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Marketing Automation: The Basics Part II

Lead Generation

In this section we are going to go over the many different aspects of Lead Generation and how your can implement them into your overall strategy.

1. Websites: Your website is your online business card. According to a study by BIA/Kelsey and ConStat, nearly all consumers, a whopping 97%, use online media to shop and search for products. THIS IS HUGE. If you are not on the Internet, you ARE missing out, that is all there is to it. In order to compete in today’s marketplace it is an absolute necessity to have a website. There are plenty of sites that allow you to build a professional looking website for a relatively low cost. However, be wary of these because a lot of these sites are limited in their customization and capabilities. They often will be unable to capture incoming leads as well, a key ingredient in marketing automation.

2. Landing Pages: A landing page is a single webpage that a person ‘lands’ on once they have clicked an online advertisement, a link from an email, social media, or another attractive offering, for example, a ‘Free Trial’. Landing pages are used to capture leads or convert site visitors into potential customers and clients. Catch any information you’d like, whether their address, name, age, gender, title, company, etc. Of course, you want to capture their email address, as this address will be used for your marketing in the future.

Let’s say a person has entered their email into a landing page, because perhaps they requested more information about a promotion; their email is automatically entered into a database management system, hopefully, an integrated CRM. Marketing automation platforms and complete CRM systems, like GreenRope, allow you to send automated follow-up emails or auto-responders to those that entered their email address. This is a fantastic function, since you only need to create one email that will be automatically broadcasted, saving you both time and money.

3. SEO: We all know the benefit of SEO, however it has changed a lot since people first started buzzing about it. Now, it is really all about the amount and the quality of content you produce coming from your website. Optimizing your website, so that it ranks higher in search engines involves editing content, HTML, as well as a website’s coding.

4. Pay-per-click (PPC): is an advertising tactic aimed at directing traffic to your website or landing page. The advertiser, you, pays the website/search engine that your ad/banner is one a certain amount each time someone clicks on it. You may have noticed advertisements on the right-hand side of the page when you do a Google search, or a banner advertisement on a website. This is pay-per-click advertising. Most of the time, when a person clicks on your ad or banner, they will be directed to a landing page that you have already setup. This is where you will capture their information, as discussed earlier in this section.

5. Webinars: Webinars can be used for lead nurturing or lead generation. If you have ever attended a webinar, you most likely registered with your name and email. Guess what? Now that company has your name and email for future targeting purposes. Since you attended that webinar, it is likely that you are interested in something that company offers, right? Well, now you are a sales lead.

They did it, and so can you. Host valuable, informational webinars that people will want to attend, not just because they may be interested in your product, but because, initially, they may simply just be interested in the topic. Down the road, they may become a client!

GreenRope happens to have a GoToWebinar integration allowing a business to pull in the information of all those who attended, enabling automatic follow-up emails, surveys, thank you’s, etc to be sent out. Just another way marketing automation can make you look good in front of your leads, while saving you a ton of time!

6. Social Media Marketing: We are not going to spend a lot of time on this one since there are about a million blog posts and articles raging about the importance of social media for lead generation. Again, social media is great to share your webinars, promote your landing page links, lead people to your website, and increase your overall SEO. Remember, search engines, like Google, love social network sites (especially Google+ Wink.wink).

7. Direct Mail: Direct mail may not be part of your green initiative, but a lot of companies still utilize direct mail as part of their outbound marketing strategies. If you are one of these companies, consider including a QR code, or scan-able bar code that automatically directs a contact to your website or landing page. This way you are able to get them online to capture their email as soon as possible.

8. Field Sales: Sales, sales, sales. It’s all about sales. Cold calling, meeting people in the field, and other sales tactics are a great way to generate leads, but develop a personal relationship with your lead from the get-go, as this will set the tone for interactions to come. 

9. Print Advertising: Many say that print advertising is a tactic of the past. As it is true, that people are paying less attention to print and more attention to digital, print ad campaigns are far from dead. A print campaign is any advertisement published in a newspaper, magazine, brochure, book, catalogue, etc. Print campaigns often are quite expensive and do not have the best ROI, as it is hard to measure those that see an ad in a magazine and then make a purchase based on that advertisement.

10. Banner Advertising: Banner advertising consists of embedding a banner or advertisement onto a webpage. I am sure that all of you have come across a banner ad at one time or another. They are all over the Internet. Companies place their ads on websites to attract traffic to their own websites. This is a great way to bring in revenue if you place ads on your own site, or a great way to generate leads by placing a banner ad on another high traffic webpage. You would usually want your banner ad to link to a landing page or signup form that enables the viewer to get more information from you immediately. Strike while the iron is hot!

11. Infographics: Infographics are ALL the rage. There seems to be an inforgraphic for everything these days. An inforgraphic is a visual representation of some sort of data or information.

Last, but certainly not least, it is ALL about content. The more content you put out the more likely leads will find you. This content can be distributed via the outlets above, and should certainly be published on your company blog. 

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