Attracting and handling quality leads can be a mammoth task for companies dealing with SEO, social media marketing, and other buyer-centric marketing campaigns. Most businesses tend to go in blind without having a proper lead generation and management process in place. Even if a process exists, it is usually a mix of manual sorting and disorganised communication modules that risk sales responses. A good agency offering top-notch SEO services works with an effective lead generation and management process. Here are some ways in which you can improve the same:
1. Alignment - Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, And Product
Gather your team and run them through the following, until they garner an in-depth understanding of:
- the valid definitions of and criteria involved in leads, marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads, sales accepted leads, customers, retention opportunity, etc.
- the lead management process in the form of a ten-step guide.
- KPIs, benchmarks, and short-term/long-term/recurring goals for sales, marketing, and customer service.
- the reporting process, including the handling of dashboards and in-depth reports and how they must be circulated to various stakeholders.
2. Marketing Automation And Crm Integration
You need to have an efficient sales and marketing technology in order to set your process in motion. Discuss the same with your team during the alignment process, and establish the best ways to use these tools to your advantage. Make sure that you have:
- a website content management system.
- tools aiding content creation and promotion.
- tools for lead conversion, including landing pages, forms, and call-to-action buttons.
- lead nurturing tools.
- marketing automation, including list segmentation, lead scoring and lead management workflows.
- seamless CRM integration, bi-directional transfer of lead data, KPIs etc.
- customer service applications, business intelligence systems, etc.
3. Lead Generation
You can capture qualified leads via high-quality content and targeted inbound marketing and demand generation.
Inbound Marketing: This includes blogging (both in-house and guest), blogger outreach and syndication, social media updates and engagement, SEO optimization, premium content, etc.
Demand Generation: This includes PPC, social media ads, banner ads, native ads, email marketing, direct mail, personal networking, and so on.
4. Lead Nurturing
The progress of leads should be monitored and influenced via the sales funnel with the presentation of relevant content, based on buyer persona and content mapping. Content can be propagated through personalized drip email campaigns or by direct integration using personalized content. Then on, you can move to different lifecycle stages using marketing automation workflows.
5. Transferring Leads to the Sales Team
Move your inbound sales to your CRM and assign them to appropriate sales reps when lead scoring thresholds are reached. Use lead intelligence tools to evaluate sales qualified leads, as this will help formulate a sound strategy for engaging with prospects, gaining trust and interest, and developing a relationship leading to a closed sale. Once you grasp this process of sales nurturing, you will be able to stay in the loop while sending customer-centric content that informs customers regarding upcoming releases.
6. Analytics and Reporting
Account representatives, consultants, and the IT team need to use analytical tools to optimize the process and generate accurate reports in accordance with company requirements. Reports must always be shared with other collaborative teams in order to ensure compliance and improvement in order to assess overall performance.
In conclusion, implement these steps while devoting the right budget and resources in order to reap immense benefits. Building an effective process will most definitely lead to sustained growth and profits!
