1. Plan throughout the life of a lead generation campaign
At MarketLauncher, planning is a critical part of our process. We start every project with a planning period that contains a number of strategy sessions and other elements. However, it doesn’t stop there. A common theme amongst our highest performing campaigns is that there is constant planning throughout the life of the program to ensure that adequate thought and preparation is being put into each step of the process. Knowing when it is time to ‘spice up’ the recipe with a change in approach or messaging is a key element to success in the life of a campaign.
We plan, then execute, monitor, plan/refine, execute, monitor – and then repeat. We plan and plan over and over again to ensure that we’re addressing the critical steps in the campaign’s lifecycle and how best to ensure their impact.
2. Multiple touches throughout a lead generation campaign
Many people think that we are obssessed with process here at MarketLauncher. We have a process for EVERYTHING. It is, however, this dedication to creating a stringent process that keeps our highest performing accounts churning like well-oiled machines.
As good marketers, we all know it takes multiple touch points in multiple formats to generate your best results. Our ML teams don’t just stop there. In addition to multiple touch points, the critical equation is in what formats and in what intervals with what content and to whom. We then design an airtight system around that formula to ensure repeated execution.
3. Take a Personal Approach
You know all those fancy graphics and creative visuals everyone labors over for their communications? Our highest performing accounts rely on concepts and a story. They are focused on a more intimate, one-on-one communication style that relies on benefits and value verbiage vs. artwork and colors. Personable, clear, concise. In our highest performing campaigns, less has proven to be more.
4. Know Your Audience
We spend a lot of time discussing company industry, size and the impact these demographics will have on each lead generation campaign. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t stop there. The better exercise is identifying the job function and level of the true decision maker. Certain job functions travel more than others; some functions are notorious phone people; other functions prefer email; there are functions who are known for having stoic gatekeepers; there are positions whose working hours are primarily morning or conversely more likely to be reachable at night; there are whole departments within a company that may have “off limits” busy times of year.
A critical and often overlooked factor is knowing your audience on a granular level and speaking their language in a way they recognize. Our highest performing lead generation campaigns analyze the decision maker persona and then put established best practices in place accordingly.
5. Integrate your lead generation campaigns with your overall marketing strategy
Our most successful programs take a holistic approach and are integrated with our client’s entire marketing strategy. Many of our clients utilize Marketing Automation tools such as Hubspot, Eloqua, Marketo and Pardot. On our most successful campaigns, the program first fills the digital funnel with validated suspects and then works as a clearinghouse through which all potential leads pass. We discuss this in more detail in our blog post entitled, Marketing Automation – The Middle of the Sales Funnel.
Collaborating with our clients and syncing up our lead generation engine with their marketing activities means that they can leverage their investment across the board. A comprehensive approach typically increases the ROI by yielding a greater conversion on leads passing through the funnel – sometimes at an accelerated pace – and ultimately turning more leads into potential new clients or customers.
