Lead generation strategies should be built around the idea of improving potential customers’ understanding of a company’s value proposition, not closing a deal. After all, not every prospect is ready to buy right away.
Just ask the Austin marketing leaders we spoke to below.
They said that marketing teams that invest in understanding customer needs and highlighting value early in the sales process can improve the quality and quantity of inbound leads. Communicating value continuously throughout the funnel, alongside help from sales, can turn those leads into conversions.
However, despite metrics like conversion rates, cost per acquisition and lifetime value, the analysis for marketing “isn’t black and white,” Chief Marketing Officer Trey Robinson, who works at Realized, said. Marketers have to be agile and fine-tune their strategies in tandem with the sales org over time.
The marketing and sales teams at OutboundEngine have a close relationship. Josh Thomas, head of marketing at the marketing software provider, said that not only is qualitative feedback from sales conversations a metric of success, but the two teams frequently collaborate to experiment on new strategies.
What’s the most effective lead generation strategy you’ve tried?
The most effective lead generation strategy starts with meeting the customer where they are versus where we’d like them to be. Not every potential customer is ready to buy right now, as much as we’d like that.
It’s our responsibility in marketing to help educate those prospects. We need to build awareness of the problem we’re solving, help connect that problem to available solutions and ultimately demonstrate that we are an effective way of solving the problem. When we do it right, individual tactics become about helping them take the next natural step. Every time I’ve used this framework, lead volume, close rate and marketing-sourced revenue have gone up.
The most effective lead generation strategy starts with meeting the customer where they are.”
How do you gauge the quality of the leads you’re generating?
We look at lead quality metrics based on wanting to see improvements over time at each stage, from initial inquiry to prospects becoming customers. At the onset, we evaluate lead quality based on how well the individual fits our ideal customer profile and the investment it took to start that initial conversation.
From there, we look at lead performance at key stages of the sales process, from demo-set to closed-won and the associated average deal size. And what’s just as important for us is the qualitative feedback that we gather through listening to calls and speaking with the sales team.
How do you work with the sales team to convert leads and refine your lead generation strategies over time?
Our job in marketing isn’t done once someone reaches out to speak with sales. We continue to communicate value throughout the sales process. For example, we built active nurture programs for prospects who may not be ready to invest. They often need more education, so they go into a nurture program focused on building awareness to bring them back when the time is right.
Working from home made everything a little more challenging. Feedback from the sales team is more important than ever, given the time they spend speaking with customers. The marketing and sales teams schedule time weekly to share ways to create interest and discuss new experiments to test ideas.
CMO Trey Robinson and his team at Realized base the success of their lead generation efforts on whether they see a return on investment. Robinson said much of the real estate investment management platform’s strategies are free to implement, so returns come frequently.
What’s the most effective lead generation strategy you’ve tried?
Free channels are best. Media is expensive, so whenever we can create free or low-cost strategies, we try them. Organic search, referrals, word of mouth and partnerships are all great ways to generate leads.
Metrics are important, but the primary element to focus on is return. If you are spending money on each lead, you will never make your money back. The pitfall of most B2C startups is that their customer acquisition costs are too high. They don’t have enough of a budget to establish true “traction.” We spent three years building an organic search strategy. As a result, 40 percent of our traffic is free. The math always works when you are dividing into zero, which is precisely why we emphasize and focus on leveraging free channels.
Media is expensive, so whenever we can create free or low-cost strategies, we try them.”
How do you gauge the quality of the leads you’re generating?
We focus on conversion, cost per acquisition and lifetime value (LTV) of leads. We look for insights like the following: the rate a source is converting to revenue; whether we’re making our marketing dollars back in revenue; the cost to generate leads; and whether we can create an account acquisition cost lower than the customer’s LTV. We measure these metrics through Salesforce and HubSpot.
How do you work with the sales team to convert leads and refine your lead generation strategies over time?
We meet weekly to discuss the business, what is working and what needs to be changed. We also monitor the CRM tools closely, which helps us to understand how far a lead is in the funnel on a campaign. If a lead converts to an opportunity, we know we are going in the right direction.
Also, by looking at each campaign and offer, we can tell where to spend more and where to spend less. The analysis for marketing isn’t black and white; it’s more about fine-tuning. In our department, success is always measured by the return on spend. Are we turning $1 of marketing into more than $1 and achieving growth?
