Rising brand awareness is the first phase of every sales funnel. By some experts this is also the most important phase, because it creates leads that might turn into customers later on. Leads quantity determines the maximum number of customers, company can serve. Since number of leads is usually much higher (4 times higher by some statistics) then the number of customers that come out at the other end of the funnel, leads quality is much more important measure for increasing company’s revenue. In this article we will try to determine ways companies can use for improving quality of their leads.
Mr. and Ms. perfect buyer
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Since rising brand awareness among potential customers, mainly depends on customer targeting, this can also be viewed as a targeting ‘How to’. One of the basics of good customer targeting is creating an adequate customer persona. This task doesn’t only concern marketing department, so it should include employees from all departments and use results of various market and customer surveys. Marketers should determine major criteria for choosing perfect buyers and some of the criteria that should be used are:
- Demographics;
- Behavior;
- Interests;
- Activities;
Result of this research should be a clear picture of perfect buyer. In marketing terms this is also called marketing qualified lead (MQL). These are leads that are more likely to become customers. It should be a person who will be interested in buying company’s product or service and who has a purchasing potential to turn into loyal customer after some time. With knowing all characteristics, interests, wishes and fears of perfect buyer’s group, marketers will be able to determine further steps for sparking their interest in products and services, company is offering.
Posting adequate content
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Digital marketing completely changed ways companies interact with customers. Each company turned into content publisher who posts niche-specific web content on daily, weekly or monthly basis. Perfect buyer’s characteristics should be used in determining company’s content strategy. Companies should produce and post only content that perfect buyers’ will find useful or interesting. Since topics are not the only criteria that content strategy determines, marketers should also pay attention to type of media they are using (videos, text articles, photos, info graphics etc.) and at what time they are posting content. Some other considerations marketers should have in mind when it comes to creating and posting the adequate content are:
- Content shouldn’t be overly promotional– When rising brand awareness and creating leads companies need to stay away from direct commercial offers, these should come later on in other funnel phases.
- Content can be used for further lead analysis– different types of content attract different leads, which is why content posting can be used for further analysis of gained leads that should increase their quality in the future.
Ask right questions
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Companies should constantly conduct hidden and open surveys. Every contact with the potential customer can be seen as a survey if it produces some kind of insights in customer’s personal characteristics, interests or behavior. Online brands usually require interested buyers to register, which is followed by filling out certain forms. These can be very helpful for determining the quality of leads. These forms or randomly posted questions are narrowing leads and enabling companies to follow only the good-quality MQLs. Some of the relevant questions that can determine lead’s quality are:
- Are you registering (contacting us) as an individual or company representative?
- Questions that provide answers concerning demographics (‘How old are you?’, ‘Where do you live?’, etc.)
- How did you find out about our website?
Run social network ad campaigns
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Facebook is the biggest social network used by more than billion people around the world. It is also a real MQL pool with an advertising platform that offers advanced targeting options. Facebook marketing is recognized by many influential marketers including Stephen Esketzis, who created a very useful guide for creating highly engaged ads. Google AdWords is another ads platform that provides great targeting opportunities, which are mainly based on advanced behavioral targeting that takes into consideration user’s browser history.
Following good quality leads has a direct effect on conversion rates and therefore determines company’s revenue. This doesn’t mean that marketers shouldn’t drop all other leads that don’t fit buyer’s personas they determined. Marketers should pay attention to every lead they have, but MQLs should receive considerably more attention. This can be shown by providing them more information about the product and giving them samples, prospects and other promotional material.
Author Bio:
Raul Harman is a B.Sc. in Innovative entrepreneurship and has a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. While he’s not enjoying football and great food, you can find him on Technivorz.com