Once upon a time B2B direct marketing relied upon that little yellow bible that was the telephone book. Talking to anyone who has been in telemarketing for more than 20 years they will tell you about how all they had when they started was a copy the local telephone directory, a notepad and a phone!
Entrepreneurial marketers caught onto this idea and were soon producing and selling dedicated well researched B2B lists segmented by sector and job title. Then marketers discovered the internet and the technical monetization of B2B data began! Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Marketing, Data Capture Forms, Google Analytics and Web Visitor Tracking have all had a massive impact on how we as marketers feed the top of our sales funnels.
So from the perspective of pure prospect identification what are the pros and cons of some of the most popular methods of online lead generation?
SEO and SEM
Is all about owning your space – according to Google’s ZMOT 93% of buying cycles start online so the first challenge is to get prospects to visit your digital world aka your website and social media sites. SEO is all about having the right content on your website structured in the right way and making sure people know about it by building links in the right places. SEM is about using search engines as advertising tools by using Pay Per Click and keywords however choosing which terms to rank for can be tricky and expensive if you don’t keep on top of the trends.
SEO and SEM will only attract visitors to your website, it’s what you do next that can turn a visitor into a prospect.
Getting on page 1 of Google is a vital part of any SEO strategyGoogle Analytics
Google analytics is as we all know a powerful tool to any marketer. With regards to lead generation there are some nifty features specifically with regards to prospect identification the User Flow feature shows how visitors are using your website. By understanding how a visitor uses and progresses through your website you can tailor your content and data capture forms to increase the chances of capturing their details.
For marketers who like data, graphs and trends Google analytics can be a dangerous addiction. Remember data can only tell us so much it is how we use that information that will make all the difference, don’t get hung up on tables and graphs when there are other more important uses of your precious time – after all there’s no point measuring your bank balance if you’re not working hard on really putting more into it!
Grabbing a Slice of the Website Analytics PieData Capture Forms
There is no such thing as free lunch and this principle applies to your evergreen content such as whitepapers and guides. Where possible place these behind an email wall where a visitor will have to enter their details in order to download the content. This way you will be able to captures leads who are interested in your content – think carefully about what you do and don’t put behind content walls though, Google wont read behind them so make sure you make a distinction between SEO content and valuable user content that’s really going to convert your visitors into prospects.
Beware! Some studies have shown that up to 80% people tell fibs when filling in online forms either with false email addresses or incorrect phone numbers – for expert advice on data capture ask the GCL team!
Up to 80% of people admit to providing false data in web formsWeb Visitor Tracking
Just like Amazon tracks what we buy and provides useful recommendations we can also use this kind of web tracking to engage B2B prospects. There are a multitude of website tracking products available and they are often included as part of a marketing automation suite. Some are better than others however the principle is the same; the system will use a visitors IP address and match that against a look up database providing you with information about the visitor, what pages they have visited and for how long.
However unless you have been able to plant a cookie on the visitors machine via a marketing email the system will only show you what companies have visited your site. This can limit its use however a good outbound team will be able to use this information in conjunction with your own CRM to build leads based on those interactions.
What to do Next
However don’t forget all these leads will need proper nurturing and qualification before they are ready to be used by the sales team and the nurture platform needs a dedicated eye to design and tweak properly, much like any tool Marketing Automation is only as good as the organ grinder so do your homework and learn the ropes asap. (To find out more read our article on Lead Nurture.)
Digital is a powerful tool for identifying prospects however it is only one tool in your lead generation tool kit and should be used in conjunction with your own well maintained database or CRM. With the planned changes to the EU Data Protection Regulations it will get harder and more expensive to buy data lists from list providers so effective, sustainable digital lead generation will become increasingly important.
Find out how else the EU Data Protection Regulations will affect your direct marketing and how getting opt in consent for your database now can improve your lead generation. Or for more information on how GCL can provide you with fully qualified sales ready leads get in contact via phone 0121 452 2020, mail or the Lead Generation pages on the GCL Direct website .
