Just what do we class as lead generation these days? Type “Lead Generation” into a search engine and the top results will be from marketing automation platforms such as Marketo, Pardot, and Eloqua . But is lead generation all about automating your digital world?
Funnily enough the numbers say no… the B2B barometer report by the IDM showed that the biggest portion of marketing budgets are spent on trade shows. Ok trade shows are as we all know expensive (free pens don’t grow on trees you know!) however the fact that they account for 15% of department spending shows that we still value face to face contact when it comes to generating business. Think personally about your last big investment, was it solely online or did you want to engage, hear, touch and feel where your money was going?
So just how should we define lead generation? This all depends on how we as marketers define leads and how warm they need to be before we pass them over to the sales team? In short it will be different for every team.
Therefore it can be a bit disappointing when looking for information on lead generation and only be presented with information on marketing automation. What are the other aspects of successful lead generation for B2B businesses?
Modern Lead Generation is not one aspect, tool or technique. Think of it as a funnel with digital marketing such as SEM, email, SEO and Social at the top using the global web marketplace to throw out your nets and see what Suspects we get. The next level of the funnel is the Automation or then Nurture where the suspects are first filtered and segmented with the prospects identified and cultivated through the nurture process.
The next stage is crucial as this is where we identify the Sales Qualified Leads, get this stage right and you save time, money and effort by ensuring your resources are dedicated to those leads that are going to convert.
It’s time for us in the B2B marketing sector to wise up and make sure that when we talk about Lead Generation we don’t get bogged down in the technicalities of automation but instead look at the process start to finish.
GCL Direct have over 25 years’ experience in that tricky, delicate process of separating the suspects from prospect and prospect from Leads, ultimately into SQLs. Find out how we could save you time, increase your returns and make your sales team (not to mention yourself!) the envy of the company all backed up with a proven track record for added piece of mind.
