Online Lead Generation: Art + Science
My friends at BuyerZone informed me of an ebook they have created titled The Art (and Science) of Successful Online Lead Generation.
If you are in business, you are more than fully aware how important lead generation is. You've probably also observed that online lead generation can't be ignored.
I pay more attention than ever to online lead generation including how it integrates with social media (check out my presentation on Generating Leads With Social Media last year at MarketingProfs's B2B Forum).
BuyerZone's online lead generation white paper details five steps for success:
1. Start at the Beginning
2. Build Your Acquisition Channels
3. Follow-up
4. From Follow-up to Nurture your Leads
5. Measure Results
Each section includes good advice and ideas to think about. Here are my highlights.
Highlights related to Online Lead Generation:
- The effectiveness of it: "Econsultancy’s Online Lead Generation Report 2010 told a similar story. Online lead generation was found to be responsible for nearly half (42 percent) of all sales, with respondents pointing to cost-effectiveness as its main advantage."
- Purchased vs. Organic leads: my bias is toward organic leads. What is your experience with purchased? How do you address the lack of permission associated with a purchased list?
- Develop buyer personas to get started: "Without comprehensive buyer personas in place, your marketing team won’t know who to market to. You should be able to use buyer personas to answer questions about your target audience’s pain points, goals, values, and desired shopping experiences."
- I love the detail on acquisition channels: a form on your website is the most basic source of leads! (and yet, so many websites don't have a form!), search, online advertising, social networks, email marketing and 3rd party lead generation services.
- By the way, the most widely used methods of online lead generation are SEO (natural search) at 90% and email marketing at 83%.
- Step 4 discusses online lead nurturing and how important it is to develop relationships with prospects before they buy, by sharing valuable blog or email content, and being aware of where they are in the buying cycle and what information might be relevant to them.
You might as well download The Art (and Science) of Successful Online Lead Generation and read it for yourself.
Then, come back and let me know what you found most helpful.
Thank you, Sylvia Rosen and BuyerZone, for making the white paper available to us!
