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Pipeline MarketingHandbookA Beginner's Guide forProfessional Speakers

The

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In short, by the end of this handbook, the goal is to have given you anotherof the tools to do what SpeakerFlow does best: ensure predictablerevenue in your speaking business. Here, you will learn the value of pipelinemarketing - for all B2B businesses - and how you can make it a reality. Thatway, you can rest easy that leads are able to find you and focus on whatyou’re really passionate about: speaking.

Hey there and welcome to the SpeakerFlow Guide to pipeline marketing!

Introduction

In this guide, we’ll discuss the definition of pipeline marketing and Bizible, the company that originally created the term. We’ll also break down how to integrate pipeline marketing in each part of your speaking business, including your sales and marketingprocesses. This includes best practices for attracting inbound leads fromsearch engines and social media in addition to standard sales andmarketing tactics.

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TABLE OF CONTENTSWhat is Pipeline Marketing?

What is Lead Attribution?

Introduction to Pipeline Marketing...................................................... 4

Single-Touch Lead Attribution............................................................. 5

Multi-Touch Lead Attribution............................................................... 6

Lead Generation Techniques

Traditional Sales Techniques

Choosing a Lead Attribution Model..................................................... 7

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)...................................................... 9

Paid Advertising.................................................................................... 11

Social Media......................................................................................... 11

Content Creation.................................................................................. 12

Retargeting........................................................................................... 13

Nurturing.............................................................................................. 14

Data & ReportingBasics of Data & Reporting.................................................................. 15

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What is Pipeline Marketing?It probably comes as no surprise that, in many established businesses,sales and marketing teams still focus on the idea of quantity over quality. Inother words, the goal is to get as many leads as possible as quickly aspossible. It’s kind of like the idea that “All press is good press,” that anyattention is good because it means brand exposure. Although this is partlytrue, more leads doesn’t necessarily mean more qualified leads. For example, if we look at the speaking industry, this can be seen incompanies that provide “lead lists” for upcoming events. Their main goal isto provide as many events for you to look into as possible. However, as youmay know if you’ve purchased one of these lists, many of these eventsmight not be applicable for you. Their budget might be too small, theymight focus on an industry in which you don’t specialize - there are tons offactors that can take your list of 100 leads down to 5 that are actually worthpursuing. Frustrating, right?

In light of this persistent problem, marketing company Bizable coined the term “pipeline marketing” to put words to the idea of quantity as well as quality. In their words, “It’s about optimizing all aspects of marketing to widen the funnel at every stage and maximize marketing’s impact to growth.” To put it simply, pipeline marketing focuses on using a funnel like the one on the right. It takes into account sales and marketing touchpoints, such as nurturing tactics by sales people and interactions with your blog, for example.Ultimately, this means more qualified leads for your speaking business andmore data (and thus, a better understanding) of what service each lead isbest qualified to purchase.

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What is Lead Attribution?To implement the pipeline marketing approach to sales and marketing, youmust first understand how sales and marketing interact with each other.Namely, you need to be able to answer, “How much revenue is generatedfrom each marketing source?” These sources include paid ads on Google,organic traffic to your site, and referrals from affiliates. All in all, the leadcount and value from these sources is described as “lead attribution,” and itis by tracking lead attribution that you can see which marketing efforts aregenerating the most leads and the most qualified leads. In other words, youcan see which marketing efforts are and are not contributing to sales.  If you already have some form of lead attribution in your speaking business,bravo! You’re already ahead of the pipeline marketing game. On the otherhand, if you don’t have lead attribution set up, no worries - that’s what thisguide is for!

First and foremost, there are two primary models for lead attribution: the single-touch model and the multi-touch model. The single-touch model applies the value for the lead to either (a) the way that they first came in contact with your business or (b) the contact point that resulted in the sale. The first method is often described as “first click attribution” gives all of the credit to the action that first brought the lead to your website. The second method, the “lead conversion click attribution”method, gives the credit to the action that turned them from a lead into aclient.

Single-Touch Lead Attribution

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That brings us to the other option, when it comes to lead tracking, themulti-touch lead attribution model. Unlike the single-touch model, thismodel gives different weight to different touchpoints in the lead’s interaction with your business. In this way, you are distributing the credit for the sale across the many ways in which the lead came in contact with your business before they turned into a client. After all, it isn’t often that a person finds you, explores your site, and purchases your goods or services all in a single visit. Because the divided value of the sale takes into account all of the parts ofthe funnel we looked at originally, multi-touch lead attribution is much

What is Lead Attribution?If we look at an example, if an event planner searches for you on Google,visits your site, schedules a call with you and ends up hiring you, the “firstclick” method would attribute the entire value of that sale to Google. Thesecond method, on the other hand, would attribute it to the webpage for“Book a Call” (unless, of course, they were a personal referral).  With both of these single-touch models, the primary drawback is thatneither considers the entire pipeline in the pipeline marketing process.Looking back at our funnel, the “first click” method focuses only on the topof the funnel while the “lead conversion click” method only looks at thebottom of it. In order to accurately track your leads, which are the mostqualified, and where they are coming from, you need an attribution modelthat considers the entire funnel.

Multi-Touch Lead Attribution

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Considering each of these models, the most accurate and the most difficultto implement in your pipeline marketing strategy is a custom multi-touchmethod of lead attribution. Although this model is a little advanced, it also allows you to judge which leads are the most qualified based on custom percentages or scoring for your speaking business. For example, a visit to your website might earn a lead 5 points while scheduling a call with you might earn them 10 points. The more interested the lead suggests they are by their actions, the more points that action gets. Then,

What is Lead Attribution?more accurate than the single-touch models. However, it’s also harder toimplement. This is especially true if you do not come from a sales ormarketing background, as is the case for many speakers. As a result, manyspeaking businesses don’t accurately track their lead attribution and sodon’t really know what part(s) of their business are working well. That said, to get started with multi-touch lead attribution, there are twobasic approaches you can take, regardless of your experience. The first isthe “U-Shaped” model of multi-touch attribution approach. In this case, thefirst and last touchpoints in the process are given 40% of the credit for thesale. Then, the remaining 20% of the credit for the sale is equally attributedto each of the remaining touchpoints. Of the two multi-touch leadattribution models, this is the easier of the two to implement. Ultimately, itfunctions like a middle ground between the inaccuracy of the single-touchmodels and the complexity of custom multi-touch attribution models.

Choosing a Lead Attribution Model

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What is Lead Attribution?the more points a lead has, the more qualified they are to hire you! It’s allabout using data to determine which leads are most worthy of your time, asyou’re doubtless balancing a lot, between running your business andspeaking.

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Lead Generation TechniquesAt this point, we’ve covered all of the basics of bringing proper leadattribution to your speaking business. Now, let’s dive into the next piece ofthe pipeline marketing puzzle: reeling in the leads.  With the rise of technology, many businesses have transitioned to leadgeneration entirely in the digital world. This includes speaking businessesand, as a result, there are a ton of digital tools you can use to make yourbusiness all the more visible on the web. In this section, we’ll break downfour of the most impactful lead sources you should focus on this quarter.

First of the many digital lead sources is an obvious one. I’m talking aboutsearch engines, especially Google. For many event planners and clients, aquick Google search is their go-to starting place for finding speakers. Inlight of this, the more you can set up your website and your process to workwith Google’s algorithms, the more likely that event planner is to land onyour site first and hire you. Enhancing your business in this way is referredto as search engine optimization, or SEO.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A few of the easiest ways to boost your SEO are to structure your webpages correctly, pinpoint your keywords, and showcase your credibility. The first of these, page structure, demands that your site use the proper text style. In other words, each page should have only one main header, designated as the “Header 1” style. From there, as the page goes on, the subheaders should increase so thateach subheading under the primary header is “Header 2” and eachsubheading under that is “Header 3” (and so on, and so on). The idea is to

Website SEO

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Lead Generation Techniquescreate a ladder of the page’s information, like an outline for a paper, so thatyour page is easier to read at a glance. The lowest rank on the text ladder, when you’re laying out your site, is the“Body” text. This text should take into account the second tactic to makeyour speaking business more visible: keywords. Unsurprisingly, these wordsand phrases are the key ideas that people are searching for on Google.These can include “keynote speaker,” “resiliency speaker,” or “changemanagement speaker”. Be sure to identify which phrase(s) you want yourwebsite to rank for and include that phrase throughout your site’s headers(where it makes sense) and the body of the text.  Moving on, the third trick of the trade, when increasing your website’svisibility is showcasing your credibility. Besides your National SpeakersAssociation or Canadian Association of Professional Speakers badge, youcan also demonstrate trustworthiness by including a phone number, anemail, a “Contact” page, and an “About Me” page. The primary goal is toshow that you are easily reachable and happy to talk. That way, visitors toyour site (and Google’s algorithm) know that you’re a real person and alegitimate business.

Above all, for good SEO, everything about your speaking business -including the layout of your website - needs to be available on mobiledevices. Now more than ever, a growing percentage of businesses andpotential clients work on the go. As a speaker, you know this more thanmost. So, the more optimized your speaking business is for mobile devices,the more accessible and modern-minded your leads will see you to be.Plain and simple.

Mobile SEO

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Aside from leads finding your site organically, they can also find youthrough paid advertising. Unlike SEO, paid advertising directly targetspeople based on their search query or where they are searching. Forexample, if you search Google for “change management speaker,” there areseveral speakers’ names who appear at the top of the list. Each name andwebsite has a green “Ad” button to the left of it. In this instance, eachspeaker with an ad is paying a set amount to appear for that keyword andfor each time someone clicks on their link as a result of the ad. This is anexample of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. However, there are severalother payment structures to choose from including display ads and pay-per-impression (PPI) ads.  Ultimately, the cost and payment structure vary depending on the platform in which you are running your ad. Besides search engines, paid advertising is also available on social media platforms, like Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as content platforms, like YouTube. Depending on your ideal client and your target industry, one platform may be a better lead source for your speaking business than others. Knowing this, it’s always wise to startsmall, test different platforms and ads, and adjust as you go.

Lead Generation Techniques

That said, although you can run ads on social platforms, maintaining a socialpresence can produce leads for a number of reasons that are completelyfree to you. For one thing, being social is a simple way to show peopleyou’re a human being! Everyone loves self-confidence and skill and social

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Paid Advertising

Social Media

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media is a great way to showcase both. Additionally, you can’t go wrongwith showing your personality. Some of the biggest and brightest scientists,athletes, celebrities, and speakers are remembered not only for theiraccomplishments but also for being themselves. What better way to inspirepeople and grab their attention than showing them you’re not afraid tomeet the world head on?

Lead Generation Techniques(CONTINUED)

Finally, the last lead generation source is content. Just as we discussedregarding SEO, content relies on knowledge of structure and the keywordsyou want to rank for. The most common form of content is blogs. If you’venever written one before, blogs are great in their simplicity and theirdurability. In other words, while they don’t attract immediate attention,content creation and SEO can have a longer lasting impact for yourspeaking business. At SpeakerFlow, for example, our blogs weren’toriginally our primary source of leads but, as we’ve grown, they’ve attractedmore and more attention. This is simply because we made sure they hadhigh-quality information and keywords, and they actually sound like us.Plus, as you write blogs, do what we did and share them on social media, tobring even more people to your site. Let the positive feedback loop of leadsbegin!

Content Creation

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Besides bringing leads to your website, there are several techniques to getleads’ attention if they happened to slip through the cracks. This happenswhen, if we look back at the funnel, a lead falls off the radar before makingit to the “Lead Considered an Opportunity” stage. In many cases, leads failto convert simply because you haven’t crossed their path enough to garnertheir attention or because they’re not quite ready to buy. This is whereretargeting and nurturing come into the pipeline marketing process.

Traditional Sales Techniques

Retargeting starts at the very top of the funnel and continues as the leadmoves through each stage in the pipeline. Basically, retargeting analyzeswhere a lead has been and displays a specific ad based on what theylooked at previously. For example, if a lead visited your website and clickedon your “Contact” page but didn’t book a call, you might use an ad that says,“Was it something I said?” The whole idea is to (a) get your business andyour brand back in front of them and (b) get them to go back to your siteand look around more. That way, they’ll see even greater proof of your skillsand know they should hire you. Another benefit to running retargeting campaigns is that they provideadditional data for where the given lead is in your pipeline or funnel. Bizibledescribes these lead locations as “top of the funnel” (TOFU), “middle of thefunnel” (MOFU), and “bottom of the funnel” (BOFU). Below is a quicksummary of which parts of your website align with each part of the funnel:

Retargeting

Top of the funnel (TOFU): Leads that visit your blog, podcast, orother content-related pagesMiddle of the funnel (MOFU): Leads that visit your “Services” or“Keynote Speaking” pagesBottom of the funnel (BOFU): Leads that visit your “Testimonials” or“Book a Free Discovery Call” pages

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Another option to regain a lead’s attention is nurturing. Standard salesprocesses, like the one below, encourage a lead through the pipeline untilthey turn into a sale. This itself is a form of nurturing. However, the keyplace to ensure you nurture leads is when they express interest but, forwhatever reason, have to wait before purchasing.  In the speaking industry, this happens all the time when event planners organize for multiple events at once. For example, let’s say that you reached out to an event planner about speaking for their annual conference this year. After visiting your site and an email or two, they sent you an email to say, “We went with another speaker for this year’s conference, but I think you’d be a good fit for next year”. Here, in order to be sure this lead doesn’t go to waste, leadnurturing is imperative.  A few easy ways to get in the habit of nurturing leads are by implementinga customer relationship management system (CRM), if you haven’t already,or a project management or reminder system. Both of these options,especially CRMs, are designed to help keep you on track, so you canminimize lead lost and effortlessly management inbound and outboundsales.

Like the lead scoring and custom lead attribution concepts describedearlier, each of these parts of the funnel, respectively, show a lead movingthrough the sales and marketing process. In doing so, the lead in questionbecomes more and more qualified (and likely to turn into a sale).

Traditional Sales Techniques

Nurturing

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But, above all, how do you know if you’ve successfully leveraged pipelinemarketing in your speaking business? The key to success is in properanalytics. In simple terms, your analytics and reporting tools and techniquesshould provide answers to the following questions:

Data & Reporting

Ultimately, implementing pipeline marketing in your speaking business is allabout understanding how your spend is related to your return. Byunderstanding the connections between your sales and marketing effortsand how to improve them, you ensure consistent lead flow and a greatershot at predictable revenue for your speaking business.  You also ensure that you are focusing on the quality of your leads as wellas the quantity. In other words, you make sure that you are spending yourtime and energy on the right leads at the right time. No business owner - letalone small business owners - have spare time to waste. That includes

Conclusion

How many leads am I getting?Where are my leads coming from? What is my most profitable lead source? Where am I losing leads?

By establishing proper lead attribution at the beginning, this step in thepipeline marketing process, the last step, is a breeze. As Bizible describes it,“You have the data now that you’re doing pipeline marketing, so useit...Good reporting not only helps you, but makes sure other teams are onthe same page with you as well.”  Every speaking business starts as a single solopreneur managing every partof the pipeline on their own. But, if you track sufficient data and manageyour leads well, before you know it, you’ll have a whole team at yourdisposal, all paid for by your hyper-efficient sales and marketing processes.Sounds like the dream, right?

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speakers, and, by optimizing the effort and money spent to bring leads toyour website and your business, the number of hours you save is countless(not to mention the sheer amount of money).  Hopefully, this guide has given you the confidence to further implementpipeline marketing in your speaking business and start on the path to data-driven decisions. For more tips to take your speaking business to the nextlevel, check out our “Resources” page or shoot us an email. We’re alwayshere to help you level up. 😊

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Questions orComments?

Contact us athello@speakerflow.comand let us know what you

think!

Additional Resources

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SpeakerFlow

Websites to Reference

Bizible

"How to Use Facebook: A Beginner’s Guide" from HubSpot

Social Media Guides

"How the Twitter Algorithm Works in 2019 and How to Make it Work forYou" from Hootsuite

"How to Run Your Own Instagram Audit: 8 Steps to Building a Better Profile"from Later.com

"29 LinkedIn Tips for Professional Networking, Business & Marketing" fromHubSpot

Recommended ToolsSpeakerFlow CRM

Additional Resources"CRMs For Speakers: The Beginner’s Guide" from SpeakerFlow

"Building A Speaking Business? 7 Systems You Absolutely Need" fromSpeakerFlow

"What is Pipeline Marketing?" from Bizible.com