planning for 2013: best utilize top lead gen tactics for the new year

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@DanielBurstein @davidkonline

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Planning for 2013:

How to best utilize top lead gen tactics in the New Year

Nov. 5, 2012Provided by:

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• Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content

MECLABS/MarketingSherpa

Twitter: @DanielBurstein

• David Kirkpatrick, Senior Reporter


Twitter: @davidkonline

Introductions

https://twitter.com/danielburstein

https://twitter.com/davidkonline

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Join the conversation

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MarketingSherpa is a research and publishing organization serving the marketing community

• MarketingSherpa’s annual research cycle provides knowledge for continuous marketing improvement

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• 1,745 organizations participated

• 157 charts and analytical commentary

• Key marketing insights on:

• Lead generation

• Automation

• Personas

• Propositions

• Content

• Key success stories

Research Background

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• Top B2B marketing challenges

• How marketers can stay on top of new B2B trends and priorities

• How one company increased pipeline opportunities by 65%, despite a 40% budget cut

• 4 steps to evaluate your marketing activities

Today, we will discuss..

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Capture

Nurture

Convert

2

3

1

Planning for 2013 – Lead Generation

3 key steps to optimize every sales funnel

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Q. Which of the following challenges are most pertinent to your organization?

a. Generating high-quality leads

b. Generating a high volume of leads

c. Generating perceived value in “cutting edge” product benefits

d. Competing in lead generation across multiple mediums

e. Generating public relations “buzz”

f. Marketing to lengthening sales cycles

g. Marketing to a growing numbers of people involved in the buying process

Poll – What are your top challenges?

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Poll - Results

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• YEAR-OVER-YEAR, average indications of challenges continue to grow

Capture: Challenges on the rise

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CMOs Speak Out on Top Challenges

“The greatest challenge would be limited resources; my role combines multiple functions as well as requires applying knowledge from multiple discipline areas.” – 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report

•Limited Resources

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Case Study: Background

Experiment ID: Application Security, Inc.Location: MarketingSherpa Case Study LibraryTest Protocol Number: #CS31636

Research Notes:

Background: A B2B database security provider received a 40% budget cut and staff reduction.

Goal: To evaluate the performance of their marketing while investing in activities that generate revenue

Primary research question: How can you determine which marketing activities are worthwhile of your marketing dollars?

Approach: Monitor various marketing activities while optimizing to increase the lead volumes delivered to Sales.

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Measured cost-per-lead:

• CPL ranged from $4 - $100

• Measured the value of opportunities created by each marketing channel

• Common for a single opportunity to receive multiple marketing messages

• The team the divided the opportunity values equally among each marketing channel

Capture: Monitor Multiple Metrics

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Capture: Adjust Marketing Plan

Expand:Use of low-cost, high value activities

Dial Back:Use of high-cost, low value activities

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• Adjusted marketing plan to smaller events to minimize cost

• Expanded the use of informal email updates, drip nurturing and thought-leadership oriented events

Capture: Adjust Marketing Plan

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• Using CPL analysis, they determined optimum CPL for various programs

• They used this to set limits and get guarantees from vendors for sponsorships or other paid media

Capture: Negotiate new contracts

“They made opportunities available to me that I otherwise wouldn’t have known about.”-Thomas Vanhorn, CMO, Application Security

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• For example: The team set CPL limit for a whitepaper hosting deal that was lower than the vendor’s offer, the vendor responded with new options to meet their goal.

Capture: Negotiate new contracts

Estimate lead generation

Determine target CPL

Negotiate with vendor

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• Online film series

• The team created a six-episode miniseries and hosted them on a microsite

• User-generated video contest

• The team ran a contest which asked users to make their own videos

• Finalists received $500 in prizes

• After their initial analysis, the team reviewed performance on a weekly and monthly basis

Capture: Test New Tactics

“I don’t think you can base everything on past results. We spend fair amount of

time trying new stuff to see what sticks.”

-Thomas VanhornCMO Application Security

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Case Study: Results

Significant reductions in CPL

Testing

Negotiating new

contracts

Adjusting marketing

plan

12% Increase in lead volume

65% Increase in opportunity value

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Capture: Top Lead Generation Tactics

• Website optimization, SEO and email are critical – these remain top three tactics year-after-year

• The role of content

• Must achieve an optimal mix for YOUR audience

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• Build a foundation with personas, value propositions and content

• Select an optimal mix of lead generation tactics for multichannel engagement and generation

Top of the funnel – Capture leads

Capture

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Capture

Nurture

Convert

2

3

1



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“My biggest challenge is generating quality leads. It’s pretty easy turning on a fire hose of leads for our Sales team, but targeting and generating pre-qualified leads is a nut we haven't been able to crack.” – 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report

•Generating Quality Leads

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Experiment ID: SciQuest, Inc.Location: MarketingSherpa Case Study LibraryTest Protocol Number: #CS860

Research Notes:

Background: A B2B procurement firm that uses weekly webinars to generate leads.

Goal: To reduce the number of events and increase relevancy.

Primary research question: How can you determine if fewer webinars is more effective?

Approach: Properly identify and segment the audience to give them targeted content.

Case Study: Background

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Challenge: Weekly webinars were not generating volume and quality of leads needed to meet goals for the collaborative procurement and supplier management solutions company

Approach: Properly identify and segment the audience to give them targeted content.

Nurture: Case study

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Cleaned up the in-house marketing database and got persona-specific content to the correct audience:

• They recognized inconsistencies in the way contacts’ job descriptions were recorded.

• They began standardizing the way contacts were identified. A dozen standard job description categories were created.

• They hired a summer intern to manually examine each contact and assign them to one of the 12 standard categories.

Nurture: Case study

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• Better segmentation capabilities from their improved database allowed them to create higher-quality segmented lists for webinar invites.

• The webinars could now be advertised to the specific audiences they could benefit.

• An invitation on an advanced webinar for the healthcare industry, for example, achieved a 4% acceptance rate –quadrupling the 1% acceptance rate for the company’s basic webinar invitation…a 300% increase in acceptance rate

Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30653

Results

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30653

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Targeted email promotion

• One week before the webinar, the team sends a dedicated promotional email about the upcoming event to a select segment of the house database.

• They track users' past actions in their CRM system to match the targeted promotion to contacts’ profiles, based on:

- Past webinar attendance

- Past white paper downloads

- Specific article clicks from past newsletters

Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/how-to/use-email-social-viral-referrals

Beyond personas: Using the CRM for targeting and segmentation

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/how-to/use-email-social-viral-referrals











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Key finding: Funnel marketing strategies demonstrate proven ROI

35% The average lift organizations with a LEAD NURTURING strategy experienced

77% The average lift for organizations with a LEAD SCORING strategy

163% The average lift for organizations using automation

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Q. Which of the following tactics will you be increasing your marketing investment in for 2013? Check all that apply.

a. Social mediab. Website upgradesc. Contentd. Search (SEO / PPC)e. Landing page optimizationf. Online advertisingg. Emailh. Direct Maili. Print advertisingj. Telemarketingk. Broadcast advertising

Poll: Expected Changes to Marketing Budgets

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Poll: Results

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• Organizations increasing investments in social, website and content

• Inbound strategies continue to grow in popularity

Nurture: Expected changes to budgets

-16%

-17%

-30%

-26%

-5%

-8%

-1%

-4%

-3%

-6%

-2%

7%

10%

12%

14%

39%

41%

48%

51%

53%

55%

64%

-40% -20% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Broadcast advertising

Telemarketing

Print advertising

Direct mail

Email

Online advertising

Landing page optimization

Search (SEO/PPC)

Content creation

Website upgrades

Social media

Budget will decrease Budget will increase

Source: ©2012 MarketingSherpa Social Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded February 2012, N=3,342

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1. Provide your audience with the information they want.

2. Consistent communications that build relationships and engagement.

Mid-funnel – Nurture leads

Nurture

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Capture

Nurture

Convert

2

3

1



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“Demonstrating marketing's contribution to revenue. Attribution is always the toughest thing to achieve in trying to demonstrate alignment and attribution to revenue unless it’s an online portal with a click to purchase funnel metric in place.” – 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report

•Attribution to Revenue

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• The interdependence of lead generation and conversion

• Marketers prioritize conversion over more traditional marketing objectives like branding, reputation and awareness

• Lead conversion is not simply a “sales job”

Greatest priority is generation, however greatest challenge is conversion

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• Enable Sales with the information they need on prospects and opportunities

• Deliver conversion nurturing materials to late funnel prospects to support the sale

Bottom of the funnel: Convert leads

Convert

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Step #1 – Review closed deals• Begin with an analysis of the deals that

have closed

• How did these closed deals enter the system?

• Record number of deals won, total revenue, average deal size, buyer persona traits etc. for each channel and specific campaign

Convert: Lead Generation Analysis

Closed deals

New leads

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Step #2 – Review New Leads• Analyze by lead generation

tactic first

• How many leads?

• How many qualified leads?

• How much did they cost?

• Total lead volume, qualified lead volume and percentage of qualified leads per marketing channel


New leads

Closed deals

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Step #3 – Ask Sales• Check in with Sales to gather feedback on

performance of lead generation campaigns


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Step #4 – Identify Opportunities• Use this complimentary data to identify the

most effective channels and campaigns

• Considerations:

• Lead volume

• Qualified lead volume

• Percentage of qualified leads per channel


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• Total lead volume

• Qualified lead volume

• Percentage of qualified leads

• Closing rate

• Qualified closing rate

• Average deal size

• Time to close

• Total investment

• CPL (cost-per-lead)

• CPA (cost-per-acquisition)

• CLV (customer lifetime value)

• ROI (return on investment)

Marketing Analysis – Metrics that Matter

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Worksheet: Evaluating Lead Generation Performance

Lead

generation

campaign

Total

lead

volume

Qualified

lead

volume

% of

qualified

leads

Closing

rate

Average

deal size

Time to

close

Total

investment

Total

Revenue

CPL (Cost-

per-lead)

CPA (Cost-

per-

acquisition)

ROI

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Capture. Nurture. Convert.

Capture

Nurture

Convert

Capture

Consider the entire funnel for optimal lead generation effectiveness

Nurture

Build relationships that progress leads through the funnel by using consistent communications that are relevant to their needs.

Convert

Partner with Sales and support with information.

Continually optimize

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• Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content


Twitter: @DanielBurstein

• David Kirkpatrick, Senior Reporter


Twitter: @davidkonline

Thank You!

https://twitter.com/danielburstein



planning for 2013: best utilize top lead gen tactics for the new year

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