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What was your favorite Lead Generation tool you utilized in 2011?
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- Recommended by:
- Ann Handley
Here is a research rich report on content marketing just published that suggest for B2B sales article marketing, social media and blogs are the top contenders.
- Recommended by:
- Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Referrals from (existing) customer follow-ups.
Hi Chris,
Certainly LinkedIn and Paid search work, but from a landing page perspective the tools below can help make and optimize landing pages that drive inquiry-to-lead conversions.
http://unbounce.com/
http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/
Paul Mosenson
NuSpark Marketing
The tool I used most was Classified Ads. Now that I have mentioned this, when I evaluate myself, I talked to many people but I did not get results as expected.
I like using GIST.com, it collects the information about people through LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook...these people I am connected with, then I can follow up with them to see if they want to be in touch more than we are.
The most significant was LinkedIn and now has become my favorite tool. I enrolled in a seminar to learn how to better utilize this incredibly rich database. The investment for the webinar has been returned at least 10 fold.
Leanne, could you help me with how I can do this training. I am with Linkedin but apparently have not utilized it.
Mary - Visit this site - www.forwardprogress.net and look for schedules of future classes. Also connect with Dean DeLisle in LinkedIn as this is his company. He conducts a fast paced moving webinar and will have some free ones as well. Dean provides practical and doable action items that can be undertaken in just 20 minutes a day.
Mutinta - My suggestion is to consider a multiple fold approach - Business plan with specific sales and marketing goals; professional development respective to sales skills, marketing, the sales process and emotional intelligence; the incorporation of technology to manage your pipeline; personal goals to stay balance because all work and no play may may Mutinta a dull person. :) Remember, everyone is in sales. It is just some people receive direct compensation for their efforts.
It was Clickpoint software (http://www.clickpointsoftware.com), a neat set of products that lets marketeers / sales teams automate inbound marketing initiatives and convert more leads and so increase sales revenue.
Publishing thought leadership and articles about our work on our blog has been the most effective tool for generating new business in 2011 (not just new leads - but leads that ended up closing). People tend to find our blog content through LinkedIn updates and syndication on industry-specific web forums. We published some online content and tools on our website (e.g., a lead calculator) that generate a lot of leads, but those leads have not turned into sales opportunities.
All marketing channels lead to your corporate website. Capturing intelligence about your website visitors is crucial in helping you to engage with your prospects at the right time in the sales cycle. Tools like Marketo, Eloqua and Prospectvision can help your lead generation efforts.
Like others have suggested I also use LinkedIn which is great for building up a picture of your prospects and what their current needs might be. Content and CTA's (Call to action) on the home page are important to help generate leads. Providing compelling offers from your website is a good way to entice prospects to start engaging with you. Offers like free ebooks, webinars etc will help to educate your prospects.
Email marketing is still a good lead generation tool if used effectively. It’s important to think about which stakeholder your looking to engage and what problem your helping them to solve. This will increase your response rate and help you become a thought leader in your market place.
Hi Andrew, I believe the web has moved forward where "all marketing channels lead to your corporate website" is no longer sufficient. We need to be active where our prospects are. Hence more and more businesses are using social media to engage rather than inviting them back to the comfort of our own websites before engagement commence.
The question I ask from our own prospects are: does it really matter which tool is used for engagement, as long as there is engagement? Most people misunderstand this aspect, and tends to spend a fortune on websites for SEO. I am not suggesting you should ignore SEO, but you should equally look at other tools for discovering new prospects. And then use meetings, and emails to close the deal.
We play our role in this thinking by providing setup of tools to engage with your prospects through documents. Do take a look at www.edocr.com. Happy to explain more.
By far, the best and most favorite Lead Generation tool I've used has been LeadLifter (http://www.leadlifter.com/), formerly called EchoQuote. I've been using the tool for just over three (3) years now to the point now where I do little to no cold calling and work exclusively off of the qualified leads that LeadLifter provides me.
The entire LeadLifter application and platform does several things for me: 1) drives organic search terms and rankings for my website where I draw interested prospects to my landing page, 2) gives my prospects the opportunity to obtain a list-price quote via a self-service quoting tool, 3) captures their pertinent contact information, 4) sends them a list-price quote based on my personal acceptance of their request (I have the option to deny the quote request if the request is coming from a competitor, bogus source, etc.).
I then use their quote request to immediately follow-up on their interest, qualify them, and then engage them if there is a valid opportunity. This tool alone made my company (Federal Appliance, LLC) the top Dell EqualLogic reseller in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States within one year. LeadLifter -- alone -- has been responsible for bringing in more than $700K of revenue on a yearly basis...blowing away my ROI (and income) expectations.
Why more technology and software companies don't use this tool, I don't know...but the results that LeadLifter has given me speak for themselves...
Hey Andrew, ProspectVision sounds like an excellent tool. Give me a shout if you seen an opportunity to combine our products
Hi Manoj, Always open to new ideas and discussions. You can reach me on 0844 589 5011.
Some excellent comments here. May I take the opportunity to introduce our service, www.edocr.com which might help you if you have documents such as white papers, case studies, press releases, brochures, data sheets, operating manuals, reports, etc.
We allow professionals and organisations to publish documents, which can then be distributed across the Internet via bookmarking to over 300 most popular sites, such as twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc, as well as email document links by simply dropping a list of email addresses, whilst Google and other's index the documents.
As traffic start to consume the content, we capture their identities which can then be released to publisher with their consent. We can also help you to take the leads back to your CRM.
If you wish, you can continue to host documents on your site as well as on edocr.com, or simply replace the document links or pdf icons on your site by embedding document thumbnails from edocr.com.
Our next evolution is to find ways to publish these documents wherever your target customers are. Why not take edocr.com for a spin today?
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Related Activity
It's really simple. I ask for and receive referrals to decision-makers. Yes, I use LinkedIn regularly to identify people I need to meet. I do not, however, use the automated referral tool.
I find out how I'm connected and then pick up the phone and talk to the person. What a world of difference that makes. I learn how the person is connected, discuss the business reason for my wanting to meet, and ask them to make the introduction. Most importantly, I learn how I can help them.
Referral selling is the most productive sales prospecting tool. When we receive a referral introduction, we arrive pre-sold, have trust and credibility, ace-out the competition, shorten our sales process, and convert sales prospects to customers well more than 50 percent of the time.
Technology is a great tool, but nothing beats a personal connection.
Join the Focus Roundtable I am leading with Todd McCormick and Barb Giamanco on January 24; The Power of Face to Face in a Technology World. http://www.focus.com/roundtables/power-face-face-technology-world/