Believe it or not, Marketing can have a profound effect on the success of Sales. Marketers are responsible for generating leads for Sales to close into paying customers. They are also responsible for the types of leads they send over to Sales and when they decide to send them. Marketers should not only be focused on generating leads, but they should also be focused on the quality of the leads they produce. When marketers focus time on lead nurturing to make regular leads more qualified before handing them off to Sales, Sales can spend more time closing deals instead of prospecting.
Lead quality varies from business to business. A high quality lead, or Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), is one that is more likely to convert into a customer based on certain activities. For example, a lead that fills out a form to request a custom demo of your product is probably more qualified (likely to become a customer) than a lead that fills out a form to download a piece of educational content. Below are 3 simple steps to get you generating more, higher quality leads to help your sales team work more efficiently and close more deals.
Step 1: Create Content that Converts
It’s important to create content that attracts leads to your site, but it’s just as important to also create content that later helps those leads to convert into customers. This “converting” content, or middle of the funnel content, specifically ties in information about your industry or topic to your product or service. An example of this could be an ebook on how your product or service can be a solution to a common obstacle in the industry. It’s important not to forget about this type of information when thinking about lead generation and lead management. You should always strive for a balance between the two in order to push leads through the marketing funnel.
Step 2: Determine which Events Close Customers
After creating middle of the funnel content that converts, you should focus your efforts on analyzing what offers and events are converting the most leads into customers. With closed-loop marketing, you can easily trace the origins of your leads and their actions on your site before they convert into customers. Events such as requesting a custom demo or free trials typically have high close rates, since they indicate that a lead is sales-ready.
Step 3: Create Calls-to-Action to Promote High Closing Events
Once you’ve determined the events and offers that convert most of your high-quality leads, you can promote these individual events on both your website and within your sales organization. On your website, you can promote these events with calls-to-action, or CTAs. Typically, CTAs are located in your email messages, thank you landing pages, blog posts, or website pages. The goal is to make these CTAS very prominent in all of your marketing communications. You should also promote these events with the help of your sales team. Be sure to communicate and alert your sales reps as to which events create high closing leads.
By creating content that drives high-quality leads, analyzing which of your offers yield the best leads, and promoting them with effective calls-to-action, you can strengthen your pipeline and send your sales team some great leads to convert into customers. This will also allow them to focus their time and attention on these leads above and before anything else, enabling them to close more deals and drive better results for your business.
- 3 Simple Steps for Higher Quality Leads - April 30, 2012
- 4 Valuable Ways to Segment Your Leads for Email Marketing - April 18, 2012
