Engaging in lead generation tactics is easy. Hear me out. The hard part is getting these leads to notice your brand and respond desirably.
Think about it, how much content is out there? How many ebooks, reports, and webinars are out there? How well are they driving engagement?
Getting leads to engage your brand requires you to build connections and trust. They need to feel that your brand genuinely cares about their needs.
Not every lead gen tactic can do this effectively and with that in mind, we explore five of the best practices for driving engagement and eventually conversions.
Imagine if you had access to granular information about your prospects’ preferences and needs. Wouldn’t you leverage it to personalize your approach and interactions? It would certainly make your team more effective.
Buyer intent data does just that. This data (in-house and third-party) collects information about potential buyers’ online actions such as website visits, pages frequented, topics of interest, etc. All this is to help your team map the leads’ journeys and the likelihood of purchase.
There are two main buyer intent signals that may prove game-changers in the buyer journey:
• Event-based signals. These signals track vital events happening on the prospect’s end that your business can capitalize on to sell your solutions. They include new funding, new hires, mergers, and expansions. • Action-based signals. These refer to prospects’ actions with your brand that signal an interest in purchasing your solutions. These actions may include live chat conversations, product/price page visits, or filling out website forms.
• Event-based signals. These signals track vital events happening on the prospect’s end that your business can capitalize on to sell your solutions. They include new funding, new hires, mergers, and expansions.
• Action-based signals. These refer to prospects’ actions with your brand that signal an interest in purchasing your solutions. These actions may include live chat conversations, product/price page visits, or filling out website forms.
Tracking these signals means your teams can reach out exactly when prospects are ready to buy. How can your brand use buyer intent signals?
• To build lists of target accounts and prioritize those with high purchase intent. A highly useful strategy for running ABM campaigns • Make your outreach proactive by contacting prospects early in their search and grabbing them before the competition does • Customize sales presentations and content since you have a clear picture of the prospect’s pain points and intentions
• To build lists of target accounts and prioritize those with high purchase intent. A highly useful strategy for running ABM campaigns
• Make your outreach proactive by contacting prospects early in their search and grabbing them before the competition does
• Customize sales presentations and content since you have a clear picture of the prospect’s pain points and intentions
Often a business will select one (perhaps two) faucets in the marketplace to reach new customers.
They can, for example, focus on LinkedIn prospecting and email marketing. The problem is, they might miss other prospects who rely on other communication channels.
With a multichannel approach, teams maximize outreach by creating a single but unified message to attract customers across multiple channels. These channels may include email marketing, online advertising, social media platforms, and direct mail.
The team will need to
• Create buyer personas for the contact persons at your ideal buyer’s company. It’s likely that the company will have more than one decision-maker and you need to consider what makes them tick, as they are crucial to the selection process. • Figure out where these contact people spend their time. Are they active on social or prefer attending webinars, trade shows, and conferences? • Determine what your budget is and the human involvement required. Having an active presence across all communication channels is fantastic but not sustainable. Check what your resources can afford you and work with it. • Set goals. Are you working toward improving brand awareness, lead generation, or tapping into new marketing? Having specific goals will help define your execution and results.
• Create buyer personas for the contact persons at your ideal buyer’s company. It’s likely that the company will have more than one decision-maker and you need to consider what makes them tick, as they are crucial to the selection process.
• Figure out where these contact people spend their time. Are they active on social or prefer attending webinars, trade shows, and conferences?
• Determine what your budget is and the human involvement required. Having an active presence across all communication channels is fantastic but not sustainable. Check what your resources can afford you and work with it.
• Set goals. Are you working toward improving brand awareness, lead generation, or tapping into new marketing? Having specific goals will help define your execution and results.
The internet is rife with ideas on how to cold call. But even with the best techniques and equipment, the people skills your team possesses can make or break this strategy’s effectiveness. You’re dealing with people, and sometimes, that can be a tough thing.
Top skills include
• Positivity and persistence. There will be days when you’ll be all geared up to call, only to encounter multiple voicemails, difficult gatekeepers, and rejections. It’s during these times that maintaining a positive attitude and persistence counts the most. • Appointment setting skills. So, you’ve landed an amenable prospect, and the conversation is going well. How good are your closing skills? Learn to identify reasons to move your prospects to set an appointment. • Research skills, including competitor knowledge. Go beyond looking up the prospect. Stack your solutions against the competition to identify strengths and weaknesses in both solutions. It will prepare you for the “competitor questions” whenever they arise. • Objection handling skills. You’ll encounter all sorts of objections out there including no budget, unappreciation of your solutions, use of competitors, etc. We recommend turning these into questions and addressing them as such to lower the barriers.
• Positivity and persistence. There will be days when you’ll be all geared up to call, only to encounter multiple voicemails, difficult gatekeepers, and rejections. It’s during these times that maintaining a positive attitude and persistence counts the most.
• Appointment setting skills. So, you’ve landed an amenable prospect, and the conversation is going well. How good are your closing skills? Learn to identify reasons to move your prospects to set an appointment.
• Research skills, including competitor knowledge. Go beyond looking up the prospect. Stack your solutions against the competition to identify strengths and weaknesses in both solutions. It will prepare you for the “competitor questions” whenever they arise.
• Objection handling skills. You’ll encounter all sorts of objections out there including no budget, unappreciation of your solutions, use of competitors, etc. We recommend turning these into questions and addressing them as such to lower the barriers.
Here’s an interesting stat—according to LinkedIn up to 78 percent of sellers who engage in social selling outsell peers that don’t.
Social selling leverages AI-powered listening to help sellers understand audience needs and challenges. The sellers use this opportunity to showcase their expertise, personalize interactions, and build relationships.
Best practices include:
• Looking your best. We spend time ensuring our physical offices look presentable and the same should translate to your digital offices aka your company profile. Your viewer may not know your brand, so your entire profile should convey who you are and how you help your clients. • Building credibility. True credibility involves being recognized publicly as an expert. Showcase your perspective in public conversations, share industry-relevant articles, and encourage employees to develop an affinity with their online followers. • Finding your prospects. Which platform do your customers and prospects turn to when they have questions or problems? Plant yourself on those platforms, listen, and participate. • Sharing success stories. Photos with your customers, customer brand logos, and links to published success stories will do more for your brand compared to online ads or blog pieces. Share them.
• Looking your best. We spend time ensuring our physical offices look presentable and the same should translate to your digital offices aka your company profile. Your viewer may not know your brand, so your entire profile should convey who you are and how you help your clients.
• Building credibility. True credibility involves being recognized publicly as an expert. Showcase your perspective in public conversations, share industry-relevant articles, and encourage employees to develop an affinity with their online followers.
• Finding your prospects. Which platform do your customers and prospects turn to when they have questions or problems? Plant yourself on those platforms, listen, and participate.
• Sharing success stories. Photos with your customers, customer brand logos, and links to published success stories will do more for your brand compared to online ads or blog pieces. Share them.
There’s a brand that sent empty iPhone boxes to senior decision-makers and invited these executives to their conference booth to collect the actual iPhone. The executives showed up marking the start of a conversation and relationship.
That’s the power of direct mail.
Not every seller will send prospects iPhones—it depends on your budget and how valuable the prospects can be to your business.
Some of the more common items include free samples of products, branded coffee, tumblers, brochures, handwritten cards, wine, travel pillows, and hand sanitizers.
Direct mail seeks to boost brand awareness, set your brand apart, and create an emotional connection with potential customers by sending them physical materials.
The accompanying message should tackle potential benefits and engage key emotional drivers such as exclusivity, fear of missing out, or flattery in order to elicit responses.
We recommend starting small. Conduct trial campaigns to gauge the process and reception so you can improve your strategy.
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