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!

Obviously, you are buying internet leads right now or planning to buy leads in the near future. Otherwise you may not be on this lead management resources blog post. I keep hearing all the horror stories of buying leads and getting burnt. In fact, some of them who took a plunge by pumping lot of money into buying leads may have realized that running a business with leads generated on the internet is not an easy task. I hope that these stories are exceptions rather than wide spread events.

Just like any other business initiative, buying leads from external lead generation service providers also comes with its own inherent risks. However, the rewards are multi-fold, if you know what your are doing, have done the research, and following the rules.

Here are 10 secrets that everyone buying internet leads from lead providers or on the verge of getting into the game should know, understand and practice methodically.

1. Learn to generate some of your own leads: Well, unless you have been in the trenches, you would not have known the tricks of the trade. Whatever theoretical knowledge that you gain may not give you the depth of the understanding that you gain from actually doing lead generation. This is not to advise you to deviate from your core business practice and get into internet programming or avoid outsourcing. Once you understand the basic technology and issues in internet lead generation, you will become a pro in lead buying.
2. Evaluate the Lead Providers: Before handing over big chunks of money to lead providers, do evaluate a select list of providers. There are several resources both online and offline. Keep in mind that Big need not be Better always. In fact some small providers may be nimble, proactive and cheap!
3. Research on the Internet: Do your homework using the Internet. Compare the lead providers in your vertical. Whether you are in Debt settlement, Loan modification, Mortgage services, Insurance, Education or some other niche you can find many competing service providers.
4. Assess Lead Provider Website Resources: Most lead providers will have lots of information on their websites. Spend some time on these sites and understand the differences within various companies.
5. Study Lead Generation Methods: As mentioned in Step 1, if you know what it takes to generate leads, you can ask all the right questions. Review their lead generation sites, landing pages and registration forms. Understand the implications of collecting leads using various methods such as co-registration and incentivization.
6. Analyze the Landing Pages: Make sure that the content and instructions provided on the landing pages work for your business. Analyze the data collected as part of the lead capture and assess if it will work for your business scenario.
7. Focus on Quality of Leads: Unless the leads you buy convert in significant ratio, there is no meaning in buying boat loads of leads; your sales team will be frustrated and overwhelmed. Evaluate if you can buy pre-qualified leads and see if it will be cost effective. Understand the validations and verification procedures employed, if any, by the lead provider.
8. Decide: Exclusive or Shared leads? Exclusive leads will be pricey, but the conversion rates may be higher. Note that many lead providers such as mortgage, debt and insurance lead providers may not provide exclusive leads and may force you to choose Shared leads.
9. Recognize and utilize Good Lead Providers: You may have noticed some of the lead providers, even if they are new or small, will be better than others, easy to work with, flexible and provide great service. Recognize them and try to leverage their knowledge in lead generation industry and their experience with other customers.
10. Track and Manage Leads effectively: Do not start buying leads, unless a you have a internet sales lead tracking software system in place and understood what you can do with it. With lead management system, you can collect leads from lead providers directly, assign to your sales agents / reps, track the sales progress, and measure the performance in term of  lead conversion, agent productivity, and business results.

]]> http://www.leadmanagementresources.com/2009/10-secrets-of-successful-internet-lead-buying-to-achieve-great-conversion-rates/feed/ 1 http://www.leadmanagementresources.com/2009/reach-prospects-by-delivering-leads-via-voice-to-b2b-sales-reps/ http://www.leadmanagementresources.com/2009/reach-prospects-by-delivering-leads-via-voice-to-b2b-sales-reps/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:55:40 +0000 Paddu http://www.leadmanagementresources.com/?p=52

If you are a B2B organization, reaching your sales reps immediately and connecting with the prospects with least delay will help increase the lead conversion rates significantly. If your rep is the first person to contact the prospect, the chances of winning the deal is much higher assuming that you have suitable product to service the lead.

Lead Delivery

It is a fact that B2B sales reps are spread all over the geography and delivering the leads captured via the landing pages almost instantaneously is a critical requirement. This is generally achieved by email alerts and SMS text messages.

However pushing the message with lead information may not lead to the immediate prospect contact, as the sales reps have to proactively read the lead alert messages and dial the potential prospect. With the plethora of devices in hand, juggling of schedules and driving around town, it may not be easy for them to react immediately.

Lead Delivery via Voice

The reason why several large CRM system implementations ended in mere hype and no visible sales increases is well known. All of us know why the sales reps hate CRM systems! Well, these system increases their work load instead of helping them sell more and close more deals. At the same time, they would be glad to listen to their lead administrators and back office secretaries for the simple reason that they speak with them and provide relevant information!

If we can take a leaf out of this practice, and help the sales reps with voice delivery of prospect information received from the internet / marketing center, they would be glad to listen to the message and motivated to take action.

Lead Capture, Distribution and Tracking systems such as LeadPro247 leverages this fact and helps deliver the lead profile information to the sales force using highly advanced text to speech technology.

Voice Delivery Process

In the first step, the lead profile details collected from the sign-up forms, registration sites, and landing pages are converted to voice instructions using sophisticated text conversion algorithms.

Then the system automatically dials the sales rep’s cell phone and reads out the lead information when the picks up the phone.

The system can use round robin or specific lead assignment rules to choose the sale representative to dial out.

If a round robin process is used to make the automatic calls, the rep can choose to accept the lead or push it back to the queue, so that the lead delivery system can dial out to the next rep.

Auto Dialing the Prospect

When the sales rep accepts the lead information, the auto dialer built into the system can also automatically dial the prospect and connect to the next available rep.

This process significantly reduces the efforts on the part of the sales reps and helps them reach more prospects and sell to more customers.

Cost Benefit

Since an internet generated lead can cost from a few dollars to tens of dollars, the incremental voice delivery cost (around $1) is more than offset by increased prospect reach and sales conversion ratio. The voice delivery mechanism, generally provided as a value added service can also be leveraged by B2C customers.

Lead Nurturing is the process of developing leads and converting them to customers using long term marketing, engagement and follow-up strategies. With the wide use of Internet by the consumers and businesses to locate, research and purchase goods and services, Lead Nurturing has gained a much wider and critical importance among marketing professionals.

While most of the time the prospects need immediate response from the sellers, it is also true that many prospective buyers look for information right at the early stages of buying process. Hence keeping those future customers engaged, educated, gaining their confidence and finally converting the leads to customers is a key part of today’s marketing process. Lead Nurturing Software helps to nurture the internet leads using automated software systems and processes.

Lead Nurturing Software Tools

Leads generated from Internet and online media such as social networking sites and web 2.0 tools, who are not looking for immediate purchase, can be nurtured using lead nurturing software programs with built-in Autoresponder Services, event triggered sequential drip email marketing automation programs, and lead tracking systems.

The nurturing process takes various cues depending on your nature of business. For example, if the telephone contact information of the prospect is available, it can also be put through a contact center (not focused on sales but nurturing). If the physical address is available, even a traditional snail mail can be sent in a suitable time interval. However, these traditional nurturing methods are loosing relevance, as there is remote possibility of having contact information other then email addresses. Over 80% of leads generated on the internet, especially using social networking media sites, will have only email address as the contact information.

Many integrated Lead Management Software solutions such as LeadPro247 marketing automation suite, come with relevant lead nurturing tools. These are generally web based systems and easy to use. Typically the following components can be used to develop and nurture the leads:

• Auto Responder Service: This tool is nothing but Email Marketing Automation service with built-in drip email marketing broadcast feature. Drip email messages are automatically triggered by the system by predefined events such as times lines, bahavioral actions, and online activities.
• News Letters: Electronic newsletters are great nurturing tools for educating and engaging the prospective customers. Email marketing service will be used to design, deliver and track email newsletters with marketing information.
• Online Surveys: The biggest benefit of using online survey software is that you can read the prospects’ minds. This will provide an insight into the thoughts of the prospect and your services can be tuned accordingly.
• Lead Tracking: When you are nurturing a lead online, tracking the behavior is the most important aspect. Unless you know how they are behaving and what they are responding to your marketing communications, you can not deliver meaningful messages or take corrective actions. Again, the integrated Lead Tracking software such as LeadPro247 could be leveraged to track the email message opens, clicks, site visits, survey responses, and whitepaper / document downloads.

Usage, Relevancy and Frequency

While there are several tools and systems available for internet generated leads, it is the the user who decides when and how to use the features available. As an online marketing professional, you must choose the right business rules, timing and frequency for delivering nurturing messages. Using a lead nurturing software tool itself is a not a panacea for all ills! It depends on how you use it.

For example, sending too many email messages might trigger the prospect to unsubscribe from your email list. Similarly, if you do not mail frequently enough, they prospect might forget about their research and your relevany product / service and might report your email message as a SPAM or Unsubscribe from the list.

The messages have to be relevant to the prospect’s needs and requirements. Use the segmentation features available in your email marketing or autoresponder service to deliver right messages to the right target audience.

Review the nurturing programs and business rules settings on a regular basis and tweak and improve the same on a continuous basis. What is right and relevant today may not be relevant tomorrow, especially in the online world. If you are dealing with B2B sales leads, you may also employ lead ranking or scoring techniques to improve the lead nurturing and follow-up process.