Marketing automation turns your prospects into paying customers…quicker.
We’ve been conducting an international survey here at CoreElement, and peering through the preliminary data, one thing stands out to me: B2B marketers are not satisfied with their lead conversion rates.
Like your golf game, you’re probably not ever going to be fully-satisfied with your lead conversion rates, but that shouldn’t shy you away from trying to improve.
With the abundance of data available to marketers – and marketing automation to provide it in real-time – there really is no excuse not to step up your game.
Follow the following five handy tips for converting more leads using marketing automation.
1. Know Your Buyer
How you follow up on a lead makes a big different as they make their journey from lead to customer. Differentiating the message sent to someone who just downloaded a white paper from the message sent to someone who is already talking to sales is key. You never want to send a nonsensical message out of ignorance.
2. Set Clear Goals
What are you looking to achieve with each “touch” you have with a potential customer? Are you looking to gain contact information on them so you know how to follow-up with them? Or are you looking to share information? Understanding the goal of each “touch” will allow you to craft the right message.
3. Know Your Role
Assign accountability to each lead. Make sure responsibilities are clear to avoid multiple salespeople bumping into each other, or (worse yet), dropping the ball and leaving a prospect stranded.
4. Stay Relevant
Stay fresh in your prospects’ minds by following up in a timely manner. But relevance goes beyond that. Provide information that they would find useful. If you’re not providing anything of value, you’re just pestering them.
5. Respect the Journey
Everyone’s journey is different, in life and in the sales funnel. Understanding past wins can give insight into future success, but be sure to respect the fact that what worked resonated with one prospect might not automatically work with another.
While you should always be striving for higher lead conversion rates (You do like revenue, right?), it’s going to be tough sledding. There is no magic wand to wave, but the industrial marketing technology exists to significantly improve your efforts.
Photo credit: smjbk
