5 things you can do to improve b2b lead generation

@brianjcarroll

5 Things You Can Do to Improve your B2B Lead Generation

Brian Carroll

@brianjcarroll

@brianjcarroll

About meBrian Carroll

Brian Carroll is Former Chief Evangelist of MECLABS and founder of InTouch, part of the MECLABS. Author of the bestseller, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, Carroll is a leading expert in lead generation and he's profiled and regularly quoted in numerous publications.

He has been profiled and quoted in numerous publications such as BtoBmagazine, Selling Power, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Target Marketing, Inc., Marketing News, DM News, MarketingProfs,MarketingSherpa, Software CEO and CMO Magazine.

@brianjcarroll

@brianjcarroll

Biggest B2B Marketing Challenges

Source: 2015 Lead Generation Trend Report © 2015 Crowd Research Partners.

Marketers see generating high quality leads as their number one business challenge.

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The Problem

Photo credit: http://jephmaystruck.com

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Agenda

1. Get sales and marketing collaborating

2. Start doing lead re-engagement

3. Build a lead scoring approach that really works

4. Nurture customers more effectively

5. Use your empathy to reconnect

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1. Get sales and marketing collaborating on these questions

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Marketing and Sales Collaboration

IncreasedPerformance

Marketing Team

Sales Team

Lead acceleration meeting session with sales and marketing

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1. Lead Qualification is the bridge between the Marketing and Sales teams

2. Collaborate and get between Sales and Marketing concerning two defined standards:

Ideal Customer Profile – Do they have capacity to buy?

Universal Lead Definition – Do they enough motivation to be sales-ready lead?

Internal AlignmentKey takeaways

Get free ULD agenda and tips b2bleadblog.com/uld

!

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LEAD MANAGEMENT FLOW WITH SCORING

Lead enters system

Lead is scored by intensity level

Lead IS optimal intensity ULD

Lead IS NOT optimal intensity

Lead delivered to Sales

Lead nurtured to optimal intensity

Responsive Lead Scoring

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Background: Provider of professional management services for technology assets for mid- and large-sized companies.

Goal: To increase the total number of leads generated.

Research question: Which lead qualification process will generate the greatest number of leads?

Approach: A sequential test of the qualification process.

Case Study on Responsive Lead Scoring

Background: Provider of professional management services for technology assets for mid- and large-sized companies.

Goal: To increase the total number of leads generated.

Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/revamped-marketing-automation-crm-technology

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Leads Enter System

Leads are Sent Directly to Sales

Sales “cherry-picks” best leads

Many leads are overlooked

Case Study on Responsive Lead ScoringOriginal lead qualification process was very linear


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LEVEL 3 LEADS

LEVEL 2 LEADS

LEVEL 1 LEADS0 – 19 Points

20 – 39 Points

40+ Points

Sales-Engaged

Leads• Organization set up a responsive

scoring system – leads assigned numeric value based on role/behavior

• Scoring system had 3 levels – once lead scored enough points to enter third level (40+ points), Sales would engage

Case Study on Responsive Lead ScoringTesting out a responsive scoring system


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Profile Score

CEO, Owner President, VP of Sales 10 pts

Target Market ID – IBM BP 10 pts

Email Campaigns Score

Open an Email 5 pts

Clickthrough an Email 7 pts

Web Metric Scoring Score

Visits Any Webpage 1 pts

Visits Offering Page 5 pts

Visits Thought Leadership Article 5 pts

Visits Thought Leadership Video 10 pts

Views a Previous Webinar 15 pts

Visits Testimonial Page 5 pts

Visits Demo 15 pts

Web Metric Scoring Score

Contact Us 25 pts

Webinar Registration 20 pts

Web Demo Request 25 pts

Promotional Dialogue 25 pts

Webinar Playback 25 pts

Case Study on Responsive Lead ScoringBuilding a lead score card

LEVEL 3 LEADS

LEVEL 2 LEADS

LEVEL 1 LEADS0 – 19 Points

20 – 39 Points

40+ Points

Sales-Engaged

Leads


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• Leads sent marketing content matched to their particular score

• Aim was to nurture leads up the funnel and provide more opportunities to increase lead score

Case Study on Responsive Lead ScoringBuilding custom nurture campaigns


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Increase in Lead Generation75%New process increased total number of leads engaged by Sales by 75% over previous year

“If you look back three years ago, we were doing all of this work and we weren't seeing any results, but we didn't really have the system set up to really be able to

measure our success. So, I think for us it's really been looking at and revising processes and procedures, and just being smarter about how we operate.”

Trish McLoughlin Marketing Manager

Case Study on Responsive Lead ScoringThe results


@brianjcarroll18

Touch pointsUser-tracked behavior

What have they engaged?

Explicit Information

Meets Universal Lead Definition

Contacts Companies

IdealCustomer

Profile

Hand off possibilitiesto sales

Implicit InformationDoes it meet

the ULD?

Rep call to qualify

Assign to rep

Inquiry comes into DB

Optimized Lead ScoringQualify leads based on Universal Lead Definition (ULD), not lead score


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Responsive Lead Scoring

Most leads are not sales-ready leads.The key is to know when someone achieves optimal intensity (ULD).

Lead scoring is a responsive approach to assess the intensity of leads.

Scoring is not meant to replace human touch, but rather to prioritize it.

Key takeaways

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3. Start doing lead re-engagement to get more

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Background: A B2B company with a short sales cycle launched an email series to nurture older leads.

Objective: To reinvigorate leads that have passed the initial 30 day window in which most clients are most likely to convert.

Primary Research Question: Which tactics can be implemented to re-engage existing leads in the database?

Test Design: Intensive initial 30-day lead nurture campaign followed by regular newsletters, webinars and long term added-value email series.

Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/old-names-yield-37-customers

Case Study on Lead Re-engagement

@brianjcarrollSource: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/old-names-yield-37-customers

Topic BTopic A

Week 1 Email Series

Week 2 Email Series

Online Software Demo Sales-ready leads

Leads Engage with Content

Leads Engage with Content

Re-engagement

Case Study on Lead Re-engagementNew approach with ongoing re-engagement nurturing

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Email Series #1: NewsletterThis monthly email included short columns from the company CEO, as well as information on industry events, book reviews, marketing advice and other content related to the company.


Case Study on Lead Re-engagementNew approach

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Email Series #2: Webinar InvitesMonthly emails to the leads that did not convert beyond the initial 2-week email series.



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Email Series #3: “Tips” Email Series

• The primary goal was to maintain contact and help potential customers.

• Bi-weekly series lasted for a year.

Sample Biweekly Email



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• One concern was that the new email series would overwhelm the leads and actually push them away.

• So this organization sent an email once every three months to give the lead the opportunity to unsubscribe.

Sample Unsubscribe Email


Case Study on Lead Re-engagementNew approach - Avoid Overwhelming

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Customers are from leads generated over three months ago37%20% Customers are from leads generated over one year ago

"Lead nurturing is actually producing…business for us that we would not have if we were not…staying in contact with these people”

- Marketing Director


Case Study on Lead Re-engagementResults

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Lead Re-engagement

• Re-engage those you’ve met three or more months ago.

• Keep the conversation going

• Provide content and tools help them have the conversations internally.

What can you do to reach out to your existing list in a helpful way?

Key takeaways

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Understand Audience

Organize Content

Track Results and

Engagement

Execute Tracks

Messaging Strategy

•Touch

•Track

•Follow-Up

1•Touch

•Track

•Follow-Up

2•Touch

•Track

•Follow-Up

3•Touch

•Track

•Follow-Up

4

Interest Intimacy Intent

Progression Across Buying Stages

What is Lead Nurturing?Relevant, consistent conversation with potential customers, regardless of readiness to buy

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In one lead nurturing effort, you might be dealing with multiple prospects before the lead becomes a sales-ready lead:

So how does the marketer ensure that the right message gets to the right prospect?

CEO Practitioner Manager IT Admin

The Right Prospect

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Sample Persona Diagnosis

Prospect-level Persona Diagnosis – The Business Manager (finding solution)

The Right ProspectBuild persona diagnoses for each prospect persona

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Background: TAB helps organizations store and manage print and digital documents.

Goal: To increase the overall response to email lead nurturing efforts

Research Question: Which lead nurturing program will generate the greatest number of email responses?

Test Design: Sequential test of lead nurturing program

Case Study on Lead Nurturing

Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/pilot-campaign-increases-conversion-326

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• Company loosely defined a sales lead as anyone who downloaded a whitepaper, attended a webinar, or completed one of a range of other actions

• Number of leads generated was overwhelming for a salesperson – average salesperson did not have enough time to call or email all leads, so many leads were getting wasted

• Only nurturing effort in place was a regular generic email newsletter

Challenges faced by the organization

Marketing decided to test a more targeted lead nurturing program to help qualify and

nurture leads before sending to Sales



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Prospect #1: If I am a decision-maker looking for paper management solutions (paper only), why should I purchase from you rather than any of you competitors?

Prospect #2: If I am a decision-maker looking for hybrid management solutions (paper and digital), why should I purchase from you rather than any of your competitors?

Approach to building targeted lead nurturing program

Focused efforts on the two main prospects:1



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Prospect sees problem w/record management

Prospect desires to learn more about solutions

Prospect considers different providers

Prospect encounters resistance to solution

Prospect makes a selection

2. EDUCATION1. RECOGNITION 3. EVALUATION 4. OBJECTION 5. DECISION


Mapped decision sequence average prospect experienced during purchase/nurturing cycle

2

Approach to building targeted lead nurturing program



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Nurturing Track #1:

Nurturing Track #2:

Email #1 Email #2 Email #3 Email #4Email #5

Email #1 Email #2 Email #3 Email #4Email #5

Score: 15 Score: 30 Score: 45 Score: 60 Score: 75

Score: 15 Score: 30 Score: 45 Score: 60 Score: 75

Organize and build the nurture tracks



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Overall increase in lead conversion rate of 32.6%.

650% Increase in Email Clickthrough

“Going forward, we are expanding the number of campaigns to reach other topics and we are going to use more complex decision-

tree logic to dictate the next message in the cycle.”

-VP, Global Marketing

The results



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5. Use Empathy as your intuition to reconnect

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Use your empathy

Photo credit: http://theleadingedgeblog.com/

Sharing another's feeling and thoughts

Empathy is the marketer’s intuition.

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Using your empathy

Instead of trying to sound interesting to others, be interested in them.

Photo credit: http://blog.referralinstitutenn.co.uk/

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Case Study on Empathy

42

Background: ActiveNetwork is a large event management software provider

Goal: To increase total lead inquiries (phone calls + form sign-ups) from visitors who abandoned the free trial sign-up process

Research Question: Which email tone will result in a higher rate of lead inquiries?

Test Design: A/B single factor split

Source: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/research-topics/email-marketing/email-copywriting-change-tone.html

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ControlTreatment

Case Study on EmpathyUsing A/B testing


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Standard Sales Tone

Control

Empathetic/Service Tone

Treatment



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Treatment

Empathetic/Service Tone7.08% Conversion Rate

Control

Standard Sales Tone1.58% Conversion Rate



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ControlTreatment


!By addressing the customer’s anxiety (with empathy) through the tone of the email copy, they saw a 349% increase in total lead inquiries


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Summary

1. Get sales and marketing collaborating

2. Start doing lead re-engagement



5. Use your empathy to reconnect