The From Line
Sending, Managing & Monetizing Email
3 minutes reading time
(578 words)
Four Important Steps To Effective Lead Management
Research shows that over 50% of business leads aren’t yet ready to buy anything, but that certainly doesn’t mean that these leads need to be wasted. By developing an effective lead management program, you can nurture these potential customers by engaging them with educational content until they are ready to become customers. Here are four important steps to effective lead management:
Step # 1 - Develop A Permission-Based Marketing Campaign
Obviously, the lead capturing process is the critical piece of the lead management puzzle. Developing your website in such a way as to provide compelling educational content to your prospects will encourage them to provide you with their information in return. If your offer answers an important question or solves a particular problem for your website visitors, they will more than likely opt-in to your offer and provide enough information to allow you to qualify them. You are now ready to establish relationships with people who have asked to receive your message.
Step # 2 - Using Various Options To Nurture Opt-In Leads
Due to customer awareness, the sales cycle has become a bit longer these days. Every email or direct mail marketing campaign must be focused on building relationships. Each campaign must be set up based on the specific actions of each lead category. Which web page did they visit? Which offers have they requested or downloaded? Your targeted permission-based campaigns will offer them information on topics that are important to them and you will be able to progressively understand their needs. Social media marketing using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google +, can be effective tools to develop an open line of communication with your prospects and current clients.
Step # 3 - Lead Scoring To Determine The Lead’s Potential
By setting up specific qualities or scores that define a strong lead for your company, lead management software will allow you to compare each lead’s score to that of your ideal lead and identify those that are qualified. Lead scores can change based on the action of the prospect. The score can be increased or reduced based on the lead’s activity. Timing is critical in all areas of lead management. The goal is to determine the ideal time to send each lead to your sales team.
Step # 4 - Making A Successful Transition From Marketing To Sales
Once the lead nurturing process has determined that certain leads may be ready to make a purchase, they should be immediately passed to your sales team. This transition must be as efficient as possible. The sales team needs to know all the information you have collected so they can better understand the needs of each individual lead. By understanding the needs, they can target their sales more closely and have a better chance of converting a lead into a customer.
Obviously, not all leads generated are always ready to buy, and many leads will never purchase your products or services. Managing those leads could possibly turn into a sale somewhere down the road. Your goal in effective lead management is not just capturing an enormous amount of leads, but keeping customers coming back.
RegReady is a transparent, fair and balanced customer acquisition community helping you develop true opt-in marketing lists and sales leads. We are advocates of quality customer relationships developed through permission-based marketing and education. We help you find prospects motivated to ask for more information. Join RegReady today and start generating leads for free.
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