Not all sales leads are created equal. As such, a solid marketing system ought to deliver to each lead category what it is they were looking for in the first place (what a novel idea!?!?). What we sometimes forget is that our products and services ARE our marketing as well; not just releases, advertisements, marketing events, and partnerships. Sometimes it is enormously beneficial to develop small, entry-level products with this very concept in mind: what can I make or offer that will make people want more of my bigger and better products? What’s the bait?
There are two basic ideas behind how we treat lead generation and what to do with them after you get their information: gauging the mindset based on where they discovered you (i.e. where you placed your advertisement), and based on that initial measurement of lead quality, what to deliver to that person.
Customer Mindset when they discover you.
People are in different… call in moods or modes of exploration… when on different types of websites or browsing devices. On a weekend home desktop they will explore different sorts of things than if on a lunch break on a smart phone or tablet during the work-week… and again different 30 minutes later when back in their office on their computer. All of these things should be taken int account when designing your campaigns, their landing pages, and what is offered on the destination pages they find after clicking on your ad.
Ignoring device views / capabilities for now, we can truncate the mentalities to the three most fundamental: surf, search, and social. Search carries the highest potential of conversion, where surf and social seem to battle it out for second and third depending on the applicability and price-point of your product. Immediately, you start to realize how different offers or products can be more or less successful based on if someone is actively searching for a product or product type vs. just surfing to waste some time before a date on a Saturday afternoon. Basically, don’t try to sell a big ticket item to someone if they’re not in the right mindset to ponder and accept it.
Give your potential customer what best fits the mindset.
We take this all the way to the point of offering free services or memberships. Social networks and display advertising based on website content are much more likely to generate a soft lead if the landing pages features a free or very low cost item that is quick and easy to get. Quick and easy to get. Don’t forget that part. Long forms will kill the conversion.
Look at your business, then, and assess which products fit this customer demand: quick, easy, and cheap. The gateway products. If you don’t have something in the queue, then develop something: regular webinars, free e-books, discount codes, etc. Something that will grab their name and email, and them keep them involved with you for awhile so that you can develop a relationship and work on nurturing that lead into a higher-paying customer. Set up your all your campaigns to work as a team, then, with sales funnels and nifty offers The more you can automate and / or do from your CRM, the easier it will be to keep your sanity if the diversity and number of product categories is high.
Whereas with search, if you’re good with your longtail key phrases and optimization, you can get a very good conversion rate at least at the lead level – these are your really hot leads who are actively looking to buy. Pull them in with an incentive, but since they are in the mindset to learn more already, all you need is to make it quick and easy for them to get that information, learn more (especially with comparisons), and you play the role of “shopping sherpa” to help them make the decision.
As a recap: only deliver what they’re ready to accept based on the mindset of device, time of day, and method of awareness, then shape your lead generation techniques to cater to that mindset. Once you get it… keep testing and optimizing! Spread your net further and further each time you get a rockin’ campaign set to see if you can generate more leads from areas you once thought not possible. Step by step and always keep the customer’s initial mindset-upon-product-awareness in mind.
