Lead Management Resources

Google today announced the availability of a browser add-on to block Google Analytics from tracking your web browsing history. Google Analytics is a popular, free web traffic tracking tool widely used by small and medium business and entrepreneurs. Though the tracking is completely impersonal without any personally identifiable information, Google says it is giving the choice to the web users.

“We take privacy very seriously and we’re committed to providing users with more choice. Though Google Analytics collects information anonymously and in aggregate only, the add-on gives users the choice to opt-out of the Google Analytics Javascript (ga.js) sending information to Google Analytics,” Google spokesman Brian Richardson said in an e-mail to LA Times. “We’re constantly working to both enhance the privacy options for users and provide website owners with valuable data to improve their websites.”

How many people will install and use this add-on is still uncertain. Google’s other tools, such as Ads Preferences Manager and the DoubleClick opt-out plug-in, have not been wildly popular with the web users. Google may be releasing this product in order to the privacy concerns related buzz for the past few weeks.

If you are using Google Analytics as the web traffic tracking tool on your website(s), you need to take the analytics counts with a pinch of salt!

You can download the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on here and try it out.

Just as first responders save more lives, marketers and sales professionals who respond to the prospects first have very high probability of converting the leads to customers.

We all know that first responders such as fire service personnel, paramedics, police and doctors value the first hour after an emergency as ‘golden hour’. Actions taken in the golden hour saves countless lives and damage to the properties. Responding to a prospect who has raised his / her hand with an online registration or quote request is no different.

When a lead comes through your sales lead tracking and management software system, make sure that you respond in minutes, not in hours or days. Even if the product or service that you are selling has a long sales cycle, it is essential to reach out to the prospects at the shortest possible time lag. Note that an autoresponder (or drip email)  message sent by lead system is not a replacement for your personal telephone call or email message.

Also, it does not matter if you are selling to businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C). Remember that you are selling to people in either case. Decisions are made by human beings, not soul less corporations!

Here are the keys for increasing lead conversion:

• Respond to prospects in Minutes, not Hours or Days
• If the prospects are not yet ready for sale, nurture with resources such as:
  • • Whitepapers
    • eBooks, Presentations, etc.
    • Webinar recordings
    • Newsletters
    • Tutorial Videos
    • Case studies and success stories
• Stay in touch via phone calls and emails with the leads until they are ready to move to the next stage.
• Determine the frequency of touches and use appropriate contact methods

Establishing a process to monitor,  respond and track the inbound marketing leads is a critical requirement in your marketing and sales strategy. Don’t let another lead slip through the cracks by delaying your first response!

Drip Email Messaging is a great tool in the marketers’ resource kit. Most modern Sales Lead Tracking and Management Software Systems include at least some sort of drip email marketing feature to be used as part of lead nurturing process. Advanced lead systems (such as Leadpro247) include a plethora of event triggers and action choices that can be leveraged to send a variety of automated drip email messages. In fact these drip marketing messages blur the difference between the transactional messages and marketing /informational messages. However, marketers have to be cautious and make sure that they are not substituting the drip messages for  personal email one-on-one email messages and follow-up phone calls.

Leading lead tracking systems such as LeadPro247 tightly integrate the drip marketing function with lead follow-up activities and feedback mechanisms such as online surveys. While these features can be leveraged to increase the prospect engagement, the same can never be considered as a replacement for old fashioned phone calls and direct email messages.

Reasons

There are several advantages of personal telephone calls and email messages, especially when the lead is in a warm ot hot stage. Here are some of the reasons:

• Low Delivery rates – Drip email delivery will be much lower than the personal / direct email delivery rate. Important follow-up messages should not be missed.
• Low Open rates – Even if the drip messages are delivered to their in boxes, the email open rates will be significantly less. Though right subject lines and other email header parameters could reduce this issue, a serious / hot prospect should not be left out for any reason.
• Minimal Personalization – Though the email messaging is greatly improved with automated personalization feature, it cannot be equate to the personally hand crafted email messages. A human being can respond much more personally depending on the nature of follow-up and the action which triggers the email.
• Missing Personal Touch – Personal telephone calls can produce significant results when the lead is in the advanced sales stage. By automating the follow-up messages, you miss out a chance for personal interaction and faster lead conversion.

If you are a small and medium business owner or online marketer looking to increase leads and sales, you must be either using a sales lead capture, tracking and management system already or evaluating the lead solutions available in the market. When deploying a lead tracking and marketing automation system, make sure that your websites are integrated with the same in order to capture leads automatically.

Websites as Lead Generation Sources

We all know that internet is becoming the primary source of sales lead generation and prospects land on one or more websites to seek your products or services. if you are driving a ton of traffic to your websites and the prospects are brought to the landing pages, converting the visitors into leads and following up with them is critical for success. It does not matter whether you are in B2B or B2C marketplace, automating the lead capture is an essential step to expedite the lead follow-up processes.

Automating Lead Capture from Landing Pages

I have come across many small business clients who use our LeadPro247 lead management software system, but are yet to integrate their websites where leads are generated. Majority of the customers still capture the lead information on basic forms and email the data to one or more inside sales / marketing team members. They take up their own time and then enter the leads into the lead distribution, tracking and management system.

It is critical to automate the lead capture process by integrating the landing pages (or signup forms or registration forms) with the lead management system. Many consider this integration process a tedious and complex one.

Lead Capture Methods

The leads captured on the websites can be emailed and then entered manually into the system as mentioned earlier. Precious time is wasted in this process delaying the follow-up activity. Any manual entry leads to errors and inaccuracies. And some leads might slip through the cracks and never get into the lead management system!

The simplest and easy method of lead capture by embedding a small code provided by your lead tracking and management system into the landing page. If you do not have the in-house capability to embed the code into the sign-up form, take help from the lead management service provider. Most providers do this for a small fee as it does not take much time. If you are using third party web developers or consultants, some tend to discourage this practice and push back. Don’t fall for their pressure! If they cannot incorporate your request or do not know how to do it with little efforts, then it may be time to look for an alternate service provider!

The industry term used for lead capture specifications is lead posting instructions. There are slight variations in this lead push process. Check with your lead tracking system provider; they would be more than happy to provide you the details.

If you have multiple landing pages or websites, you can pass on the “lead source” from each page to the lead system. The lead source information would be useful in the lead followup process. For example, you can plan different drip email messages to leads collected from each source.

Lead tracking systems will also support capturing leads generated through multiple pages (i.e. sign up form split into multiple pages). Most service providers would be able to help you with custom services in such cases.

If you are lead generation company capturing leads to resell the same to one or more lead buyers, automating the lead capture is first step. You may refer to our blog for more information on lead generation capture and distribution software solutions.

Leverage the lead capture features of your lead tracking system and convert more prospects to customers. Happy selling!

A new Twitter like service, named Blippy, is in private launch. The tool provides the answers for the question “What are your friends buying?”, similar to “What is happening” in Twitter. Take a look at http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/11/blippy/ post on TechCrunch. With all the privacy and massive data breach issues around, will people share their specific purchase information on the web?

Here are the views on Blippy from Phil Kaplan aka Pud (founder):