Set clear objectives for your lead gen campaign
Each lead generation or lead gen campaign will have different objectives, but there are common best practices each follows. Some campaigns will focus on education and creating a first contact. Others may try to encourage customers to participate in a free trial of the product/service, participate in an event, or take advantage of a discounted offering. You may simply wish to get back in touch with current customers to let them know about your latest features or complementary offerings. Setting clear objectives will help guide messaging, allotted resources, and help define campaign success.
Learn what works
Over time, you will develop your own best practices for lead gen, but here are some we have learned:
- Put your best foot forward by leaving the prospect with a positive impression of your business; negative word-of-mouth travels faster than positive comments.
- Plan properly:
- Research costs and develop attainable, measurable, quantifiable goals and targets based on historical information and/or industry guidelines
- Obtain executive or stakeholder buy-in plus the budget required for implementation
- Line up resources for implementation and follow-up (vendors/internal personnel)
- Craft and deploy messaging that’s integrated across all customer touch points and resonates with the prospect or customer in the buying cycle
- Understand dependencies and where key project milestones are impacted if deadlines are missed
- Communicate internally with stakeholders (sales sheets, reference guides, product demos, etc.)
- Communicate externally, conducting partner outreach as appropriate (sales sheets, reference guides, trigger email campaigns, etc.) prior to external customer outreach
- Use a customer survey or questionnaire to qualify leads. You’ll need to know the prospect’s contact information, interest level, purchase timing, the best way to reach them, and role in the buying cycle (influence, buyer, decision-maker, user). This information will help you take the next step in the sales process:
- How to contact the prospect – by email, phone, or mail
- When to contact the prospect – specific time of day, season, holiday, or another date
- What message to use – a discount on the offering, updates on services or products available, or some other point of interest
- Track campaign results to quantify and improve future marketing campaign results; this will be vital for increasing return on investment and maximizing budget resources. Consider using customer relationship management (CRM) software and/or marketing automation tools to help manage leads and interest following an event.
- Ensure leads are passed to appropriate parties to follow-up on. You’ll want to determine whether a nurture campaign is appropriate or a call from a sales representative is best. When the lead is followed up on, be sure you understand where that customer or prospect is in the buying or life cycle.
Tip!
Results can trickle in over time. While a sense of urgency will encourage immediate results, those who did not respond by your target date may actually be the most likely to make a purchase or become your best prospect for future sales or fundraising opportunities.
Discover more…
- “63 Lead Generation Strategies.” Marketing Wizdom Ltd. Accessed January 4, 2024. http://marketingwizdom.com/strategies/leads.
- Agius, Aaron. “10 Unexpected Lead Sources for B2B Marketers.” Entreprenuer Media, Inc. Accessed January 4, 2024. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/296027.
- Conrad, Andrew. “How to Use Evolving Buyer Trends to Improve B2B Lead Generation.” Gartner, Inc. Last modified June 19, 2020. https://www.gartner.com/en/digital-markets/insights/how-to-use-evolving-buyer-trends-to-improve-b2b-lead-generation.
- Fernandez, Mary. “31 Clever Lead Generation Ideas You Can Implement Immediately (Updated).” Retp, LLC (blog). Last modified April 3, 2017. https://optinmonster.com/27-clever-lead-generation-ideas-you-can-implement-immediately/.
- Jantsch, John. “Master B2B Lead Generation with These Tactics.” Mansueto Ventures. Last modified April 16, 2015. http://www.inc.com/comcast/master-b2b-lead-generation-with-these-tactics.html.
- Kim, Larry. “7 Lead Generation Strategies that Work for Startups.” WordStream (blog). Last modified August 28, 2019. http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/10/15/lead-generation-strategies.
- Lima. “The Upside-Down Marketing Funnel (aka Focusing on Customers First).” MailerLite. Last modified June 30, 2021. https://www.mailerlite.com/blog/upside-down-marketing-funnel-or-why-you-should-care-about-your-customers.
- On, Jennifer. “What Is Lead Generation? 35 Ways to Generate Leads FAST!” Retp, LLC (blog). Last modified July 22, 2022. https://optinmonster.com/lead-generation/.
- Santora, Jacinda. “36 Best Lead Generation Tools to Get More Targeted Leads.” Optinmonster. Last modified April 15, 2020. https://optinmonster.com/best-lead-generation-tools/.
- Svensson, Marcus. “B2B Lead Generation – 11 Tips and Strategies for 2021.” Kinsta (blog). Last modified January 3, 2021. https://kinsta.com/blog/b2b-lead-generation/.
- Taylor, Marcus. “5 Best B2B Lead Generation Strategies (That’ll Work in 2019).” VentureHarbour Ltd. Last modified April 18, 2019. https://www.ventureharbour.com/b2b-lead-generation-strategies/.
