The 3 Things Marketers Must Do to Win at Lead Generation

Strong inbound lead generation drives new customer acquisition, which is critical for most companies. Are you meeting your current revenue and lead generation goals? Marketing success frequently is measured by the number of leads that convert into actual sales.

In order to develop a killer lead generation, marketers need these three essential elements to succeed.

Target the right prospects

If you find that fewer people are responding to your marketing efforts than you expected, or if the conversion rate is lower than you wanted to achieve, it may be that you didn’t focus your efforts correctly.

Marketers can expect better ROI for their marketing campaigns, and ultimately the best lead conversion rate, for efforts that are highly targeted. Prospects can be narrowed down using behavioral, lifestyle, and transaction-level spend data.

Ever wish you could identify someone at the moment they are researching products or services, or opening an email from one of your competitors? Now you can. Imagine how much more successful your marketing campaigns would be if they were sent to these “hot prospects” who are ready to purchase.

Another great way to make sure you are targeting the right prospects is by profiling your existing customers to better understand the common attributes of your audience. Your customer data can be analyzed including demographics, lifestyles and other attributes to help marketers gain a deeper understanding of their customers. Using this information, you can find “look-a-like” qualified prospects that are more likely to convert.

Smart data strategies can help marketers identify and attract a steady stream of high-value prospects.

Understand prospects’ needs

Have you divided your current customers into personas and written detailed descriptions about what motivates and delights these segments? This type of detailed audience segmentation research is an essential step in ensuring you are addressing the pain points of your audience.

Never assume you know why someone is purchasing your product or services. Customer surveys and interactions with current customers can give you insights into buying patterns, preferred channels and competitive interference.

Predictive analytics can go way beyond simply profiling your customers, giving you data that allows you forecast responses. By comparing two groups, such as purchasers and non-purchasers, a complete model can be created that clearly identifies the differences between the two groups. And within these differences, marketers can gain a better understanding of their customers’ needs, motivations and unique characteristics.

Provide relevant information all along the customer journey

If you want to generate website traffic that converts into sales, you’ll need content that demonstrates you understand your prospects and can address pain points.

Your content can give readers a compelling call to action when describing your brand’s expertise in solving their issues. And make your content easy to find by using keywords that are used in search.

Your prospects may be diverse audiences that use your services and products in different ways and for different reasons. So make sure you are adapting your content to each type of audience. Videos, infographics, case studies and guides make it easy for customers to access information in the ways they prefer.

Make your marketing efforts more effective and show real marketing ROI using these three steps. And remember to synchronize your marketing efforts with your sales team so that they are closing the leads you’ve worked so hard to generate. I’ve never had a sales team refuse qualified leads, but I’ve also never had a team that thought they were getting enough.

Written by AccuData Integrated Marketing