Effective lead generation through lead lifecycle management
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The document discusses effective lead generation through lead lifecycle management. It outlines how to create a successful lead management strategy with 6 steps: 1) Align marketing activities with sales results; 2) Understand the customer's buying cycle; 3) Automate the lead management process; 4) Implement scoring and routing of leads; 5) Nurture leads throughout the buying cycle; 6) Measure performance. The document provides details on each step and emphasizes the importance of collaboration between marketing and sales to improve conversion rates and revenue.
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Effective lead generation through lead lifecycle management
- 1. 0 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 0 Effective Lead Generation through Lead Lifecycle Management How to plug the leaks and build a stronger pipeline
- 2. 1 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 1 Who WeAre
- 3. 2 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 eDynamic is global digital marketing and technology firm driving revenue for modern B2B marketers with customer life cycle solutions built upon contemporary digital marketing platforms Who WeAre
- 4. 3 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 At a Glance 1. GlobalTeam United States, Canada, UK/Ireland,Australia,India and Dubai 2. Proven expertise in Legal, High technology, Manufacturing and Financial Services 3. Purpose driven user experience and design Delivering engaging experiences that support customer objectives
- 5. 4 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Our Services Service Portfolio Digital Strategy and Roadmap Strategy Digital Platform Selection Content Planning and Roadmap Campaign Planning and Roadmap Analytics and Measureme nt Digital Creative Experience Design User Experience Research Web Experience Design Social Media Experience Design Mobile Experience Design Content Manageme nt Systems Technology Implementation SharePoint Marketing and Email Automation Community and Social Media Customer Relationshi p Manageme nt Analytics and Optimizatio n Mobile Web and Native Applications Business Intelligence Consulting Services Engagement Offerings Global Delivery Model Agency Services Managed Services Staff Augmentati on
- 6. 5 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 eDynamic‘s Marketing Services Combination of strategy, creative, and technology to offer best-in-class, one-stop demand generation consulting for our clients Demand Generation Services Lead Management Inbound Marketing Customer Engagement Campaign planning & execution Marketing Automation CRM Content Development Creative Design SEO and PPC Sales Force Effectiveness Tools Social marketing Web Strategy User Experience and Design Vendor Selection Web Design and Execution
- 7. 6 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Client Lifecycle eDynamic aligns the demand generation capabilities with the client buying cycle, optimizing how you engage with prospective clients at each step
- 8. 7 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 7 Why we are here
- 9. 8 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Agenda • Understanding lead management • Creating a successful lead management strategy • Q&A
- 10. 9 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Is your sales process a leaking faucet?
- 11. 1010
- 12. 11 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 You‘re not alone ―Only 11% of sales leads are ever pursued by sales people and over 80% of sales leads generated are never closed.‖ – Oracle | Eloqua
- 13. 12 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 You‘re not alone… ―Over 80% of B2B organizations struggle with a lack of synergy between the sales and marketing functions. This misalignment leads to lost revenue opportunities and leaks in the pipeline.‖ – Aberdeen Group
- 14. 13 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 You‘re not alone… ―16% of the total leads that are deemed ‗sales-ready opportunities‘ actually close. The difference between a successful company and a mediocre company lies in how the remaining 84% of already qualified opportunities are
- 15. 14 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Things are changing… ―By 2020 customers will manage 85% of their relationships without talking to a human.‖ - Gartner Research
- 16. 15 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 The Connected Customer
- 17. 16 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Buyers: • Are in control of their own buying process • Have access to all the information they require to make a buying decision
- 18. 1717 To build a stronger pipeline you must engage customers at all stages of their buying process Source: Forrester
- 19. 1818 LEAD MANAGEMENT is necessary in today‘s environment
- 20. 19 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 The Common Gap in lead management Forrester Research
- 21. 20 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Marketers must: • Understand the buyer‘s digital body language to determine their interest level • Leverage and optimize technology to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time • Score leads to determine who is ready for sales, and nurture those who are not
- 22. 21 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Lead Management vs Lead generation What’s the difference?
- 23. 22 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 20000 400 100 50 17 Looking at the Numbers Lead Management by the numbers: Without Pre- qualification Sales Stage Volumes Required Conversion Rate Prospects Qualified Leads Sales Accepted Leads Sales Opps Closed Won 2% 25% 50% 35% $1.7 Million in revenue Assumption: $100K Value of Closed Business
- 24. 23 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 20000 1000 250 125 44 Looking at the Numbers Lead Management by the numbers: Focus on pre- qualifying at the top Sales Stage Volumes Required Conversion Rate Prospects Qualified Leads Sales Accepted Leads Sales Opps Closed Won 5% 25% 50% 35% $4 Million in revenue Assumption: $100K Value of Closed Business
- 25. 24 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 20000 1000 650 325 114 Looking at the Numbers Lead Management by the numbers: Common definitions of Qualification Criteria between Marketing and Sales Sales Stage Volumes Required Conversion Rate Prospects Qualified Leads Sales Accepted Leads Sales Opps Closed Won 5% 65% 50% 35% $11 Million in revenue Assumption: $100K Value of Closed Business
- 26. 25 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 25 6 Steps to Creating a Successful Lead Management Strategy 1 2 3 4 5 6
- 27. 26 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Shared goals Common lead definition Lead qualification and hand-off Program visibility Common revenue-focused metrics STEP 1.Align MarketingActivities with Sales Results 1 2 3 4 5 6 Align Marketing with sales
- 28. 27 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 While sales and marketing people have different ways of going about their business functions they need each other to be successful. STEP 1. Common goals, common strategy 1 2 3 4 5 6 Align Marketing with sales
- 29. 28 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 1. Lead qualification and hand-off 1 2 3 4 5 6 Align Marketing with sales
- 30. 29 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 1. Lead definition 1 2 3 4 5 6 Align Marketing with sales
- 31. 30 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Revenue Net new deals Profit Customer expansion Market Share Margin Marketing Effectiveness and Efficiency Leads sourced or influenced by marketing MQLs and SALs Opportunities STEP 1. Common metrics 1 2 3 4 5 6 Align Marketing with sales
- 32. 31 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 1. Registrations, Conversions or Inquiries 2. LeadQuality by Lead Score 3. Spend (Costper Conversion, CostperQualified Lead) 4. Engagement CTRs Attention(Time on site, Interact with Content) PR and Social Comments, Tweets, Likes, Shares 5. Etc. Secondary Marketing Program Metrics
- 33. 32 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 1. Awareness and Interest 2. Educate 3. Evaluate 4. Justify 5. Purchase 6. Advocacy and Repurchase STEP 2. Understand your customer‘s buying cycle 1 2 3 4 5 6 Understand your customer‘s buying cycle
- 34. 33 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 2. Understand the Buying Process Byidentifying who our customers are and how they buywill help us segment and map out the way we engage with them $$Prospect Qualified Lead Sales Accepted Lead (SAL) Suspect Sales Qualified Opportunity (SQO) Evaluate PurchaseLearn JustifyInterest Customer‘s Buying Process Sales & Marketing Process Marketing validates quality of interest Marketing nurtures to sales ready Sales validates and accepts ownership Sales validates BANT criteria Sales closes revenue opportunity COLD WARM HOT
- 35. 34 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 1. ALead Forward, Revenue back analysis will not only provide insights into a lead management process but will also tell you who your ideal customer is 2. Criteria: Technical Buyer, Economic Buyer, User Buyer, Coach Job Role/Function Industry STEP 2. Understand your customer‘s buying cycle 1 2 3 4 5 6 Understand your customer‘s buying cycle
- 36. 35 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 2. How are they buying? 1 2 3 4 5 6 Understand your customer‘s buying cycle
- 37. 36 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 2. What channels are they using? 1 2 3 4 5 6 Understand your customer‘s buying cycle We need to engage people where they spend their time—where they get their information.
- 38. 37 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 2. Create Segments – by profile, by channel 1 2 3 4 5 6 Understand your customer‘s buying cycle Identify segmentation parameters that model your customers and how they buy.
- 39. 38 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Step 2. Understand actions, pain points, motivations Evaluate PurchaseLearn JustifyInterest Active Search Begins Solutions Identified Solutions Evaluated Against Needs Validate Decision Made Actions Web Search Review or get admin to look at product on website and collateral. Ask Personal/Social Network. Compare against current Card Peer/Association endorsements Procurement Process Questions WIFM? Do I really need this card? Does it fit my business needs? Which of my suppliers are accepting the card? Can this replace my current Business or Consumer Card? What is the cost (fees)? How much can I spend? Who else like me is using this product? What type of rewards is he/she collecting? How long before I can utlizie the product? TCO? ROI? Motivation s Rewards, Service, Perks, Cachet, Fees Amex Perks – Rewards, Business Savings, Travel Insurance, Security, Service (Added Value) Relevance of Perks, Rewards etc… Confirmation of Perks e.g.. Rewards - taxes and fees covered Risk-free Trial Pain Points No Time Budget vs. Spend Expense Tracking and Management Cash Flow Barriers Merchant Acceptance Tied to an existing card Migrating from Existing card Merchant Acceptance Migrating from Existing card, Linking Bank accounts T&Cs Personal Liability Credit History Supplier Coverage Is it worth switching? Approval Process
- 40. 39 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP2.Align Content to the buying cycle Attract Qualify Nurture Understand your customer‘s buying cycle 1 2 3 4 5 6
- 41. 40 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Manual, 36% Automated Sequence, 64 % STEP 3.Automate the process 1 2 3 4 5 6 Automate the process Campaigns influencing revenue Oracle Eloqua Benchmark Study
- 42. 41 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 3. Build a model Automate the process 1 2 3 4 5 6
- 43. 42 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 3. Create a data profile Automate the process 1 2 3 4 5 6 Prospect/Customer Profile ContactInformation CompanyInformation IdealCustomerattributes–revenuesize,industry Prospect/Customer Engagement WebsiteVisits EmailOpens,Clicks,Forwards BlogComments Socialactivity Lead Type Categorization Source/Channel/Industry/JobRole
- 44. 43 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 3. Build a model Automate the process 1 2 3 4 5 6
- 45. 44 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 3. Create an automated process Automate the process 1 2 3 4 5 6
- 46. 45 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 4. Scoring and Routing 1 2 3 4 5 6 Scoring and routing Work with sales to determine the ―buying zone‖Low level of engagement (Low level of how much the lead wants to talk to us) High level of engagement (High level of differentiation driving purchase intent) High level of Profile Match (High level of how much we want to talk to the lead) The Buying Zone The only leads we should be feeding to the sales field Low level of Profile Match (Low level of how much we want to talk to lead)
- 47. 46 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 4. Scoring and Routing 1 2 3 4 5 6 Scoring and routing The Scoring Process Explicit and Implicit Scores Calculated Score RESET Rating Assigned Feed into Scoring Send to CRM Lead Qualification Lead Nurturing
- 48. 47 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 1. Build trust and a strong relationship with your prospect Lead Nurturing provides the opportunity to establish a relationship that can lead to engagement and conversions Educate your leads – Who are you? What does your organization do? How does this benefit me? Establishcredibilityas experts Be relevant to the issues of your differentsegments Differentiateyourselves as an organization they want to communicate with, buy from, donate to… Be top-of-mind STEP 5. Nurture leads throughout the buying cycle 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nurture leads
- 49. 48 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 STEP 5. Nurture leads throughout the buying cycle Evaluate PurchaseLearn JustifyInterest (1) New Welcome Program • 1st touch – Welcome • 2nd touch – tell us about your preferences • 3rd touch – relevant case study and let us know if we can help you. (3) Referral Auto-responders Objection Campaigns Three-touch drip email campaigns by topic: • Don‘t get it • Costs too much • Happy with point tools (2) Customer Follow-Up •1st touch – Can I answer any questions for you? From rep. Buyer‘s Kit • Dynamic hypersite by role and by product interest • ROI Determination • Case Studies • Evaluation Tools Competitive Loss Reengagement • After 6 months of close • Benchmark study • Relevant case studies Inactive Reengagement • Last Qtr. timeframe • Budget Planning Message Evaluator Education Campaign SEM Content Syndication Inside Sales Prospecting 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nurture leads
- 50. 49 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 1. Building relationships with top or middle of the buying cycle leads 2. Moving top of the funnel leads to middle of the buying cycle 3. Re-engaging unqualified bottom of the buying cycle leads STEP 5. Nurture leads throughout the buying cycle 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nurture leads
- 51. 50 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Provide sales with insight into engaged lead activity 1. Moving top of the funnel leads to middle of the buying cycle 2. Re-engaging unqualified bottom of the buying cycle leads STEP 6. Empower Sales 1 2 3 4 5 6 Empower sales
- 52. 51 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Provide sales with insight into engaged lead activity STEP 6. Empower Sales 1 2 3 4 5 6 Empower sales
- 53. 52 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 1. Create short-term and long-term programs and collateral for use by sales via their CRM Eg. Personalized Follow-ups Eg. Programs for ―Stuck‖opportunities Eg. Lost Opportunities STEP 6. Empower Sales 1 2 3 4 5 6 Empower sales
- 54. 53 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 53 Questions?
- 55. 54 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 Shawn De Souza shawn.desouza@edynamic.net Twitter: @shawndesouza Web: demandgeneration.edynamic.net www.edynamic.net For examples of our work on lead management, please contact us
- 56. 55 eDynamic, Friday, July 19, 2013 55 Thank You
Notas del editor
- - Go over agenda
- Talk about how they would know if this is the case… Sales team not hitting targets Not enough leads Low lead engagement Sales and marketing disconnected
- - Go over agenda Importantly these processes should focus not only on generating new contacts and inquiries, but also on ‘nurturing’ those leads that aren’t sales ready. Using digital tools to nurture leads who are either very early stage or just not ready to buy will pay dividends. According to a report by BPM forum, over 80% of generated leads are never followed up, or are dropped or mishandled. Given that Forrester Research has estimated that on average it costs $100 to generate a lead in B2B, this is an expensive waste.
- Over 80% of B2B organizations struggle with a lack of synergy between the sales and marketing functions. This misalignment leads to lost revenue opportunities and leaks in the pipeline. In fact, Aberdeen surveyed 213 organizations and found that on average 16% of the total leads that are deemed “sales-ready opportunities” actually close. The difference between a successful company and a mediocre company lies in how the remaining 84% of already qualified opportunities are handled.
- These are real opportunities that have a good chance of closing, but without processes to nurture and retain these prospects, it’s easy for unrecognized revenue to slip through the pipeline.Without a formal lead nurturing program, qualified leads that do not result in short-term sales often slip through the cracks and become lost revenue opportunities. It’s time for marketing to take ownership and accountability for managing the qualified leads that do not result in an immediate sale.
- Within the next five years, customer-centric organizations will gain tremendous advantages through customer experience strategies, marketing integration, social media and leveraging customer data and information.
- Social media data from sources such as Twitter, blogs, and forums Internal data sources such as marketing data, customer databasesExtended Customer Behaviour •What types of profiles exist and what value can be generated from understanding these profiles? How do customers use your products and services? Understand and drive insights on product quality and sentiments Campaign Effects What impact has a Campaign had on customers behaviour at the individual level? Advanced analytics technologies (unstructured data analytics, real-time, and predictive analytics)
- The one thing that has redefined marketing strategy today more than anything else has been the shift of control to the customer. The proliferation of social media tools and online tools help leads decide on their own schedule and using their own combination resources. Our role as marketers should be to help customers get all of the information they need and ease their decision process.Today’s buyers get information online, through various sources, on their own timeframes. In response, marketers must focus on understanding each buyer’s needs and facilitating their decision process, rather than merely pushing marketing messages at them.
- Be one of the successful companies... Use the tools to help you fix that leaky sales process and build a stronger pipeline
- Demand Generation is…the art and science of creating, nurturing, and managing buying interest in your products and services through campaign management, lead management, marketing analysis, and data management.Tooling and process that help generate new business opportunities, manage volumes of business inquiries, improve potential buyers’ propensity to purchase, and increase alignment between marketing activity and sales results.
- Once you’ve gotten to know your buyers’ needs, you can personalize your marketing campaigns based on this information. This will require a deeper level of personalization around targeting, timing, and content than had previously been typical, and involves the use of marketing automation software to facilitate delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. After passing along these qualified leads, you can engage the rest in a lead nurturing program using lead nurturing software that helps maintain their interest level over time.
- Lead Management is a set of methodologies, systems, and practices designed to generate new potential business clientele, generally operated through a variety of marketing campaigns or programs. Lead management facilitates a business's connection between its outgoing consumer advertising and the responses to that advertising. These processes are designed for business-to-business and direct-to-consumer strategies. Lead management is in many cases a precursor to sales management and customer relationship management. This critical connectivity facilitates business profitability through the acquisition of new customers, selling to existing customers, and creating a market brand. This process has also accurately been referred to as customer acquisition management.
- Process that aligns marketing activity with sales results.Bickering between sales and marketing over lead quality and sales’ responsiveness to marketing-generated demand ends when firms implement LMA technology. Routing, monitoring, and reporting features let marketers demonstrate the team’s impact on sales pipelines and show how marketing activity makes the sales process more efficient. Thirty-five percent of firms receiving a high rating in our earlier survey said that sales close 10% or more of the leads that marketing generates and qualifies — far above the 4% average reported by companies with less mature LMA capability.
- When sales and marketing are on the same page, performance is better. 88% of best performing companies have aligned their sales and marketing teams. But in many companies, a cultural shift is required for the teams to truly work together.1. Ride TogetherNo, not fun days out together. By ‘ride alongs’ mean spending an hour or a day watching what your counterparts in the other team do day-to-day. Spending some time learning about, say, the approach a sales rep has taken that hasn’t yet delivered the desired result can transform the marketing approach to individual clients to turn things around. This amazing case study from Forbes shows how one marketing team rose to the challenge in innovative ways.2. Measure TogetherDon’t just assume that people will work together and share information. Set up joint teams with members from the sales and marketing departments to identify what’s performing well, what needs fixing and how they can deliver solutions together. Get the sales and marketing managers together weekly for a briefing on who’s doing what, what happened last week and what’s expected this week. In the best-in-class companies identified inthe Aberdeen Group’s recent report, sales and marketing managers met at least once a week.3. Define TogetherSome of the biggest problems in aligning sales and marketing teams come from people failing to agree on the lingo. What’s a good ROI? A successful email campaign? If you leave it to the individual departments to decide, marketing will say if the results aren’t good enough that they need more budget. Sales will say they need better leads. A common vocabulary in the form of quantifiable figures can pour oil on these troubled waters and prevent the blame game.4. Plan TogetherWhether it’s geographical regions, industry verticals or individual products and services, the sales and marketing managers for each area should sit down together every quarter to make joint plans. They should analyse opportunities, evaluate past marketing campaigns and then set objectives and strategies for achieving them together for the coming quarter.5. Score TogetherEveryone agreeing what constitutes a hot lead and one that needs a hat and scarf to even get to body temperature will go a long way in bringing sales and marketing together. This study by MarketingSherpa shows that working thoughtfully as a team to design your lead scoring system can increase conversions by 79%.6. Share TogetherIf you use marketing automation, sales enablement isn’t confounding. Marketers should share detailed information about prospects, letting sales know when prospects are currently on your website or tweeting about your product. Many companies have enjoyed success by encouraging marketing to listen carefully to what the sales team needs. For instance, Cross Telecom empowered its sales team to be their own marketers by providing them with email templates to use, which resulted in a 47% increase in new opportunities.7. Celebrate TogetherWhen a lead has been successfully turned into a customer, recognise the part that everyone played and don’t just claim the success for one person or team. If both teams see how vital their part was, that knowledge informs everything they do going forward. But once the party is over, review what worked, what didn’t work so well and plan how you can do it even better next time, together!
- CEOs and boards don’t care about 99% of the metrics that marketers track – but they do care about revenue and profit growth. If activity, cost, and quantity aren’t the right metrics to use, what are? Anything that speaks to the CFO’s areas of primary concern: revenue, margin, profit, cash flow, ROI, shareholder value – in other words, your company’s ability to generate more profits and faster growth than your competitors. This is what Roy Young and Allen Weiss of MarketingProfs call “speaking the language of business”There are two primary categories of financial metrics that directly affect revenue and profits: • Revenue Metrics: Marketing’s aggregate impact on company revenue • Marketing Program Performance Metrics: The incremental contribution of individual marketing programs
- CEOs and boards don’t care about 99% of the metrics that marketers track – but they do care about revenue and profit growth. If activity, cost, and quantity aren’t the right metrics to use, what are? Anything that speaks to the CFO’s areas of primary concern: revenue, margin, profit, cash flow, ROI, shareholder value – in other words, your company’s ability to generate more profits and faster growth than your competitors. This is what Roy Young and Allen Weiss of MarketingProfs call “speaking the language of business”There are two primary categories of financial metrics that directly affect revenue and profits: • Revenue Metrics: Marketing’s aggregate impact on company revenue • Marketing Program Performance Metrics: The incremental contribution of individual marketing programs
- CEOs and boards don’t care about 99% of the metrics that marketers track – but they do care about revenue and profit growth. If activity, cost, and quantity aren’t the right metrics to use, what are? Anything that speaks to the CFO’s areas of primary concern: revenue, margin, profit, cash flow, ROI, shareholder value – in other words, your company’s ability to generate more profits and faster growth than your competitors. This is what Roy Young and Allen Weiss of MarketingProfs call “speaking the language of business”There are two primary categories of financial metrics that directly affect revenue and profits: • Revenue Metrics: Marketing’s aggregate impact on company revenue • Marketing Program Performance Metrics: The incremental contribution of individual marketing programs
- 1. ConversionsYour internet marketing campaign is supposed to do something that will ultimately impact your organization – generate leads, or sales, or votes, or something similar. I’m not talking about visits, here. A visitor is great, but does nothing for you if they don’t somehow act in your favor.So-so implementation: The simplest way to track conversions is over time. If you have no traffic reporting system in place, you can still track conversions before, during and after you launch a particular campaign, and see what difference it made. This isn’t precise, but it works.Good implementation: Again, if you don’t have reporting in place, you can still do something to separate conversions driven by your internet marketing strategy from those that are generated elsewhere. You can have a special coupon, or a separate 800 number, or a different response code.Best implementation: Set up a traffic reporting tool that includes conversion tracking. Google Analytics is my favorite (it’s free, but very powerful). Omniture is the Mercedes of the bunch. You can learn how to set up conversion or goal tracking on my blog, here, or from the tutorials each reporting system provider has on their sites. It’s not that hard, I promise. And, with this set-up, you’ll be able to track conversion sources (pay per click versus organic search versus e-mail, for example), which is important as you dig deeper (see below).2. SpendWhat are you spending to get those conversions? Better hope it’s less than they’re worth…So-so: Take the total amount spent over a day, week or month. Divide it by the number of conversions. Then take the total amount earned over the same period, and divide it by the number of conversions. If the latter is less than the former, you have some serious thinking to do.Good: Break it down by product. Do the same calculations, but product-by-product. That means you have to have some idea what you spent to market each product or category, though. Can you do it?Best: Use your analytics tool. Have a look at the actual value, down to the click, of every dollar you spend. Here’s a report in Google Analytics that’s telling me the per-visit value of every click, from every source. If I click on ‘google / organic’, I’ll be able to see the value of every click from every keyword. That data is priceless.3. AttentionOnce you’re measuring conversion, and cost per conversion, you want to focus on the attention you’re getting. That’s a combination of visits, return visits, page views per visit and the time spent on your site by the average visitor. Note that you have to have some form of traffic reporting in place to use any of these options.So-so: Measure unique visitors and page views per visitor. A unique visitor is any one person coming to your site in a given time period, any number of times. So, if I come to your site 34 times in one month, I’m still 1 unique visitor. More page views per unique visitor means you’re getting more attention. But this number is far from perfect, because some technologies (Flash, AJAX, etc.) aren’t measured as page views. So you may under-record page views.Good: Measure unique visitors, page views per visitor, and time on site. By adding in time on site you get a more ‘tech-proof’ attention metric. If page views drop, but time on site climbs, you’re likely doing just fine.Best: Measure unique visitors, page views per visitor, and time on site. But break it down by the referring source, as well. Now you’re measuring the quality of traffic from each site or ad that generated visits. In the report below, I know that Google is sending me higher-quality traffic, even though it generates fewer pages per visit than StumbleUpon, because the average Google visitor is spending over 2 minutes on my site:4. Bounce RateNo, I haven’t drifted into basketball. The bounce rate is the number of people that land on one page of your site, then leave without visiting any other pages. Again, you have to have some form of traffic reporting to measure this.Best: There’s only one option, really. Pull up your ‘content’ or ‘pages’ report and look at the Bounce Rate column. In the example below, my home page is actually the worst. Gotta do something about that…5. ErrorsYou must track errors! If you don’t, how will you know when something goes wrong?So-so: Get a monthly or weekly report of ’404′ (also known as a page not found) errors. Your hosting provider likely has a report they can give you. You can use Google Analytics to do this by following these instructions.Good: Get a weekly report of both 404 and ’500′ errors. A 500 error indicates that something on your site actually broke. It’s different from a 404 error, which just reports that someone tried to find something that wasn’t there in the first place.Best: Track both 404 and 500 errors every day, or every hour. Here’s why: Let’s say a site that gets 40,000 visitors per day reviews your product. That’s good! They put a link on their site to yours. That’s good, too! But the link they put in place is incorrect. That’s bad. If you’re receiving 404 error reports every hour, then you’ll find out, and you can address the problem. If you don’t, then 40,000 people may pass you by, and you’ll never know. Ouch.6. Onsite Search TermsTrack the phrases folks type into your onsite search tool. If you can focus your site on the top 10% or so of these phrases, you’ll see an immediate lift in conversion rates.Best: Only one way to do this – through your traffic reporting tool. You may be able to get a report from the search tool itself, but it’s unlikely. You can see my tutorial on measuring onsite search traffic here.7. Bailout RatesIf you have a shopping cart or another multiple-form process, you need to know when and where folks give up.Best: Again, the only easy way to do this is through your traffic reporting software. The exact procedure varies. Look for a report called something like ‘goal funnel reporting’ or ‘cart abandonment’ and you’re in the right place. You’ll need to set it up, defining each step in the process. The end result will look like this:
- Awareness : customer identification of a need and the realization that your online business can potentially fulfill it Consideration : customer evaluation of how your offering meets this need, including the evaluation of offerings from other ecommerce sites Preference/Intent : a customer’s logical and emotional inclination towards one solution or another, ultimately leading to a purchasing decision Purchase : The action of ordering and buying from your ecommerce site Repurchase: The emotional and logical process that (hopefully) leads to a repeat purchase
- Process that aligns marketing activity with sales results.Bickering between sales and marketing over lead quality and sales’ responsiveness to marketing-generated demand ends when firms implement LMA technology. Routing, monitoring, and reporting features let marketers demonstrate the team’s impact on sales pipelines and show how marketing activity makes the sales process more efficient. Thirty-five percent of firms receiving a high rating in our earlier survey said that sales close 10% or more of the leads that marketing generates and qualifies — far above the 4% average reported by companies with less mature LMA capability.
- The digital buying cycle through the eyes of Google researchers
- The digital buying cycle through the eyes of Google researchers
- The digital buying cycle through the eyes of Google researchers
- - Programs should deliver better results including generating awareness, and nurturing and qualifying more prospects.
- Process that aligns marketing activity with sales results.Bickering between sales and marketing over lead quality and sales’ responsiveness to marketing-generated demand ends when firms implement LMA technology. Routing, monitoring, and reporting features let marketers demonstrate the team’s impact on sales pipelines and show how marketing activity makes the sales process more efficient. Thirty-five percent of firms receiving a high rating in our earlier survey said that sales close 10% or more of the leads that marketing generates and qualifies — far above the 4% average reported by companies with less mature LMA capability.
- Process that aligns marketing activity with sales results.Bickering between sales and marketing over lead quality and sales’ responsiveness to marketing-generated demand ends when firms implement LMA technology. Routing, monitoring, and reporting features let marketers demonstrate the team’s impact on sales pipelines and show how marketing activity makes the sales process more efficient. Thirty-five percent of firms receiving a high rating in our earlier survey said that sales close 10% or more of the leads that marketing generates and qualifies — far above the 4% average reported by companies with less mature LMA capability.
- Determine what data you need to create a holistic picture of your customer to help and create a master template for forms, lists
- Process that aligns marketing activity with sales results.Bickering between sales and marketing over lead quality and sales’ responsiveness to marketing-generated demand ends when firms implement LMA technology. Routing, monitoring, and reporting features let marketers demonstrate the team’s impact on sales pipelines and show how marketing activity makes the sales process more efficient. Thirty-five percent of firms receiving a high rating in our earlier survey said that sales close 10% or more of the leads that marketing generates and qualifies — far above the 4% average reported by companies with less mature LMA capability.
- Process that aligns marketing activity with sales results.Bickering between sales and marketing over lead quality and sales’ responsiveness to marketing-generated demand ends when firms implement LMA technology. Routing, monitoring, and reporting features let marketers demonstrate the team’s impact on sales pipelines and show how marketing activity makes the sales process more efficient. Thirty-five percent of firms receiving a high rating in our earlier survey said that sales close 10% or more of the leads that marketing generates and qualifies — far above the 4% average reported by companies with less mature LMA capability.
- The digital buying cycle through the eyes of Google researchers
- Keep it simple.Define criteria and set business rules with stakeholders.Integrate with CRM to provide visibility and support follow-up prioritization.Develop appropriate follow-up actions based on scores. Nurture leads that are not ready to buy. Launch in a phased approach.Continuous re-evaluation of the scoring system is essential. Monitor / report on lead type and conversion rate. Assess results quarterly and optimize when needed.
- Process that aligns marketing activity with sales results.Bickering between sales and marketing over lead quality and sales’ responsiveness to marketing-generated demand ends when firms implement LMA technology. Routing, monitoring, and reporting features let marketers demonstrate the team’s impact on sales pipelines and show how marketing activity makes the sales process more efficient. Thirty-five percent of firms receiving a high rating in our earlier survey said that sales close 10% or more of the leads that marketing generates and qualifies — far above the 4% average reported by companies with less mature LMA capability.
- Process that aligns marketing activity with sales results.Bickering between sales and marketing over lead quality and sales’ responsiveness to marketing-generated demand ends when firms implement LMA technology. Routing, monitoring, and reporting features let marketers demonstrate the team’s impact on sales pipelines and show how marketing activity makes the sales process more efficient. Thirty-five percent of firms receiving a high rating in our earlier survey said that sales close 10% or more of the leads that marketing generates and qualifies — far above the 4% average reported by companies with less mature LMA capability.