gaining the lead - common lead generation mistakes and how to combat them

Gaining the Lead:Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them

From the Lead Generation Best Practices learning series

© 2013 Gaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them 2

TABLE OF CONTENTSIntroduction

Chapter 1 - Mistake 1: Not Collecting Enough Information

Chapter 2 - Mistake 2: Treating Every Lead Equally

Chapter 3 - Mistake 3: Gating Content

Chapter 4 - Progressive Profiling

About Docalytics

Gaining the Lead:Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them

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71%of B2B marketers use content marketing to

achieve lead generation goals1


INTRODUCTION

Here’s an example to consider. Most lead generation training programs start with discovery, one of the most basic tenets of sales. But how far can a marketer dig in to discovery questions before they’ve gone too far? The graphic on the right shows that asking too many questions in a gating form before a prospective partner is interested in your product is a mistake - and this is just one of the many marketers consistently make.

Are your organization’s lead generation techniques outdated?

In this ebook, you’ll learn about the most common lead generation mistakes that marketers are making today - and likely discover that your team is making them, too. Then find out how to tailor your lead generation strategies to collect more valuable leads and maximize the return on your content marketing investment.

Shorter forms are proven to generate more leads

Those with only 3 fields have average conversion rate of 25%, while forms

with 6 or more fields convert at an average of

15% 2

25% 15%

It’s easy to make mistakes with prospects while trying to generate leads; the most effective way to generate leads is different for each and every business, and changes over time. Even some of the lead generation strategies most often employed by marketers can be mistakes if executed incorrectly. Both salespeople and marketers are taught certain sales techniques, but the line between being an outstanding lead generator and asking for too much qualifying information is easily blurred.


Collecting the right information from prospects is a delicate balance. Marketers don’t want to ask for too much, or prospects are likely to abandon your form, and you’ll lose them right away. Alternatively, marketers are scared to ask for too little; not enough information makes it exceedingly difficult to classify leads and market to them correctly after the first download.

The most important factor in deciding what to collect is one that marketers often overlook: only ask for information your business intends to use. Do you follow up with every prospect via email? Generally, then there’s no need to ask for a phone number.

Is your business capable of collecting address information from visitors via IP address (or any other way)? Then don’t ask for their address - asking for this information will reduce your conversion rate by 4%. 2

MISTAKE 1:

Simply asking for a telephone number reduces form conversion rates by an average of 5% 2

1 NOT COLLECTING THE RIGHT INFO

Gaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them

MISTAKE 1: NOT COLLECTING THE RIGHT INFORMATION, CONT.


So how do you decide what information to ask for? Creating the right form is a different formula for every business. The obvious information, such as name and email address, are universal and should be collected by every marketer. Because it’s so common for gating forms to ask for the basics, prospects won’t be scared away by this. But when you ask for more, readers wonder what you’ll do with it. Consider these options:

Title: You can use the information to decide if this person is the right contact at the business, and understand how to talk to them based on whether they are a decision maker and their level in the business.

Industry: Does your business operate in multiple verticals? Ask leads to classify themselves so the leads are going to the right teams. Make sure you provide the industries in which you do business in a multiple choice layout to get clear responses.

Questions: Dig into a prospect’s intentions by asking clarifying questions before your sales team even gets to discover. On the next page we share some powerful questions that will change the course of your entire sales process and give your marketing team valuable insight into how your content is resonating...

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MISTAKE 1: NOT COLLECTING THE RIGHT INFORMATION, CONT.


Ask questions related to your content. This technique will help sales and marketing decide whether the prospect is right for your business. Including this type of question in a form typically isn’t a red flag to prospects because it fits seamlessly with the content they’re reading (or will read). For example, if your prospect is downloading an ebook on common lead generation mistakes you might ask them a question tied to how their businesses generates leads or how many pieces of information they try to collect during their first engagement with your content . Make sure you give a multiple choice answer to make it easy as possible for the prospect to answer.

Ask your prospect about their struggles. This approach is related to number one - and should tie in to your content - but is more direct. Rather than asking about effective lead generation, you could take it a step further and get more specific by asking about conversion success rates or follow up methodology. Some readers won’t know they are struggling in an area; your question will get them thinking about whether there might be a better approach to take. In other cases, once a prospect indicates they struggle in a particular area, it opens the door for sales to call and start discussing how they can help.

Address pain points. Asking a prospect about their pain points can be very valuable information to obtain - it can shape the entire sales conversation. However, should be carried out in a very specific way so as not to scream “you will be sold to in the near future” or be considered proprietary information by some leads. Instead of asking “How many new sales leads does your business capture each month? ” ask this “On average, how many readers choose to provide their contact information to access your content in a given month?.” A slight change in phrasing makes a world of difference.

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Gaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them© 2013 Gaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them 7

All leads are not created equal, so for marketers and sales teams to go after each one in the same way doesn’t make sense. Marketers should tailor their messaging to what interests and engages each individual prospect. Savvy salespeople are then able to understand the messages that have already resonated with the prospect and hit those pain points again, especially if marketers are tracking each detail of what interests a prospect while they warm up the lead.

Keeping track of what interests a prospect can be done in a multitude of ways - from compiling a list of which topics a prospect downloads content about all the way to the nitty gritty details of what the prospect reads (or doesn’t read) within an individual document. Being able to hand sales more than just download data is key to deciding which leads should be kept warm and which should be acted on immediately.

50% 25%

of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy 3

of leads are legitimate and should advance to sales 3

MISTAKE 2:TREATING EVERY LEAD EQUALLY2


MISTAKE 2: TREATING EVERY LEAD EQUALLY, CONT.

© 2013 8

Imagine if, along with download data and user responses, your marketers are able to tell sales exactly which topics within the content were of the most interest to each individual reader. Which topics they read over again, and which they skipped. Information like this would be invaluable to a sales team - they can speak to the topics that their prospects are most interested in, and teach the prospect something with the topics that were missed.

Hand in hand with tracking prospects interests is lead scoring, which involves systems that assign a ranking to each lead that indicates how qualified the prospect is. Leads should be scored in a way that makes the most sense for your business, however a common way to score leads involves assigning points to different interactions that a prospect has with your business. For example, if a lead downloads a piece of content, they receive one point; if the lead is a decision maker, two points, etc. Then, go after the leads with the highest scores first to increase the odds that sales has success with each and every conversation.

To learn more about this topic, check out our ebook Tracking Marketing Effectiveness: 3 Critical Content Metrics.

79% increase in salesas a result of lead scoring 4



Gaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them© 2013 Gaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them 9

Gating content with forms is one of the most common lead generation tactics used by marketers - and also one of the most common mistakes. Gating some content is appropriate - as long as it’s the right content, and it’s gated correctly. Here are a few tips to make sure you’re not turning away the majority of your prospects by misuse of gating:

Decide what content should be gated: Is the content you’re offering valuable to prospects? Of course it is, but how valuable? Gated content should be valuable to a prospect, containing creative thought leadership or other content that teaches them something. A major mistake that marketers make is gating material that plugs their business - this content does not belong hidden behind a form. Prospects shouldn’t have to “pay” for information about your business with theirs.

Collect the right information: As discussed in Chapter two, make sure you’re collecting the right information, in the right order, at the right time. Asking for too much up front is a surefire way to lose prospective clients. Think of it this way: when you meet another professional at a networking event, what do you share? Your name, information about your career? You probably aren’t comfortable sharing budget considerations and other deeper questions. Lead generation forms are the same - prospects won’t share all of their information without first establishing trust and obtaining some information from you.

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MISTAKE 3:GATING CONTENT3

Gaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat ThemGaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them

MISTAKE 3: GATING CONTENT, CONT.


Give something valuable back: Has your company produced reports or other research that corresponds with the topic of your content? If so, offer it to them in the lead form when you’re asking for more than the basics and use that request as an opportunity to collect their email address. Then, they’ll be more likely to submit other valuable information if they believe they’re getting something more in return.

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Too many requirements for downloading

The top dislikes in B2B content 5

Blatantly promotional, non-substansive, or uninformed


Progressive profiling allows marketers to collect bits and pieces of information over multiple engagements. This technique can be accomplished in two ways - either by asking varying questions in separate forms, or by using a tool that allows marketers to ask questions at different points within a single document.

We’ve also learned that when a business begins by asking for basic information, such as first name, title and company name, prospects are more likely to provide more identifiable, personal information, such as email and phone number, later in the document.

Multiple points of data collection - be it within the same document or throughout multiple pieces of content - allow prospects to enter what they’re willing to right off the bat and then read more of your content (and build trust!) before offering more.

3-7% Research indicates that the lead conversion rate increases 3-7% for every field a marketer removes from a gating form 6

PROGRESSIVEPROFILING4

Gaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat ThemGaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat ThemGaining the Lead: Common Lead Generation Mistakes and How to Combat Them

PROGRESSIVE PROFILING, CONT.


Let’s go back to the contact you met at the networking event in chapter 3. Well, you shared your name and title, and after speaking with him for ten minutes and becoming interested in his work, you are now willing to provide more information about you, exchange business cards and connect on LinkedIn. Progressive profiling is the same concept, executed virtually.

At the bottom of this page, you’ll see an example of how you might incorporate progressive profiling into your content marketing to capture more qualifying information later in a document. Now that you’ve learned more about us, do you feel more comfortable sharing this information?


ABOUT DOCALYTICSDocalytics’ powerful cross-platform technology allows customers to track user interaction with documents and sales collateral such as whitepapers, eBooks, case studies, presentations, sell sheets and other documents.

Docalytics empowers businesses to produce better content, get more sales-ready prospects and prioritize sales outreach.

For the first time your sales and marketing teams will be able to track exactly how prospective customers engage with your content - while more efficiently capturing lead data as a prospective customer engages with the document versus having to capture everything upfront before a visitor can determine the relevancy of the content.

Fore more information visit www.docalytics.com

SOURCES:1 - Content Marketing Institute: 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends, Oct 20122 - QuickSprout: How to Optimize Contact Forms for Conversion, Jan 20133 - Statistic from Gleanster Research4 - MarketingSherpa - Case Study, The Complex Sale: Lead scoring effort increases conversion 79%, Jan 20125 - CMO Council - Content ROI Center, http://www.contentroicenter.org/infographic, 20136 - LeadLizard: Progressive Profiling, http://www.leadlizard.com/progressive-profiling/

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