Let’s be honest.
In most companies, the Sales and Marketing
teams don’t really work well together.
Sales reps don’t loop back with Marketing
to give feedback on new insights they’ve discovered concerning what the client
or customer’s needs are, which would help improve Internet marketing efforts.
On the other hand, Sales will say Marketing
doesn’t do a great job helping sales generate and nurture leads.
Here at Fruition, being a digital marketing
agency in Toronto, I think we do a good job helping our clients turbo-charge
their business growth with better Internet marketing (We’ve got the case
studies to prove it).
Lately, however, we’ve really made an
effort to insist that leads being generated from a client’s Web site get
qualified using lead nurturing tactics that seamlessly integrates with a
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System.
When done correctly, it can shorten even the longest and most complex
sales cycle.
For us, that’s exciting, because this is
where real value is created for clients.
In short:
When we help marketing teams create lead nurturing
campaigns, sales reps close more business in less time.
For companies that provide services, the
future of marketing is going to focus more on which marketing channels
generated the best lead-to-customer closing rates, not just visit-to-lead
conversion rates.
3
Internet marketing tactics that will turn your sales reps into “sales rock
stars”:
Internet
Marketing Tactic #1: Nurture Leads for
More Revenue
Only a small number of leads you generate
from your website are ready to buy from you right away.
So, what do you do with the majority of
prospects who aren’t ready to talk to a sales rep?
Simple.
Create a lead nurturing program that builds
a relationship with prospects and grooms them for an eventual hand-off to the
sales team.
Lead nurturing creates a consistent, relevant dialog with prospects
based on their needs and interests (based on their engagement with your
content).
When establishing a lead nurturing program
start by creating a simple communication workflow schedule.
This doesn’t have to be rocket science, but
it needs to include a follow-up email within 24 hours after a prospect has
converted (i.e., downloads a piece of content) on your Web site.
The timing of the rest of the email
messages in your campaign will depend on your sales cycle. For example, if your average sales cycle is
60 days, you might plan to send a new email on the 1st, 7th, 15th and 30th day
after the initial contact.
The goal here is to attempt to move the
lead down the marketing funnel during the first 30 days, which means getting
the lead to convert on some type of bottom-of-the-funnel offer (i.e., a free
consultation or trial demo).
Important: Leads in the nurturing stage, by definition, are not sales
ready, so don’t pitch. Instead, start by
providing educational content or Middle-of-the-Funnel offer (i.e. case studies
or Webinar) that teaches them something.
Internet
Marketing Tactic #2: Score Your Leads To
Identify Sales-Ready Leads
This may not seem like an Internet
marketing tactic, but a lead’s score is a reflection of the actions taken on
your Web site as a result of your Internet marketing efforts.
For example, during the lead nurturing
phase, you should be building a profile of each lead in your CRM that helps
signal when the lead is ready to hand off to Sales.
Having a formal lead-scoring framework
takes the guesswork out of prioritizing sales-ready leads.
With lead scoring, you can assign points to
demographic factors as well as recent actions that indicate a lead’s potential
interest and fit for your company.
Criteria that can be used to establish a
lead’s score could also include behavioural data such as the type or number of
conversions completed.
Below, is an example of Fruition’s lead
scoring criteria:
- Our site contains several ebook forms, so any conversion on our ‘ebooks’ score 5 points.
- If someone submits a contact form, they’re a bottom of the funnel, qualified lead. We give them 40 points.
- We award 5 points for each 5 page views.
In our case, we’re experimenting with a
score of 50 as being our optimal ‘qualified lead’. Anyone who has reached that score is
qualified enough for a sales rep to contact them.
Keep in mind, the criteria you use will
evolve and get better over time as we collect and analyze lead intelligence in
our CRM.
Internet
Marketing Tactic #3: Close the Loop
As a business veteran, you’ve probably
heard this jargon before.
Some of you may have dismissed it as fancy
Marketing talk in an attempt to sell you something you didn’t need.
However, a closed loop communication
system, which allows for the free flow of data and discussion between Sales and
Marketing, can be quite powerful.
By capturing data from the first time a prospect visits your website all
the way through to a closed deal, you see exactly which marketing channels
(i.e. sources) are generating new business.
The opportunities that closed loop
analytics creates are endless.
For example:
If your visitor count is rising but your number of leads isn’t, the
Marketing team needs to do a better job of converting traffic.
If visitor and lead counts are both rising, but your customer numbers
aren’t, you might have problems with lead nurturing, qualification process or
the Sales team’s approach.
How’s your “S-marketing?”
When you use systems and tools that align
Marketing and Sales you create a force multiplier in your business which, over
time, creates an amazing result (sales!) with less time and energy.
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