could mimic the speed and efficiency of the internet and online business commerce.

It can be an incredibly valuable tool for generating and converting leads, if it is done correctly. Unfortunately, common mistakes made in marketing automation can have the exact opposite effect. Marketing automation can either convince a lead to trust in a business or lose the lead’s trust completely.

Here are seven common mistakes made in marketing automation that can drive away business:

1.       Strong Sales Pitches and Aggressive Calls-to-Action

One of the most common mistakes made in marketing automation that could drive away business is overly aggressive calls-to-action. Today’s consumers know they have plenty of options and they will not be bullied into rushing a decision. Coming on too strong can permanently turn off a customer.

2.       Not Involving Sales Dept. in the Process

Marketing and sales should combine their knowledge and experience to create the best lead scoring criteria and lead nurturing content possible. The sales department has in depth information about what leads want and need. They can help make sure the criteria and content is suitable for a typical buyer.

3.       Monitoring Only a Lead’s Activity

Too many businesses only focus on a lead’s current activity and they tend to stop monitoring leads that are not active. A lead’s inactivity should be tracked as well. If someone was on your site daily for four days in a row and they haven’t been back for weeks, they may be too busy investigating alternative options. This is the perfect time to reach out to them with some pertinent guidance or purchasing incentive.

4.       Getting Too Personal

A very common mistake made in marketing automation that could drive away business is asking too many questions. Questionnaires or surveys are great for gathering more data on potential leads, but too much of it will become overwhelming and annoying. Limit each questionnaire or survey to only 5 to 10 questions and don’t attach an online registry to all the quality content on your site.

5.       Not Focusing on the Consumer’s Needs

Every aspect of marketing automation should have the consumer’s needs at the forefront of the decision making process. What does the lead really need to know? How can I help the lead make an informed decision? What can I do to offer the lead greater value? These are all great consumer-focused questions, but it all boils down to what does the consumer really need? For example, if you sell fitness equipment, don’t focus on the equipment itself. Instead, focus on the lead’s need to get healthier and/or lose weight.

6.       Not providing Valuable Content

Articles, ebooks, and tutorials are meant to help potential leads make their decision. It is not an opportunity to brag about your product or service. Free online content should offer the reader real value as a method for building a trusting and lasting relationship. Useless or poorly written content can quickly drive business away.

7.       Not striving to Improve on the Marketing Automation Strategy

Not every lead nurturing campaign is going to work. Marketing automation strategies are based on solid research, but until they are implemented, it is hard to be certain about the response you will receive. The same goes for the relevancy of lead scoring criteria. As a company analyzes their conversion rate against their lead scoring profiles, they will notice different components that are not properly rated.  A common mistake in marketing automation that will drive away business is not striving to improve on your current strategies.

Lead Liaison

Financial Services Companies Without Marketing Automation are Losing to Competitors

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Financial Services Marketing Automation In the financial services space a chasm is forming. Progressive financial services companies are adopting marketing automation to deliver routine digital messages to prospective clients – called lead nurturing – while traditional firms are cultivating prospects using only old-fashioned methods. This is leading to a drop-off in client acquisition for those traditional firms when compared to the progressive firms that have automated their marketing practices. The problem for the traditional firms is, despite how effective those old-style tactics may be, some are losing ground to the progressive, digitally-marketed firms.

After all, plenty of statistics show most Americans use the Internet as a primary research tool when searching for products and services. That holds true in the financial services industry as well.

How can a marketing automation platform like our Lead Management Automation™ platform make the difference between inefficient marketing/sales practices and streamlined client acquisition?

Prioritizing the Best Leads

Our marketing automation platform provides a powerful way to focus your sales staff on leads that show the highest degree of interest in your services. Through a lead nurturing process that sends messages and information at scheduled intervals, the system can determine which prospects are advancing through your sales pipeline to become the hottest leads. Firms with no marketing automation platform must rely on poorly managed buying signals.

For smaller firms, scoring leads is a proven way to prioritize your prospects so the limited sales resources available can be focused on leads most likely to commit to you soon. Without lead scoring it can be difficult to determine which leads are the hottest.

Big Impression

Another benefit of marketing automation for smaller firms is that a well-managed marketing campaign presents a larger image to your prospects. By allowing your marketing staff to automate activities, your prospects “see” a company that appears to have a fully-staffed marketing department, which may be received more favorably than a small firm image.

Efficiency

Marketing automation delivers messages to more prospects more efficiently so your marketing staff can spend more time developing your brand. Once a prospect becomes a lead, the system can manage the lead development process by automatically delivering progressively engaging material until the lead passes a scoring threshold that moves him to the point where your firm’s salespeople should initiate contact. While this lead moves through the sales pipeline other leads are also being advanced to a sales-ready stage.

Build Credibility

By using a marketing automation platform financial services firms can develop a disciplined approach to client acquisition that builds credibility through a defined series of engagements. Firms can execute email campaigns, digital advertising strategies, online surveys, and other marketing practices in a way that cultivates prospects. Leads become familiar with your firm and trust is built through a process of consistent messaging that shows interest in their well-being.

More Opportunities

One of the most profitable revenue generation advantages financial firms have is in their ability to up-sell and cross-sell current clients. Without a marketing automation platform firms must devote personnel to contacting clients one-to-one to uncover additional sales opportunities. By using a marketing automation platform like our Lead Management Automation platform your firm gains visibility into existing clients’ interests or needs through their digital footprints and your sales personnel can be alerted when up-sell or cross-sell opportunities present themselves.

There are several more common marketing automation benefits for financial services firms. To learn about additional common benefits, and to determine how our Lead Management Automation platform will specifically benefit your financial services firm, contact our sales department at sales@leadliaison.com or 888 895 3237.