The need to acquire new customers is clearly a priority among most marketers today. And how to go about that can seem overwhelming at best, and in the worst case, a complete mystery. Our experience has yielded a few secrets to success that we’d like to share with you.
1. Know the goal and define it.
The importance of everyone agreeing on the campaign objectives and goals cannot be expressed enough. Start by looking at both quality and quantity. Volume rarely wins over quality leads. In fact, there are times when companies aim for high lead volume and later are unable to move them through the sales funnel because they are unqualified.
The planning phase is a critical time to be realistic with projections, establish criteria and tiers for leads, and set metrics that will measure results.
What’s more, when companies are looking at lead generation numbers, they are really thinking about sales. That means a big part of this step is ensuring that everyone is in agreement on exactly where lead generation activity stops and sales conversion starts, and who is responsible and accountable for each.
2. Be device disciples.
What you’ve heard is true – mobile has gone main screen. In a recent campaign we developed, most visitors viewed the landing page using their mobile device or tablet. In fact, only 34% of page views were from a desktop.
But that didn’t stop us from designing the campaign to accommodate all screens, as we value every visitor. So, do your research to understand what’s important to each of your segments, being sure to learn what their preferences and circumstances are when it comes to consuming content, and how they act on your message. While we certainly took a mobile-first approach, we would never overlook 34% of the responders.
3. Expand media channel choices.
Look at the widest variety of sources that might drive traffic to your landing page or site and incorporate them into your media plan. The more fully integrated your campaign is, with multiple strategically placed touch points, the better your odds of engaging more qualified visitors.
Consider the advantages of a strategy that includes paid, earned and owned. The idea is to establish a test matrix and optimize accordingly.
4. Develop offers to refresh the messaging.
Unless you’re promoting a specific event, chances are your campaign is scheduled to be in market over an extended period of time. Be sure to keep it interesting by refreshing the messaging at regular intervals.
One of the best ways to engage target audiences previously exposed to your campaign is to introduce new content and offers that include an added sense of urgency. For example, a current campaign we have in market includes gated content, a sweepstakes and finally, a rebate.
5. Report and optimize often.
Pull and display data weekly in a way that is meaningful and can help you detect insights. Of course, traditional media reporting will come more slowly, but be sure to insist on it. Ask broadcast reps how they are attributing offline media to the leads in your campaign.
While most major broadcast networks provide reporting, they all have different tools. It’s possible the smaller, independent stations have them as well, and they work in relatively the same way.
These tools look at when a spot ran and what happened immediately after that. That is, they plot website traffic against the actual time spots aired and attribute any spikes in traffic that correlate to their viewers or listeners. This isn’t an exact measurement by any means, but it is at least a start until tracking tools in this space get more sophisticated…which is something else you should continually demand.
What else do you recommend to ensure lead generation success? Let us know in the comments below!