COVER STORY SMARTER B2B MARKETING LEAD GENERATION
ááá Marketing automation software thus supports a fully-automated approach to lead generation, typically sending triggered emails as prospects reach key decision points in the workflow as defined by their web or other digital channel behaviour. It’s worth noting that scoring in these tools is very much “rule of thumb” – predictive models are conspicuous by their absence in lead nurturing and experience is key. Without some historical data to go on, initial lead scores can only be a rough guide. Recognising the importance of technology, partnerships with vendors such as Eloqua, NextMark and Blue Tahiti are now a central element of Mardev-DM2’s marketing services offering.
“Clients want to know that prospects have had one or more interactions with the business before giving a record to a sales person,” says Miller. “This is where technology bridges the gap. Monitoring digital behaviour lets you tailor the
“An indication of a company ready for a scoring program is one where the sales team complain that marketing hands over ‘rubbish’ leads.” Sylvia Jensen, Director of Marketing, Eloqua
conversation, recommending appropriate follow- up actions rather than flying blind, and it gives insight to the sales person too.” Like a fly fisherman hooking a salmon, knowing when to strike is an important part of the nurturing process. One way to define a sales- ready lead is if it satisfies the four BANT requirements (budget, authority, need, timescale). But by the time a prospect fits these criteria, they may well already be talking to another supplier. This is where experience tells, with the criteria,
scores and so forth in a marketing automation package being varied according to the client, market, product or service, and manual decisions taken as appropriate. For example, a high value, brand new concept is going to require face-to- face contact in order to create the need in the first place. On the other hand, knowing an insurance or energy customer’s renewal date takes away much of the mystery: simply schedule a call or email three months in advance. For small, valuable and tightly-targeted
groups, automated emails will never replace regular phone contact throughout the lead generation journey – though they are certainly an important component of it. “A lot of people miss out the telephone in lead nurturing,” says Everett. “They see handing over the lead to the sales team as the final step in the work flow. But
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in our market, where our client’s average deal size might be half a million pounds, we have to be talking to them throughout.” RING THE CHANGES
Incentivised telephone surveys can also be a key part of data collection. “We ask if they want to receive further information from the survey sponsor,” says Mike Housley, Managing Director at consultancy Cyance. “A very high percentage tick the yes box which creates immediate opportunities.”
Using web behaviour to inform
communication dialogue also has the potential to shorten sales cycles. Noting important actions, like a whitepaper download or browsing product specification and cost information, can trigger a sales call far earlier than might otherwise have been the case.
Miller gives one example where, over a nine- month period, the pipeline came down from between 12 and 14 months to nine to ten months. Approximately 60% of the leads that took two or more actions were converted into sales and the client increased its revenue by £6.5m over the same period – a great result. However some clients think miracles can happen. “You need to be realistic when your setting goals,” Miller says. “You can’t expect to shrink an 18 month cycle down to three months immediately.” To make the best of lead generation investment, good relations between sales and marketing are essential. Sales must believe that the leads are worth expending effort on, while marketing has to know that its carefully-nurtured prospects won’t be left to rot on the shelf. Sales software should be able to link to marketing automation tools, allowing an automated feed to the sales team and also letting sales staff access a prospect’s activity history to inform their pitch. “You have a finite contact window so you need buy in from the sales team to follow up on leads in a timely fashion,” says Oliver. “You can
“There’s much less ‘spray and pray’ but you can’t rely solely on your content to bring people to the door.”
Paul Everett, Marketing Strategy Director, The Marketing Practice
create the pipeline but what’s at the end of it? If you send over qualified leads and they ignore them for a month, then the work is pointless.” Running a sophisticated lead generation operation is a complex business with many strands to it. Optimising emails to maximise deliverability, prepopulating online forms to ease
registration, noting and using channel preferences: all these are elements of a well- planned and effective prospect nurturing programme. The investment in systems and data along with the experience and expertise required goes some way to explaining why lead generation and the many tasks within it are increasingly outsourced to specialists. “You need to get the basics right,” says
Housley. “It’s not rocket science but you only need to get one component part wrong to see your marketing investment going up in smoke.” Suppliers can help bridge the gap between the technology available, the experience needed and the new marketing techniques that come with this.
“Marketing departments need more
“In telephone surveys we ask if they want to receive further information from the sponsor and a very high percentage tick the yes box, creating opportunities.” Mike Housley, MD, Cyance
intelligence and there is technology to provide this,” says Jensen. “Savvy business people have noticed that this often creates a skills gap and a technology problem. Service providers’ real value- add comes in helping to clean and maintain databases, integrate marketing automation and CRM systems and offering closed loop reporting and consulting services.” There are also economies of scale to be had:
retaining an agency or MSP with its own experienced contact centre staff will often be more cost-effective than managing a temporary outbound operation in-house.
EXPLOITING WEB BEHAVIOUR A final point is that a good lead generation operation should follow up on the leads it sends to sales to make sure they are satisfied with their quality. This is also another way to hone the lead generation process: do sales think the prospects need further work before the sales call or are they “over-ripe”? “This is all really just good direct marketing,
but there are far more opportunities to observe behaviour than ever before,” notes Housley. “You can’t see anyone open a direct mail piece, but you can see them open an email.” Tracking the digital customer journey has given b2b marketers an unprecedented ability to influence the outcome of the sales process. With the help of skilled suppliers, they are now grasping the opportunity. n
www.dmarket.co.uk
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