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Jelly courtesy of Jerry Wong |
The skill of perfectly managing a lead generation campaign is
not unlike having the ability to pick up a jelly without wobbling it. Whilst
anti-wobble jelly advice may be thin on the ground, you could do worse than to
follow these 9 top tips for a more effective lead generation campaign:
1. Use the right Lead Management Platform –
Some campaigns have very basic fulfillment needs such as batched ftp delivery to
contact centre. Whereas others might involve a multi-step lead process to sale
(i.e. emails, brochures, calls and home visits). Pick the lead management
solution that suits your lead to sale conversion funnel. i.e. you wouldn’t buy
a Ferrari to pop down to the shops.
2. Micro-manage publishers – so you may
want to break down lead supply from publishers by site but how about also dissecting
the traffic to that site? Publishers often work in the dark when it comes to
being able to tell which traffic sources are generating the best leads for
their advertisers. So help complete the feedback loop by passing traffic
sub-ids and then reporting which ones perform best.
3. Test advert copy – Lead generation starts
with using smart advertising to get people to opt-in after all. So the optimum
use of imagery, text and call to action is super critical to success. It’s just
that you won’t know this unless you test different variations of your standard
ad copy. As the most basic level, you may want to use a male and female version
of your ad/landing page/welcome email to more efficiently onboard your leads.
4. Adjust filters and criteria – This one
has a sting in the tail – ask for more details and you risk deterring the
consumer. So for example, full postal address is very useful to have on your
database, but if you are not going to use it then you are turning off those people
who won’t bother completing your form because of this.
5. Validation – There is good validation
and bad validation (or should I say over-zealous validation). Bad domain
look-ups, ip address checkers, hoax name filters are all great to have, but
once you start going too far and querying potential valid email addresses is
where you’ve crossed the line. Over-validation could just as easily wreck your
CPA as letting through bad leads.
6. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up – Leads
cannot convert without fast follow-up. The value of a lead disintegrates every
minute it is left untouched. Opt-in leads should be emailed instantly and receive
call-backs within 2 hours.
7. Incentives – Always a touchy subject as
to whether you should use any kind of incentivisation for lead generation. But
incentives shouldn’t be thought of as a dirty tactic because you need some incentive
for people to opt-in in the first place. The main reason someone opts-in will
determine how motivated that person is to buy from you. Incentives can be
thought of in two ways, direct and indirect. A direct incentive is where you
tell the consumer to complete this offer and you will be entered to win a
prize.’ An indirect incentive could be ‘choose one from these 10 offers and you
will be entered to win a prize.’ Both will motivate and incentivise the
consumer in very different ways. But it’s not just prize incentives you should
be thinking about, exclusive discounts (voucher codes) and offers can be used
to drive the buying motivation of the consumer.
8. Be fair and transparent to consumers– Trying to trick consumers
into opting-in using unrealistic promises, whilst in the short run will drive
higher clicks and visits, is unlikely in the end to net satisfied customers.
Lead generation is an investment that involves moving the customer from awareness,
interest through desire into action and any tactics that mislead the consumer
are likely to surface very quickly along this path. Best to honestly market
your proposition, tell consumers what’s gonna happen after opt-in and then deliver
on this.
9. Be the lead – Fill out your own forms, read
and click on your own emails. How easy is it to do? Is it a pleasurable
experience? I’ve sat in meetings in which clients have tried and failed to
sign-up to their own lead generation campaigns.
If you follow these top lead generation tips, you should be able to avoid most of those
jelly wobbles!
4 comments:
Is there any further reading you would recommend on this?
Amela
Lead generation
There is surprisingly little background reading of the printed variety. Maybe I should write a book! So I recommend having a look through this blog's archive and also sites like http://performancein.com where I guest blog. Thanks
Worthy post sure..! Good one.
Thanks for the post. worth it
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