Lead Management is an Essential Part of Your Marketing

Lead Management is something all businesses should be concerned about. In this week’s blog post, Richard is talking about why it’s imporant, and how it can be managed effectively.

Online marketing strategies are not simply about creating brand awareness and building an online community around a business, although these are important aspects to consider. At emarkable, we understand the aspects of marketing strategies that  drive sales forward. One of the biggest parts of this is the way in which your marketing functions help to handle sales leads. A pay per click campaign, for example, may generate plenty of web traffic to specific landings sites, but a fully inclusive strategy will turn a good deal of this traffic into leads and consequently sales. Lead management is the part of Marketing which really focusses on the balance sheet – something that no business decision makers can take their eyes off for long.

Capture information in real time

One of the key aspects of online customer activity is that you can collect data about it. In the pre-internet age, little information could be grasped following a mass mail out, unless customers specifically called in as a result of it. This is not the case with wide range of data metrics now possible. These can show where traffic is being generated from, what keyword searches are being performed and even exit pages from your website, to point out just three. Just knowing more about the sort of potential customers you attract to your website allows you to improve your marketing messages and thereby drive sales. If you are generating sales enquiries, from webforms and emailed correspondence, then you can do even more.

Developing the art of lead management

If completed webforms and customer enquiries arrive in an unqualified way, then many organisations tend to suffer in the way they subsequently deal with them. This can lead to lost opportunities.

With proper lead management software, leads can be shared among sales staff and allocated geographically or by product type. Simply organising sales leads and scoring them effectively allows your team to work more efficiently and to offer the customer an improved experience.

Lead Management

Gain more insights

As a lead becomes qualified, scored and allocated appropriately, your knowledge of people interacting with your content increases. This will not only help your organisation to close more sales, but it will also allow you to make improvements that will see fewer customers walking away. This is all thanks to the insights you capture throughout the process. This so-called buyer journey can be tracked as a part of your marketing function, from the initial enquiry stage right through to the point of sale. Logging contact details means that you can keep track of clients who have bought or made enquiries before, helping you to tailor your sales process to their particular needs, for example by understanding the product groups they happen to be interested in.

Close the loop

Lead management is not simply about driving first-up sales. By gathering information and metrics about your clients, it should help you to win repeat business and up sell with things like service contracts, extended warranties and accessories, where appropriate. A true e-marketing strategy works best when customers are tracked at every part of the process so any subsequent leads from them are pesonalised in the context of their order history.

Does this sound like something your business can benefit from? Emarkable works with Marketing Automation software that allows you to manage your leads more effectively. Click below to get in touch with us for a consultation about your lead management options. 

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Richard Coen

With over 21 years of experience in Digital Marketing, 31 years in sales and 25 years in business development, Richard assists companies to develop key growth strategies on a local or international basis. He can assist marketers to achieve balance in their approach to key areas affected by the growth in digital marketing.