COVER STORY SMARTER B2B MARKETING LEAD GENERATION
Stacking the odds in your favour
Smarter B2B marketing is all about stacking the odds in your favour – with software-enabled lead generation a great way of delivering results for B2B marketers today, but the increasing complexity of the software often requires close working relationships with agencies and MSPs for marketers to deliver the leads their sales teams need, says James Lawson.
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oftware-enabled lead generation as part of an intelligent multichannel marketing strategy is delivering great results for b2b marketers today. Challenged by the demands of these intricate programmes, marketers are also forming closer, more consultative relationships with knowledgeable agencies and MSPs to help deliver the leads they need to feed their sales teams.
INTEGRATING LEAD GENERATION “People are trying to find the perfect mix,” says Mary Miller, Director of Marketing for Mardev- DM2. “They are combining list purchase with external lead sources, and are also looking to expert suppliers to help drive traffic. We’re helping clients find leads from all avenues.” There are two main changes here: a big shift in the complexity, subtlety and effectiveness of lead generation programmes, and an increasing interest in outsourcing the process to expert providers. Many data owners and agencies now offer lead generation amongst their roster of services, part of the move up the value chain that
12 November 2011
is taking some data owners away from commoditised data supply to a more consultative proposition.
It’s as well to remember that lead generation is just one part of multichannel b2b marketing: marketing strategy, data planning and acquisition, marketing communications, prospect scoring, lead management and insight are all vital – and overlapping – components. Here we’re defining lead generation as the process of qualifying campaign responders and prospects from other sources before passing them to sales. “Lead generation fits within our concept of
“People are trying to find the perfect mix – combining list purchase with
external lead sources, and looking to expert suppliers.”
Mary Miller, Director of Marketing, Mardev-DM2
Prospect Relationship Management,” says Simon Oliver, Solutions Director at Information Arts. “You need to start with your existing customers, understand how they look and behave, then work out who your prospects should be, how many you need, and what the sales and marketing cycle is.”
A traditional example of lead generation might involve running quarterly campaigns to a prospect list, and then using a call centre to contact any responders in order to qualify their interest before sales gets in touch. Weeding out the tyre kickers should increase the amount of productive activity from expensive sales staff. A more modern method is to invest in strong content and let leads find you via web searches, social media, online events or webinars, and then go on to qualify their interest by tracking their web and other activity. Today, it’s likely that both approaches will be used. “We’re now in the middle ground,” notes
Paul Everett, Marketing Strategy Director at The Marketing Practice. “There’s much less ‘spray and pray’, but you can’t rely solely on your content to
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