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Leads are valuable to your small business because they are the people who have indicated organic interest in your business and its content by giving you their information in some way. Explore these three in depth mistakes small businesses make and how to overcome them.
Little definition so that we are all aligned: When we talk about lead generation, we are, of course, talking about creating business opportunities.
The leads. These are the "prospects" who will potentially become customers of the company if they go through the entire sales funnel. Previously uncovered thanks to prospecting calls, commercial letters, and commercial meetings, they are increasingly difficult to capture.
Why? Because now, the competition is no longer on Yellow Pages but on Google, Linkedin, email, and all the other means that we use every day to search for products or services. The least we can say is that this competition is fierce, numerous, and with hybrid skills between marketing and sales. Specialist teams in "lead generation" or "lead acquisition" are born.
Very often, our customer journeys, therefore, now go online. In B2B, ignoring digital marketing or implementing a lead generation strategy becomes absurd when you know that:
We are in an era where marketing is getting closer and closer to sales teams. It is a period of transition where few leaders have really experienced lead generation.
On a daily basis, we, as marketers, often come across the same 3 mistakes:
There are many marketers or salespeople who assume they know their target. Yet the understanding of its leads is not only done with market research or statistics.
It can be tempting to pass this step which is similar to a bullshit business school concept. It is, however, a mistake not to make. We will give you 3 arguments that should convince you
To learn more about this ideal lead, you do not need the latest trendy marketing software or large cross-marketing studies. The ideal remains to speak with them or at least to call these leads.
If we had to summarize this in a few simple steps that everyone can apply for their business, we would say that it would be necessary:
Thanks to these answers, you will get their problems (your future challenges, the obstacles to buying your leads), their motivations to buy and the marketing channels to use to reach them.
Frankly, if you take these elements into account to constitute your target in lead generation, you have already saved a lot of budgets in ineffective or poorly targeted advertising campaigns.
If there was a recipe for success in building a lead generation strategy, it would be known. Type " Example Marketing Strategy " on Google. You will find 14,700,000 results.
Most are blog articles, guides, and recipes for "ready-made" marketing strategies. They are inspired by the winning strategies of big or medium brands.
Through my experiences with my clients, we have realized that you cannot apply 1 recipe for several companies. Every business is different. The profiles, habits, and behaviors of the targets on the market are even more varied.
For example, for an entrepreneur who has e-commerce of smartphone cases, here is what the main features of his marketing strategy might look like:
Whereas for a SaaS CRM software like Hubspot, Pipedrive,… it would be rather
This comparison is only a quick example to help you see more clearly in my remarks, but the differences are sometimes even more marked.
To start, you have to know your targets. For that, if you have not read part 1 concerning the knowledge of its targets, we really want you to read it.
One of the essential elements to understand here is that nothing can replace short tests and iterations.
Let us explain: marketing has never been an exact science. It is based on human psychology, which is both rational and emotional. It is therefore not possible to anticipate the purchasing behavior of your leads.
We personally use the growth hacking experimentation cycles to quickly advance in the creation of my lead generation strategies. In broad strokes, this technique allows continuous innovation in marketing. Here are sous steps to follow if you want to get started:
This endless process allows us to constantly innovate and rationalize marketing expenses, which are often too high in terms of results in lead generation.
Who hasn't dreamed of letting little robots handle all of their gruesome tasks? You could plan your next vacation or go for a walk. Today, this dream is not so impractical.
Marketing automation is the fact of automating certain tasks & their relationship with leads according to their profiles (decision-makers or not, for example) or their behavior (ready to buy or looking for information).
According to a Plezi.co study, in 2018 there were 11 times more B2B businesses to use marketing automation than in previous years.
Well-controlled, it, therefore, allows for example:
Marketing automation is seen as THE technique that saves your marketing strategy. Except that in reality, everyone talks about it but few people apply it.
Software like ActiveCampaign, Customer.io or Autopilothq.com can help you automate your first contacts with your leads. Remember, however, that in B2B, marketing automation is useless when a lead approaches the purchase decision.
Your leads will need human contact. To be reassured by phone or to consult you for ultra-personalized advice.
Remember: 67% of the B2B customer journey is done online*. This also means that 33% is achieved with commercial support, personalized meetings, commercial negotiation.
Marketing automation will still give you a significant advantage: you will have a personal relationship with each lead long before the business relationship begins.
Adopting a lead generation tactic is essential to the efficiency of sales teams. There are thousands of known marketing channels to try: SEO, content marketing, Facebook ads, Cold emailing.
Keep in mind, however, that the vast majority are unlikely to be suitable for your business. You have to constantly test, iterate using the correct budget to have reliable data.
Do you think that generating leads is impossible for your B2B business? We can discuss it in the comment section.
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This post was submitted by a TNS experts. Check out our Contributor page for details about how you can share your ideas on digital marketing, SEO, social media, growth hacking and content marketing with our audience.
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