Here are six steps B2B marketers can take to enhance their lead generation programs.
Source<> http://blog.bizbilla.com/jaslynn-info/user/show/6977/six-steps-to-revenue-boosting-lead-generation-programs
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Six steps to revenue boosting lead generation programs
1. Six Steps to Revenue-Boosting
Lead Generation Programs
2. Fully 80% of B2B marketers rank lead generation as a top
priority for the next 12 months, according to recent
research from MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing
Institute.
But reaching lead generation goals is often more
challenging than you would think. Less than one-third of
B2B marketers said their demand generation process
effectively meets their organizations' needs, a Demand
Metric study found.
As technology becomes a driving force in marketing and
sales, B2B companies need to better understand the art
and science behind launching and executing a successful
3. lead generation program.
Here are six steps B2B marketers can take to enhance
their lead generation programs.
1. Be strategic in how you test your plan
Testing your strategy is an essential step toward ensuring
the messaging, creative direction, and marketing spend
are going to be effective in helping your organization
reach its desired lead generation goals. That said, too
many marketing professional tests everything but fail to
understand which metrics are most indicative of whether
a program will be a success.
2. Take it one step at a time
Many marketers try to take advantage of the abundance
of automation tools. However, attempting to use multiple
systems at once is the fastest way to run yourself into the
ground. Rather than rushing to implement multiple
systems, begin with one or two smaller implementations.
4. After you've reached your comfort level with your smaller
implementations, you can move on to the next solution.
A phased approach prevents users from investing in
expensive tools that will be used for only a fraction of their
features because you lack the internal resources needed
to maximize performance.
3. Understand that less is more
When marketers are presented with a large amount of
data, achieving meaningful results can be difficult. I have
found that the more diverse the data that marketers have
at their disposal, the less they know about how to
interpret or use it.
The best way to make informed decisions is to have an
in-depth understanding of which metrics need to be
prioritized above others. Which is why I suggest keeping a
weekly dashboard with your organization's top
performance indicators. When you centralize your data
and its visualization, it becomes easier to break down the
5. information not only for yourself but also for the
stakeholders you report to on a weekly or monthly basis.
4. Learn from your mistakes
Get comfortable with trying new strategies, and accept
that not all tests will go as planned. Before trying a new
strategy, ensure that you have clear metrics in place so
that you have an objective, predetermined view of
whether or not a program was successful. When you do
fail, conduct a thorough post-mortem to learn how you
can avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
5. It's not one-size-fits-all
With hundreds of marketing automation and lead
management programs on the market, B2B marketers
have more demand-generation software options than
ever before. But, with so many solutions available, finding
one that is a good fit for your business can be difficult.
6. Bench the benchmark bias
6. To shape their sales and marketing funnel, nearly all B2B
marketers use a wide array of marketing-qualified leads,
sales-qualified leads, and opportunities. Consequently,
many marketers believe that once they've seen an
outcome in one company, they've seen the benchmark for
every other company. That, however, is far from the truth.
Every company I've worked for arranges its sales and
marketing funnel differently. Do you include all customer
segments, or do you start only at a certain company size?
Do you include all opportunity values, or do you use the
probability percentage to adjust your numbers?
When someone asks for your MQL-to-SQL conversion rate,
you can't just say 12%; it's all relative to the specifics of
your funnel. I've seen everything from 6% to 20% be
considered "best in class." When communicating with
executives and board members who have worked for (or
advised) other companies, it's important to remember
they may believe that the highest number they have
heard is the benchmark.
7. As a marketing leader, you must educate your audience
on precisely what your numbers are based on. Unless you
provide context, the effectiveness of your efforts can
become the victim of an apples-to-oranges comparison.