7 Tips to Enhance Your Lead Generation Marketing Efforts

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Finding new customers is the lifeblood of most businesses. Few of us have customers lining up at the door, so “hunting” for new customer leads is a critical component of generating revenue. Yet, according to a research report by BPM Forum, most companies never follow up on 80 percent of the leads they generate.

With some strategic efforts, you can ensure that valuable lead generation efforts are not wasted at your company:

Use the Right Marketing Tool — Make certain you’re using lead generation tactics, if you’re trying to generate leads. Marketing tactics such as email, direct mail, trade shows and pay-per-click ads are designed primarily to generate leads. Other marketing tactics, such as print ads, public relations, and social media, are better at creating buzz and brand awareness. Make sure you are using the right tool for the right job.
Map Your Lead Process — Marketing is expensive and you don’t want to waste precious dollars on leads that fall through the crack. Create a written procedure that maps exactly what happens to every lead the moment it enters your database.
Track and Measure — Measuring and counting leads is one of the easiest metrics in the marketing tool bag, as is tracking which marketing tactic does the best job of generating the best leads. Metrics like cost-per-lead are a good start, but lead-to-sale ratio is even better, because with a little effort you should be able to track a lead all the way to a sale.
Define a Good Lead versus a So-So Lead — Work with your sales and marketing teams to describe the ideal customer in terms of demographics, job title, and job function. But don’t stop there; dig deeper to identify the customer’s needs, desires, and concerns. Armed with this information, you can tailor your messaging to the customer’s specific needs.
Develop a Lead Scoring System — Once you’ve defined a good lead, develop a lead scoring system based on demographics, as well as actions the customer takes. Visiting your website, stopping by your trade show booth, attending a webinar, or downloading a white paper from your web site, for example, can all increase the lead score assigned to a potential customer. The higher the score, the more likely the customer is to make a purchase.
Keep Trying — Don’t throw away a lead just because they say “no” the first time. Send the lead back to the marketing team, so it can be nurtured until the lead is ready to re-engage with the sales team.
Marketing and Sales Alignment — Make sure the sales and marketing teams are on the same page when it comes to leads. The marketing team should keep nurturing leads until the lead achieves a certain score in your lead scoring system. At that point, the lead is ready to be turned over to sales. Both teams need to agree and align on this process.

Taking these simple steps will improve your efforts to attract new customers. They also will help you properly vet each valuable lead before turning it over to your sales team. More importantly, you’ll be able to determine which of your lead-generation marketing tactics performs the best, and then you can adjust accordingly.

From Smart Business