October 2007- Making Your Marketing Efforts Count: Following up on Electronic Leads

Your company website is crisp and user-friendly. It offers detailed accounts of the products and services you provide and information on your company’s impressive capabilities. Along with the attractive, enticing graphics, it includes easy-to-access inquiry forms and an opt-in sign-up for your monthly informational emails. You receive monthly summary reports on the number of those emails that were sent, received, opened, bounced or forwarded to others. You’re even aware of how many users clicked through on your website and which pages they viewed.

So how many of those promising leads were pursued?

All the sophisticated e-marketing techniques in the world won’t do your company any good if no one follows up on the resulting leads—and in a timely fashion. Many marketing efforts are viewed as failures not because they didn’t produce the promised leads and information, but because they didn’t translate into greater sales and ROI. However, company websites don’t operate in a vacuum; they are part of the greater sales process.

It takes teamwork and coordination to transform captured leads and collected information into prospects and paying customers. Marketing and sales often have different ideas about what constitutes a lead. Statistics show that 70 percent to 90 percent of leads generated by marketing efforts are never pursued, often because the sales force defines a lead as someone who is ready to make a purchase. Gaining consensus between sales reps and marketers on this important point can be the foundation for more effective lead management and better sales. There are steps you can take to facilitate better follow-up and get the most mileage from electronic leads.

• Establish a universal company-wide definition for a lead. Include input and gain agreement from sales, marketing and everyone involved in acquiring new customers.

• Develop a formal policy for the required follow-up process, who should initiate a follow-up, when they follow-up and how.

• For best results, execute a follow-up within 48 hours of being contacted. By responding quickly, you communicate attentiveness and dramatically increase your chances of making a sale.

• Nurture your leads through multiple touch points. After a follow-up phone call, send a brief “good talking with you” email. In addition to emailing monthly informational tips, your company may want to send a case study or white paper, a customer success story, or an offer for a webinar or seminar. Organize an open house and mail invitations to current and prospective customers. These are measures that can move leads and prospects through the sales cycle and keep you top-of-mind until they are ready to buy.

• Create a unified database for sales and marketing to integrate their functions more efficiently and promote better communication between the two.

• Close the loop by continuing to survey customers even after they have made a purchase, gathering that feedback along with other electronic data. Ask customers about services or products they have purchased from your company, their customer experience and ideas for improved customer relations.

What Grow Sales, Inc. Can Do for You
At Grow Sales, Inc., we specialize in finding the right marketing mix for each graphic arts client, and making sure it’s executed. Since 1996, we have provided full-service outbound marketing, public relations, web and graphic design and sales support to our clients. With our help, this could be a banner year for your company.

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