So you’ve nurtured your top 5% of hot leads, but what about the other 95% of warm leads that need to be managed? Businesses can often neglect effective communication with the 95% of warm leads created because they have poured a copious amount of time and resources into the top 5%. While it is important to nurture hot leads it is equally important to focus on keeping your business in front of warm leads by managing them properly. So how can you effectively manage those who are not ready to buy now and stay “top of mind” so that that they will respond when they are ready to buy?

Warm Lead Management
As mentioned in the previous article titled “Nurturing Hot Leads” we described how lead nurturing has significantly evolved as a result of many factors such as email campaigns, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media, PURLs (Personalized URLs), business blogging, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) technology and integrated landing pages. The same evolution is true of lead management. The integration of each of these vehicles into an automated lead management system is essential in keeping your business in front of warm prospects by managing these leads skillfully.

Automated Lead Management

Businesses that efficiently manage leads derived from crucial touch points such as the above mentioned marketing vehicles will be successful ones. Leadership must be aware of the sales cycle process from the initial prospect’s touch-point to follow up. Your warm leads have a much higher percentage of becoming hot leads as a result of a personalized automated follow up meeting the needs of the consumer.

Personalized Automated Communication

This then begs the question, how does one communicate in an automated yet personalized way in a 1-to-1 B2C or B2B relationship with warm leads? Automation is important but making that automated follow up individualized is preeminent. “The basic building block of good communications is the feeling that every human being is unique and of value.” –Unknown.

Many business have lost the art of individualized communication because they have chosen to utilize automated marketing systems that generate cold and impersonal follow up messages. Snapt’s lead management system tracks consumer behavior as well as the various integrated marketing vehicle touch points in order to comprehensively reach consumers in a very personal way.

Instead of the traditional hit-or-miss way of trying to reach consumers without knowing very much about them, Snapt instead creates a digital eco-system which allows us to learn from our consumers by tracking their behavior on multiple levels. This then enables us to market to the individual with a much more accurate bullet while aiming at a clearer and more identifiable target. In this process warm leads become hot ones as a result of a powerful automated and individualized lead management system.

“If a man can …. make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door” Ralph Waldo Emerson. Qualified lead generation is a valuable aspect of any organization. The aim of this article is to assess how to generate leads for your business more successfully and lead your industry by utilizing the most effective tools.

Lead generation has dynamically changed as a result of many factors such as social media, email campaigns, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), blogging, PURLs (Personalized URLs), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Technology and integrated landing pages to name a few. We will explore the efficacy of utilizing tools such as these in your pursuit of explosive growth in 2012.

Automating Your Lead Generation System

A recent study conducted by Sirius Decisions shows that “marketing automation adoption is expected to increase from 10% to 50% by 2015.” Smart businesses are discovering the streamlined effectiveness of automated lead generation systems. While it is beneficial to utilize social media, SEO, PURLs, and other various means mentioned, it is much more effective to have each of these marketing tools architected as part of a larger working automated system.

This comprehensive automated system should have the capability to generate and deliver real-time visible reporting. The nature of these reports must be detailed and track behavior that makes you aware of how to target existing and prospective customers with the relevant information required to convert them.

So how effectively are businesses currently utilizing and benefiting from automated lead generation? Another study showed that 64% of C.M.O.’s do not have a process in place in order to automate their leads. This study tells us that by utilizing an automated lead generation system we will have a unique advantage over almost two-thirds of the businesses still grasping at the concept and trying to implement and integrate this type of automated marketing cycle into their pre-existing systems.

Automating Marketing to Close Sales Faster

A recent study shows 81% of the most successful companies would like first and foremost to automate their sales platforms in order to be able to close sales faster. Snapt, Inc. leverages strategic marketing and technology to generate leads with consumer intelligence. Snapt has successfully “built a better marketing mousetrap”. Here are 5 important aspects of Snapt’s proven process and how we can grow your business.

•  Automated lead management system driven by real time consumer intelligence
•  Proprietary enterprise marketing software that comprehensively integrates your existing CRM system
•  1-to-1 individualized & automated customer communication
•  Ability to track prospects & customers through full sales cycle process
•  ROI reporting of all marketing investments

Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing has significantly evolved as a result of many factors mentioned last week such as, email campaigns, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media, PURLs (Personalized URLs), blogging, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) technology and integrated landing pages. As a result we must adjust our sales cycles process to integrate each of these marketing tools particularly related to automated lead nurturing.

Shortening Your Sales Cycles

How can you shorten your sales cycle process? This is a common challenge in regard to nurturing hot leads that need immediate attention. Marketing automation is a key factor when dealing with sales cycles that are lengthy and confusing for leads. Don’t let hot leads slip through the cracks as a result of a long sales cycle. Instead nurture them by automating your sales cycle process.

Following Up Well

A recent study conducted by Harvard Business Review showed that businesses that contact their prospects in under 1 hour are 7 times more likely to connect with major decision makers than those businesses that have longer sales cycles and do not follow up well. We can see the importance of following up well and creating an environment where leads can interact and not feel neglected, but instead receive the individualized attention required to move them forward in the sales cycle process.

Automating Your Sales Cycle Process

So how can you automate your sales cycle process? Tracking the behavior of a prospect is of paramount importance. Let’s face it, sales teams are busy when it comes to following up on leads and keeping track of a multiplicity of details on a client with an unwieldy CRM system.

Instead of having a large scale sales force you may want to consider implementing Snapt’s automated system which incorporates pre-existing CRM data to do the work of following up with customers throughout the entire sales cycle process from prospecting the lead to closing the sale. The capability to do this is realistically unattainable if you are not able to track in-depth consumer behavior. Snapt utilizes consumer intelligence and the capability to deliver a shorter sales cycle, and follow up well. Snapt creates a digital ecosystem that engages with a prospect and cultivates a 1-to-1 relationship that transforms leads into conversions.

Why Marketing Messages Go Unheard

The “One Size Fits All” Mentality

Does one size really fit all? Have you observed that culture, regardless of the technology medium utilized, has an affinity to respond to personal targeted marketing campaigns? If you are not targeting your specific most profitable customers you have missed the mark. One size only fits all if we are all the same shape and size, yet we are not and never have been.

“Mass marketing is a little like firing a shotgun into a flock of geese and hoping to hit a few. Although having the potential to be extremely profitable, it is often ineffective in today’s highly sophisticated and segmented markets, and what’s even worse, can easily set you back a small fortune.” -Peter J. Patsula, “Pinpointing Target Markets with Unmet Needs”

Inconsistent Branding

Inconsistent branding can be confusing to prospective clients when they visit your website, social media site, or read your collateral, and are exposed your business for the first time. Having a clear and defined message, and integrating that message across multiple platforms consistently will educate prospects as to how they can benefit by the products or services you offer. Your message should communicate what makes your business unique and sets you apart within your industry to meet the specific need of your consumers.

The Communication Gap Between Sales & Marketing

Oftentimes marketing departments find themselves communicating a different message or brand than what the sales force has been promoting. Great sales people thrive at “owning” their presentations and material in order to confidently make a powerful pitch. The gap that often occurs is in the communication process regarding what the sales team really needs to effectively sell, and what the marketing team provides. Great leadership fosters unity between marketing and sales teams to effectively resonate with, and target your audience.

How To Make Your Messages and Offers Heard

Social Media Targeted Marketing

Social media campaign research has made the effectiveness of targeted marketing through social media very clear. Did you know that a recent study conducted by myYearbook showed that 60% more website visitors can be attributed to companies that leverage social media? Another study shows that “81% of respondents said they’d received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site; 74% of those who received such advice found it to be influential in their decision.”

Consumer Intelligence Narrows the Playing Field

As the amount of preferences and personal choices with respect to consumer decision making increases, our messages and offers must become increasingly stronger, more focused and better targeted than ever before. So how can we do this? Consumer intelligence that tracks the individual behavior of a prospective consumer is essential in making your offers or messages resonate. As no two consumers are alike, we must utilize consumer intelligence on a 1-to-1 basis to discern exactly what is motivating customers.

Utilizing Research To Pinpoint Your Target Market

There are many ways to utilize analytical research to target your market. A recent case study shows Kaz a manufacturer for Vicks using creative ways to do targeted marketing by leveraging research. Kaz worked with Google to reveal which moms as well as moms-to-be would be most interested and likely to purchase a noninvasive behind the ear thermometer. They researched which regions were in a highly prevalent flu area and delivered effective ads through multiple mobile apps. The response rate doubled from what was anticipated.

So how do you accurately assess which percentage of your marketing plan is working for you and which percentage is not? “The Great Marketing Mystery” is not knowing what marketing channels are the most effective and where you should seek to invest and redirect your revenue.

For the past 100 years or more businesses have been trying to put their finger on just that. Here are 3 ways to shed light on your great marketing mystery, and as a result target and reach key customers who you would have otherwise let slip away.

Performance Based Marketing

Performance based marketing can be an effective tactic, but can be costly to a business if there is not the proper follow-up or lead management in place. Many marketing agencies promise results but only deliver at a surface level. A high volume of traffic does not guarantee quality leads or conversion.

Let’s say that you’ve recently hired on an ad agency to launch a brand new pay per click campaign. They’ve promised you thousands of visitors through some mode of advertising, thus generating a great amount of traffic to your website. Let’s go a step further and say that through this campaign 5% of the total amount of traffic became legitimate leads that may or may not have been converted. The question then must be raised “What happened to the other 95% of traffic that visited your website?” Pay-Per Click Campaigns can generate traffic but they cannot measure more than the mere surface behavior of a consumer. Businesses must be able to effectively measure why leads are being created and converted as well as follow up with the other 95% that didn’t convert with a detailed and organized lead management system.

Tracking Behavior with Consumer Intelligence

Effective marketing is knowing what motivates, and drives a consumer to make a decision on an individual basis. Consumer intelligence is the High-octane fuel that makes your business run at peak performance. So how can you utilize consumer intelligence to streamline your marketing campaign? Many analytics users believe that they have access to in-depth information when in reality it is very surface level. Snapt leverages the ability to track a consumer’s behavior on a 1-to-1 basis by utilizing it’s newly developed proprietary marketing software.

Consumer Intelligence gives your business the means to measure a consumer’s behavior based upon his or her exposure to an outside factor such as an advertisement, website, etc . Based upon that behavioral assessment we can make an educated decision on how to reach the individual who responded as well as those who did not. We need the ability to track and measure the valuable information which teaches us about the “why” but also about the “why not”.

Learning From Consumer Behavior and Streamlining Your Marketing Campaign

In business we must always be teachable. Our consumers can teach us a lot. The question is, are we ready to listen and learn from them? We also must have the capabilities and technology in place to measure and manage that behavior. Snapt’s proprietary software enables businesses to measure and manage behavior through the use of an easy to understand user interface dashboard that delivers real time results to you daily. Once you receive these results, you can then assess what is motivating your consumers to convert. You will also be able to ascertain the reasons why a customer has not converted which will therefore enable you to re-adjust your marketing campaign to function at full capacity.

A common obstacle we face is preemptively pulling the trigger when making business decisions. First, we must accurately identify the target, then take aim and execute an achievable strategic plan. This week we will address the importance of having a strategy within the context of generating sales opportunities and revenue, and what that plan should ideally consist of.

A Strategic Plan Must Be Realistic and Achievable

Andrew Carnegie, a renowned entrepreneur, who was instrumental in leading the expansion of America with the steel industry in the late 19th century once said, “As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” Have you ever dealt with a leader who was all visionary and no practicality, who set lofty goals but never attained them? While it is important to have confidence in your company and team of employees, great leaders must be careful not to discourage them by setting unrealistic goals. The organization of a strategic plan is meaningless without setting realistic and achievable goals. While we must strive for greatness in our strategic plans we must in a sense aim for the moon while keeping both feet firmly planted on the ground. “There are some people, who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.” -Douglas Everett

3 Essential Elements of Strategic Planning

Assessing Where your Business is Now

In order to identify your relative business markets in pursuit of revenue growth you must have an intricate understanding of your own business. To ascertain a deeper understanding we must ask the questions; “How does my business operate internally, what is the framework and architecture? What drives your main stream of revenue and ultimate profitability? Who are your stakeholders, and who are your most profitable customers? How does your business stand up to competing businesses within the same industry? It is important to put all egos aside and take a sober look at these elements to gain an accurate assessment.

Setting Top-Level Objectives for the Future

Once you have an accurate understanding of the intricacies of your own business you are ready to set your top-level objectives in order to take you from where you are to where you want to be. Your vision is first and foremost. Balancing the vision for your business vs. the practical achievable means to getting there is important as mentioned earlier. Has that vision changed from what it once was, or is it the same? Have you identified and galvanized your businesses’ mission? Are your objectives firmly set in place so that your team can easily embrace them and stay on target? Have you considered what you value the most as an organization? Once you have raised and addressed each of these questions you will need to identify the techniques which you will use to implement the next course of action.

Identifying What You Need To Do To Achieve Your Goals

Change is often unwelcome when tradition has become comfortable in a business. You will need to take and un-biased and detached look at what needs to be changed in your business in order to reach your strategic objectives as identified earlier. Take into account any major changes the business is experiencing now and can expect to experience in the future. It is important to take a look at any investment changes that will affect these goals.

Identify the techniques you will need to implement in order to make the necessary changes required for you to experience maximum revenue growth. Put into place the key components you have identified to generate sales opportunities and create new revenue streams. Setting deadlines is an important factor in keeping yourself and your team accountable to meet the achievable goals which have been set.

In this week’s edition we will delve into the last important principle: Engaging Your Industry = Warmer Targeted Leads. This last important principle will help you to make your blog a lead generating vehicle that targets those who already have an interest in your industry, therefore making them warmer leads. There are some important practices to look at when considering how to engage your industry and generate warmer prospects and leads.

Create a Blog Summary Video

Have you considered the potential of video in reaching your industry related audience? By creating a brief video you can describe to your potential readership what your blog’s focus is and what topics will be addressed. This will give them an incentive to subscribe and look forward to content of interest to them in later published blog articles.

When creating your video topic list, be sure to identify specific pain points and address their respective solutions. Your blog summary video should describe how your targeted industry can greatly benefit from the expert insights your blog will offer. Publish your video on YouTube and make sure to optimize.

Take a Survey of What Your Readers Want

Online surveys can be a powerful tool when assessing which topics are of interest to your blog readership and what trends are shaping your given industry. Offering insights on a topic that nobody is really interested in within your selective industry will be like trying to sell a set of steak knives to a vegetarian. You are more likely to succeed in converting a lead that is warmer. In order to do that you must pinpoint which topics are relevant and of interest to prospects who will then want to become engaged in your blog.

Network with Other Bloggers

Networking with other bloggers in your blogosphere can be very effective. You can leverage existing contacts while creating new ones. Other industry related bloggers who have an established network can be advantageous to you. When you connect with them either by mentions on your blog or through social media avenues you open up the potential opportunity for them to share your blog within their network. Inbound links are a great asset with respect to search engine ranking. The more networks you target, the greater your engagement with warmer, targeted prospects.

Running Contests

Have you considered running contests on your blog to augment attention? Once you have established the nature of your contest or offer you must then create a process that requires other industry related bloggers to link back to your blog. In order for them to be eligible for the prize or special offer you can establish the criteria to be liking, tweeting, or re-publishing your blog in their given networks. This is a helpful way to expand your blog’s readership by creating opportunities to attract new readers and subscribers.

Getting On Blog Directories

Making your blog public on directories is a great and inexpensive way to promote your blog. It is not hard to find free industry related blog directories on which to post your link. Creating inbound links to your blog is an important factor in getting on directories. The win-win is that you will attract more relevant targeted traffic while increasing your search engine rankings.

Measure Your Results and Prospects

Measuring your results is an instrumental part of better business blogging. Viewing who has visited your most popular blog posts is an effective way to assess what trends and topics are driving industry leads. If your blog isn’t successfully generating leads then you need to re-assess your blog content and your target audience.

Snapt’s Consumer Intelligence Gets Proven Results

In the past this institution had sought out ad agencies as well as software solution providers to help them meet their goals. Many of these had fallen short of their expectations. Conversely, Snapt helped this college to drive 60 tours within a 3 week time span. As a result Snapt was chosen by them as their preferred company proving to be a driving force behind it’s conversion rates.

Here are some of the proponents Snapt utilized to generate and leverage consumer intelligence to cause such phenomenal growth.

Analyzing Behavioral Preferences

An important aspect of the college’s marketing plan which Snapt helped them focus on was behavioral preferences of students. For example, what were student conversion ratios in relationship with the current degrees being offered by them? Snapt emphasized the importance of tracking the consumer’s decision making process while making that process simple and user friendly.

Customized Interface Experiences

Statistics currently show that 80% of decisions made today are made online. When a consumer begins to research, it is important to customize that interface experience and personalize that research process as well as track their preferences. Snapt helped the college present the information that was necessary for potential students to make a favorable decision in a simple and streamlined way.

Dynamic PURL Campaign

Snapt’s Dynamic PURL system which was applied to their marketing campaign intuitively learned from the preferences that were chosen, and displayed customized content to users. In essence, we helped this college to educate their students before ever having walked into a classroom. Dynamic PURLs consider a consumer’s desires and presents them with a solution. The system is automated and retrieves information from a database which is then generated in real time. As a result Dynamic PURLs do the work for you.

Lead Generation

Lead generation was created as a result of analyzing behavioral preferences, customizing user experiences, and utilizing dynamic PURLs. As a result the college saw a better response rate which could be attributed to relevant content. They saw more customer insight than ever before through Snapt’s consumer intelligence, tracking and monitoring. And overall better communication which was ongoing with customers to produce a higher generation of leads and conversion.

Lead Management

The leads which were created for the college then went through an easy to use dashboard interface which allowed them to analyze and track what information had generated their leads. The lead information which was also managed was those that did not convert. This was an important factor to track so there can be an intelligent follow up to those who engaged in the system.

Proprietary Marketing Software

Snapt’s Software Suite was applied to the colleges marketing plan to generate our unique brand of consumer intelligence. This proprietary software can be “Snapt” or bolted on to your existing system to assess weak points in your marketing plan and perform a multiplicity of functions in order to strengthen every aspect of your marketing initiatives and maximize conversions.

On the road to achieving revenue growth in 2012 there are many challenges which businesses will face. Over the next 12 weeks we are going to address 12 common obstacles which will help you achieve explosive growth now, and in the year ahead. After careful research, and having received an overwhelming amount of feedback, the first obstacle we are going to identify of significant importance is the “M.I.A. C.M.O.”

What is the Chief Marketing Officer’s Role?

We can often perceive our C.M.O.s as high level executive leaders who have insight which is privy only to an elite few. Though this paradigm may be characteristic and evident, the resulting consequences may not always be immediate and clear. The problem with a lack of marketing leadership within an organization is that without clear insight from the few the many may stumble forward as in the dark without direction. There is often a disconnection between what is being measured, reported and initiated, and what is being shared from a leadership standpoint.

Raising Questions of Accountability

Raising important and probing questions of accountability is not always easy but should be an essential practice of a C.M.O. When is the last time your C.M.O. sat down with the staff and shared what is driving growth evidenced by company performance against business metrics? When was the last time your marketing plan was compared and measured up against your current revenue margin, sales, market share, shareholder value, and overall ROI of marketing spend?

Where There is No Vision the People Perish

An effectual C.M.O is someone who not only drives growth, but through strong leadership shares a holistic vision with an organizational entity. Experiencing growth must first start with leadership that communicates a vision and establishes a mission based upon careful research. Without effective marketing leadership we will be perpetually aiming at an unidentified moving target. The changing business scene requires C.M.O.s to rise to the challenge of identifying important trends in advance but also developing and communicating winning business strategies that inspire, prepare, and lead their organizations to success.

Here are 10 Leadership Initiatives of a Successful Chief Marketing Officer

1. Developing and Communicating a Vision That Inspires, Prepares, and Leads Your Organization
2. Driving Growth Which is Evidenced By Company Performance
3. Being Up-To-Date and Researched in a Quickly Changing Media Environment
4. Discernment and Foresight to Emerging Market Trends
5. Building Effective Media Strategies based upon Consumer Intelligence
6. Evaluation of Organizations With The Purpose of Transformation
7. Building and Differentiating Brands in a Social Media Environment
8. Establish Initiatives to Serve Internal Stakeholders and External Customers
9. Cultivate a Performance Based, Conversion Driven Marketing Organization
10. Developing and Leveraging Employee Skills and Capabilities

Principle 2: Content Optimization = Capturing Leads
Capturing leads is an important element in why you blog for your business. If you are struggling to build your blog’s readership, I recommend focusing your initiatives on how you can improve your content in order to target your audience and augment lead generation. Optimizing your content to cultivate and target prospects in search engines as well as creating content that captivates readers is important. The more concentrated and detailed your optimization is, the greater your leads will be, which will ultimately yield greater conversions.

Practice 1: Targeted Keyword Focused Posting
Choosing relevant and effective keywords are an important aspect of optimizing your blog to generate more leads. Your blog titles should incorporate industry related keywords that users enter into various search engines when they are making behavioral decisions. Keep in mind that your keyords should target traffic as opposed to just simple affecting search engine rankings. Identify important targeted search engine keywords that you haven’t written about in your blog and create content that is relevant and interesting. This will optimize your blog post and attract more targeted visitors from search engines through organic traffic.

Practice 2: Attention Winning Titles
Headlines are a crucial aspect of your blog. Using keyword to optimize your headlines is important but it is just as significant to capture a reader’s attention with titles that win their attention. Let’s face it there are thousands of blog out there vying for your readers time. Your headlines must be more creative, more captivating, and enticing if you are going to win a reader’s attention and outmaneuver someone who has blogged on a similar topic.

Practice 3: Commanding Call To Action
A strong call to action is an essential element within your blog content or in your blog sidebar. Banners that draw a readers attention while they are engaged in your blog can be utilized to advertise important products or services while generating and capturing leads. Another element to consider is a having a newsletter capture form with a pop-up offer or free download incorporated to foster incentives. Creating contextual calls-to-action can also be a generative asset. Hyperlinking keywords in key places within your blog content is a great practice to follow as well.