COMMENTS
I agree that it's good to wake up older leads, but it's also important idea to reach out to new markets and new prospects. Often, this means you need to make calls, send emails, and blend an outbound approach with your inbound approach. One other idea: Instead of just tweaking your message, why not build a new version of your product/service that is a better fit for the current economy?
GREAT information, however I think this
post hits on a big point for the future of lead generation.
Great post. One of the most effective strategies I've used is also one of the simplest: small, regular, personal communications to key clients, prospects and vendors.
A short phone call or email every 45 days makes a huge difference. It makes your contacts feel appreciated and keeps you front of mind when those referral opportunities come along.
I can't even count how many times I called an old contact and they said, "Oh, I've been meaning to call you!"
A little extra work, but it's worth the effort.
@Jake Excellent point about targeting new markets and building relevancy with new products.
@Beth Thanks for sharing that article. I agree local search is a great way for SMBs to tract quality inbound leads.
@Ann You bring up an important point about personalizing communications. Many a campaign have I seen drop dead because there was no personalized touch. It's a great idea to have most of your communications come from a real person!
Nice post, Prashant.
It's easy for marketing and especially "sales" that lead generation is a living breathing thing. Strategies must adapt and tweaked for continuous improvement.
And sales, marketing and customer support/service impact lead quantity and quality.
I would like to add a couple of thoughts…
Have you lost the connection with your customers and market? Are the ways you sell in alignment with how our customers buy?
How are your products or organization perceived by your customers, prospects, and the market?
Effective comprehensive post-decision interviews will help you shorten the sales cycle and sell more.
Can your sales and marketing organizations clearly articulate your distinctive competence or your competitive differentiation?
Stay in alignment with your customers and your competitive differentiation through regular disciplined win/loss or post-decision interviews,
NOT conducted by Sales.
All so true-if you don't do these in any kind of SMB, you will be sunk...IMHO that is.
I really do believe that #6 (Help me help you) can be said that you are giving "Value Add" to your potential & current clients.
It's what I do for TSheets. Yes, I am out there in the conversation on the web talking about the ever-so-sexy Time Tracking tool, but I also am out there talking to SMB's about SM & the very simple basics of how & why to get started.
It has been quite valuable to our bottom line & I have gained a reputation in certain communities as (I really dislike this SO overused term) an expert in this field. I just love helping people succeed.
thanks @mvolpe!
-jen
@jenharris09
Why not use the slowed down period to work on things like Customer Service? Make everything better. Make it everyone's job to improve the quality of what they do.
Under promise and over deliver! My customers keep referring new customers more then ever. Times are tuff and people are looking for better ways to find new business. Highly Targeted <p>
Search engine Optimization and Internet Marketing local Business</p> is lowest cost of any advertising!
Its great to know about this valuable information, especially when people(internet marketers) of other countries dont know about Lead Generation, i think this concepts are forgotten a little bit by one or more companies in the present days.
Thanks for retrieving this kind of information!!
Well, the client referrals are the best kind of lead generation there can be.
As you mentioned, selling to the existing customers more "stuff" is often overlooked... they already bought from you and already know and trust you, why not put together a special, sale, or simply something that would be of value to them. At the end of the day, they are your source of testimonials that will boost your credibility and help to get more leads.
Another thing that can be done in this situation is Joint Venture ad swipes, email swipes, etc. Find potential joint venture partners in your market who are selling similar products or complementary products, which could easily be sold with your products.
There are so many things that can be done...
Narek Gabrielyan
I strongly disagree that using paid search for lead generation is a misguided tactic. As someone with significant lead generation experience across all online channels, paid search done properly drives the highest quality leads as it's the most targetted channel. One does need to exclude content-based paid search as that is a lower quality opportunity (users are not searching there for your offer but see it associated alongside of ideally relevant content). But to be clear -- paid search will drive the highest quality lead gen traffic vs. other channels and should be part of any significant online lead gen effort.
@karel you make a very good point that PPC can drive quality traffic and leads. My take however is that when you scale your PPC campaign you also scale your costs.
5K budget can drive 5K leads (and probably pay for itself as well). However to drive 10K leads you will need 10K budget. That is not the case with SEO. Over time if done right SEO and inbound linking will continue to drive more traffic and not cost you a dime of budget, just your time.
A little late to the conversation, I know…but new to social marketing and in a bit of a lead recession myself. Have started a blog and Twitter account in the last week. Thanks for the advice Hub Spot.