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marketing automation that can help marketers maximise success:
Increase in lead generation ROI Whether a direct lead, or a lead through the channel, manufacturing marketers today have to maximise their use of time and resources to prioritise prospective customer interest. Organisations that nurture leads benefit from an increase in lead-generation ROI. After all, the speed with which leads are converted to sales-qualified leads increases efficiency while ensuring that the sales team spends its time having high-quality conversations.
Segmentation, tailored content and lead nurturing While more than half of all manufacturing marketers don’t currently segment prospects at all, tailoring content to individual buyers increases lead conversion significantly. Speed- centric marketing encourages segmentation, nurturing each lead based on things like product interest,
position, industry, and more. According to Wakefield Research, 77 per cent of manufacturing organisations conduct more than 10 promotions a year with 46 per cent running more than 21. For example, with marketing
automation, companies can deliver near real-time content to prospects, tailored to how those prospects like to engage with the business, and thus nurture them through the buying journey from initial engagement and quote request, to placing an order or setting up an account. These customers can then be further nurtured, adding new product lines to their account. With this approach, tailoring content to different prospects at different times in the buying process, many companies have increased conversion rates by as much as 1,000 per cent.
Increased sales efficiency increases sales impact Even small, incremental increases in conversion rates can result in significant sales impact. When
marketers focus on lead volume, a huge amount of effort is wasted with clearly unqualified leads – effort that could be used on leads that have a higher likelihood of conversion and ROI. In addition, a bonus side effect to an increase in velocity is that sales can reinvest previously wasted effort in upsell and cross-sell activities, making them even more productive.
Sales marketing alignment In order to affect positive change in conversion through the sales funnel, it’s important for the sales and marketing teams to work together, and to make sure they have common definitions for the sales and marketing process. For example, both departments need to ensure that they agree on what counts as a lead, an MQL, SQL, Opportunity, etc. With these definitions in hand, they should then measure the lead conversion rate from each stage to the next. Key questions to ask are: ● What is the current speed of prospects in the pipeline?
● Are there any bottlenecks in the process?
● Which prospects move faster today and why? The more effective the funnel, the
more efficient it is at converting at all levels, which can have an important impact on the productivity of marketing and sales, and most importantly, on sales outcomes. Segmentation and personalised nurturing campaigns using marketing automation will speed up the rate of conversion velocity and increase the quality of leads that are sent to the sales organisation. This will in turn grow sales’ productivity, help them win more customers and make more sales, and increase sales’ confidence in the marketing process and the marketing team. * Nina Church-Adams is senior VP of marketing at US-based Act-On where she manages the company’s global marketing function, bringing more than 14 years of marketing leadership experience building teams, products, and brands at industry leading companies such as Nike and American Express.
September/October 2018
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