Step-by-Step Guide to Lead Generation
Lead Generation always takes precedence for marketers. With fierce competition looming around, marketing teams are under tremendous pressure to come up with innovative and effective lead generation strategies to keep an incessant flow of qualified leads through the sales funnel. In addition to this, marketing teams are also required to justify their budgets and clearly demonstrate good ROI.
A successful lead generation seems virtually impossible with these many constraints. However, a well planned framework can cinch a successful lead generation. Here is a step-by-step framework which has proven to be effective for many:
Step 1- Conduct a Lead Generation Audit: Firstly, it is of utmost importance to assess your lead generation capabilities- to understand what methods have been used for lead generation so far, and how efficient or effective these methods have been. Also, does your marketing team have the scope to improve their lead generation efforts, and what skills and resources would be required to generate more quality leads.Your lead management audit should be able to counter all these questions.
Step 2- Plan & Strategize: Once the capabilities have been assessed, it is essential to develop a lead generation strategy. Plan your campaigns and build a lead acquisition model. This model should specify how you will engage the market with your brand, and how you plan to convert them into qualified leads. Therefore a ‘qualified lead’ needs to be defined, for which you need to collaborate with your sales team.
Step 3- Plan Your Communication & Budget: Decide on the channels of communication that would work best for your target market, and come up with appropriate messages that need to be sent out at the right time. Furthermore a budget needs to be drawn at this stage to make sure all likely expenses are covered and approved.
Step 4- Organize Resources, Assign Roles & Responsibilities: Define goals clearly and convey the requirements to your team. Assess the skill-sets of your team and see what you lack. Equip them with the right tools to enhance their skills by providing the necessary training. Standardize a project management policy and methodology.
Step 5- Make Optimal Use of Your Website: Evaluate the effectiveness of your website by conducting a website effectiveness audit to understand where improvements are required. Consider aspects such as clarity of content, aesthetic appeal, brand consistency, user-friendliness etc. Optimize your website content for search engines and boost traffic through intense backlinking activities.
Step 6: Consider Marketing Automation Options: It may be difficult and even expensive to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, if incongruous systems are used for marketing, website analytics, online advertising, etc. Having a sophisticated marketing automation tool technology, can automate marketing processes and drive efficiency even in small and mid-sized businesses. So opt for a marketing automation software that can simplify your lead generation efforts to a large extent.
Step 7- Rollout Your Campaign: Begin your direct marketing activities, implement your advertising plan, intensify your call center activities and make cold calling work for you, schedule webcasts, and podcasts to reach out to your market. Promptly respond to the needs of your target market by assessing the performance of your campaign, concurrently making any changes if necessary.
Although these steps can guide you through lead generation, it is always important to keep your campaigns flexible so that you can adjust your messages to changing market trends and demands- and this is the secret component for successful lead generation software!
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