How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 1

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days4 digital tactics for improving short-term lead gen

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 2

THE SALES CYCLE

Instead of focusing on pain points (things that matter during the awareness phase or the beginning of the sales cycle) connect with prospects that are in the research phase the stage in the middle of the cycle

ldquo

What happens when you need more leads right nowLeads drive revenue At this very moment every successful B2B brand is executing strategies to produce leads three or four quarters down the road

But what can your brand do to boost revenue in the next three to six months Instead of focusing on pain points (things that matter during the awareness phase or the beginning of the sales cycle) connect with prospects that are in the research phase the stage in the middle of the cycle

Integrated digital marketing offers a perfect vehicle for improving short-term revenuemdashitrsquos simply the best way to connect the right people with the right messages at the right time in the sales cycle

At Walker Sands our clients see an average 70 percent growth in leads in the first 90 days Bold statement You bet But it demonstrates the kind of fast results that integrated digital marketing can offer your business

02 Research

03Awareness

04Purchase

01Awareness

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 3

Rich content is a key element in B2B brandsrsquo efforts to move leads through the sales process Walker Sands worked with Dotcom Distribution a leading e-commerce logistics and fulfillment provider to develop and promote an e-book targeting an audience at a specific point in the sales cycle

Dotcom distribution

Rich contentCASE STUDY

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Visits to landing page2360

Conversions547

Conversion rate21

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 4

It begins with rich contentCase studies vendor selection guides tip sheets research reports and white papers have the potential to hit likely leads at an opportune moment in the buyer journey The key is that your rich content must show how your solution or offering achieved results for similar organizations and why your offering is a better choice than the competition

The right piece of content can produce a significant quantity of leads in a short period of time For example an e-book that Walker Sands developed for Dotcom Distribution drew more than 2360 page views during the first six months yielding 547 downloads many of which represented new leads for the business

Think of rich content as the epicenter of your short-term revenue campaign ndash starting right now your mission is to drive traffic to rich content using an integrated digital marketing approach

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 5

TACTIC 03 RemarketingTACTIC 01 Segmented keyword analysis

TACTIC 04 Email marketingTACTIC 02 Optimized landing pages

Timing is everything in short-term revenue improvement Trial and error is fine for dialing in your long-term marketing efforts but you canrsquot afford experimentation when you have to generate leads and increase revenue in the next three to six months You need proven digital tacticsmdashand here are four that work for improving revenue in a three- to six-month timeframe

For improving short-term lead gen

4 digital tactics

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 6

Segmentedkeyword analysis

TACTIC 01

Segmented keyword analysis is essential for targeting specific audiences In the short term high-value keywords and phrases grab the attention of mid-cycle prospects through organic and paid search By performing research upfront you will be better equipped to build targeted landing pages and media campaigns that get results

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 7

Connect to your most important audiencesKEY STEPS

TARGET KEYWORDS FOR USERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SALES CYCLE

Focus on words and phrases that are searched by prospects who are already familiar with the type of solution they need rather than focusing on pain points For example from a keyword perspective itrsquos more beneficial to target ldquoemployee scheduling softwarerdquo or ldquocompare employee scheduling solutionsrdquo than it is to target ldquohow to reduce overtime hoursrdquo

UNDERSTAND HOW USERS SEARCH

Use search demand tools like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner to discover how users are searching For example ldquosocial media marketingrdquo could be a larger bucket that can be expanded with supplemental keywords that target users in the middle of the sales cycle resulting in key phrases like ldquosocial media monitoring toolsrdquo and ldquosocial media analyticsrdquo

CREATE KEYWORD-RICH CONTENT

Develop rich content that is optimized for your target keywords and phrases Your content needs to align with SEO best practices but it also has to be useful and relevant for your audience Avoid the temptation to stuff the content with promotional messaging ndash focus on creating content that offers real value to users who will make a purchase decision in one or two quarters

IDENTIFY THEMES

Analyze your site and identify keywords and phrases that describe your products and service offerings Examining your web page title tags is a great way to find out what words you are using Load all your titles into a word cloud generator to find the common words Common words grouped together (eg ldquomarketing strategyrdquo or ldquosocial media marketingrdquo) are helpful for identifying valuable key phrases

MIND THE GAPS

Evaluate the list of keywords you have assembled and identify themes or keywords that you feel are missing These are your potential opportunity keywords You still need to understand how much search volume exists for these phrases but they often hold the most potential for capturing the attention of new leads

USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER

Use Google Keyword Planner to check the search volume of your potential opportunity keywords and identify the ones that are highly aligned with your offerings These are your target keywords Your gut instinct will be to choose the keywords with the most volume Instead choose Goldilocks keywords (keywords without too little or too much search volume) The middle of the road volume keywords will often have less competition so you will see results more quickly But donrsquot ignore a juicy low volume keyword that perfectly aligns to your business These keywords can deliver highly qualified leads just not in large quantities

01

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 8

Optimized landing pages

TACTIC 02

Optimized landing pages deliver the payoff from segmented keyword analysis When prospects click on a search result or online ad (via desktop or mobile devices) they arrive on a landing page that converts themto leads Not convinced that optimized landing pages make a difference Then consider this By creating mobile-optimized landing pages Walker Sands helped Hansen Bros increase conversions by more than 10 percent in just two months

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 9

Convert prospects to leadsKEY STEPS

INCLUDE TRUST SIGNALS The inclusion of trust signals (eg industry group member badges testimonials and customer logos) communicate industry standing and attract the right prospects to your content

LIMIT NAVIGATION OPTIONS Donrsquot include too many distractions on the landing page (eg unrelated CTAs for other resources and category-wide links to other pages) You want to give the user an obvious best option Complete the form

CREATE INTERNAL LINKS Create relevant internal links to your most important landing pages so that search engines can find them and understand how they fit into the architecture of your site

PERFORM AB TESTING After your page shows improved conversions perform AB testing for button color content length content etc Only change one thing at a time to isolate the element that is driving improvement

DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CTAS The most critical elements on your landing pages are Calls to Action (CTAs) or opportunities for users to download content and connect with your business development team Placement is critical Include multiple CTAs on each landing page positioned throughout the content on the page

MONITOR USER BEHAVIORS Use a tool like Mouseflow or Lucky Orange to observe how visitors interact with your landing page These tools require a snippet of code to be installed on your web pages but will reveal exactly what users are looking at when they visit your site

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS Conduct a conversion rate optimization audit to determine how your landing page layouts are performing and what (if anything) shouldbe done to increase conversions Pay attention if users seem lost are exiting your page are scrolling past the form too quickly or are having trouble filling out your form

PLACE A FORM ABOVE THE FOLD Preferably in the right column of page On mobile serve the form above the content Also limit unnecessary fields on the form The easier it is for the user to fill out the higher your form completion rate will be Use a clear actionable heading above the form such as ldquoGet the 2016 Mobile Marketing Reportrdquo

02

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 2

THE SALES CYCLE

Instead of focusing on pain points (things that matter during the awareness phase or the beginning of the sales cycle) connect with prospects that are in the research phase the stage in the middle of the cycle

ldquo

What happens when you need more leads right nowLeads drive revenue At this very moment every successful B2B brand is executing strategies to produce leads three or four quarters down the road

But what can your brand do to boost revenue in the next three to six months Instead of focusing on pain points (things that matter during the awareness phase or the beginning of the sales cycle) connect with prospects that are in the research phase the stage in the middle of the cycle

Integrated digital marketing offers a perfect vehicle for improving short-term revenuemdashitrsquos simply the best way to connect the right people with the right messages at the right time in the sales cycle

At Walker Sands our clients see an average 70 percent growth in leads in the first 90 days Bold statement You bet But it demonstrates the kind of fast results that integrated digital marketing can offer your business

02 Research

03Awareness

04Purchase

01Awareness

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 3

Rich content is a key element in B2B brandsrsquo efforts to move leads through the sales process Walker Sands worked with Dotcom Distribution a leading e-commerce logistics and fulfillment provider to develop and promote an e-book targeting an audience at a specific point in the sales cycle

Dotcom distribution

Rich contentCASE STUDY

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Visits to landing page2360

Conversions547

Conversion rate21

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 4

It begins with rich contentCase studies vendor selection guides tip sheets research reports and white papers have the potential to hit likely leads at an opportune moment in the buyer journey The key is that your rich content must show how your solution or offering achieved results for similar organizations and why your offering is a better choice than the competition

The right piece of content can produce a significant quantity of leads in a short period of time For example an e-book that Walker Sands developed for Dotcom Distribution drew more than 2360 page views during the first six months yielding 547 downloads many of which represented new leads for the business

Think of rich content as the epicenter of your short-term revenue campaign ndash starting right now your mission is to drive traffic to rich content using an integrated digital marketing approach

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 5

TACTIC 03 RemarketingTACTIC 01 Segmented keyword analysis

TACTIC 04 Email marketingTACTIC 02 Optimized landing pages

Timing is everything in short-term revenue improvement Trial and error is fine for dialing in your long-term marketing efforts but you canrsquot afford experimentation when you have to generate leads and increase revenue in the next three to six months You need proven digital tacticsmdashand here are four that work for improving revenue in a three- to six-month timeframe

For improving short-term lead gen

4 digital tactics

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 6

Segmentedkeyword analysis

TACTIC 01

Segmented keyword analysis is essential for targeting specific audiences In the short term high-value keywords and phrases grab the attention of mid-cycle prospects through organic and paid search By performing research upfront you will be better equipped to build targeted landing pages and media campaigns that get results

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 7

Connect to your most important audiencesKEY STEPS

TARGET KEYWORDS FOR USERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SALES CYCLE

Focus on words and phrases that are searched by prospects who are already familiar with the type of solution they need rather than focusing on pain points For example from a keyword perspective itrsquos more beneficial to target ldquoemployee scheduling softwarerdquo or ldquocompare employee scheduling solutionsrdquo than it is to target ldquohow to reduce overtime hoursrdquo

UNDERSTAND HOW USERS SEARCH

Use search demand tools like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner to discover how users are searching For example ldquosocial media marketingrdquo could be a larger bucket that can be expanded with supplemental keywords that target users in the middle of the sales cycle resulting in key phrases like ldquosocial media monitoring toolsrdquo and ldquosocial media analyticsrdquo

CREATE KEYWORD-RICH CONTENT

Develop rich content that is optimized for your target keywords and phrases Your content needs to align with SEO best practices but it also has to be useful and relevant for your audience Avoid the temptation to stuff the content with promotional messaging ndash focus on creating content that offers real value to users who will make a purchase decision in one or two quarters

IDENTIFY THEMES

Analyze your site and identify keywords and phrases that describe your products and service offerings Examining your web page title tags is a great way to find out what words you are using Load all your titles into a word cloud generator to find the common words Common words grouped together (eg ldquomarketing strategyrdquo or ldquosocial media marketingrdquo) are helpful for identifying valuable key phrases

MIND THE GAPS

Evaluate the list of keywords you have assembled and identify themes or keywords that you feel are missing These are your potential opportunity keywords You still need to understand how much search volume exists for these phrases but they often hold the most potential for capturing the attention of new leads

USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER

Use Google Keyword Planner to check the search volume of your potential opportunity keywords and identify the ones that are highly aligned with your offerings These are your target keywords Your gut instinct will be to choose the keywords with the most volume Instead choose Goldilocks keywords (keywords without too little or too much search volume) The middle of the road volume keywords will often have less competition so you will see results more quickly But donrsquot ignore a juicy low volume keyword that perfectly aligns to your business These keywords can deliver highly qualified leads just not in large quantities

01

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 8

Optimized landing pages

TACTIC 02

Optimized landing pages deliver the payoff from segmented keyword analysis When prospects click on a search result or online ad (via desktop or mobile devices) they arrive on a landing page that converts themto leads Not convinced that optimized landing pages make a difference Then consider this By creating mobile-optimized landing pages Walker Sands helped Hansen Bros increase conversions by more than 10 percent in just two months

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 9

Convert prospects to leadsKEY STEPS

INCLUDE TRUST SIGNALS The inclusion of trust signals (eg industry group member badges testimonials and customer logos) communicate industry standing and attract the right prospects to your content

LIMIT NAVIGATION OPTIONS Donrsquot include too many distractions on the landing page (eg unrelated CTAs for other resources and category-wide links to other pages) You want to give the user an obvious best option Complete the form

CREATE INTERNAL LINKS Create relevant internal links to your most important landing pages so that search engines can find them and understand how they fit into the architecture of your site

PERFORM AB TESTING After your page shows improved conversions perform AB testing for button color content length content etc Only change one thing at a time to isolate the element that is driving improvement

DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CTAS The most critical elements on your landing pages are Calls to Action (CTAs) or opportunities for users to download content and connect with your business development team Placement is critical Include multiple CTAs on each landing page positioned throughout the content on the page

MONITOR USER BEHAVIORS Use a tool like Mouseflow or Lucky Orange to observe how visitors interact with your landing page These tools require a snippet of code to be installed on your web pages but will reveal exactly what users are looking at when they visit your site

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS Conduct a conversion rate optimization audit to determine how your landing page layouts are performing and what (if anything) shouldbe done to increase conversions Pay attention if users seem lost are exiting your page are scrolling past the form too quickly or are having trouble filling out your form

PLACE A FORM ABOVE THE FOLD Preferably in the right column of page On mobile serve the form above the content Also limit unnecessary fields on the form The easier it is for the user to fill out the higher your form completion rate will be Use a clear actionable heading above the form such as ldquoGet the 2016 Mobile Marketing Reportrdquo

02

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 3

Rich content is a key element in B2B brandsrsquo efforts to move leads through the sales process Walker Sands worked with Dotcom Distribution a leading e-commerce logistics and fulfillment provider to develop and promote an e-book targeting an audience at a specific point in the sales cycle

Dotcom distribution

Rich contentCASE STUDY

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Visits to landing page2360

Conversions547

Conversion rate21

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 4

It begins with rich contentCase studies vendor selection guides tip sheets research reports and white papers have the potential to hit likely leads at an opportune moment in the buyer journey The key is that your rich content must show how your solution or offering achieved results for similar organizations and why your offering is a better choice than the competition

The right piece of content can produce a significant quantity of leads in a short period of time For example an e-book that Walker Sands developed for Dotcom Distribution drew more than 2360 page views during the first six months yielding 547 downloads many of which represented new leads for the business

Think of rich content as the epicenter of your short-term revenue campaign ndash starting right now your mission is to drive traffic to rich content using an integrated digital marketing approach

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 5

TACTIC 03 RemarketingTACTIC 01 Segmented keyword analysis

TACTIC 04 Email marketingTACTIC 02 Optimized landing pages

Timing is everything in short-term revenue improvement Trial and error is fine for dialing in your long-term marketing efforts but you canrsquot afford experimentation when you have to generate leads and increase revenue in the next three to six months You need proven digital tacticsmdashand here are four that work for improving revenue in a three- to six-month timeframe

For improving short-term lead gen

4 digital tactics

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 6

Segmentedkeyword analysis

TACTIC 01

Segmented keyword analysis is essential for targeting specific audiences In the short term high-value keywords and phrases grab the attention of mid-cycle prospects through organic and paid search By performing research upfront you will be better equipped to build targeted landing pages and media campaigns that get results

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 7

Connect to your most important audiencesKEY STEPS

TARGET KEYWORDS FOR USERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SALES CYCLE

Focus on words and phrases that are searched by prospects who are already familiar with the type of solution they need rather than focusing on pain points For example from a keyword perspective itrsquos more beneficial to target ldquoemployee scheduling softwarerdquo or ldquocompare employee scheduling solutionsrdquo than it is to target ldquohow to reduce overtime hoursrdquo

UNDERSTAND HOW USERS SEARCH

Use search demand tools like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner to discover how users are searching For example ldquosocial media marketingrdquo could be a larger bucket that can be expanded with supplemental keywords that target users in the middle of the sales cycle resulting in key phrases like ldquosocial media monitoring toolsrdquo and ldquosocial media analyticsrdquo

CREATE KEYWORD-RICH CONTENT

Develop rich content that is optimized for your target keywords and phrases Your content needs to align with SEO best practices but it also has to be useful and relevant for your audience Avoid the temptation to stuff the content with promotional messaging ndash focus on creating content that offers real value to users who will make a purchase decision in one or two quarters

IDENTIFY THEMES

Analyze your site and identify keywords and phrases that describe your products and service offerings Examining your web page title tags is a great way to find out what words you are using Load all your titles into a word cloud generator to find the common words Common words grouped together (eg ldquomarketing strategyrdquo or ldquosocial media marketingrdquo) are helpful for identifying valuable key phrases

MIND THE GAPS

Evaluate the list of keywords you have assembled and identify themes or keywords that you feel are missing These are your potential opportunity keywords You still need to understand how much search volume exists for these phrases but they often hold the most potential for capturing the attention of new leads

USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER

Use Google Keyword Planner to check the search volume of your potential opportunity keywords and identify the ones that are highly aligned with your offerings These are your target keywords Your gut instinct will be to choose the keywords with the most volume Instead choose Goldilocks keywords (keywords without too little or too much search volume) The middle of the road volume keywords will often have less competition so you will see results more quickly But donrsquot ignore a juicy low volume keyword that perfectly aligns to your business These keywords can deliver highly qualified leads just not in large quantities

01

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 8

Optimized landing pages

TACTIC 02

Optimized landing pages deliver the payoff from segmented keyword analysis When prospects click on a search result or online ad (via desktop or mobile devices) they arrive on a landing page that converts themto leads Not convinced that optimized landing pages make a difference Then consider this By creating mobile-optimized landing pages Walker Sands helped Hansen Bros increase conversions by more than 10 percent in just two months

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 9

Convert prospects to leadsKEY STEPS

INCLUDE TRUST SIGNALS The inclusion of trust signals (eg industry group member badges testimonials and customer logos) communicate industry standing and attract the right prospects to your content

LIMIT NAVIGATION OPTIONS Donrsquot include too many distractions on the landing page (eg unrelated CTAs for other resources and category-wide links to other pages) You want to give the user an obvious best option Complete the form

CREATE INTERNAL LINKS Create relevant internal links to your most important landing pages so that search engines can find them and understand how they fit into the architecture of your site

PERFORM AB TESTING After your page shows improved conversions perform AB testing for button color content length content etc Only change one thing at a time to isolate the element that is driving improvement

DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CTAS The most critical elements on your landing pages are Calls to Action (CTAs) or opportunities for users to download content and connect with your business development team Placement is critical Include multiple CTAs on each landing page positioned throughout the content on the page

MONITOR USER BEHAVIORS Use a tool like Mouseflow or Lucky Orange to observe how visitors interact with your landing page These tools require a snippet of code to be installed on your web pages but will reveal exactly what users are looking at when they visit your site

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS Conduct a conversion rate optimization audit to determine how your landing page layouts are performing and what (if anything) shouldbe done to increase conversions Pay attention if users seem lost are exiting your page are scrolling past the form too quickly or are having trouble filling out your form

PLACE A FORM ABOVE THE FOLD Preferably in the right column of page On mobile serve the form above the content Also limit unnecessary fields on the form The easier it is for the user to fill out the higher your form completion rate will be Use a clear actionable heading above the form such as ldquoGet the 2016 Mobile Marketing Reportrdquo

02

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 4

It begins with rich contentCase studies vendor selection guides tip sheets research reports and white papers have the potential to hit likely leads at an opportune moment in the buyer journey The key is that your rich content must show how your solution or offering achieved results for similar organizations and why your offering is a better choice than the competition

The right piece of content can produce a significant quantity of leads in a short period of time For example an e-book that Walker Sands developed for Dotcom Distribution drew more than 2360 page views during the first six months yielding 547 downloads many of which represented new leads for the business

Think of rich content as the epicenter of your short-term revenue campaign ndash starting right now your mission is to drive traffic to rich content using an integrated digital marketing approach

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 5

TACTIC 03 RemarketingTACTIC 01 Segmented keyword analysis

TACTIC 04 Email marketingTACTIC 02 Optimized landing pages

Timing is everything in short-term revenue improvement Trial and error is fine for dialing in your long-term marketing efforts but you canrsquot afford experimentation when you have to generate leads and increase revenue in the next three to six months You need proven digital tacticsmdashand here are four that work for improving revenue in a three- to six-month timeframe

For improving short-term lead gen

4 digital tactics

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 6

Segmentedkeyword analysis

TACTIC 01

Segmented keyword analysis is essential for targeting specific audiences In the short term high-value keywords and phrases grab the attention of mid-cycle prospects through organic and paid search By performing research upfront you will be better equipped to build targeted landing pages and media campaigns that get results

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 7

Connect to your most important audiencesKEY STEPS

TARGET KEYWORDS FOR USERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SALES CYCLE

Focus on words and phrases that are searched by prospects who are already familiar with the type of solution they need rather than focusing on pain points For example from a keyword perspective itrsquos more beneficial to target ldquoemployee scheduling softwarerdquo or ldquocompare employee scheduling solutionsrdquo than it is to target ldquohow to reduce overtime hoursrdquo

UNDERSTAND HOW USERS SEARCH

Use search demand tools like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner to discover how users are searching For example ldquosocial media marketingrdquo could be a larger bucket that can be expanded with supplemental keywords that target users in the middle of the sales cycle resulting in key phrases like ldquosocial media monitoring toolsrdquo and ldquosocial media analyticsrdquo

CREATE KEYWORD-RICH CONTENT

Develop rich content that is optimized for your target keywords and phrases Your content needs to align with SEO best practices but it also has to be useful and relevant for your audience Avoid the temptation to stuff the content with promotional messaging ndash focus on creating content that offers real value to users who will make a purchase decision in one or two quarters

IDENTIFY THEMES

Analyze your site and identify keywords and phrases that describe your products and service offerings Examining your web page title tags is a great way to find out what words you are using Load all your titles into a word cloud generator to find the common words Common words grouped together (eg ldquomarketing strategyrdquo or ldquosocial media marketingrdquo) are helpful for identifying valuable key phrases

MIND THE GAPS

Evaluate the list of keywords you have assembled and identify themes or keywords that you feel are missing These are your potential opportunity keywords You still need to understand how much search volume exists for these phrases but they often hold the most potential for capturing the attention of new leads

USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER

Use Google Keyword Planner to check the search volume of your potential opportunity keywords and identify the ones that are highly aligned with your offerings These are your target keywords Your gut instinct will be to choose the keywords with the most volume Instead choose Goldilocks keywords (keywords without too little or too much search volume) The middle of the road volume keywords will often have less competition so you will see results more quickly But donrsquot ignore a juicy low volume keyword that perfectly aligns to your business These keywords can deliver highly qualified leads just not in large quantities

01

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 8

Optimized landing pages

TACTIC 02

Optimized landing pages deliver the payoff from segmented keyword analysis When prospects click on a search result or online ad (via desktop or mobile devices) they arrive on a landing page that converts themto leads Not convinced that optimized landing pages make a difference Then consider this By creating mobile-optimized landing pages Walker Sands helped Hansen Bros increase conversions by more than 10 percent in just two months

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 9

Convert prospects to leadsKEY STEPS

INCLUDE TRUST SIGNALS The inclusion of trust signals (eg industry group member badges testimonials and customer logos) communicate industry standing and attract the right prospects to your content

LIMIT NAVIGATION OPTIONS Donrsquot include too many distractions on the landing page (eg unrelated CTAs for other resources and category-wide links to other pages) You want to give the user an obvious best option Complete the form

CREATE INTERNAL LINKS Create relevant internal links to your most important landing pages so that search engines can find them and understand how they fit into the architecture of your site

PERFORM AB TESTING After your page shows improved conversions perform AB testing for button color content length content etc Only change one thing at a time to isolate the element that is driving improvement

DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CTAS The most critical elements on your landing pages are Calls to Action (CTAs) or opportunities for users to download content and connect with your business development team Placement is critical Include multiple CTAs on each landing page positioned throughout the content on the page

MONITOR USER BEHAVIORS Use a tool like Mouseflow or Lucky Orange to observe how visitors interact with your landing page These tools require a snippet of code to be installed on your web pages but will reveal exactly what users are looking at when they visit your site

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS Conduct a conversion rate optimization audit to determine how your landing page layouts are performing and what (if anything) shouldbe done to increase conversions Pay attention if users seem lost are exiting your page are scrolling past the form too quickly or are having trouble filling out your form

PLACE A FORM ABOVE THE FOLD Preferably in the right column of page On mobile serve the form above the content Also limit unnecessary fields on the form The easier it is for the user to fill out the higher your form completion rate will be Use a clear actionable heading above the form such as ldquoGet the 2016 Mobile Marketing Reportrdquo

02

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 5

TACTIC 03 RemarketingTACTIC 01 Segmented keyword analysis

TACTIC 04 Email marketingTACTIC 02 Optimized landing pages

Timing is everything in short-term revenue improvement Trial and error is fine for dialing in your long-term marketing efforts but you canrsquot afford experimentation when you have to generate leads and increase revenue in the next three to six months You need proven digital tacticsmdashand here are four that work for improving revenue in a three- to six-month timeframe

For improving short-term lead gen

4 digital tactics

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 6

Segmentedkeyword analysis

TACTIC 01

Segmented keyword analysis is essential for targeting specific audiences In the short term high-value keywords and phrases grab the attention of mid-cycle prospects through organic and paid search By performing research upfront you will be better equipped to build targeted landing pages and media campaigns that get results

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 7

Connect to your most important audiencesKEY STEPS

TARGET KEYWORDS FOR USERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SALES CYCLE

Focus on words and phrases that are searched by prospects who are already familiar with the type of solution they need rather than focusing on pain points For example from a keyword perspective itrsquos more beneficial to target ldquoemployee scheduling softwarerdquo or ldquocompare employee scheduling solutionsrdquo than it is to target ldquohow to reduce overtime hoursrdquo

UNDERSTAND HOW USERS SEARCH

Use search demand tools like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner to discover how users are searching For example ldquosocial media marketingrdquo could be a larger bucket that can be expanded with supplemental keywords that target users in the middle of the sales cycle resulting in key phrases like ldquosocial media monitoring toolsrdquo and ldquosocial media analyticsrdquo

CREATE KEYWORD-RICH CONTENT

Develop rich content that is optimized for your target keywords and phrases Your content needs to align with SEO best practices but it also has to be useful and relevant for your audience Avoid the temptation to stuff the content with promotional messaging ndash focus on creating content that offers real value to users who will make a purchase decision in one or two quarters

IDENTIFY THEMES

Analyze your site and identify keywords and phrases that describe your products and service offerings Examining your web page title tags is a great way to find out what words you are using Load all your titles into a word cloud generator to find the common words Common words grouped together (eg ldquomarketing strategyrdquo or ldquosocial media marketingrdquo) are helpful for identifying valuable key phrases

MIND THE GAPS

Evaluate the list of keywords you have assembled and identify themes or keywords that you feel are missing These are your potential opportunity keywords You still need to understand how much search volume exists for these phrases but they often hold the most potential for capturing the attention of new leads

USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER

Use Google Keyword Planner to check the search volume of your potential opportunity keywords and identify the ones that are highly aligned with your offerings These are your target keywords Your gut instinct will be to choose the keywords with the most volume Instead choose Goldilocks keywords (keywords without too little or too much search volume) The middle of the road volume keywords will often have less competition so you will see results more quickly But donrsquot ignore a juicy low volume keyword that perfectly aligns to your business These keywords can deliver highly qualified leads just not in large quantities

01

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 8

Optimized landing pages

TACTIC 02

Optimized landing pages deliver the payoff from segmented keyword analysis When prospects click on a search result or online ad (via desktop or mobile devices) they arrive on a landing page that converts themto leads Not convinced that optimized landing pages make a difference Then consider this By creating mobile-optimized landing pages Walker Sands helped Hansen Bros increase conversions by more than 10 percent in just two months

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 9

Convert prospects to leadsKEY STEPS

INCLUDE TRUST SIGNALS The inclusion of trust signals (eg industry group member badges testimonials and customer logos) communicate industry standing and attract the right prospects to your content

LIMIT NAVIGATION OPTIONS Donrsquot include too many distractions on the landing page (eg unrelated CTAs for other resources and category-wide links to other pages) You want to give the user an obvious best option Complete the form

CREATE INTERNAL LINKS Create relevant internal links to your most important landing pages so that search engines can find them and understand how they fit into the architecture of your site

PERFORM AB TESTING After your page shows improved conversions perform AB testing for button color content length content etc Only change one thing at a time to isolate the element that is driving improvement

DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CTAS The most critical elements on your landing pages are Calls to Action (CTAs) or opportunities for users to download content and connect with your business development team Placement is critical Include multiple CTAs on each landing page positioned throughout the content on the page

MONITOR USER BEHAVIORS Use a tool like Mouseflow or Lucky Orange to observe how visitors interact with your landing page These tools require a snippet of code to be installed on your web pages but will reveal exactly what users are looking at when they visit your site

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS Conduct a conversion rate optimization audit to determine how your landing page layouts are performing and what (if anything) shouldbe done to increase conversions Pay attention if users seem lost are exiting your page are scrolling past the form too quickly or are having trouble filling out your form

PLACE A FORM ABOVE THE FOLD Preferably in the right column of page On mobile serve the form above the content Also limit unnecessary fields on the form The easier it is for the user to fill out the higher your form completion rate will be Use a clear actionable heading above the form such as ldquoGet the 2016 Mobile Marketing Reportrdquo

02

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 6

Segmentedkeyword analysis

TACTIC 01

Segmented keyword analysis is essential for targeting specific audiences In the short term high-value keywords and phrases grab the attention of mid-cycle prospects through organic and paid search By performing research upfront you will be better equipped to build targeted landing pages and media campaigns that get results

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 7

Connect to your most important audiencesKEY STEPS

TARGET KEYWORDS FOR USERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SALES CYCLE

Focus on words and phrases that are searched by prospects who are already familiar with the type of solution they need rather than focusing on pain points For example from a keyword perspective itrsquos more beneficial to target ldquoemployee scheduling softwarerdquo or ldquocompare employee scheduling solutionsrdquo than it is to target ldquohow to reduce overtime hoursrdquo

UNDERSTAND HOW USERS SEARCH

Use search demand tools like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner to discover how users are searching For example ldquosocial media marketingrdquo could be a larger bucket that can be expanded with supplemental keywords that target users in the middle of the sales cycle resulting in key phrases like ldquosocial media monitoring toolsrdquo and ldquosocial media analyticsrdquo

CREATE KEYWORD-RICH CONTENT

Develop rich content that is optimized for your target keywords and phrases Your content needs to align with SEO best practices but it also has to be useful and relevant for your audience Avoid the temptation to stuff the content with promotional messaging ndash focus on creating content that offers real value to users who will make a purchase decision in one or two quarters

IDENTIFY THEMES

Analyze your site and identify keywords and phrases that describe your products and service offerings Examining your web page title tags is a great way to find out what words you are using Load all your titles into a word cloud generator to find the common words Common words grouped together (eg ldquomarketing strategyrdquo or ldquosocial media marketingrdquo) are helpful for identifying valuable key phrases

MIND THE GAPS

Evaluate the list of keywords you have assembled and identify themes or keywords that you feel are missing These are your potential opportunity keywords You still need to understand how much search volume exists for these phrases but they often hold the most potential for capturing the attention of new leads

USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER

Use Google Keyword Planner to check the search volume of your potential opportunity keywords and identify the ones that are highly aligned with your offerings These are your target keywords Your gut instinct will be to choose the keywords with the most volume Instead choose Goldilocks keywords (keywords without too little or too much search volume) The middle of the road volume keywords will often have less competition so you will see results more quickly But donrsquot ignore a juicy low volume keyword that perfectly aligns to your business These keywords can deliver highly qualified leads just not in large quantities

01

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 8

Optimized landing pages

TACTIC 02

Optimized landing pages deliver the payoff from segmented keyword analysis When prospects click on a search result or online ad (via desktop or mobile devices) they arrive on a landing page that converts themto leads Not convinced that optimized landing pages make a difference Then consider this By creating mobile-optimized landing pages Walker Sands helped Hansen Bros increase conversions by more than 10 percent in just two months

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 9

Convert prospects to leadsKEY STEPS

INCLUDE TRUST SIGNALS The inclusion of trust signals (eg industry group member badges testimonials and customer logos) communicate industry standing and attract the right prospects to your content

LIMIT NAVIGATION OPTIONS Donrsquot include too many distractions on the landing page (eg unrelated CTAs for other resources and category-wide links to other pages) You want to give the user an obvious best option Complete the form

CREATE INTERNAL LINKS Create relevant internal links to your most important landing pages so that search engines can find them and understand how they fit into the architecture of your site

PERFORM AB TESTING After your page shows improved conversions perform AB testing for button color content length content etc Only change one thing at a time to isolate the element that is driving improvement

DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CTAS The most critical elements on your landing pages are Calls to Action (CTAs) or opportunities for users to download content and connect with your business development team Placement is critical Include multiple CTAs on each landing page positioned throughout the content on the page

MONITOR USER BEHAVIORS Use a tool like Mouseflow or Lucky Orange to observe how visitors interact with your landing page These tools require a snippet of code to be installed on your web pages but will reveal exactly what users are looking at when they visit your site

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS Conduct a conversion rate optimization audit to determine how your landing page layouts are performing and what (if anything) shouldbe done to increase conversions Pay attention if users seem lost are exiting your page are scrolling past the form too quickly or are having trouble filling out your form

PLACE A FORM ABOVE THE FOLD Preferably in the right column of page On mobile serve the form above the content Also limit unnecessary fields on the form The easier it is for the user to fill out the higher your form completion rate will be Use a clear actionable heading above the form such as ldquoGet the 2016 Mobile Marketing Reportrdquo

02

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 7

Connect to your most important audiencesKEY STEPS

TARGET KEYWORDS FOR USERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SALES CYCLE

Focus on words and phrases that are searched by prospects who are already familiar with the type of solution they need rather than focusing on pain points For example from a keyword perspective itrsquos more beneficial to target ldquoemployee scheduling softwarerdquo or ldquocompare employee scheduling solutionsrdquo than it is to target ldquohow to reduce overtime hoursrdquo

UNDERSTAND HOW USERS SEARCH

Use search demand tools like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner to discover how users are searching For example ldquosocial media marketingrdquo could be a larger bucket that can be expanded with supplemental keywords that target users in the middle of the sales cycle resulting in key phrases like ldquosocial media monitoring toolsrdquo and ldquosocial media analyticsrdquo

CREATE KEYWORD-RICH CONTENT

Develop rich content that is optimized for your target keywords and phrases Your content needs to align with SEO best practices but it also has to be useful and relevant for your audience Avoid the temptation to stuff the content with promotional messaging ndash focus on creating content that offers real value to users who will make a purchase decision in one or two quarters

IDENTIFY THEMES

Analyze your site and identify keywords and phrases that describe your products and service offerings Examining your web page title tags is a great way to find out what words you are using Load all your titles into a word cloud generator to find the common words Common words grouped together (eg ldquomarketing strategyrdquo or ldquosocial media marketingrdquo) are helpful for identifying valuable key phrases

MIND THE GAPS

Evaluate the list of keywords you have assembled and identify themes or keywords that you feel are missing These are your potential opportunity keywords You still need to understand how much search volume exists for these phrases but they often hold the most potential for capturing the attention of new leads

USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER

Use Google Keyword Planner to check the search volume of your potential opportunity keywords and identify the ones that are highly aligned with your offerings These are your target keywords Your gut instinct will be to choose the keywords with the most volume Instead choose Goldilocks keywords (keywords without too little or too much search volume) The middle of the road volume keywords will often have less competition so you will see results more quickly But donrsquot ignore a juicy low volume keyword that perfectly aligns to your business These keywords can deliver highly qualified leads just not in large quantities

01

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 8

Optimized landing pages

TACTIC 02

Optimized landing pages deliver the payoff from segmented keyword analysis When prospects click on a search result or online ad (via desktop or mobile devices) they arrive on a landing page that converts themto leads Not convinced that optimized landing pages make a difference Then consider this By creating mobile-optimized landing pages Walker Sands helped Hansen Bros increase conversions by more than 10 percent in just two months

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 9

Convert prospects to leadsKEY STEPS

INCLUDE TRUST SIGNALS The inclusion of trust signals (eg industry group member badges testimonials and customer logos) communicate industry standing and attract the right prospects to your content

LIMIT NAVIGATION OPTIONS Donrsquot include too many distractions on the landing page (eg unrelated CTAs for other resources and category-wide links to other pages) You want to give the user an obvious best option Complete the form

CREATE INTERNAL LINKS Create relevant internal links to your most important landing pages so that search engines can find them and understand how they fit into the architecture of your site

PERFORM AB TESTING After your page shows improved conversions perform AB testing for button color content length content etc Only change one thing at a time to isolate the element that is driving improvement

DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CTAS The most critical elements on your landing pages are Calls to Action (CTAs) or opportunities for users to download content and connect with your business development team Placement is critical Include multiple CTAs on each landing page positioned throughout the content on the page

MONITOR USER BEHAVIORS Use a tool like Mouseflow or Lucky Orange to observe how visitors interact with your landing page These tools require a snippet of code to be installed on your web pages but will reveal exactly what users are looking at when they visit your site

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS Conduct a conversion rate optimization audit to determine how your landing page layouts are performing and what (if anything) shouldbe done to increase conversions Pay attention if users seem lost are exiting your page are scrolling past the form too quickly or are having trouble filling out your form

PLACE A FORM ABOVE THE FOLD Preferably in the right column of page On mobile serve the form above the content Also limit unnecessary fields on the form The easier it is for the user to fill out the higher your form completion rate will be Use a clear actionable heading above the form such as ldquoGet the 2016 Mobile Marketing Reportrdquo

02

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 8

Optimized landing pages

TACTIC 02

Optimized landing pages deliver the payoff from segmented keyword analysis When prospects click on a search result or online ad (via desktop or mobile devices) they arrive on a landing page that converts themto leads Not convinced that optimized landing pages make a difference Then consider this By creating mobile-optimized landing pages Walker Sands helped Hansen Bros increase conversions by more than 10 percent in just two months

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 9

Convert prospects to leadsKEY STEPS

INCLUDE TRUST SIGNALS The inclusion of trust signals (eg industry group member badges testimonials and customer logos) communicate industry standing and attract the right prospects to your content

LIMIT NAVIGATION OPTIONS Donrsquot include too many distractions on the landing page (eg unrelated CTAs for other resources and category-wide links to other pages) You want to give the user an obvious best option Complete the form

CREATE INTERNAL LINKS Create relevant internal links to your most important landing pages so that search engines can find them and understand how they fit into the architecture of your site

PERFORM AB TESTING After your page shows improved conversions perform AB testing for button color content length content etc Only change one thing at a time to isolate the element that is driving improvement

DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CTAS The most critical elements on your landing pages are Calls to Action (CTAs) or opportunities for users to download content and connect with your business development team Placement is critical Include multiple CTAs on each landing page positioned throughout the content on the page

MONITOR USER BEHAVIORS Use a tool like Mouseflow or Lucky Orange to observe how visitors interact with your landing page These tools require a snippet of code to be installed on your web pages but will reveal exactly what users are looking at when they visit your site

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS Conduct a conversion rate optimization audit to determine how your landing page layouts are performing and what (if anything) shouldbe done to increase conversions Pay attention if users seem lost are exiting your page are scrolling past the form too quickly or are having trouble filling out your form

PLACE A FORM ABOVE THE FOLD Preferably in the right column of page On mobile serve the form above the content Also limit unnecessary fields on the form The easier it is for the user to fill out the higher your form completion rate will be Use a clear actionable heading above the form such as ldquoGet the 2016 Mobile Marketing Reportrdquo

02

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 9

Convert prospects to leadsKEY STEPS

INCLUDE TRUST SIGNALS The inclusion of trust signals (eg industry group member badges testimonials and customer logos) communicate industry standing and attract the right prospects to your content

LIMIT NAVIGATION OPTIONS Donrsquot include too many distractions on the landing page (eg unrelated CTAs for other resources and category-wide links to other pages) You want to give the user an obvious best option Complete the form

CREATE INTERNAL LINKS Create relevant internal links to your most important landing pages so that search engines can find them and understand how they fit into the architecture of your site

PERFORM AB TESTING After your page shows improved conversions perform AB testing for button color content length content etc Only change one thing at a time to isolate the element that is driving improvement

DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CTAS The most critical elements on your landing pages are Calls to Action (CTAs) or opportunities for users to download content and connect with your business development team Placement is critical Include multiple CTAs on each landing page positioned throughout the content on the page

MONITOR USER BEHAVIORS Use a tool like Mouseflow or Lucky Orange to observe how visitors interact with your landing page These tools require a snippet of code to be installed on your web pages but will reveal exactly what users are looking at when they visit your site

IDENTIFY PROBLEMS Conduct a conversion rate optimization audit to determine how your landing page layouts are performing and what (if anything) shouldbe done to increase conversions Pay attention if users seem lost are exiting your page are scrolling past the form too quickly or are having trouble filling out your form

PLACE A FORM ABOVE THE FOLD Preferably in the right column of page On mobile serve the form above the content Also limit unnecessary fields on the form The easier it is for the user to fill out the higher your form completion rate will be Use a clear actionable heading above the form such as ldquoGet the 2016 Mobile Marketing Reportrdquo

02

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 10

Optimized landing pages are the linchpins of digital conversions Walker Sands worked with Hansen Bros the Northwestrsquos largest moving services firm to develop landing pages for improved mobile conversions By optimizing landing pages for mobile users Walker Sands achieved significant improvement in just two months

Hansen brothers

Landing page optimizationCASE STUDY

Smartphones129145

Tablets159175

Conversion rate with original landing pages

Converstion rate with mobile-optimized landing pages

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 11

RemarketingTACTIC 03

Remarketing is a cost-effective way to reconnect with mid-funnel prospects who have already interacted with your brand By placing ads in front of carefully defined audiences as they browse other sites you can pull segmented groups of prospects back into the fold and steer them toward content that quickly converts them to customers For example overa six-month period a remarketing campaign Walker Sands executedfor Runzheimer generated 4270 clicks and 86 conversions at a costof just $172 per click

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 12

CONSIDER DESIGN Choose an ad size and design a set of three ads for each piece of content you are promoting (eg banner square and skyscraper ads) Provide a clear call to action button that stands out from the rest of the ad and develop an attention grabbing headline that invites your segmented audience to respond Pro tip 15 words or less per ad Also use your brandrsquos logo and colors to reinforce the connection to the brand established during previous visits to your website

CAP AD VIEWS Upload to Adwords and set a limit of five views per day to avoid irritating site visitors If you have a remarketing list of 2000 people for a campaign you have the opportunity to make 10000 brand impressions each day

KEEP IT FRESH Change remarketing ads bi-monthly or quarterly to keep visitors interested Experiment with timing your ads so they show up quickly (within an hour or two) for visitors that recently visited the website AB test different ads to determine which ones resonate and make adjustments

Reconnect with mid-funnel audiencesKEY STEPS

START EARLY Remarketing lists take time to buildmdashthe earlier you get started the sooner prospects will see your ads and visit your site Segment site visitors Use Google Analytics or a marketing automation tool to segment users based on the pages they visited time on site device type recency and other behaviors Remember Remarketing lists now only need to reach 100 members before ads will run so target visitors based on the types of content they viewed If they viewed several related service offerings or industry pages segment them into a specific interest list

SELECT CONTENT Identify rich content that is relevant to each audience you are targeting For short-term lead gen and revenue improvement this should be a research report case study tip sheet or white paper that offers real value to decision makers in the middle of the sales cycle

CRAFT MESSAGING After you finish segmenting your audience target prospects with messaging that describes how you have helped clients achieve specific types of results Ad messaging should direct prospects to a landing page where they can download relevant content and contact your brandrsquos bus dev team Remarketing ads should appear in both search and social channels

03

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 13

Remarketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to impact audiences in the middle of the sales cycle Walker Sands helped a leading mobile workforce solutions provider use remarketing to connect a highly segmented audience with rich content that moved them further down the funnel

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks

2675Cost per click

$171

Conversions

56Conversion rate

209

Runzheimer

Rich remarketing contentCASE STUDY

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

Email marketing

TACTIC 04

Email marketing reaches prospects or leads at a pivotal point in the middle of the sales cycle Effective email marketing campaigns target segmented users with messages that incentivize interactions with rich contentand encourage prospects to engage more deeply with your brand Results can happen quickly For example a timely email marketing campaign that Walker Sands developed for Networked Insights generated 224 clicks and 117 conversionsmdashin just one month

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 14

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 15

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT CTAS Include CTAs that direct email recipients to landing pages content download pages contact us pages and other mechanisms that increase engagement and generate additional revenue

LINK TO A LANDING PAGE Link to an optimized landing page with a form Consider including UTM codes appended to the URL to track which campaign source and ad copy the lead came from This measures the success of your email campaign

USE PROFESSIONAL EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE Professional email marketing software tracks opens bounces and clicks at the user level This data should sync with your CRMso your sales force has visibility to automated communications

Engage prospects on a deeper levelKEY STEPS

SELECT OR DEVELOP CONTENT Choose a piece of existing content to promote or identify a piece of rich content to create Either way the content should be more informational than promotional If you are creating a piece of content specifically for the email campaign consider your audience and develop content that offers something the audience hasnrsquot seen yet

SEGMENT YOUR LIST Segment your email marketing list by industry job title or other relevant variables The idea is to target recipients who will appreciate the value of your promoted content

DECIDE ON AN EMAIL FORMAT Is the content highly visual Then design an HTML email If you want to be more direct and personal try a text email Or AB test both formats and determine which one performs best Make sure that the formatted email looks great on smartphones

CRAFT EMAIL COPY Subject lines with six words or less have the best open rates If your subject needs to be longer consider including a ldquo-rdquo or ldquordquo to break it up Keep content short and concise and use lists that improve readability Design an eye-catching button or image-based CTA to increase click-thru rates

Pro tip Try the helpful Google UTM Builder

04

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 16

Over a six-month period campaign results included

Clicks224

Conversions117

Conversion rate52

Email marketing is a great tool for communicating specific messages to segmented audiences Walker Sands helped Networked Insights a Chicago-based analytics software firm achieve significant traction with a targeted audience using a comprehensive email marketing campaign Built around the Super Bowl the campaign enabled Networked Insights to generate robust conversions in a short timeframe

Networked insights

Rich marketingCASE STUDY

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 17

You canrsquot afford to waste another day

Contact us today or call us at (312) 445-9926 and letrsquos start a conversation about how we can help your business achieve key revenue goals in the next three to six months

Every day counts You need revenue ASAP and digital marketing is the vehicle thatrsquos going to bring it to you Donrsquot waste another day The time to pull the trigger on a digital marketing strategy for short-term revenue improvement is now

No single digital marketing tactic can solve all of your problems For best results you need an intelligent combination of integrated digital marketing tactics

working toward the same goal more short-term revenue

At Walker Sands we turn cutting edge digital marketing strategies into bottom line business improvement for B2B firms Helping organizations like yours generate revenue in a three- to six-month timeframe is what we do And based on the results wersquove achieved for our clients wersquore pretty good at it

How to increase B2B leads by 70 in 90 days Page 17

You canrsquot afford to waste another day

Contact us today or call us at (312) 445-9926 and letrsquos start a conversation about how we can help your business achieve key revenue goals in the next three to six months

Every day counts You need revenue ASAP and digital marketing is the vehicle thatrsquos going to bring it to you Donrsquot waste another day The time to pull the trigger on a digital marketing strategy for short-term revenue improvement is now

No single digital marketing tactic can solve all of your problems For best results you need an intelligent combination of integrated digital marketing tactics

working toward the same goal more short-term revenue

At Walker Sands we turn cutting edge digital marketing strategies into bottom line business improvement for B2B firms Helping organizations like yours generate revenue in a three- to six-month timeframe is what we do And based on the results wersquove achieved for our clients wersquore pretty good at it

About us

Walker Sands is a full-service B2B marketing agency with core capabilities in public relations demand generation branding creative marketing strategyand web The firmrsquos integrated approach to marketing drives awareness credibility and conversions for 100+ clients around the world A seven-time Inc 5000 honoree Walker Sands is one of the fastest-growing B2B marketing agencies in the world with offices in Chicago San Francisco and Seattle

Learn more at walkersandscom